Check me out in New Times Broward Palm Beach Article about Erotica writing Grandma! So Excited! http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/arts/erotica-author-skye-michaels-is-a-65-year-old-grandma-from-davie-7650016 It was so much fun to have an interview published in my local weeky magazine.
Now I’m a porno provocateur! LOL
Skye XOXO
Recently I have spoken with several people who told me they also wanted to write and asked how to get started. My best advice is just TO START. Write something. Open a directory on your computer and start a Notes page. Think about your plot as you drive to and from work. Jot down character studies, location ideas, plot ideas. Get something – anything – on paper. That’s what editing is for, to make sense of your crazy first draft.
Some writers outline every nuance and plot twist chapter by chapter spending days or weeks getting it just right before they ever write a word. I have written thirty books, and I have never done an outline. I might have an idea for a plot: Girl goes on BDSM cruise with her girlfriend. Across the deck she sees the guy who stood her up for prom fifteen years ago and broke her little teenage heart. That’s it. Write Chapter One and GO. That is the plot for Cassandra’s Revenge, Book 4 of The Golden Dolphin Series. I have to say it’s one of my favorite books. Who among us hasn’t had her little heartbroken at one time or another and wanted some payback. Well, here I got it for all of us.
In Violette’s Vibrato, Book 3 of the Golden Dolphin series, my heroine (First Violin with the NY Philharmonic) was in trouble with a guy in the Russian Mob. The story was coming along well. The Hero and heroine were great together. AND THEN I didn’t know how to finish it off. How the heck was I going to solve the problem? How do you get rid of the Russian mob? It wasn’t any easier in my book than I expect it would be in real life. I thought and thought (this is the part where I wish I’d outlined) and then one morning I woke up early and just knew what to do. My subconscious had worked out a solution. I rushed to jot it down – if I don’t my brilliant ideas drift off into space never to be seen again.
It really doesn’t matter how you approach the project. The outliner spends a ton of time getting ready to write. The pantster just goes for it. Either way, you have to spend the time. I sometimes find that in the middle of a book I don’t know where I’m going or what to do next. Then I have to spend the time figuring it out that the outliner has already invested. Six of one – half a dozen of another. The trick is to JUST DO IT. Find the method that suits you best. Try both and see how it goes. Just get started if it has always been your dream. Turn lemons into lemonade. I lost my job and gained a whole new career. A door closes and a window pops open…and all those clichés. They are clichés for a reason.
Writing is fun. Every day is something new, and I get to share the adventures of all my characters (I love the girls like children, the guys I just love!). My series, The Black Iris Club, starts with Kaylin’s Pursuit, the story of a homicide detective in Fort Lauderdale (my home town) who during the course of an investigation of a serial killer meets and falls in love with the sexy and rich (they always are – who wants real life?) Dom, Jack Dalton Brown. He owns a BDSM club in the penthouse of the building where the body was found. Kaylin goes into the club undercover to root out the serial killer. That’s all I knew when I started. The four books of the series also include: Chloe’s Rescue (human trafficking), Gabriella’s Prosecution (gang violence), and Nicollette’s Defense (PTSD and veteran’s issues).
The one thing you really need is a good story. Without a story, you don’t have a book. If it’s only about sex, the reader (and I include myself in that group because I also read) gets bored and loses interest. If you have a good story, they will want to read the story even if some just glance over the sex.
Another saying is “write the book you want to read.” Well I have done that thirty times and I’m not tired of it yet – so give writing a try if you think you might like it. I hope you will sign up for my Blog, follow me on Twitter at @skyemichaels and check out my fan page on Facebook, Skye Michaels Books. I love to hear from readers, so drop me a line and let me know what you like and what you don’t (not so much the what you don’t – LOL). – Skye Michaels
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Book Giveaway Contest in February.
Here are the winners:
First Prize to Chandera Desautel (All 4 Black Iris Books)
Second Prize to Lee Todd (Alex and Ricky from Wilton Park with Danny as a surprise extra book)
Third Prize to Walt Tucker (Alex from Wilton Park)
Runner Up Third Prize to Anthony Taylor (Alex from Wilton Park)
All books have been sent out in PDF. Please let me know if you are unable to open any of the books.
It was a lot of fun. Now I have to think up a new contest! Feel free to communicate any bright ideas. I can use them.
Skye
Why did I choose the BDSM genre? Well, mainstream romance is a very crowded field. It seems that thousands of new books come out weekly. Frankly, I enjoyed the drama and sexiness of the BDSM stories I originally read and wanted to see if I could write one of my own. I was amazed at how the words flowed. Since then I have studied this interesting subculture, gone to several BDSM writers’ conventions, watched live demonstrations, and read extensively. There is still a lot to learn. These books are fiction, and before trying any of the activities depicted, you should study the literature available. As always, Safe, Sane and Consensual rules.
Why did I start my latest series, The Wilton Park Grand Hotel Series, which is Male/male BDSM – Manlove? Well, why not? I wanted to branch out in my storytelling. I wondered if a hetero woman could write those stories and decided with great trepidation to give the first one a try. One of my fellow Siren writers, Bellann Summer, gave me a lot of help and pointers and read my first M/m manuscript (Alex’s Sacrifice) for which I am very grateful. I was delighted to find I had no problem writing in this genre. People are people, love is love, sex is sex (except for the mechanical differences, LOL), and relationships are relationships. As always, despite the hot sex, you have to have a good story. I hope you will give one of these a try even if you never thought they would be for you. They may give you a different perspective on alternative lifestyles. One of my gay friends paid me the best compliment. We were talking about my latest M/m book at his hair salon (which appears in Ricky’s Dilemma), and he turned to a friend of his and said “She gets us! She really gets us.” I was thrilled.
Another thrill was when a reader told a friend of mine who had introduced her to my books to thank me for writing them, that they had helped revitalize her twenty-year marriage that had gotten stale. Now she and her husband are texting and hurrying home from work. What a thrill –to know you made a difference in someone’s life. And they say it’s just “romance.”
I thought I would talk about some of the background of several of my favorite books. I started The Appearance of Impropriety 
over twenty years ago while I was still working. Unfortunately, life got in the way when both of my parents got sick and passed away. I put the book aside as I didn’t have the heart to keep working on it.
After I had started the erotic books and was between books looking for a new project, I pulled Appearance out of mothballs. Yikes! How much had changed in twenty or so years. Since the background of the story is technological in nature, I had to sit down with my daughter, Jennifer, the Queen of Technology, and get an update on how email worked, etc. Then I had to completely update the manuscript and then finish it. It was like opening a time capsule and a lot of fun to work on.
Much of the background information on life in Puerto Rico as depicted in 
Gabriella’s Prosecution comes from my ex-husband’s family background – except for the part about them being Medieval Spanish Sadists! If he only knew! This material has been edited for fictional purposes of course.
Another of my favorites, Jinxx’s Big BDSM Adventure, came out of a personal experience of my own with a romance that started on Facebook. While it is not an exact depiction of events and the names have been changed to protect the guilty, most of the texts and emails in the book came from my own experience. LOL – 
The romance may not have worked out, but at least I got a book out of it.
All characters are fictional and bear no relation to persons living or dead – or whatever that disclaimer is! I have to say I have never had so much fun in my life. You have probably seen the meme, “Be nice to me or you may find yourself murdered in my next book.” Well….
I also love to put animal characters in my books and to memorialize their names for posterity. My horses, Shadow and Ollie, have made appearances as well as my dog, Snickerdoodles, a/k/a The Dude. One reader said she had learned more about horses than she ever expected to know reading my books. I hope you enjoy that. A great sexy book is more than sex. You have a good story or you don’t have a book. I hope I can continue writing good, sexy stories.
Hello readers, friends and relatives! I can’t believe I now have my own website and blog. Who wouldathunkit? I’m so very excited to share this beautiful website created by Jennifer Hicks Money of Franklin, Tennessee with everyone. Jennifer can be reached on my contact me page – just send her a note through the comments section.
As you may know from reading my bio, I started writing after I lost my day job as a paralegal. I had dreamed of writing romance as far back as high school when we all devoured the bodice ripper romances like potato chips! Remember Fabio on those covers?
When I lost my job in 2010 I started temping in Miami, Florida and taking the express bus to downtown from Fort Lauderdale – a real ordeal. My daughter bought me a Kindle for my birthday in 2011 to ease the trip, and I was amazed by what was out there in ebooks. Who knew? I downloaded a couple of the free erotic books and loved them. So I read many, many more.
How do you learn this skill? There is no Naughty Books 101 course at the local college. I read so many I thought my eyes would bleed. How far do they go? What words do they use? How do they advance the plot? I learned a great deal from my favorite writers in the genre and would like to thank them all for the education. I decided that if I could write legal documents for thirty years, I could write naughty romance novels. So, I did.
I wrote my first book in seven teen days 
(Calleigh’s Collar which was the shortest) and immediately started a second one (Kelly’s Challenge). In the meantime I had my friends and family read the first one to see what they thought. They loved it (after a few raised eyebrows and “where did this come from” questions) so I started to compile a list of publishers of that type of material. As it turned out, the list was unnecessary as my first two stories were accepted by the publisher of my favorite authors, Siren Publishing, within three weeks. My first book was published in January of 2012. I was ecstatic. 
I am sure you did not know that strange howling noise you heard was me getting the email accepting my manuscripts for publication. You may have noticed the strange sound again when I got my first cover for Calleigh’s Collar!
It’s been an amazing journey of excitement and learning. The Siren editors have been great and another wonderful source of education. I had no idea what Point of View or Head Hopping was – even after it was carefully explained! Finally, I learned to write for those points to avoid the huge editing changes. The editors were encouraging and patient, and we got through those first few manuscripts. I also had a lot of help from my friend, Pat Walker, who was my original beta reader and editor. And now I have thirty published books out there in the universe and am working on number thirty-one. There are currently five Male/female and one Male/male series. The excitement continues, and I hope you will all join me on this continuing adventure.
Please click over and check out my site… www.skyemichaelsbooks.com
If you have any questions or would just like to say, “Hi” ~ send me a message through this contact form:
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