Welcome to Rita’s Bower where readers gather to meet our favorite or soon-to-be favorite authors while sipping delicious drinks and savoring decadent treats. Serve yourself a plate and drink, settle back in a comfortable chair, prop up your feet, and welcome our guest author, Victoria Blisse.
Victoria has dropped by to visit with us from her home in Britain. She is an award-winning author and editor of erotic romance and erotica who has several series to her credit, as well novels, novellas, and short stories. We’ll try to keep our interview at a two-flame heat level but fans are provided for our guests in case the room heats up a tad.
Welcome, Victoria. For a start, tell us about yourself.
Hi there, thanks for having me to visit. So, what do you need to know about me? Well I write, a lot and it always gets sexy, I don’t know, maybe I’ve just got a dirty mind! When I’m not writing I love to bake and I’m glad to report people actually enjoy eating the sweet treats I make too. I sing and I dance, both badly but with great enthusiasm and I love chatting be it in real life or over the internet. I’m a very chatty kind of person.
Chatty and very accomplished! Author, editor, entrepreneur, and marketing maven extraordinaire. I counted over forty books to your credit. How do you find the time to do it all?
I don’t sleep. Oh, if only that were true, what I could achieve if that were the case!
I wish I could tell you I have it all planned and I take it all in my stride but I really don’t. I often say the reason I get anything done is that I’ll be procrastinating over something else. So Housework gets done if I’m suffering a block and writing happens when I’m avoiding cleaning the oven. I’ll read some stories for my next anthology when I should be writing blogs and I’ll write blogs when I should be shoe shopping.
And I am blessed with an awesome husband who does all my techy work for me. I’d be lost without him.
Having a supportive husband is always a plus, especially one that can help out with the tech while you work on other things. I love your tag line – Award Winning Rosy, Raunchy Romance Author! How important is a tag line to an author and how did you come up with yours?
A tagline is important, it lets people know all about you in just a few words. I came up with that line when I got my first story published back in 2006. It was Just Rosy, Raunchy Romance back then but I’ve managed to add in Award Winning now.
It goes with my Author logo, which is a gorgeous purple rose in a vase made from a pen nib (cute, eh?) and I hope it conveys that my work is both sexy and light-hearted. I’m told I have a rosy personality, I hope it comes through in my work.
That purple rose is so cleverly done, especially for an author of erotica and erotic romance. Could you distinguish between erotica and erotic romance and the different heat levels for our readers who are not familiar with the genre?
Okay, so basically erotica focuses in on the sexual act, erotic romance is more about the relationship between the 2 (or more) characters. I write mostly erotic romance because I am a fan of the happily ever after.
Heat levels are a basic indication of just how much sex is in a story and how explicit that is. So a low heat level will have less sexual acts described with less graphic language than a high heat level story. I write towards the spicier end of things but I rarely write the highest heat levels. I may venture into areas of kink and fetish, like spanking for example, but I do not take it to extremes. I do use explicit language though, but only where I deem it necessary. I hope this helps!
You write both erotica and erotic romance, but you are feel strongly enough about your faith to include it on the front page of your website. How do you keep the two in balance?
This is a question I get asked a lot. It can be a struggle at times, but I suppose that goes for any job and any faith, though. I just try my best. I feel that God isn’t anti-sex and so I don’t feel bad about what I write, in fact, quite the opposite. I feel I’ve been called to write what I do. I’ve got a post on my blog which goes into more detail if people are interested in that here
In your most recent release, Literally Bitten, vampires and sex abound. Without giving away too much, tell us about your latest.
Whenever I talk about Literally Bitten I introduce it as Vampire loving in a book shop, I think that sums it up quite well. Lily owns a book shop and has a puritanical father who hates everything that’s vaguely fun and especially hates vampires. Tom is a shy young man who finally plucks up the courage to talk to the woman he’s admired from afar, Lily, the book shop owner. They both hide big secrets and Literally Bitten is all about these secrets being revealed and how that affects the people in their lives, especially Lily’s dad and the cult he’s a member of called Purity.
Literally Bitten is a Rubenesque erotic romance, a subgenre that is increasing in popularity. What kind of feedback do you receive from your readers and publishers on your Rubenesque novels?
I always write Rubenesque because, as that Mika song says, Big Girls are beautiful. My readers are very positive about my curvy characters, as are my publishers. In fact, I’ve been asked very specifically to send Rubenesque stories to Xcite for their Ultimate Curves collection.
I firmly believe variety is the spice of life and I like to portray sexy girls with curves to balance out all those thin, stick like heroines I’ve read about in so many romance books over the years.
Looks like the sales data supports your view. What are you writing now?
I am writing a novel called Sharing Nicely. I’m about thirty thousand words in. In brief it’s about two hot billionaires, Greg and Darren and Kerry, the woman they fall in love with. She gets them to share her one night but then she dates them both separately for a while until she realizes a decision has to be made. But it’s not as simple as picking one and living happily ever after. Both billionaires are very driven men and neither of them wants to admit defeat so what lengths will Darren, the rejected man, go to in order to get Kerry back? I’m having great fun writing this story, it was only meant to be short but I just can’t seem to stop writing it!
One of your upcoming projects is an event called Smut by the Sea. Could you tell us a little about it?
Yes, Smut by the Sea is happening on the 22nd June this year and is being held at Scarborough Library. Scarborough is a little seaside town on the East coast of Britain and it’s a place I’ve loved since I was a child.
The event is a day for readers and authors and those who are simply curious about erotica and erotic romance. We’re going to have an erotic marketplace with books and toys and other sexy things on sale as well as regular readings throughout the day from erotic authors. The day time event is completely free but in the evening we’re having a huge launch party for the Smut by the Sea Anthologies and we’re charging for all that fun, champagne, nibbles and the sexy swag bag everyone will receive. Tickets are just £10 and available here
This is the first ever event of its kind in the UK and it’s certainly the first I’ve ever organized. I’m glad I’ve got my hubby to help me with it all and I can’t wait for June to get here so I can party with so many brilliant people.
I noticed that you are one of the authors scheduled to read at the event? Have you ever read erotica to an audience? How did you pull it off?
I have read erotica to an audience before, a few times actually. My first experience was at Leeds Erotica back in 2008 and although I was really nervous I enjoyed it immensely. Since then I’ve done a few different readings at Sh! Womenstore In London and a reading at London Erotica two years ago.
I love reading aloud and so I just go for it. I think it’s important to pick your excerpt in advance and practice reading it a time or two, just to check the length and how it sounds but there’s no trick to reading. Just put as much life into it as you can manage and concentrate on the words on the page.
It is a real treat to get such an immediate reaction to your work, I love it when people laugh at the funny bits, it means I’m doing it right.
I enjoyed the humor sprinkled throughout your books, so entertaining. Your website is both entertaining and comprehensive. Well worth a visit, dear readers. It has all the usual bells and whistles but also includes fun features like recipes and loads of free reads.
Thank you very much, I have to say a lot of the credit should go to my husband, Kev Mitnik, who keeps the site going. I update my blog and he does absolutely everything else, he’s my rock.
You certainly keep it interesting. Where can we find out more about you and your writing?
Facebook | Twitter
Thank you, Victoria, for visiting.
Thank you for having me over, I’ve had a lovely time. I hope to see you all around the web in my travels!
Drop by again any time. The door to Rita’s Bower is always open to authors and readers who appreciate happily-ever-afters.
Happy reading, dear readers, until our next visit,
