Writing About Writing: Personal Experiences Writing Paranormal Erotic Romance

I can’t say that I’m an old hand in the romance field, but I have been fortunate enough to release two fantasy/erotic romance novellas thus far, one with Pink Petal Books (an imprint of Jupiter Gardens Press) and one with Loose Id.  “King of Cats”, published solo and later collected in the cat shifter-themed collection Stray Cat Strut, came out in November 2008; Riding the Wolf came out January 2010.  Both were published under the nom de plume of Jessica Quinn, and Riding the Wolf was co-written with a long-time friend, Mary Winter.

Both novellas were based on fairy tales: “King of Cats” is a present-day sequel to the story of Puss in Boots, involving a descendant of the original feline hero of the tale.   Riding the Wolf, on the other hand, is a modern reinterpretation of the Little Red Riding Hood story where the roles have been mixed up a bit; Red, the heroine, is a female jockey wanting to compete in the Kentucky Derby, the man in the woods with the axe is a serial killer, while the big bad wolf is now a policeman struck down with lycanthropy, trying to protect the heroine from the killer.  As paranormal and fantasy themes may be at their all-time high, both within the romance field and out of it, refurbished fairy tales provided a number of fascinating ideas to work with.  Better yet, there aren’t a lot of readers who haven’t dipped their toes into the fairy tale pool on occasion, so these themes are familiar and beloved to many readers.  There are so many different fairy tales to draw upon for story ideas that I’m quite sure I could keep coming up with new twists on the old stories forever.

Writing erotic paranormal romance was a great deal different than writing for one of the world’s major gaming companies.  For one thing, writing for White Wolf Games is writing for spec; they pay a set fee based on the number of words you turn in, which is specified by contract.  A knowledge of the particular game line you’re writing for is essential, and often, a freelancer working in that field is going to be writing pieces—rules, flavor text, stats for a particular bad guy—rather than telling an entire story.  There may not be any fiction involved at all.  And I love telling those stories, spreading out a tale inch by luscious inch and thinking about the readers slowly devouring every page.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked with some really great people in the field, fellow writers, cover artists, and editors.  The editing process was painless and easy, and I think that watching the manuscript grow stronger during that process was both entertaining and rewarding.  The reviews and feedback I’ve gotten back for the two stories has been very positive, and I’m looking forward to writing more in a similar vein soon.