Inspirational Mondays - Smut by the Sea

NO! I haven’t been having sex by the sea!! LOL. However, I did attend an event arranged by British erotica writers for the launch of a book by this title and during the day there was a free event (always good!) which including readings by authors.

And one of those authors was ME! And it was a little nerve wracking as I have never done a reading before. Not that standing up in front of an audience was a problem as I have done amateur dramatics in the past and lectured in countless family history workshops, but it was more about being embarrassed reading my own work – particularly any sex scenes.

But I got around that by reading some funny dialogue instead (yes, I copped out!). I read from ‘Friendly Seduction’, my favourite book to write because I laugh at stereotypes in erotic romance (okay, so I take the mickey out of my own genre!) But I had a ball doing it, eg, pointing out that the heroes are always handsome and hunky and never short, fat and bald and that they often seem to be a king or prince or leader of some sort, never the person who cleans out the sewers!

And it seemed to go down well. People laughed – in fact one person was nearly rolling on the floor in laughter – and several people came up afterwards to say how much they enjoyed my reading including a lecturer in creative writing! And writer, K D Grace, who asked me to guest on her blog! (I’ll let you know when I am there in due course).

Thanks to the great writer, Janine Ashbless, who lives in my town and encouraged me to go and gave a great reading herself. She also gave me a lift and as we hadn’t seen each other in a couple of months I rabbited at her all the way there and back whilst the poor woman tried to concentrate on the sudden torrential downpours and the odd pig on the road (I kid you, not! The pig, not me talking. That’s normal!!)

I won a prize on a tombola (some lube!), and a lovely lady called Bea bought one of my books (well, she sent her husband to buy one!) and asked me to sign it (another first!).

Thanks also to Victoria Blisse and her smutty co-conspirators for organising the event. Best of luck with the launch of your book.

Jen

PS - here is me reading in my brand new 'branded' t-shirt!