It’s a pleasure to have Debra Hyde join us for BDSM Writers Con 2014. She brings with her an expertize in marketing and publicity every author would “stop” writing for…well ok, for the length of her workshop then authors are back to the salt mines of their minds.
And though Debra is a wiz at publicity, we asked her to step outside that realm and answer a few other questions for us.
What made you want to write BDSM?
I started writing BDSM erotica—and erotica in general—almost twenty years ago, spending most of that time writing short stories for various erotica publishers. Why? I loved weaving matters of life as subtext and backdrop for the greatest of all human endeavors, sexual intimacy. I loved writing about erotic heat, its rise and fall, its drama. I loved writing about how transformative sex can be, about its healing and validating powers. And the fact that it got people all hot and bothered (including me!) was icing on the cake!
What scenes do you find the hardest to write?
Always the next scene, and that’s true whether or not it’s a sex scene. Writing is work!
Do you believe every book should have a HEA? Or should we be more realistic with a HFN?(Happy for now)
If we’re talking erotic romance, either form is fine with me. However, HEA or HFN works best when it’s made as satisfying for the reader as possible. I do, though, want to point out that in the greater realm of erotic writing, neither ending is absolutely required. If you want to write dark and transgressive erotica, literary fiction with strong erotic content, or other-genre erotic content, you aren’t—and shouldn’t be—limited to HEA or HFN.
Why are you attending BDSM Writers Con?
I can’t wait to meet other authors—and especially fans of the erotic word! I hope we’ll form a sustainable community, much like other genre conventions. I’d love to see this conference achieve something as fan-celebrating as science fiction and fantasy conventions have! Can you imagine?!
Absolutely! It’s our chance to come together as an enthusiastic and devoted community, something that was impossible when I started writing erotica all those years ago. Think of the ideas and appreciations, the experiences and expertise we can share! It’s long overdue, but we finally have a platform.
What do you want to share most with the participants in August?
Camaraderie. The love of books and the erotic word. Appreciation for all things BDSM. And, of course, my own works and what I’ve learned through the years as both an author and BDSM practitioner!
Debra Hyde is a Lambda Literary award-winning author, recognized for her BDSM novel, Story of L. A modern retelling of the classic Story of O, L updates the original tale to reflect the contemporary lesbian leather world and the women in it. She now pens the newly-released Charlotte Olmes Mystery Series, which re-imagines the famous Holmes/Watson cohorts as lesbian women in 1880s New York City just as the Gilded Age and its social and scientific advances take hold. Debra is a contributing author to the ground-breaking interactive erotic Entwined series, penning two lesbian novellas for it, Hers and Provenance. Her short fiction backlist spans over a decade of writing and will be
Debra is nearing her twenty-year anniversary in BDSM scene. For sixteen of those years, she was an owned submissive and although her master “aged out” of dominance in his senior years, they’re still attached to each other and still playing. Devotion is ever-lasting.