Every writer tends to have their favorite topics and themes, their favorite genre or sub-genre. They might go for years simply writing in one place or continuing a series of books to the exclusion of all else. This is very common, and rather than buying into the view 'Write what you know', I prefer to tell people 'Write what you love'. If we were to limit ourselves only to the topics we have personal knowledge of, I think fiction would suffer. Instead, it's important to just write what you love and explore different topics that you love.
My co-author, S.L. Armstrong, and I love researching new topics and being inspired by a broad range of themes in erotic romance. Ever since we started writing together, we've focused on gay (M/M) erotic romance, because we both love to read and write men falling in love, overcoming obstacles, and finding fulfillment with one another. We've always had a soft spot for paranormal and BDSM themes as well, so we love writing vampires/immortals and exploring different facets of BDSM. Heck, it was a love of both that led to the idea behind
Catalyst, which follows the romance between a man with a blood fetish and his psychologist.
Despite our natural tendency to stay in our comfort zones, S.L. and I are always keen to push our boundaries. Because of that, we plan on moving beyond writing exclusively gay fiction (with the occasional dip into lesbian pairings). One of our current writing projects involves Lilith and Cain (of biblical fame), and it will be our first official foray into mainstream M/F erotic romance. We're really excited about the novella trilogy, which will follow Cain and Lilith from shortly after the murder of Abel to modern day London!
In addition to our M/F pursuits, we're also pushing ourselves to showcase more bisexual, trans*, and polyamorous fiction over the next couple years. We pride ourselves on keeping inventive, and sometimes inventive means moving beyond the comfort of M/M erotic romance. Bisexual men and women tend to be sorely under-represented in GLBT erotica beyond the familiar tropes of the 'hot bi chick' and 'one-time ménage', so that's definitely a corner of the market that S.L. and I would love to help expand. The same goes for trans* fiction, which may have a smaller market but is just as important to the spectrum of sexuality and identity.
For both our writing and our management of Storm Moon Press, we strive to find the themes in erotic romance of which we would love to see more, and then write what we wish were there for us to read! While we have plenty on our creative plates for the next few years, with everything from contemporary western to high fantasy to polyamory romance, Storm Moon Press has
several anthology calls for all flavors of GLBT erotica and erotic romance, along with
open calls for longer pieces with specific themes! Our new imprint,
Wild Moon Books, will also be launching in January 2012 for mainstream erotic romance titles, so keep an eye on us these next few months!
We hope that our submission calls spark ideas for you writers and pique your interest as readers! Be it mainstream M/F or the LBT part of GLBT, Storm Moon Press is taking it up a notch and providing you with something that goes beyond the ordinary and beyond the M/M erotic fiction we specialize in!
Where you can find K. Piet:
Website:
http://www.kpiet.net/
Twitter: @k_piet
Publisher:
http://www.stormmoonpress.com/ and
http://www.wildmoonbooks.com/
