Why Rachel Kincaid Writes Challenging Erotica

It’s my pleasure to welcome Rachel Kincaid to A Hopeful Romantic, knowing that anywhere romantic is probably not where you’d normally find Rachel, but I loved her piece, Second Chance, which she read at Smut by the Sea,  and knowing that it was uncharactoristic of what she typically writes, I asked her if she would be my guest and talk a bit about why she writes ‘challenging’ erotica. Welcome, Rachel! It’s such a pleasure to have you here!

I met KD Grace at Eroticon 2013 in London when she ran a wonderful session about finessing a sex scene. I then met her again at Smut by the Sea and like all nervous writers we were twittering about what we were going to read and comparing plots. Everyone was surprised when I said that I was going to be reading a lovely little premature ejaculation story. It appeared incongruent. How can you have ‘nice’ and ‘premature ejaculation’ in the same sentence? I also stated that I had written a nice little necrophilia story but that the host had asked me to err on the side of caution. I really struggled with this, I don’t naturally do caution or toned down stuff so ‘Second Chance’ was it.

Rachel KincadeIMG_20130630_055146I have been writing non-fiction stuff for years so when I first forayed into the world of fiction I cast my mind around for things that I wanted to read. Remittance Girl wrote a wonderful piece about a writers first love, our reader, and how initially that is ourselves and that over time it progresses to a style where we have a ‘map’ of what our readers/fans want from our work. My own reading is very varied. I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan because you can re-read all of his books and find new things in them. That is what I love about it and what I aspire to do, to write a book that stands up to being read more than once. It is why Dan Brown and EL James gets such a slating. They write tomes that are discarded because they offer something insubstantial, disposable. I love Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected, I like trying to work out what is going to happen next and who dunnit. Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwells 1984, Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale all challenge me and leave tendrils of their plots lingering in my conscience.

So here I am; a well educated, well read (ish) woman writing erotica. Writing any genre well you need to read a lot of it. I have read right across the landscape from soft and gentle romance to porn and through to erotic horror. I found that I instantly forgot the fluff, I don’t recall the plots or the authors (unless they are really bad). I’m not knocking the softer stuff, I have read enough of it, but it does not float my boat and nor is it usually well written. The work that I recall is not necessarily the stuff that I would do with a sexual partner, it might be too extreme, or full of pathos, or heart breaking sadness.  Erotica, for me, is about escapism, this may not be into something soft and fluffy, it may be dystopian horror or an excellent flogging BDSM scene. Talking to my fellow writers and readers these are the plots that they remember too. Ask any writer all they want is for their stuff to be read…and remembered, this is why I try to write something ‘different’.

Now being different is dangerous. I run the risk of not being published, that I will turn the reader off and alienate them, of people asking me to tone down so that I ‘fit in’. I don’t fit in and that is what people like, they like edgy and different. Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, Oasis (before all the terrible cocaine choices they made), Andy Warhole, Marquis De Sade, Margaret Thatcher (subliminal messaging about me putting her next to Sade? Maybe), Lawrence of Arabia, Mary Shelly. All of these people are ‘different’ in their own ways and are loved or remembered because of it not in-spite of it.

In my mind stories should be about escaping into something where we do not normally go. In addition to this if I am writing something about places where people have not gone, I have a responsibility to educate too, to give the correct information; something EL James epically failed at. As did, in my opinion, Pauline Reage in her classic Story of O, the anal training is written by someone who has not experienced it or understands the bio-mechanical elements of what she had written, although she does eloquently explore the emotional state. I care about my reader, I want to take them down the rabbit hole, to show them how far it goes, excite them, turn them on, thrill them, scare them. I often tweet that I am mean to them too because I dump them in the middle of a plot and as soon as they get their bearings I whip the legs out from under them. I can always see where the line is, and I always cross it; life is more fun that way. Nice and nasty? No, not really. I am a firm believer in that people have a lot more intelligence than they give themselves credit for. I do not believe in dumbing down. It is like those well crafted documentaries e. g. Wonders of the Solar System, that get across difficult concepts without alienating anyone. There is no need to over simplify things. Sex is not simple, it never has been and never will be, so why make it so? In all of my writing if I pitch it right, then the very smart ones are not bored, the less intellectually gifted can keep up and then the mainstream are in for a treat too.

Once I started to write, or think about writing, outside the usual boy meets girl, girl is tempted away by the ‘bad’ man but goes back for the ‘good’ boy. Oh shoot me now! Dull as ditchwater. Why can’t she marry the nice boy and have great hot wild sex with the bad man and then possibly have even hotter sex with both of them…at the same time. Now that is much more interesting.

To expand it even further (because you can always go further), sex does not just happen to young and nubile people. Some of the best sex I have had is after my body is covered in stretch marks, with wobbley bottomed cellulite and there was probably a fanny fart thrown in there for good measure. So if this is when I have enjoyed sex the most, why not write for that audience too? I don’t want to stop having wild sex until the day that I die, at about 100 should do, preferably no sooner.

Combining all of this opens up so many opportunities and challenges for me as a writer and communicator. Today I am releasing my first piece of writing with Naughty Night’s Press called Just Let Go. Very exciting. As is my want, it is not a traditional erotic story; no one orgasms, there is not sex in the traditional sense but I guarantee you that it is exciting and sexy and erotic. A challenge to write? Yes. A challenge to read? No, because it will whisk you along and take you somewhere special. After you read it you will remember it (I hope) and it should stand up to being read more than once.

So here I am, a new erotica writer, daring to be different, daring to stand out from the crowd, taking a gamble and being prepared to fail. Want to come with me on this ride?

Just Let Gohttp://naughtynightspress.com/nnpstore2/index.php?main_page=product_info&Rachel Kincaia storyAReNHSJUSTLETGORachelKincaidcPath=5&products_id=96

How do you get a charismatic and professional dynamo in a high-powered profession to let go a little?
You tie her up and keep her guessing.

Catherine rushes home for a date with her husband and Dom, and what follows is an adventure in sensory deprivation, bondage, and the magic that can happen when both Dom and sub have needs and gifts that fit so well together.

How does Catherine manage to keep it all together? What does it take to get a woman accustomed to command to surrender?

And how far does her Dom go to get her there?

Excerpt from Just Let Go:

 “Tonight.

That was all the text stated. Her mind emptied of all the meetings and reports and detritus of office life that crammed into her head. It was as though someone had jump-started her heart because it leapt out of her throat. Catherine ran her tongue around her dry mouth and over her teeth, making strange semi circles with its tip. She wondered what he would be up to, what he would have planned for her. Rubbing her fingers over her lips, she sat there in contemplation.

Catherine had everything. She was pretty, smart, witty, friendly, with a high-powered job; she had it all. In fact she was very happy with her life, particularly at this moment.

At that instant Tina entered. “Just some more letters for you to sign and I…” She halted midsentence and stared boggleeyed at Catherine before gathering herself; “Oooh, you look like the cat who got the cream. What are you up to?”

Coughing, covering up the moment required to try and pull her thoughts together, Catherine stated bluntly, “Nothing.” It was complete failure trying to maintain any semblance of decorum around Tina.

“I know a smirk when I see one. What are you planning?”

Catherine looked Tina squarely in the eye like her father had taught her during all business meetings. “It was just a text,” she said with all the haughtiness she could muster.

Snorting, Tina exclaimed, “Just a text, my arse! You are on a promise. It looks like sex for you tonight, m’lady.”

Find Rachel Kincaid Here:

Rachel Kincaid blog http://rachelkincaid4.blogspot.co.uk/

About Rachel Kincaid

Rachel Kincaid is a professional woman who thinks and writes about sex a lot. She Is a firm believer that erotica should not just be about the young a nubile, nor should it be dull and uninteresting. Her writing frequently covers taboo topics in new and interesting ways, thishas earned her a cult following across the globe.