After 12 years in the business, I have come to one overwhelming conclusion – this really is weird way to make a living!
For example…
In 2013, I was at the big Erotica event in London. I was stood in a large show hall surrounded by semi clad folk modelling bondage equipment, looking at the latest line in metal cock harnesses, and wondering how much head room there really was in a human kennel- and no one was batting an eyelid. At what point in my life did this become normal? And how fantastic that it was so- well, ordinary (I say this in a good way)!!
Sex is fun. An overly simplistic sentence; but so true. And there I was, surrounded by people who are dedicating their entire careers to ensuring that it stays that way- that sex gets better- that every living person has the chance to have a better erotic experience; be they straight, gay, lesbian, large, small, able bodied, disabled, and so on… No one is excluded. The playing field is open and fair, and the air feels full of openness- how sad that an industry dedicated to make people feel good and happy, is so often shut behind closed doors. Anyway…
For example…
…there I was at the ETO show 2014, eating lube flavoured ice cream with my fellow Brit Babes ice cream (I went for lemon and peach lube on mine- DELICIOUS- something I wouldn’t normally say about lube). And then I was back again this year, sipping lube flavoured cocktails…
Vodka and Lube cocktails thanks to Systems-JO!!
Now I’ve started to think about all the other things I’ve done, and all the things I’ve seen, that I’d never have experienced if I wrote any other genre but erotica., my head is full of memories- all of them extraordinary.
If I wrote horror stories, I’d never have been invited to the wonderful Sh Woman’s Store, to stand around tables of vibrators, reading passages from The Perfect Submissive or Not Her Type. I would never have been picked up by a nice young man from Vanity Studios in London (not as dodgy as it sounds) to do a photo shoot in Soho- which lead to another one the following year.
There would have been no trip to Erotica 2013, to sell my books to some of the friendliest people in the world- many of whom had forgotten to put all of their clothes on…There would be no Brit Babes, and there would be no Brit Babe team cheering us all on- unthinkable!!
I’d never have visited the ETO shows, or been nominated for an award or three- I’m still amazed I won one!
If I didn’t write erotica, perhaps I wouldn’t look at any and every object around me and automatically change it into some sort of sex toy- without even registering I’m doing it. (At the moment it’s chocolate covered coffee beans- you’ll see in time!!) Perhaps everyone I speak to wouldn’t take each innocent sentence I say as an innuendo? I certainly wouldn’t be teaching classes on how to sex up the supermarket!!
I’m as sure as I can be that I wouldn’t get to stand in a public building and spank people, as I did At Smut by the Sea in Scarborough if I wrote sci-fi!
I know for a fact that if I hadn’t spent the last dozen years in erotica my life wouldn’t be so full or so friendly. Okay, I get a few negative comments, and I could do without the occasional bit of stalker stuff, but WOW- it’s SO much fun!
It might well be a weird way to make a living- but it makes people happy. I’m not sure I’d have been able to say that if I had stuck with my very first job – working in a Welsh Hat factory….
Happy reading,
Kay xx