Poor Vivien, She Had No Idea

April: Today, I'm introducing a fairly new blogger to Romance Writers Behaving Badly, Vivien Jackson!!! I'm not sure she realized what she was getting into when she agreed to this interview. I'm so EVIL that way. LOL.

But let's get started! Welcome Vivien. I'm very interested to talk with anyone who writes erotica and erotic romance :>, especially a woman who thinks watching a man do dishes is sexy. LOL.

If washing dishes, such a mundane task, led you to pursue writing hawt shmex as you put it... I hate to imagine the kinkiest, sexiest thing you’ve ever done... um... but if you want to share (April blushes):


Vivien: Changed my clothes on stage in front of about three hundred people (it was in the script, honest). Also, getting frisky in the catwalk of a theatre right behind the Fresnels was pretty hot. Literally and figuratively.

April: Oh wow. Cough, cough. Fans self. Most of the time writers are really quiet in their real lives (or maybe they're just keeping something from me). So I can't imagine if you get that wild in real life ... well, just how bad do you get with your writing, are we talking just suggestion or downright bondage?

V: If the character will do it, I will write it. I’m a complete slave to those guys.

A: Slave hugh? I'm getting images of Vivien in a sexy pose, bound, being "tortured" by Adonises while a mighty male hand wields a soapy sponge. MAN, why do I have the soapy image of male hands fried to my brain now.

Let's move on, shall we. What’s the best thing you’ve ever written—the best line?

V: Well, the best lines are all about set-up, so pinching one out of context probably wouldn’t have the same effect. However, if I had to pick a single line that sums up an entire story, it’d be this one from an erotica short, an unpublished follow-up to “Unless”:

“Really, like bunnies?”

A: Oh, my mind wanders. LOL... toward sex. And rabbits do a LOT of that. ;>

If you could have any movie star take on a role as one of your heroes, who would it be?

V: I hadn’t thought of this before, but now that you mention it, I can sort of see Jason Momoa as Alice’s big burly off-limits boss, John Mero, in the novel I’m currently working on.

A: Again, what's with all of these writers knowing way more sexy guys than I do. Sigh. I do need to get our more.

Already I'm getting a feel for just how hot your stuff must be... but how long do you like them (hehehehe I just can't get away from the word long and sex together. I'm so juvenile)? I mean your manuscripts?

V: I would like my manuscripts to be around 90k. In reality, my two works-in-progress are hovering at 40k with only half of the outlines filled in. My published pieces are shorts, between 5 and 10k.

A: There's always the one kind of scene we all dread. Some, it's the action sequences but more and more I hear it's the sex scenes. For you, what are the hardest scenes to write?

V: Uck, definitely those necessary-for-plot things that don’t have much emotional or action content. It’s hard to cram transition and exposition into a car chase or sex scene, but boy am I trying.

A: Agreed. The slow build up of tension through scenes that are not sex related are very difficult.

Now, I always like to slip this in just in case I have an author that's a bit shy - How close in real life have you gotten to one of your fantasies?

V: Someone sent me a note once asking if he could help with my exhibitionist fantasy. I must have read the note a dozen times, but I never took him up on the offer. Yeah, I know: coward.

A: Holy COW. People DO THAT????????????? And um... why didn't you? That would have been wild? No... okay... you don't have to answer but HOLY COW.

(April to self)Ahem... pull yoursel together woman - this is a serious interview. Not a tell all.

(Just April now) With that insight, I'd better get back to the questions.

What would you want other writers and your readers to know about you?

V: I love the sex, but I love the characters more. Someday, if I’m good enough, a reader will love them as much as I do. That’s what I write for.

A: Vivien, I think you've hit on something that is so true for so many authors. They love writing the sexy stuff but the characters --- those are the ones you want to share with the world.

Okay, last question:  Anything you would like to share with us, an excerpt, a tidbit, or anything else about yourself?

V: Here’s a nibble from “Come Hither,” a short featuring two competitive sales professionals who are trying to figure out who has the better pick-up technique:

"How about this, then: I catch his eye from across the room, raise my eyebrows like so," she demonstrated," and lick the tip of the bottle." Again with the demonstration, sliding her tongue in a circular motion, dipping it into the slit at the top of the dark-glass bottle. She noticed that Sean sat up a little straighter. Good: He was paying attention. "If he didn't look away, I might take a long, deep swig," she went on, closing her lips around the neck of the bottle, tilting her head back, and swallowing.

Sean's explosion of laughter was hardly the reaction she was after, but at least Angela didn’t sputter on her drink. Instead, she set the beer on the bar, tongued a drop off the corner of her mouth, and frowned. "What, you don't think I can execute an appropriate come-hither?"

And it’s on.

A: Excellent !!! Wow, that sounds hot. Thank you so much for the interview. I might have to call you up sometime to ... um... get some pointers.
 
If anyone would like to check out more about Vivien, you can find her at http://www.vivienjackson.com/