Interview with The Voice of Sexotica for the Rowdier Reader

Meet Kathleen K.

Move over E.L. James. We know all we need to know about one rich man and his inamorata.  Heed the call of the wild to the rowdy in a dozen oddly thoughtful, overtly sexual books available at KathleenKBooks.com.  Kathleen f/k/a/ Jamie is a former sex chat operator, she knows the lingo and recognizes the characters.  Her newest Dark Prince, Heed Thy Queen (In the Realm of Roles and Reversals) “is a titillating and highly provocative tinderbox, conflating taboo themes of hierarchal subservience, gender domination, and eroticized objectification.”^*

Here is an interview with the one-time pay-to-say Sweet Talker.

What is your new book about?

Dark Prince, Heed Thy Queen finds the narrator hiding a searing sexual relationship from the people she loves but flaunting it in front of strangers.  She meets a cocksure man at a party and they abandon everything familiar for this chance at a wild love affair in their own little world.  Key dialog:

“Spread ‘em.”

“Spread me.”

There’s the theme.  The struggle is not only between them, but around them and within them.  This book shows the power of harmonic tremors:  not just the hard-pounding eruption events but how those cycle with the deep soothing surge of magma at the core.  She was looking for a bad boy and got one.  She felt unleashed and realized the leash had been social expectations.  These are educated people:  their sex safe-word is ‘hypocrite’ as if either would shame themselves by retreating from the other.

How does it differ from some of your earlier works?

The mix of my books goes from lyric about sex (Stoner with a Boner) to clinically brisk and cheeky (Honey B., Sexual Consultant) and includes graphic poetry and non-fiction Sweet Talkers about running a phone sex business.  I believe there is a spectrum of language available to address our interest in love∞sex.  Dark Prince is specifically forthright and explicit about one woman’s sexploration, guided and goaded by a stranger.  There is no reason for her to lie:  nothing to fear, nothing to lose.  It’s all and only about this meeting of a moment, and the moment is all.  Specifically, the book is ‘sexotic’.  Erotica is a matter of taste and timing, while sexotica qualifies by the depth and breadth of its carnal content. 

Why do you say this book "delivers the next iteration of Mommy porn -- and Daddy likes it too"?

The divide between porn and romance is severe, it is hard to navigate the middle ground.  The only way to do that is to recreate the clash of energies that occur in real sex:  the challenge-surrender and mutual assured destruction when the genders meet for mating.  It’s been my fortune to capture the colloquialism of sex, the practicalities and absurdities; readers find the feelings familiar and compelling.  By trusting the reader to bring some imagery of their own, I let them free associate, providing a framework upon which they conjugate thoughts.   The goal is to reach rowdier readers who by nature are inquisitive, tolerant and pragmatic about sexual themes as long as the language hold thems.  Curiosity turns out to be a trait found in all genders.

Is it hard to write a book that can stimulate both of the sexes?

In fact, the books are reviewed as inventive, intelligent, smart, sassy, witty and wise.  Those are gender-neutral words.  I’m surprised when people note I’m a female writing male characters as sexual beings, as if men hadn’t been doing that to females all along.  Characteristics of gender figure in sex scenes, of course, but the truer energy is beyond gender: it’s personal and biochemical and socio-logical.  Engaging the commotion of emotion around sex snatches the attention of articulate readers of any age, race, or sex if they like that kind of thing.  [I’m quick to label my work as “Not suitable for some, appreciated by others.”]  I acknowledge gender polarity as a necessary challenge in the nature of mammals: we are purpose-built to complement and blend, each sterile without the other.

You say your book probes the themes of submission, permission, and admission. What is left to discover about the human ability or desire to be whipped into climaxing?

Like any good “reporter” of a story, I need to include the who-what-where-when-how but to be a lively writer you need to sprinkle in the why.  I’ve chosen to work in vignettes so I can set a scene quickly.  The reader gets to do the detailing within borders I’ve sketched while I can find the fulcrum, the vertex, whatever you call those pivotal moments when you establish a freeze-frame.

Do you really think you could kick my ass?

I could stop kissing it.

We ascribe motive to actions using an emotional mix of our own.  Are you submitting to my wish to spank you, or are you admitting to your wish to be spanked?  We never tire of adventure stories, pioneering and trial-by-fire, setting them in a sexual context adds a little zing-zang.  

As an award-winning indie author how hard had it been to break through the literary scene?

The likelihood of being “discovered” is much like a lightning strike, so what I’ve done is set out my lightning rods.  I use Kirkus Reviews as my own trial-by-fire and that has worked in my favor both in quotable praise and by being Named to the Best (Indie) in 2013 for The Lunarium.  Kirkus designated a Featured Review July 2015 for Dark Prince, Heed Thy Queen. ^*  My Twitter @KathleenKxxx lets me get pithy with it every couple of days amplified by retweeting to tens of thousands via #EARTG.  I like making the books, I price them to sell ($6.66-9.99, Kindle discount 25%).  With a dozen books available, I’m covering a broad spectrum of potential readers. I’m easily branded with the pen name KathleenK which pairs well in web searches with erotica, porn, fiction,  voyeurism, phone sex, stoner, books, sexual consultant, dick size and gender dynamics.  It helps when an insider blog like this grants me a chance to address the community.  What I need is a promoter-publicist-agent who is as competent and productive in the dark art of marketing as I am in crafting books tailored for the night stand.

How would you describe your level of evocative prose and artistic style?

I’m pleased with the reaction to my narrative style, even those who don’t like the themes remark on the readability.  Language evolves with use and in my case I’ve concentrated on pinpoint phrasing in a colloquial freewheeling syntax.  I read a lot of different things, grammar texts and popular fiction and poetry and science, sharpening my appreciation of a well-turned come back (or come on).  By sharpening focus on a moment, the reader feels incorporated in the action, engaged by the scenarios, so the mix of sass and sympathy lets them throttle the intake.  It’s frank language, sometimes even stark, serving to highlight the provocative intent.  Working in this naughty vernacular, adding style and polish elevates it immediately.

Is there a certain voyeurism attached to your books?

There’s a contagious excitement, as one reviewer put it, a sense of involvement, readers “see” what’s going on due to the specific placement of words.  All books are offering a peek inside somewhere, opening a window to a world within its pages.  Sexotica isn’t as fulsome as erotica but it is richer than porn, the presentation of explicit detail rings true in a contextual sense because that is the allure, after all: physique and technique with a touch of mystique.  Just considering sex∞love and the infinity between enriches you, it feathers in new reactions.   For some people, my books present an unexpected opportunity to fertilize their imagination.  Rowdier readers need to dig deeper than the Best Seller list since we shun sexology as a dirty thing instead of celebrating it as valuable nuance, intertwining both pleasure and piqué.