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This interview was conducted by Jolie Du Pre and originally appeared on the GLBTPromo web site in April 2006.

(© 2006 GLBTPromo)

Marilyn Jaye Lewis is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher.  Her erotic fiction is widely published in the United States and Europe.  She is also the founder and executive director of the Erotic Authors Association.

 
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Jolie du Pré:  Marilyn, ever since I became an erotica writer I’ve always admired your work and I consider you an inspiration.  I’m very pleased that you’ve agreed to give an interview to GLBT Promo.

Marilyn Jaye Lewis: Thank you!!

 
JDP: Although you have written heterosexual erotica, much of your erotica writing has focused on GLBT themes.  You began with lesbian erotica in the late 80’s and then later expanded to writing bisexual erotica.  Your anthology Lust, for example, is a collection of bisexual stories written between 1994 and 2003.  How did your interest in GLBT come about?


MJL: Basically, I was just born with an interest in it. I have always been actively bisexual in my personal life so most of my friends have always been either gay, lesbian, or bisexual and then later on, transgendered. I started writing erotic fiction in the 1970s, in my teens, but I didn't get up the nerve to start getting the stories published until my late 20s. By then, the gay/lesbian erotic zine market was in full swing. In particular, I had a number of stories published in Bad Attitude, which was a really great zine out of Boston for BDSM lesbians. And also the legendary zine, Frighten the Horses, which was bisexual and out of San Francisco. It was published by Mark Pritchard and Cris Guitierrez. Through that zine alone, I became friendly with writers who are now considered legends in the history of modern erotic fiction. Because of the Internet, there really are no more print zines quite like that anymore.


JDP: Ignorance and homophobia hurdles exist for many authors when trying to get their GLBT erotica published.  Has the experience been difficult for you or has it been easy?


MJL: It's been easy overall, but I have to temper that with the fact that not many markets for publishing any kind of erotica, glbt or otherwise, existed when I first began publishing so it was kind of a "seller's market." Zines needed content. What came as a very pleasant surprise, though, was how positively my style of erotic storytelling was received by readers and other writers. Once I had a reputation in the zine market, I went online and began my own online erotic fiction publishing site, Other-Rooms.com (fall, 1997). From there the leap to books was pretty effortless. I had a "name" and a good reputation in the industry. Back then, Masquerade Books was THE publisher for erotica--glbt, hetero, and BDSM. They practically offered me a contract on my book Neptune & Surf before they'd even read it, just because I was so well known.


JDP:  You have a novel Freak Parade, and you’re the editor of Zowie! It’s Yaoi! Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boy’s Love, and True Erotica. These are upcoming GLBT works.  Tell us a bit about them.


MJL: I am very excited about True Erotica (that is the working title, btw. It will be changed before publication). It is a collection of true erotic memoirs written by glbt writers who are more known for their erotic fiction. The writers are excellent (Amie M. Evans, Rachel Kramer Bussel, TruDeviant, Bill Brent, Ian Philips, and Greg Wharton) and I feel it's going to be very well received by readers. Plus, it's a bit of a first--true sex stories told by established fiction writers.


On the other hand, the yaoi collection is a bit of a gamble. I am absolutely thrilled with the novellas I've received for it, but non-illustrated yaoi is so far only popular on the web. Buying ebooks is much more of an impulse buy, not to mention cheaper, than going into a bookstore and buying a regular book. So we'll see how it goes. The writers for that book are Nix Winter (Venus Press), Claire Thompson (Ellora's Cave), Catherine Lundoff (Torquere Press, etc.,), Bianca James (Suspect Thoughts; Project QueerLit finalist), Stevie Burns (Voracity Beat), and me.


Freak Parade is a novel that is dear to my heart. It's a bit hard to categorize. It has elements of erotic romance, elements of literary fiction, it makes a strong statement about racism against Puerto Ricans in this country, and its glbt. In general, it's a downtown novel about NYC.


JDP: Your works have been published worldwide.  What has been the response, outside of the US, to your work?

 
MJL: I've had only one piece translated into Italian (my short story, "Anal") but it seemed to go over extremely well! It's a very twisted story even in English. I can only imagine how it came across in Italian. Reviews of the anthology (Sextoys) in Italy always seemed to single out my story for comment and that was an incredibly great feeling for me.

 
I've also had one story translated into Japanese but I have no idea how it was received (my hetero story "The Fever" from Carol Queen's 5 Minute Erotica anthology).


My first book, Neptune & Surf, was translated into French a few years ago but I don't think it went over too well there. I've been told my work is a little too extreme, kinky, edgy for the French literary market.

Overall, the British have been incredibly supportive of my work from the beginning. More so than here in America. I think the British get my sense of humor and appreciate my literary style, above and beyond the fact that what I'm writing about is explicitly erotic.

JDP:  What else is in the works for Marilyn Jaye Lewis in the world of GLBT?


MJL: I'm working on a novel, entitled Twilight of the Immortal, about gays, lesbians, and bisexuals living and working in Hollywood during the Silent Movie era. I am also working on an erotic memoir of my 23 years of living, loving, & writing in New York City, entitled Manhattan Mon Amour.(I recently moved out of Manhattan to a small town in eastern Pennsylvania.)

JDP: You’ve edited a number of anthologies including Stirring Up a Storm, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press.  In this particular anthology you’ve included stories by authors Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates.  I believe that including such authors helps erotica gain the respect that it deserves.  What can you tell us about the experience of editing Stirring Up A Storm?


MJL: You've totally pegged what I had hoped to accomplish with that book (and I think I did accomplish it). Nothing beats getting a personal letter in your mailbox fom Joyce Carol Oates, excepting one's offer to contribute to an anthology--however...I wish I could tell you that editing the book overall was a great experience, but it was very frustrating. Mostly because it felt as if the publisher was avidly working against me when it came to the finished product. I don't think the publicist assigned to the book took it very seriously because it was "erotic" and I had a real uphill battle re: publicity because of it. The art department did not understand that it was literary first, and erotica second so they gave me an inappropriate cover as far as getting potentially "high profile" reviews went. In addition to Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates, I also had an original story written for me by the movie actress Selma Blair, as well as a fantastic lesbian anal-fisting classic from Dorothy Allison written in her pre-Bastard Out of Carolina days. These are huge names and the book should have gotten at least "a review" but the publisher dropped the ball on it. The book also has 3 Pushcart Prize nominations for short fiction--a first for an erotica anthology. I feel like the writers and I achieved so much with that book but we were pretty much on our own when the book hit the stores. It was an extremely frustrating and disheartening experience, but sadly not uncommon in the world of publishing.


Had the very same contributors & events come together in a non-erotic anthology, you can bet that the publisher would have been promoting the book like crazy.

 

JDP: You have an impressive resume of Internet accomplishments that have celebrated erotica across sexual persuasions and have garnered you a significant amount of attention, including a write-up in Entertainment Weekly.  Tell us about those.

MJL: Gosh, I could go on for pages about my various Internet involvements since 1997. I am very proud of them and they include a number of "firsts" for erotica on the Internet, including the first ever coast to coast live erotica reading on the Internet via Broadcast.com in 1998. The bio & reviews posted on my web site give most of the details of my online career (http://www.marilynjayelewis.com/html/bio.html) so I won't bog you down with all that here. My personal favorites, though, were Other-Rooms.com (launched in 1997) and Marilyn's Room.com (1998).

Other-Rooms.com was in the days before blogging was even heard of. I provided a "room" for each writer to keep an online journal and publish his or her erotica. I ran it all from my bedroom in my spare time and it was extremely time-consuming and costly but a real labor of love for me. I published some really great erotica writers on that web site and it won a bunch of awards. By the time I shut it down, I was getting nearly 2 million readers a year--pretty cool for a little erotica web site that had no advertising whatsoever. And I was most proud of the fact that everyone who I published on Other-Rooms.com got publishing deals of one sort or another from being on my site.

 

Marilyn's Room.com was the multi-media offshoot of Other-Rooms. I featured some great erotic filmmakers, photographers, playwrights, erotic artists & illustrators, and it also featured streaming audio of top erotica writers reading their short stories. That site won awards, too, but it cost me an even HUGER fortune and since I produced all of it, it was very, very time-consuming.


Those were great days, though. I met and either published or produced so many cool and talented people.


JDP: You’ve won a number of awards for your work.  What are some of the highlights?


MJL: Whenever I win an award, I am thrilled & honored. Even the seemingly small nods, like an award for one of my web sites; I take them very seriously and for a few brief shining moments, they make my life feel worthwhile.


Probably my most favorite award was winning Erotic Writer of the Year at the UK Erotic Oscars in 2001. Through the generosity of Mark Pritchard, I was able to fly over to London First Class, and Maxim Jakubowski put me up in his home for several days and then he and his wife drove me to the awards. I had such a wonderful time and it was such a great feeling to win that award. At that time, there was nothing at all that honored the writing of erotica except those Erotic Oscars in London.


JDP: What can you tell us about your organization Erotic Authors Association?


MJL: After my wonderful experience of winning in London, I founded the EAA in 2002 as an awards organization to honor quality erotica writing and publishing here in America. After several years of writing & publishing in the erotic genre, I saw the quality of the writing just getting better and better and yet we were still treated as the bastard stepchild of publishing. I wanted to do something to help change that impression, to help shine a light on the importance of what people in this genre were accomplishing. So, in the footsteps of the horror writers, the sci-fi writers, and the mystery writers, I founded the EAA.


It took a while for the EAA to really get going. Its first year was very expensive for me and after our first round of awards we went on hiatus for a year. But now we are going stronger than ever, with 200 members and it literally grows every week. I began the EAA Signature Series Ebook publishing venture earlier this year to help raise needed funds for re-instating our annual awards. It's important to me that the EAA awards have some sort of monetary attachment since it is so hard to earn a decent living from writing erotica. But it is not easy to get outside funding for anything related to "sex & literature" in this country. Plus, it's not easy for our members to pay high-priced member dues. So we are currently selling top quality erotic ebooks. (We have 12 so far, with another 4 ebooks ready for publication between May & June.) Any other EAA fundraising suggestions are always welcome!

JDP: To aspiring authors of literary erotica, what would you like to say to them?

 MJL: Literary erotic novels, as opposed to the more formulaic genre writing of erotic romances, can be extremely difficult to get published because the market for them is so small. If/when you do get published, it is generally in the small presses where there is little money to be made. But my experience has been that if you write what you love, it does not matter who publishes it; your audience will find you. It may sound corny, but there is something about the power of love that is like a magnet that brings a writer and his or her readers together. As an artist, that is extremely gratifying--finding that appreciative audience. If you are more interested in the money than in any deep need to express yourself, sticking with the romance market is a better bet for earning real money but you aren't permitted to get too "literary" in it. Formulaic writing can be challenging and fun, but it can also feel restrictive and get a bit boring after a while! Ideally, you can combine them both, the literary with the genre writing, and carve out a very satisfying career for yourself and for your lucky readers!

(© 2006 GLBTPromo)