KD: It’s my pleasure to welcome back Sweetmeats Press’s KoJo Black, who is preparing, along with us authors, for next Saturday’s deliciously nasty feast for the ears reading from Sweetmeats Press’s hot new feast for the eyes, Immoral Views. All happening at Sh! Portobello. More about that a little later. In the meantime, welcome back KoJo!

KD: As an editor and a writer of erotica, what makes for truly good erotica? What’s really sexy?

KoJo: Immersion.  I love that word.  And I think it’s so suitable for erotica.  In erotica of any kind, I think the ultimate aim is for the characters to become immersed in each other – both physically and metaphysically.  Furthermore, good erotica (and any good story, for that matter) should also immerse the reader within it.

KD: Is there a difference between porn and erotica? If so what? If not, why not?

KoJo: I think that the difference between ‘pornography’ and ‘erotica’ is purely semantic (rather than fundamental). You can have pornographic erotica, just as you can have erotic pornography.  It has become acceptable to say that women like erotica and men like porn. Whereas, if there is any difference between porn and erotica, I think it is more a question of how we access the triggers in our brains.

I believe it is true that, over the millions of years of our evolution, male and female brains are hardwired differently.  But I think the sensations and fulfillment that a woman takes from erotica are not entirely dissimilar from what a man takes from porn.  And, as such, I think that erotica with the right triggers could just as easily appeal to a man; just as porn with the right triggers could easily appeal to a woman.  Our mental programming is more fluid than we think.  So it’s very limiting to allow the definition of two words to dictate how we receive and enjoy sensual and sexual stimuli….regardless of our gender.

KD: Any predictions for the future of erotica?

KoJo: I don’t know what the future of erotica holds.  But if it’s as fun and free and as full of expression as it’s been so far, I only want more!

KD: What are your future plans for Sweetmeats Press?

KoJo: Well, first and foremost, I aim to continue whisking up hot, delectable erotic treats for some time to come.  Within that, Sweetmeats Press will diversify into sexy graphic novels, as well as providing a platform for our very talented erotic artists to showcase their work as independent pieces.  Aside from that, my time in erotic film has allowed me to meet some wonderful erotic performers – who have some equally wonderful tales to tell.  I aim to make their biographies part of the Sweetmeats title list.

KD: What’s the best advice you would give writers of hawt stuff?

KoJo: Over the years, as I’ve taken on writing, editing, and ultimately publishing, I’ve actually been able to give quite a lot of thought to what makes a story…..aheem…..‘hawt’.

Firstly, it’s important to remember that our biggest and best sexual organ is our brain.  You want to excite and entice your readers.  So absolutely make your story sexy.  But take time to create the story, build the lust, and put your reader into the space.  Once you’ve set the scene and enticed them in, your readers will be so much more receptive to all the sensual and sexual treats you lay on for them.  But if you go straight in to grating, grunting, grinding frottage, you run the risk of leaving your readers cold…..before they’ve even warmed up!

This of course does not mean that every story needs to kick off with a long-winded soliloquy.  Just take a moment to welcome your readers in before basting them in pure filth.  Perhaps think of your story as way of describing a film that’s playing in your head.  For example, if you show someone a repetitive video of some genitals slapping together, your viewer will become bored very quickly.  Whose genitals are they?  Why are they fucking?  Are they even enjoying themselves?

But if you take the time to develop your story, even just a little bit, you are suddenly bringing that film in your head to life.  From seductions to abductions; sensual solo pleasures to gloriously debauched gangbangs; boy-girl vanilla sex to the most piquant and depraved amalgamations you can imagine; from the most mundane of quickies to the forbidden lust of fairies and giants in mythical landscapes.  Take a moment to build your story.  Tell us, why do these people want each other?  Need each other?  How did they get there?  Engage the mind, and the flesh will follow!

Secondly, I find it helps to write with the voice that you know.  That is to say, tell the story from a perspective that is comfortable for you.  If you are, for example, a young straight woman, you may find it easier to write your story in the voice of a young, straight woman.  There is certainly nothing precluding you from telling your story from the perspective of a middle-aged, lesbian dominatrix.  But, before you do, make sure you can find that voice, make sure it’s accurate, and make sure you can believe it.  Because if you don’t believe it, we won’t either.

Third, don’t be afraid to get horny!  The first person your erotic story should turn on is you!  There’s nothing wrong with getting that delicious feeling of satisfaction down below as you tell your tale.  And if it’s working on you, there’s every chance it will have the same effect on someone else!

And finally – Read!  Not just erotica, but everything.  Look at how different people craft a story.  Figure out which writers you like, which writers you don’t, and why.  Borrow techniques.  Remember the stories that keep you gripped to the very end, page after page.  And see if you can’t put some of that tension, excitement and engagement into your own work.

Feast for the Eyes and Ears:

If you’d like to hear some of the hot erotica from the Immoral Views anthology read by the authors themselves, including yours truly  here’s your chance! Authors Kay Jaybee, Rebecca Bond, Lexie Bay, and K D Grace will be reading hot, voyeuristic smut from this fabulous anthology, their own, and that of Lucy Felthouse as well. Not to be missed!

Where: Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium, Portobello Store.

When: Saturday 21 January  6:30 for 7:00 pm start.

For more information: Sh! Portobello

Space is limited, RSVP soon!

KD: I recently had the pleasure of writing a story for the yummy new Sweetmeats anthology, Immoral Views. Immoral Views is not only a fabulous feast of voyeuristic erotica, but it’s even more of a treat for the eyes because it’s illustrated, very naughtily, by the talented Florian Meacci. Filthy stories with equally filthy illustrations are the brainchild of Sweetmeat Press’s captain of naughtiness, KoJo Black, who titillated me with so much delicious info in this interview that I’m only going to share the first half with you today. Come back Sunday for further titillation. Welcome, KoJo!

KD: What would you most like people to know about KoJo Black?

KoJo: Like anyone, I suppose, I have many guises.  But as an author and a publisher, I am most proud of being an immodest, unrepentant and dissolute eroticist.  Thinking about it more, I must be what the French would call a ‘gourmand’.  This word doesn’t quite carry into English, where it simply means ‘greedy’.  I prefer the French definition – that of a person who loves to taste, savour, indulge and immerse.  I find myself describing so many things as delicious – words, people, places, sensations, food, experiences.  And it is this idea of finding and promoting the excitement, the deliciousness, in all things (with a stout and proud thrust toward the carnal) that I try to bring the books I write and publish.

And it was that ideology that brought the ‘Sweetmeats’ name into being.  This idea of whisking up deliciously debauched erotic treats for people to savour and share – that was with me from the very start.

KD: What I’m dying to know, KoJo, is what inspired Sweetmeats Press, and how did it come to be?

KoJo: Sweetmeats actually began as a film production company.  And the ethos with which I produced the films has carried through into the books.  When I began making films, I wanted to offer something that was a cut above the average porn emporium.  I think the lack of sensuality and connection in the world of porn serves to highlight how many pornographers are completely disconnected from erotica.  I was firmly convinced that porn not only could be erotic, it MUST be erotic.  Even then, the moving picture started with the written word.  Sweetmeats Press has simply allowed me to re-indulge in the written word.  And, with a nod to the films, the Sweetmeats books are, as you know, beautifully illustrated.

Frankly, I think I’ve always been somewhat sex-obsessed.  And some of my earliest and most delightful sexual memories involve the spoken or written word.  As a youngster, I remember being forbidden from watching cable access television in my family home.  Of course, I would always try to access the restricted channels in the hope of capitalising on a lapse in regulation, and catching just the curve of a buttock, or the pucker of a nipple.  One evening, the picture was completely scrambled, but the sound was crystal clear.  The film featured a woman re-enacting lascivious acts during a phone call to her lover.  I couldn’t see a thing.  But the female voice, heavily baited with lust, along with my total inability to see what was happening, created a voyeuristic effect that was more exciting and erotic than the actual film.

At around the same time, erotic literature provided some of my earliest sexual arousal.  I remember, as a schoolboy, scuttling home with a contraband Penthouse magazine in my book bag, and letting the stories in the Forum give me hours of pleasure.  Then, slightly older, I remember being amazed and enthralled at the raw, sensual power of Anaïs Nin’s The Delta Of Venus, Henry Miller’s Sexus or The Story Of O.  Not only did I find the stories themselves extremely sexual and erotic, but I also reveled in the naughtiness of reading something so brazenly explicit — especially something written at a time when so much was forbidden and restricted.  So perhaps it was a childhood ambition to follow in the perverted footsteps of my heroes!

KD: Immoral Views is a collection of stories written around the theme of voyeurism. Do you consider yourself a voyeur? If so, do I dare ask for one of your ‘eye-sex’ encounters???

KoJo: I am a complete voyeur!  I’ve said in the intro to ‘Immoral Views’: “I like to watch people doing sexy things – sometimes to themselves, sometimes to each other.  And I know I’m not alone….”  I wasn’t just making that up.  It’s entirely true.  And it’s also true that I know I’m not the only one who likes to watch.  One struggles so hard to maintain an air of appropriate decorum throughout the day.  It is wonderful to slip into the pages of a book (either as a reader or a writer) and proudly raise one’s pennant of perversion!

In answer to your ‘eye-sex’ question, one incident does indeed stand out.  A few years ago, I was relaxing in a cliff-top bar on a small island in Thailand.  On the beach below, a beautiful woman was bathing in the sea.  And she was completely naked, save for the flimsiest little scrap of fabric on her bottom half.  When it comes to the human body, Thailand is a rather conservative place.  Thais aren’t even big on public displays of affection, so public near-nudity is a definite no-no.  But this woman was western, so perhaps she was unaware of the protocol.

In any event, the woman emerged from the sea like a siren, water cascading from her lithe, soft body as the sunlight glittered on her skin.  Her hair clung sleek and heavy even as she smoothed it back into place, and her bare breasts, round and proud in the warm saline air, moved gently as she walked.

For me, there was so much more to this moment than simply seeing a beautiful naked woman.  The fact that I could see her, but she could not see me.  I felt rude and intrusive, but I did not want to stop looking.  She was such a natural being, at one with her element.  And yet her quite innocent actions had the effect of filling me with the (equally natural) feelings of euphoria, longing and desire.  And then there was the unexpected, illicit thrill of seeing someone so naked and free in a place where nudity was generally considered to be unseemly.

Of course, shortly thereafter, I was joined by an obstinacy of my compatriots who immediately began jostling and competing for a better view.  Even at a distance, there is only so long a woman can ignore a veranda groaning under the weight of half a dozen geezers all trying to look inconspicuous.  She became self-conscious, covered her breasts, and withdrew to the shelter of the rocks.

But the moment in which it was just the two of us has stayed with me for a long time.  And the feeling of that moment ultimately inspired the story “Buoyancy,” published in the book “Sun Strokes”.

KD: Of the five senses, do you think the eyes really have it, as far as sex goes, or do you think one of the other five senses is the dark horse of sensual pleasure?

KoJo: The eyes, most often, are where the attraction begins.  They are where another person enters you for the first time.  But sex is so much more.  And all our glorious, firing, pulsing senses of touch, hearing, smell and taste all serve to turn that visual desire into unrepentant lust!

KD: KoJo will be back Sunday with Part 2 of this interview. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait!

Feast for the Eyes and Ears:

If you’d like to hear some of the hot erotica from the Immoral Views anthology read by the authors themselves, including yours truly  here’s your chance! Authors Kay Jaybee, Rebecca Bond, Lexie Bay, and K D Grace will be reading hot, voyeuristic smut from this fabulous anthology, their own, and that of Lucy Felthouse as well. Not to be missed!

Where: Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium, Portobello Store.

When: Saturday 21 January  6:30 for 7:00 pm start.

For more information: Sh! Portobello

Space is limited, RSVP soon!