WRITING EROTICA
T. Fox Dunham
A few days ago, Bitten Press sent me the contract to obtain
the rights to my novel, Professional Detachment or The Eternal. It is to be my
second published book. The second written is a horror still under
consideration, and the fourth is my book about the lost son of Andy Kaufman for
PMMP. The Eternal may be my first long erotica—though I’d call it more a
literary romance with erotic elements. I have sold erotica before, including a
popular story included in Cleius Press’ Big Book of Orgasms, now on the shelves
at Barnes and Nobles (That was a thrill.) Yes. My porn is on the shelves of a
major book store.
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| From Cleius Press |
)O(
Professional Detachment
or
The Eternal
by T. Fox Dunham
Soon Published by Bitten Press
Doctor Cindy Rosethorn is a young oncologist whose world
just ended. She married one of her professors at Johns Hopkins, and he
dominated her life—twice her age. He took a job at the Hospital of the
University of Penn, where he get her onto the oncology staff. After moving, he
decided to trade up for a younger model, a nurse, divorces Cindy and is now
looking for an excuse to fire her, constantly scrutinizing her actions. She has
no home. She’s living in her office, and she’s suffering an ulcer. He comes
around and terrorizes her.
She takes on a new patient, a young man full life named
Timothy Fox, who is suffering from lymphoma. His prognosis is poor. Timothy
reaches out to his new oncologist. He can’t tolerate the distance doctors
create between themselves and their patients. I understand this well, and as a
lymphoma patient at Penn, I labored to shatter that distance, to become friends
with my doctors. Timothy enchants her, brings her out, and she falls in love
with him. Now she suffers an ethical dilemma. She’s too close to her patient,
but she knows, though denies it, that they don’t have much time together. And
if her husband finds out about her relationship to Timothy, it’ll be enough to
destroy the last element of her life, her job.
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| The Cover for my new book |
Writing erotica came naturally to me. I wasn’t trying to
write a sex story. I just wrote a literary piece and spent a larger percentage
of narrative on the acts of sex. I wrote a literary romance with the same plot
capacity—conflict, character, growth of spirit—that I would on any fiction
piece. The theme or erotica, horror, science fiction plays secondary to the
main elements of fiction, and this is one of the reasons for my success. I’m a
literary author writing in genres. Character and conflict come first in my
crafting. If it so happens to be a demon or a lonely doctor, then that’s the
genre element. Hemingway, Salinger, Capote are my primary gods.
However, there is a tricky element to writing erotica. The
goal is to solicit the same biological and emotional reaction that the act of
arousal and even sex does in person. Sex itself is a completely mental act.
Physical arousal is just late stage and not always even necessary. Sex ravishes
the mind, and this is where I good storyteller can master the lust and the
love. With my words, I can take your body and mind to new heights of physical pleasure and
love that could not be possible with the body. I have practiced this in the
past by telling merely stories to previous partners with no physical contact
yet achieving climax. (That be a bit personal, but I’m making a point.) If one
of my previous partners is reading this and remembers what I did . . . Cheers. (And I know you miss it!)
It is a dance. Summoning sex in the mind with narration is a
sophisticated art and requires an understanding how the mind processes sex. A
careful and observant person, not completely self-absorbed, can learn this
process through watching and communication. It has different outcomes, but the
paradigm of mental sex I’ve found is quite often the same in humans.
Psychologists will tell you the same.
So how does one narrate arousal and sex without the element
of physical closeness, sans the body connection? Most of sex is about seeing,
tasting, listening, breathing? Some of the narrative is going to be reference
to the reader’s previous sex acts, what they’ve learned and experienced. Part
of the sexual response to the narrative is going to be a replay like dreams.
However, there is a plenty of room for new experiences also—the script to
fantasies. In good fiction, we become the characters. We feel what they feel,
so a conduit is already created.
Now, it’s a matter of ceremony, of arousal and buildup, just
like any plot or compelling scene. I gained much of experience while engaged in
long-distance relationships, employing chat to pursue mutual acts of making
love with a distant partner. Some of those experiences were more powerful than
the actual physical act. It is a buildup of need and even desperation. Both
partners are responsible for narrating their own bodies and how they interact
with your body. You respond and engage back, building a circuit, arousing the
other, building up those wonderful hormones. The narrative begins with the early
acts of arrosual, such as kissing, touching, removing of clothing. Descriptions
of the body then follow, taking the place of the eye. Other senses are replaced
by those words. This is vital to building the narrated sexual act. This is held
in the mind’s eye, and concrete details empower these lines. We describe the
response of our aroused bodies, quite different between men and women. We
proceed with foreplay then engage in an interactive act. Each side usually
takes turns, describing their actions and response. This builds, and there are
key code words to represent real corresponding elements such as climaxing.
Timing is vital.
This process can be best learned in engaging in line by line
cyber sex with an enthusiastic partner. This is where I learned the art, and
I’ve applied my literary passion and style to the narrative with great success.
Study and watch what your partner says, and hopefully they have some acumen.
Many steady relationships in the physical world depend on sort of role-played
sexual connection online with distant relations, so you will see many varieties
of prose employed.
The book will be out soon, and I hope you’ll yield something
I wish I knew at the time of writing an erotica: don’t write erotica in a
public place like a coffee house. Your own erotica should be stimulating you,
and it can become obvious.
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Bitten Press: http://www.bitten-press.com/
Bitten Press Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bitten.press?fref=ts
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THE STREET MARTYR NOW AVAILABLE FOR KINDLE
& SOON
BOOK STORIES AND ONLINE FOR PRINT EDITION
After much gnawing and gnashing of teeth, we my editor defeated our distributor and discovered what the delay with the release of the Street Martyr. I am relieved to announce that it is now available for download on kindle and will soon be available online and through book stores as a paperback.
---> My Next Reading Event:
I am doing my next reading at the Water Gallery Art Showroom in Lansdale, at Amy Rim's Spoken Word Night this Friday, November 22nd. 6PM.
We are collecting food for manna's, The Lansdale Food Pantry.
http://www.mannaonmain.org/
We are inviting local authors, comedians, actors, poets and spoken word performers of all kinds to come read their words. There will be refreshments provided and some live music. This event is free and uncensored in a respectful atmosphere. We will be collecting canned goods for Manna to help stock their food pantry.
