Diversity has been on my mind of late. I watched a documentary about a young man who was murdered just because he dared to put on a dress and change his name. Another about a girl who was bullied and ended up killing herself. It is everywhere. Racial divides, books being banned for content, fighting about whether gay marriage is legal or not… it never ends. Now we find issues of harassment in the workplace and on football fields. It is rampant in our society and the message is clear: conform or we will make you. I have one word for that. No. I will not. I am who I am and will explore the boundaries of my own mind as I want to.
The current state of the world makes me think long and hard about the things I write about. Let me introduce myself. I am Erzabet Bishop, and I write erotica. Yes, it is a pen name. Under my real name I write horror and young adult fiction. Having a pen name is a must for me for two reasons. One- I separate my erotica from my young adult (you really have to), and two- there are some people that still treat erotica as porn and that is a very unfortunate fact. My first professionally published work was with Storm Moon Press, and I have always celebrated their willingness to tread into waters that can be at times risky and dangerous. They publish the edgy fiction that made my heart sing the first time I got that acceptance letter, and it hasn’t stopped since.
Under my erotic author mask, I am just the same as anyone else. I have a mortgage, pay my bills, and struggle with a leak in the roof and a new puppy that needs to get to the vet. There is always something. In my writing, I grab onto things that make the mundane into something special, whether that is a f/f story about a werewolf cop (When the Clock Strikes Thirteen, Ylva) or my m/f story Holidays In Hell from the wonderful Storm Moon Press. Just released as a single short story apart from its original anthology, it features an incubus with some diversity problems of his own. Demons are supposed to like Halloween, not have a serious kink for Christmas ornaments. I also write for NNP and the basis of my series for them is Pagan based erotica. Yep… here we go with another form of diversity. The point is, there is beauty in every culture, religion and way of life. You just have to be open minded enough to see it and appreciate the good in those around you, no matter their sexual orientation, religious affiliations, sex, gender, or ethnicity.
So, I look at the news nowadays and sigh and go back to writing my stories. More and more, I produce lesbian fiction, although Holidays in Hell happens to be m/f . There is something about looking at love as an all-inclusive emotion that comes out more and more in my writing. Well, that and a little kink with a crochet hook (Anything She Wants – “Hooked”) or a naughty spatula in EPS: Samhain Shadows. Who has the right to tell us who to love? Whether it is an incubus falling for a mortal girl he is supposed to suck the soul from or a lesbian werewolf cop finding a mate in a woman at a convention… diversity is life. It is inclusion. It is the spark that gives meaning. If everyone were the same, it would be a very pastel world indeed. It would be all tea cozies and no naughty corset washcloths or vibrator pouches. Dang. How boring is that?
Exploring the wonderful world of erotic fiction gives us a whole new and nonthreatening way to discover things about ourselves as readers and writers that we never knew existed. I love reading lesbian fiction and delving into the psyche behind how those relationships work in real life. People are fascinating and, as I found with one of my newest projects involving domestic abuse and cancer in a star-crossed lesbian love story, love comes in all flavors. Often just when you least expect it. Thank God.
Erzabet Bishop has been crafting stories since she could pound keys on her parent’s old typewriter. She has only just learned that it is a whole lot more fun writing naughty books. She lives in Texas with her husband and furry children and can often be found lurking in local bookstores. She loves to bake, make naughty crochet projects and watch monster movies. She can be found on Twitter @ErzabetBishop.
This post is part of Storm Moon Press’ 4th Anniversary Blog Tour! Thank you for joining us, and please take a moment to enter both Erzabet’s Holidays in Hell giveaway and our blog-tour-wide giveaway! The prize is receiving an ebook each month from SMP for 12 months! We hope to see you around the Internet and at RainbowCon in 2014! Happy New Year!
Jay Lygon’s Chaos Theory series and Jeff Erno’s Puppy Love series were two series I didn’t think I would love. I started out reading both books knowing they contained BDSM situations and I was pleasantly surprised with Jay’s story and I found I wasn’t at all put off by it. Jeff Erno’s series was a different story. I thought it would be like the Chaos Theory series but if was in a totally different ballpark. I absolutely hated book one Puppy Love but was told that it got better from there. I’m a little glad I gave it a chance because it actually turned out to be an okay series to me.