Happy Friday!
Please welcome Emily L. Byrne.
Hot Women, Cybertentacles and Everything
I still get asked why I write (and now publish) erotica. It’s generally not an innocuous question. The questioner’s tone is often dismissive and contemptuous. And since I write and publish in other genres and subgenres, obviously those books and stories must be “better” work, more worthy of attention than any writing about sex and love or lust can possibly be. Why not move on and attempt to write the great American novel instead of all that sexy stuff?
Why indeed? I didn’t start writing fiction at all until I was in my early thirties. But I started writing erotic fiction about hot women almost immediately after that. My initial impulse was competitive: I wanted to write stories that were better than what I was reading. Once I got past that, I wanted to play with ideas, settings, plots and characters in different ways than I was doing with my other writing. And, as a lifelong science fiction and fantasy fan, I wanted to take things outside the realm of ordinary life: outer space, vampires, fairy tale settings, as well as more mundane crushes and desires. The glorious thing about writing erotica is that there is so much to play with as a writer.
And of course, there’s the closely related question, one that gets asked less often: why write about sex between women? Writing spicy tales about hot guys or het alpha males pays better and has a bigger audience, certainly. But apart from the financial aspect, this has always struck me as a silly question. Women are fascinating, complicated and hot. Who wouldn’t want to write and read about them? Add science fiction or fantasy or some Gothic horror to the mix, and you’ve got my full attention!
But aside from my personal enthusiasms, one of the things that I like about writing erotica is that sex scenes can be used to express such a wide range of character emotions and development. They can tell an entire story, if you do them right: love, lust, distrust, trust and a nuanced and lively bundle of other emotions and experiences, all told in ways that pull a reader in and get her juices flowing. Why wouldn’t I want to tackle that kind of writing challenge?
So there we have the building blocks for Medusa’s Touch, my first novel written as Emily L. Byrne. While my erotic short fiction collections Knife’s Edge and Desire include some science fictional or fantastical tales, Medusa is my first novel length science fiction romance. It’s got elements of cyberpunk and space opera, women who fly spaceships with the speed of their thoughts, relayed through implants wired into their skulls, nanobots, Virtual Realty, exotic intoxicating substances and all kinds of tech. The story is set in the far future, in a universe where faster than light travel has been achieved and large corporations run the show. Medusa pilot TiCara X273 has been lusting after cabaret singer turned corporate rep Sherin Khan for so long that she can’t remember how it started. Sherin’s boss wants to hire TiCara for a job and from there on out, it’s all about desire and longing and distrust and adventure and the possibility of recovering enough from the damage of your past to actually fall in love.
Also tentacles, because they’re half the fun of writing a science fictional romance with sex scenes.
MEDUSA’S TOUCH
Medusa Pilot Captain TiCara X273, ex-street kid and former bondslave, thought she wanted nothing more than to be captain of her own starship. Or, at least, that was all that she thought she wanted until Sherin Khan came back into her life. A bar singer turned corporate rep, Sherin is now working for Ser Trin Vahn, one of TiCara’s best clients and head of Vahn Corp.
Once they are thrown together on TiCara’s ship, TiCara and Sherin can no longer deny their simmering attraction to each other. A simple mission to transport the ailing Vahn to the legendary asteroid, Electra 12, for medical treatments turns dark and dangerous as betrayal leads to betrayal. TiCara’s greatest enemy is pursuing them, there’s a traitor on her crew and Sherin has a secret that can tear them apart. Can they learn to trust each other before it’s too late?
“Emily L. Byrne’s Medusa’s Touch draws the reader deeply into her deftly created universe of starships and danger and conflict, with a fascinating main character who is entirely relatable even while she pilots her ship by means of hi-tech tentacle implants. Whether she feels the exultation of being at one with her ship amidst “the splendor of the starfields,” or the ecstasy of sex with the beautiful, mysterious woman she can’t entirely trust, we feel it all with her, and gladly follow her through inner turmoil and blood-stirring battle.” – Sacchi Green, Editor of Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Emily L. Byrne’s stories have appeared in such venues as Forbidden Fruit, Best Lesbian Erotica 20th Anniversary Edition, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms and Blood in the Rain 3. She is the author of Medusa’s Touch, Knife’s Edge: Kinky Lesbian Erotica and Desire: Sensual Lesbian Erotica.
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