I write Sci-Fi and Fantasy, plain and simple, have done since I was a teenager. My wife writes erotica. We tend to not write each others genre, but we do give each other help and advice, beta reading and checking for those silly mistakes one can make when writing. It works well and means we read outside of our respective genres. We attend writers conferences together, I’ll head to events such as Eroticon and some of the “Smut” events in the north of England to support and also learn a lot – there is a so much crossover and ideas to improve writing when you start crossing genres, and we also attend more general writing conventions together (Nine Worlds in London in previous years and When Worlds Collide in Calgary this coming August). No matter what type of even you attend the people are always awesome and we have yet to meet someone we didn’t get on with.

While we were on holiday a couple of years ago she was struggling to get a submission done, it was an erotic fantasy call. Without saying a word while she tapped away at her laptop, I sat quietly in the corner, glass of wine to elbow and I too started typing. I managed to get a few thousand words written and then edited, this is my only piece of erotic fiction, and it may or may not be my last (edit – I’ve written a few bits to play about with ideas but nothing else of this length). I really enjoyed the getting out of the norm from which I normally write, and will let me potentially take some of this into my mainstay of work.

On an impulse we submitted it along with the piece she had done, and much to her horror and disbelief mine was accepted almost instantly, while they took a week or so for hers.

The good news is I am a published author, just not in the genre I normally write in and with a nom de plume.

So my message to anyone writing, try things out side of your norm, you never know what’s going to happen – and you may enjoy it, you’ll certainly improve your writing by doing so.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WTI25W2