Hmm. I'm a little later creating this than I'd planned. For some reason, Google, which is the power behind the Aphrodisia blogs, decided to disown me. What? I'd signed on with no problem the last time I blogged but now my user name and password seems to have fallen into a black hole. Go figure. Ah well, looks like I've jumped through the necessary hoops. (Shaking her head at technology). Speaking of our modern and too-complex world, anyone interested in the hoops I had to jump through in order to replace my husband's cell phone after he tried to teach it how to swim? Didn't think so.
Actually I'm stalling. I know what I want to comment on because it's what kept me awake much of last night, I'm just not sure how to get started. Ah, how about the beginning, if I can find that particular thread. When I started writing erotica, it was a brave new and uncharted world. Plot choices were unlimited, at least it seemed that way to me. Anything from historical to futuristic to sci/fi to paranormal to shape shifting to--you got the picture. Much the same with themes or genre. I tried a little of this and that with my early works which were for Ellora's Cave. Then in a moment of mad inspiration, I wrote Forced, or maybe I should say Forced used me as its vehicle for getting into print. It was plain and simple, bondage. Bondage has been my fantasy of choice for as long as I can remember. I can honestly say I've never plunged deeper into a story (its by far my best-selling e-title). Forced was followed by other bondage-themed stories because that's what I wanted to write. The genre is also a hot, hot seller, but that was less important to me than exploring my needs and curiosities. I danced at the edge of BDSM and that shows up in all of my Aphrodisia stories, but my comfort level kept me at the edge. I might be able to read about true submissives, particularly the whole pain thing, but my macho heroes draw the line with elaborate rope work. They don't crack whips. I simply can't mark up my heroines. What it gets down to is that I don't get the pain/pleasure connection and if it's foreign to me, it's foreign to my characters. The point of this is that I've written a LOT of bondage and am beginning to suspect I've explored most of the situations my brain can come up with. Am I in danger of starting to repeat myself? Shoot, maybe I already have, but fortunately that short-term memory issue insulates me from reality. I don't want to bore my readers, or myself by playing the same tune over and over again. So, now that I'm pulling together possibilities for book two in my current Aphrodisia contract, my mind is digging around in all kinds of directions. I love adventure. Adore suspense. Dig man against nature. Maybe I don't want to fashion those passions in such a way that they'd fit under the bondage umbrella. Maybe I just want hot and heavy sex while fleeing the villains or trying to outrun an avalanche or flood. Maybe I don't want to deal with the separation of power between master and sub; I need equals. Hell, maybe I even need the woman on top. That in a less than articulate explanation is my current quandary. Bondage is familiar. I know that dance (or I've deluded myself into thinking I do) Just because I'm intrigued by the man against nature plot possibility that went to bed with me doesn't mean I have the skill to fashion it within the erotica world. And the thought that I want to end with: has Vonna Harper made such a name for herself as a bondage slut that readers won't pick up anything else from me? I'd love to read your responses. I really, really need to know. But if you don't give a darn what I write as long as I shut up, keep that to yourself. Vonna www.VonnaHarper.com p.s. Can I get away with a non Aphrodisia plug? On Tues, my first and so far only Samhain book BloodHunter comes out. And yeah, it has bondage running through it along with time travel and shape shifting and the sexiest jaguar on the planet.
Posted by Vonna Harper ::
12:47 PM ::
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