- What do you love about writing?
Getting to take breaks from the real world by living in my imagination for awhile!
- Hate about it?
Sometimes getting stuck, or realizing that my current story idea won’t work for a certain anthology. Dealing with people who misunderstand what I’ve written. (I think all writers encounter readers like that, sooner or later.)
- Do you have a guilty indulgence? Something you do
just for you. Want to share?
Heh. I write sexually-explicit fiction. How do you think I stay in the mood? Aside from that, I don’t think I have many vices: no addictions, no compulsions.
Once in awhile, I enjoy treating myself to some high-fat super-charged coffee drink. I also like shopping for clothes, even if I’m only window-shopping. (As a teenager, I made most of my own clothes and wanted to be Coco Chanel when I grew up.)
- If you could spend a secluded weekend somewhere, where would you go and why?
Somewhere scenic, like Banff (resort town with spectacular view of the Rockies).
Or a cabin with a view of the Pacific. The natural
world is inspiring.
- Is there any heroine from one of your books who you would change places with?
Several of my stories are told by Dr. Athena Chalkdust, a Mary Sue character who teaches English in a university (like me) and is a short woman of a certain age (like me), but who has charisma. I have a lot of fun writing in her voice. I’ve been amazed by readers who say they would like to meet her. (Who knew that enforcing the rules of grammar could be sexy?)
The published stories are:
- “Splitting the Infinitive” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2001, reprinted in Best of the Best Lesbian Erotica, Volume 2 (Cleis Press)
- “My Debut as a Slut” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2005 (Cleis)
- “Down Below” in Slave to Love: Sexy Stories of Erotic Restraint (Cleis, 2006), soon to be reprinted in Best S/M Erotica 3: Still More Extreme Stories of Still More Extreme Sex (LL Publications)
- “The Placement of Modifiers” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2009 (Cleis).
- What authors do you enjoy reading? Who is on your bookcase/e-reader?
It’s hard to narrow this down! My taste is eclectic.
In the fields of erotica and gay/lesbian/bi/trans fiction, I
admire:
Veterans Patrick Califia, Carol Queen, Cecilia Tan, more recent authors Laura Antoniou, Steve Berman, Kathleen Bradean, Louisa Burton, M. Christian, Maxim Jakubowski, D.L. King, Marilyn Jaye Lewis, Catherine Lundoff, Lawrence Schimel, Simon Sheppard, & some I can`t think of at the moment, including those who write under more obvious noms de plume.
Among writers of fantasy and historical fiction, I like Jacqueline Carey, Gregory Maguire (who wrote Wicked on which the musical is based), Clive Barker, and Emma Donoghue. I once read all the English-language stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and loved them.
I also admire the work of several Canadian and African-American women writers of realistic (more-or-less) fiction: Margaret Atwood, the late Toni Cade Bambara, Margaret Laurence, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker. I`m sure I`m leaving someone out, but that`s probably enough!
- Do you ever get up at 3 am just to write?
I have! I would probably do this more often if I lived alone, but it caused my partner and our pets to growl & hiss at me, so I`ve stopped. ?
- What`s the most interesting thing you`ve ever done?
It`s hard to know what would interest someone else. Here`s a reckless thing I did while travelling in England at age 22 with my parents and younger sisters: crawled up the slippery stone steps of the ruins of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall with rain lashing me in the face, no guardrail, and a sheer drop to the rocky Atlantic coast. Why? Because I wasn`t sure I would ever have the chance to go there again. (Tintagel is the site of the adulterous, tragic love affair of Tristan and Isolde of the King Arthur legends. Crawling up the steps seemed appropriate.)
- What is your favourite holiday?
Christmas, Solstice or Yule. Halloween or Samhain is a close second.
- Of all the steamy/non-steamy you`ve written, what one is your personal favourite?
It’s hard to choose, but I think my favourite is “The Personal Is Political,” a future-history story told by the legal spouse of the first lesbian Prime Minister of Canada (not likely, I know – but possible). This story is in Coming Together: With Pride (Phaze Publications, 2008), one of the “coming together” erotic anthologies edited by Alessia Brio to raise money for good causes. None of the contributors get paid, except in fame.
- And which one is something you`d love to try? *grins*
I would love to find time to write another novel. (The one I wrote, Prairie Gothic, was available as an ebook from 2002-2006, when the e-press that carried it went defunct.)
I would like to write a book-length work of historical fiction – maybe after I’ve retired from teaching.
Where to find Jean:
My website: www.JeanRoberta.com
My monthly column on sex and society:
“Sex Is All Metaphors” on the site of the Erotic Readers & Writers Association: www.erotica-readers.com (in the Smutters Lounge gallery).
I am a staff reviewer here:
www.eroticarevealed.com (erotic site run by D.K. King)
and here:
www.kissedbyvenus.ca (lesbian site run by Alexandra Wolfe).
My reviews also appear in various other places, including
The Gay and Lesbian Review (glossy mag formerly published at Harvard University).
Sneak Peek into The Lady of the Moon, Part of Obsession Book:
Bertrand, in dragon form, lay the girl on the bed and ripped her clothing from her shoulders, but changed into a man to explore her fair, helpless body. She squirmed with pleasure and surprise when he stroked and suckled her breasts. She sighed when his rough hands, so different from her own, gripped her womanly hips as he descended to the dark hair between her legs. In spite of herself, Lucinda delighted in his passion and the strength in his arms, and she watched with interest as his cock rose from its own nest of tawny curls. After all, she felt that she had nothing more to lose.
“You must not be frightened,” her new master told her. “I can breathe fire into you without destroying you.” She cried out when he spread her lower lips apart and peered within, but before long, she clasped him between her legs as he plunged deeply into her center, which had been neglected since her own girlish fingers had strayed there on the day of her first blood.
And so time passed, and Lucinda grew familiar with Bertrand’s moods. When she accidentally burned his supper, or did not wash his clothes as soon as they were soiled, the smoke curling from his nostrils told her that she would be compelled to lie over his laps and submit to a switch made of green twigs. Yet even when he punished her, Bertrand preferred to shame her with unexpected pleasure than to beat the remaining willfulness out of her.
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- From “The Lady of the Moon,” pansexual fairy tale in Obsession, fourteen erotic stories by Jean Roberta, available in several formats. Find it here: www.eternalpress.ca/obsessionnew.html
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3 Responses to “Guest Author Day with Jean Roberta”
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Welcome Jean to my blog/website.
Your book, Obsession, sonds very interesting. What got you interested in writing GBLT stories?
Thanks for being here.
Raine D.
Thank you for inviting me here, Raine!
I got started writing GLBT stories in the 1980s, before I had written anything sexually explicit (too shy!). I “came out” by going to the local gay bar in 1982, and then noticed that I couldn’t find much lesbian fiction – and not much for/about gay men that didn’t look porny (descriptions of sex, very light on plot and characterization). I wrote 10 lesbian stories which were published between hot-pink covers as a book named Secrets of the Invisible World (after the title story) in 1988 by a one-woman press that went out of business by 1990.
Meanwhile, I got some positive reviews in small lesbian-feminist journals, and several friends told me they wanted more sex in my fiction! At the Third International Feminist Book Fair in Montreal in 1988, I saw some calls-for-submissions for lesbian erotica (a very controversial genre during the Feminist Sex Wars) and thought I would try it. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet.
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