UFI welcomes Author Brantwijn Serrah. Thanks for Joining us!!
*Warning: Guest Blog is R-rated*
This whole thing started with a vampire who refused to be a hero.
 |
|
Have
I been wrong?
Have
I been wise
To
shut
My
eyes and play along?
~Natalie
Merchant
Carnival
|
Readers of
Lotus Petals might be surprised to know Rhiannon Donovan
was the beginning of everything for me.
Rhiannon used to be the villain of another vampire's story (which may or may
not come into play in her next book, but you'll have to read
Satin and Steel
to find out!). Many, many,
many moons ago she was supposed to be a
supporting player, a sidekick who stepped in at just the right time to save the
hero. Unfortunately for me, Rhiannon decided she wanted to kill the hero
instead. Thus, Rhiannon Donovan went from a plucky duckling of a vampire pal to
a ruthless, unforgiving monster. I guess she really,
really hated the
frilly courtly dresses I tried to put her in.
Of course, getting back to
Lotus Petals, Rhiannon obviously evolved
past that stage in her development as well, and became someone far more complex.
She wasn't cut out to be the sidekick, no, never. But she wasn't an irredeemable
monster, either (that honor definitely goes to Sölva, her Viking bodyguard).
Throughout many stories I realized there was some gem in Rhiannon's character
that set her apart from the true villains...something that made for a deeper
story. Something that might, eventually, save her.
That gem, of course, was Aijyn.
These two were the beginning of it all. They had a story to tell, and I
believed it was a good one. It
took me a long time to find out how to tell it in
just the right way...and then, after I finally had it down in its entirety, had
fallen in love with them all over again, I faced a huge problem.
Lotus Petals broke the cardinal rule of the romance genre. It failed
to meet most publisher's guidelines right out of the gate, and those that didn't
outright reject it before I could hit
Send on my email submission still
didn't want to take the chance on a story like mine.
I can't say which rule it breaks because that gets spoilery. Suffice to say,
though, that Rhiannon and Aijyn sat for many, many years on the shelf, a faint
gleam in my eye while I searched for a place that would give them their shot.
In the meantime, though, writing
Lotus Petals—delving into a world not
just of intrigue and adventure but of real, passionate, unflinching erotic
love—sparked something in me. I considered myself a writer of horror and
supernatural fantasy, but not erotica. And yet, as I penned the sensual moments
of Rhiannon awakening a new and wonderful
lust in sweet Aijyn, I
discovered I really, really liked it.
This is what I mean when I say Rhiannon Donovan (and Aijyn, of course) became
the beginning of it all. Their love became my love: a love of passion and
eroticism. While I waited for the day they might come out of their shady,
rules-breaking corner, I created
Foreplay and Fangs, a collection of
erotic stories I considered experimental. They made me eager to explore not only
sexy stories of romance, but downright dirty stories of greedy and even
sometimes dark and dangerous sexuality. I discovered a delight in exploring
indulgences, and in writing fairy-tale scenes of making love. I wanted to write
as a gay male (he shows up in Rhi's next story, too), and to write of a
polyamorous trio (Finn and his Ladies from
Goblin Fires). I fell in love
with Sadira, a character divulging the deepest, most carnal and most beautiful
aspects of sexual slavery and submission to me. She appears in a short story
titled
To the Victor, and there's a novel about her simmering in my mind.
Part of coming into the world of erotica was coming into the world of
societal sexual awareness. Learning about writing erotica also taught me more
about LGBT and gender issues. I discovered aspects of lifestyles I'd never
understood before, and what I learn excites me. The people—authors and
educators, practitioners, bloggers, podcasters—I've run into, talked to, or
followed, they excite me, too. It's not just about erotic fiction for me
anymore: I feel lucky to have learned so much about the
realities of our
sexuality, identities, and emotions, from that little spark of curiosity.
It's funny now, to see
Lotus Petals becoming a reality too, now.
Rhiannon and Aijyn started me on this path, and now, with the book being
released
in print—that's kind of like a Holy Grail to me!—it feels like
I've finally grown to deserve them, and their story, for real.
This all started with a vampire who refused to be who I expected her to be.
Her story, of course, followed that example. Her lover, the timid courtesan,
broke the mold and challenged demons. Nothing about
Lotus Petals wanted
to follow the rules.
The best thing Rhiannon ever taught me was damnit, let's break some
rules.
