Sunday 11 November 2012

Betty Herbert Guest Post: Sexy Stories

I hope you all enjoy the second in my new series of guest posts, in which I invite writers to discuss fiction that turns them on.  Today it's over to Betty Herbertthe author of The 52 Seductions...
Before I started writing about sex, I would have run across a dual carriageway to avoid erotica.
But then, I am an odd sort of a sex writer anyway. I started my blog because, after ten years of marriage, I wasn’t having much sex, and I wasn’t sure if this was such a bad thing.
Even though I did end up embracing my inner goddess (oh my, EL James, I couldn’t resist that one), I did it through embracing sex in its flawed, fumbling glory.
Nowadays, I find it hard to take off my writerly hat when I read erotica. Too often, it’s just not real enough for me – too perfect, too smooth, too serious. I always did have a problem with suspension of disbelief.
FingersmithTherefore, I like to find my erotica buried amongst stories, rather than leaping out from every page. I’m a huge fan of Anaïs Nin and A N Roquelaure, but my favourite wouldn’t see herself as an erotic writer at all.



Like many straight women, I turn to Sarah Waters again and again for my thrills. I think it’s because I am absorbed so completely by the stories – my favourite is Fingersmith – and so the sex packs an extra punch.
I also like the way her books leave me space to fantasise. And who isn’t partial to the odd corset now and then?

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