Stay in touch with Katie:
WebsiteGoodreads
Mailing list
What is your story's heat level? How do you approach the sex
scenes?
Most of my stories are pretty steamy. I don't really buy into the “fade to black” thing. That said, some are steamier than others, and all of them are more in the vein of erotic romance than hardcore erotica. I've even done some stuff that didn't have actual sex scenes- just a lot of hot teasing. It shocked me at the time.
Most of my stories are pretty steamy. I don't really buy into the “fade to black” thing. That said, some are steamier than others, and all of them are more in the vein of erotic romance than hardcore erotica. I've even done some stuff that didn't have actual sex scenes- just a lot of hot teasing. It shocked me at the time.
Our sex lives are a part of who we are, and not standalone from
anything else. So in that sense, I try to write sex that needs to be in
the story for some part of those characters' journeys. The most difficult sex
scenes to write are the ones where that core is either repetitive with earlier
ones, or where they just don't have the emotional core. Even a character deciding
to go home with a stranger in a bar needs the same care in building it up that
the unrequited love finally requited has. Know why we laugh at the “you tripped
and fell on his ****” excuse? Because sex doesn't just happen.
How do you maintain activity as a writer when sitting at a desk all day?
To be honest, I'm not a great person for this question. I write full time, and have some health issues that restrict my activities. I'm an avid poledancing lover, and former classical dancer, so most of my activity is stretches, or dancing related. I can't stand gyms, can't stand feeling like a hamster running in a wheel. Suffice to say, I'm not a good example of a healthy work/exercise balance.
What is it that you loved about the main characters in your story?
Cora and Kirk are free spirits. They both decided to go into a line of work with huge effects on their life. Not very many women are thrilled about their boyfriend working at a topless bar, and being around so many other scantily clad women. And conversely, even fewer men are okay with their girl strutting her stuff onstage, and in private dances. Both of them are brave, in their own ways. Plus, I'm a sucker for a guy who can talk music.
What do you feel is your strongest type of writing? Humor? Angst? Confrontation scenes? Action? Sex? Sensuality? Sweet Romance? And why?
I'm not an intuitive writer- still kind of figuring this out as I
go. I've definitely decided I prefer 1st person PoV. So long as I'm
writing that style, I can write almost any genre. I love noir-ish overtones,
underworld elements, and I have a lot of empathy for sex workers, survivors,
those coping with mental illness or poverty. And I definitely have a character
type that I identify with more strongly. I jokingly call them “lost boys”, even
though many of them are girls. They're broken, oftentimes barely likeable, and
generally have a lot of work to do on themselves to earn a happily-ever-after.
I'm also a sucker for awkwardly sexual moments. One of my first
published stories, as part of Michelle Browne's “Cult Classics For The Modern
Cult”, was a noir sendoff of Cthulhu as a mobster, and featured a sex scene
between the private investigator, and Cthulhu's femme fatale wife. Not tentacle
sex in the hentai way, but definitely a strange thing to write. And the
inspiration for that one was almost entirely the sentence “She had tentacles in all the
right places.” I still snicker at it, just repeating it.
As far as my favorite part of the story to write? Beginnings. I
love crafting the first few paragraphs, trying to find something that can
communicate the story's themes and intentions from the very beginning.
Here's a few of my favorites.
“Every time I wore stripper heels, I thought of my pointe shoes,
and the weightless feeling that came poised at the tip of an arabesque,
bound to the Earth by the edge of a toenail and some paste-stiffened fabric.
Every time I put on heels, I felt disappointment and betrayal.
I couldn't even talk to my family
anymore. My mom hadn't treated me the same since my injury cost me my spot. For
my part, I couldn't help but resent her. When the depression took hold, I
wished that I had grown up normally. My entire life had been ballet, with a
little jazz and modern thrown in 'to show my versatility.' Nothing else—not
sex, not love, not teaching, not book-learning—had ever given me the same pride
of achievement I felt onstage. I’d had steps in my head and the narrative in my
heart, and my only true friend was the soreness in my limbs, or the danseur
steadying me into a penchee.
I was twenty-four, but for all
intents, my life was over.
I must have seen fifty new dancers
in the Queen of Clubs all grow and preen under the kind of glowing attention
that few women are offered. I must have seen fifty new dancers become confident,
powerful women.
But I wasn't one of
them.”
Queen of Clubs: Malia,
now available.
“It's unsettling, seeing through the eyes of a
corpse. I've never been to Ann Arbor, Michigan before, but the body I'm in must
have lived here his whole life. It's burned into his DNA, along with a few
scattered remnants of his grandmother's childhood abuse.
I
take a deep breath, try to clear the new corpse smell from my lungs. My mouth
still tastes like vomit; my meatsuit died of an overdose. The waitress has been
great about keeping my glass full, but the water can't wash away the
aftertaste, and she keeps shooting me anxious glances. I can't blame her- I
don't doubt I look like I've gone to hell and back.
Mind
you, that's not terribly far off. I just call there 'home' now.”
That's
the opening for Reaper, Inkubus book 3, coming soon. I'm publishing this series
as K. de Long, since it's pretty significantly different than my contemporary
romances and romantic thrillers. Dark, steamy urban fantasy, but not really
romance.
“I know they call me 'steamroller Barbie'
behind my back. Lia, and some of the other oldtimers, think I'm too focused and
pushy, that I take any personal connection out of my work. But they forget that
not everyone wants that connection, and if they did, they wouldn't find it in a
strip club anyways, no matter how personal the attention offered. Some
men genuinely do want the closest a person can get to a living sex doll, rather
than the 'hippie sex goddess' image that lets the girls sleep at night. Or even
the 'trained sexual athlete' ego boost the pole dancers use. Fucking waste of
time, that. Why risk injury the way they do, praying they don't fall through a
hole as they jump into in their safety net- assuming they wove one ahead of
time- between those expensive luxuries they carry into the clubs like a sign of
success, and their give-em-everything-for-free hustles? At least professional
athletes get well paid for the lack of job security, and the short term career.
It's a career, and
not a great one at that. But I promised myself young that I'd come out ahead,
and so far, a series of rotating CDs and investments have borne me out. Each
long work week now is another month closer to a well-paid retirement. And it's
hard not to smirk, imagining the girls whispering about my car salesman tactics
thirty years from now, likely with not a damn thing to show for their lives,
and no way to pay for their futures.
No matter how long
they dance, this industry is shifting, and it's only a matter of time before
they know it, too. So many more girls, willing to dance, but not willing to
hustle for it, giving customers their time for free, competing with an
abundance of porn, webcam, other sexual entertainments that can offer so much more
than a real life club with drink minimums, and real life girls with boundaries
and hangups. The money's already begun drying up from the economy being in the
toilet for a decade, and I have to get every last bit I can out of it, before
it burns itself out. Fairly soon even the backwater clubs won't bring in enough
money to pay for their talent. As it is, they've already started slashing the
base pay they used to offer traveling dancers, to get them out to the bumfuck
oil fields.
I'm malleable. All my
life, I've been drop dead gorgeous, but never had any actual connection to my
body. So now, it's an investment. The boost my e-cups gave me has already paid
them off tenfold, and is more than worth the shitty comments from lingerie
salespeople. Really, people aren't any more shitty now than they were before.
Being pretty is always a double edged sword, and I choose to wield it, not just
be cut by it.”
Queen of Clubs:
Marina, coming soon- this April, according to plan.
Not a final edit of the text, but still an opening I love.
Are you social media savvy? If so what do you suggest for others? If not, why not
I hang out on Facebook. I tweet sometimes, review on my site
and/or GoodReads sometimes- though only things that caught my attention
anyways. I don't take requests. I try to be active, to reach out to people, but
I wouldn't call myself savvy. I'm a bit introverted. In general, I dislike
Twitter's reporting mechanisms for harassment, FB's convoluted treatment of
privacy settings, villainization of businesses, as well as individuals who can't
use their birth names. I hope Ello and Tsu can get a foothold, or that
Twitter's buy options can present alternate purchasing methods to Amazon. But I
don't really pin hopes on that, or suggest it to people. And, knowing the
nature of the internet, I don't doubt we will see a new FB emerge. I
just dislike social media's current fragmentation. I don't want to neglect
people, but I can only be so many places at once.
My best advice is to try to pick at least one channel you
do well. If you love blogging, focus on interacting there and creating new
content. If you get Facebook intuitively, and can't write a compelling
tweet to save your life, don't let your Twitter time cut into
your FB time.
What are some things from your life or things you have observed that you've infused into your stories?
A lot, actually. It's very fragmented since I split my time
between so many characters. But I've been lucky- or cursed- enough to have a
lot of interesting experiences, and be befriended by a lot of interesting
people. I've lived several places, had some fairly harrowing experiences, and
learned a lot of random skills. I'm an almost unhealthily empathetic
person, so I've internalized quite a lot from the world around me. Queen of
Clubs draws heavily from my time in Portland's strip club scene, and even the
scene in a few other areas, as needed. It's fictionalized in some ways- for
instance, the QoC is a topless bar rather than full nude- to accommodate for
some other aspects of the setting. Since the series is largely set in LA, I had
to make that tweak to adjust for the local laws in LA, and their local scene.
But it already differs from that scene significantly, too.
There's one blanket dedication for the entire Queen of Clubs
series: For all the whores, sluts, and bad girls I've known who turned those
names into compliments. I think that sums up what I wanted to bring to my work:
realistic but romantic and erotic stories about the kinds of women who I've
seen largely left out of the genre.
If you had an unlimited budget, where would you like to visit for story-related research?
LA, obviously, since that's where the Queen of Clubs is located,
and is the epicenter of some of the other settings or industries I write about.
Also, it's warm. I like warm. I think I'm mostly lizard. I mean, I love travel,
and would visit wherever a story might take me, but LA kind of sounds like
heaven right now, faced with Portland rain and an extra long winter that
started early.
Any fun facts about the research for your book?
To be honest, the best you could say is I researched Queen of
Clubs backwards. I learned everything that would eventually be helpful in
crafting the club and stories long before I even considered myself a writer,
let alone conceived the series. By the time I got to the point of writing Queen
of Clubs, I had years of experiences to draw on. The extent of my research is
generally doublechecking the spelling on an album name or movie reference.
Okay, I take that back. I research the music quite heavily. Most
of it never makes it into the scene, copyright law related to lyrics being what
it is, and title/artist names largely just weigh things down. But I do put
together dancer playlists, figure out what each of my main characters would
have going in the background. These usually get posted to my website when the
story goes live, in case readers want to follow along.
Cora, for instance, likes somewhat slower music- a blend between R&B, downtempo electronic music, acoustic or bluesy rock, and trip hop. Malia, the star of the next episode, likes classic rock ballads, music with orchestral hooks in the arrangement, and wants her music as slow as the club will allow. You're not gonna catch either of them onstage to Nickelback. Not ever.
Finally, tell us a little about your newest release!
Well, I'm easily distracted, and produce a lot. I don't
hold myself to a firm release schedule, aside from a skeleton. February 16th,
the fourth Queen of Clubs novella will be out- Queen of Clubs: Krissy &
Athena. It's a bit different, as it follows a lesbian romance, rather than
a straight one. After that, in March, Queen of Clubs: Crystal will go
up.
But it's also highly possible that I'll have some new shorts
available in between all that. Maybe even a new standalone novel, depending on when
I can walk away from the revisions. I've been working on a handful of pieces
following our male leads before they enter the main story. They're fun to
write, and I hope they add something to the Queen of Clubs shared world for
readers, too.
When Queen of Clubs, Season One winds down around May, I'll also be launching two series following a few side characters introduced in that season. No release date for those, as yet, and their updates will go out in between more regular Queen of Clubs releases. I've got up through Queen of Clubs Season 3 well on the way toward finished, so those releases will be my most regimented. I aim to release things frequently enough that it's an ongoing conversation, not gathering for a holiday.
Blurb:
The exotic dancers
and employees of the Queen of Clubs walk a fine line, with only wits, beauty,
and market savvy to keep them from toppling into the shark pit. Ride shotgun
through lapdances, romance, and sexual awakenings. Don't worry, these girls
won't ask what your hands are doing under the tip rail.
Cora, an adventurous
student, finds herself auditioning for a stripping gig...and it comes with more
than the asking price, including a very attractive DJ.
Queen of Clubs
contains adult content, and is intended for mature readers. Each Queen of Clubs
title is a standalone novella length work.
Buy Cora:
Amazon
Amazon
Queen of Clubs is currently published monthly. Visit delongkatie.com for preorder and purchase links, or sign up for the mailing list, to be notified when new titles are available.
Excerpt:
I prayed the song wouldn't end. Would the next one jar me
out of this rhythm? Would I wake up and discover it was a dream, that I was
still the awkward college student I had to be the rest of the time? I slid the
straps of my bra off my shoulders and undid the catch, but hesitated to let it
fall away from me.
I looked toward Kirk and met his eyes. Fuck. He'd been
staring, a combination of lust, pride, and approval in the small smile on his
face. It reassured me, and against my better judgment, I grinned back.
Katie de Long will offer a signed paperback of Queen of Clubs: Cora and a pair of swag earrings to one randomly selected commenter and will offer a signed paperback of Queen of Clubs: Cora and a pair of swag earrings to a randomly drawn host (US only) during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for talking to me! It was a fun conversation.
ReplyDeletefun interview
ReplyDelete