Writers Groups

E. A. Black writer dark fiction and horror. Elizabeth Black writes erotica and erotic romance. You may find E. A. on her Amazon Author Page, and you may find Elizabeth at her Amazon Author Page. She is available on Facebook and Twitter as well.

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I rejoined my writers group after a six month absence yesterday. I think the warm weather inspired everyone to come out of their hovels after a long, cold, snowy winter. I was joined by six women including one I had never met before. This group is women-only.

I joined a writers group for several reasons. Here are a few:

I wanted to be with other writers.

I wanted to hone my craft with the assignments I'm given.

 I wanted to get out of the house at least once per week. I tend to hole up in my apartment because I'm a hermit.

I like that this group is in the morning so my day isn't completely gone when I get out at 11 am.

I reward myself with a drive by the beaches on my way home.

I get tips and critiques from the other writers in my group when I bring in my WIPs.

The next time I go, I'm bringing a container of my homemade shortbread cookies to go with my coffee. Everyone in the group brings coffee along since I suspect we're caffeine addicts. This group is part of a larger Writers Center that offers readings and such, including an Open Mic night. I missed the last Open Mic but since it's warming up I'll make a point of going to the next one. I'll admit it feels great getting away and recharging with a writers group. It's the main reason I go, along with the social networking.

Putting Yourself Into A Story

E. A. Black writes horror, dark fiction, and fantasy. She writes erotica and erotic romance under the pen name Elizabeth Black. Ms. Black lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband and four cats. You may find her on Facebook or on her web site.

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I'm in the middle of a work in progress called "Longing" that is taking a lot out of me. I think it's one of the best things I've ever written. I'm a very private, almost secluded person so writing from the gut like this isn't easy for me. I doubt it's easy for anyone, though. I usually go for much more light-hearted fare, although my story "Alicia" is far from light-hearted. It's horror romance, after all.

I wondered what it would feel like to lose someone who is failing right in front of me and there is nothing I can do about it. Watching someone I love die before my eyes would be too much for me to bear. My husband has already told me if he ever came down with dementia and got to the point where he needed help cleaning himself and could no longer think properly, he wouldn't want to live. I have no idea what I would do if I were in that situation. If I had the ability to upload our memories, desires, and our very being into an A. I. would I do it? What would I really upload? Would it be him or what I wished he would be?

Here is an excerpt:

Longing overwhelmed me as my mind drifted. I needed Eric in my life but it hadn't been easy. He'd lost so much over the past four years. I did what I could to make him more comfortable but each day brought new worries. To see him on this beach, our favorite hangout when he was able to walk, was the only solace I could get amid long stretches of despondency watching him draw farther and farther away from me; not willingly of course, but we both expected that. It didn't make his regression any easier to deal with, though. Knowing how little time we had left, we uploaded our cloned minds into the Cloud so we could be together as we once had been - alive and vibrant.

As he jogged towards me from up ahead, arm waved in greeting, my heart soared at our new day in the sun. Forget about the i.v.s, his emaciated body, and the fading memories. Here in our special place he is vibrant and gloriously alive with energy and love for me. On this beach I'm his Sunshine, and I always will be.

"Sunshine! I've missed you so much," He said as he wrapped me in his strong arms. He nibbled on my ear and kissed my throat. I craved the feel of his arms around me, but with a flash of insight I realized he never nibbled on my ears or kissed my throat. I had always wanted him to do both but he never did. How much of the A. I. was Eric as he really was versus what I wished he would be? I wondered if I missed the real Eric or if I missed what we never had?

I can only write about 800 words at a time before I'm overwhelmed. Getting to my soul as I write hasn't been easy but I'm able to do it.

Why Do I Write?

E. A. Black writes horror, dark fiction, and fantasy. She writes erotica and erotic romance under the pen name Elizabeth Black. Ms. Black lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband and four cats. You may find her on Facebook or on her web site.

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I received my first royalty notice for 2014 about a week ago. It was a pittance. Granted, I have out only a short story with this publisher, and stand-alone short stories don't sell well. People want to use that money towards a novel or novella. Plus I have a threshold of $100 with this publisher so it's unlikely I'll see any money until Hell freezes over (and if you live in the northern US, that happened earlier this week, LOL). I made fun of my massive royalty statement, saying I made enough to buy a chocolate bar and who wanted to share it with me.

One writer asked a question in comments that got me thinking. He asked, "But we are not in this for money though, right?"

Why do I write? The thing is, I do want good sales. Good sales means people are buying my books and presumably reading them. Poor sales mean very few people are buying for whatever reasons. Some of my stories sell well whilst others have fallen into obscurity. I know that happens to all writers. I don't understand why some stories have appeal and others don't. It's crazy. Your masterpiece you worked on for years to perfect barely moves whilst something you slapped together in a day is a best seller. Go figure.

I write for several reasons. I need to express myself, and writing is my chosen form of expression. I vent in my writing. I express joy in my writing. An idea slams into my head and I must get it down and out of my system - in writing. Yes, I love it when my sales are stellar and I am dismayed when I work hard on a book (which I consider my baby) only to see it languish. It's hard to not take that sort of thing personally. I also write to sell books. Book sales mean readers are interested and are presumably reading what they have bought. In my opinion, I see no point in writing if very few people are interested in what I have to say. I'm not a diarist. I like the fan mail and the praise I see in social media.

The writerly life is not easy. Considering the massive number of rejections, bad or lackluster reviews (or complete lack of reviews), low sales, and writers block, it's a wonder I write at all. That said, the fan mail, unexpected sales spikes, Top Pick reviews, and award nominations keep me going. I have mixed feelings as I'm sure most writers do. I waver between feeling an urgency to write and wishing I could just chuck all of it and go to the tropics and raise bees.

I hope the bees don't win.

Ten Books That Stayed With Me

E. A. Black writes horror, dark fiction, and fantasy. She writes erotica and erotic romance under the pen name Elizabeth Black. Ms. Black lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband and four cats. You may find her on Facebook or on her web site.

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There's a meme going around Facebook - Ten books that stayed with you. I love writing horror above all else so it's only natural that horror books have stayed with me since childhood, but some of the books I classify as horror may surprise you. Here's my list, in no particular order.

1. "The Screaming Skulls and Other Ghosts" by Elliott O'Donnell. Obvious choice. This book is chock full of ghost legends from the U. K. that scared the piss out of me when I was a child. I still have it and read it on occasion and it continues to spook me.

2. The Bible - Total horror, without a doubt. I actually read the thing, too, which is one reason I am not religious at all today.

3. Everything by Edgar Allan Poe. More horror. I grew up in Baltimore so Poe was very special to me. I visited his grave and his home. I even dated the curator of the Poe museum for awhile there. I was surprised that Poe had such a wicked sense of humor. My favorite story of his is not a horror story. It's "Never Bet The Devil Your Head", a dark comedy.

4. "Claudia" by Barbara Brooks Wallace. Horror in the sense that it's about a child who doesn't fit in with her classmates. That was me in elementary school. This book taught me how to cope with being a nerdy, clutzy reject.

5. My first Home Owner's Association manual. Most people posted fiction books but I had to include a few non-fiction. This manual was pure horror. I lived in one of the first planned communities in the United States. They're as surreal as you've heard. That "X Files" episode "Arcadia" got it right. No window air conditioners. No visible children's toys on front lawns. Doors and trim could be painted only in HOA-approved colors. No trash cans visible from the street. Lawns and gardens must meet HOA specifications down to the length of the grass. Neighbors tattling to the HOA board if they think you violated any codes.

6. "The Art Of War" by Sun Tzu. This book has been invaluable to me. It taught me not only the proper way to pick my battles, but also how to inspire my enemies to bring themselves down with little effort from myself.

7. "The Complete Works Of Calvin and Hobbes". This book was my baby raising manual, along with the Coen brothers movie "Raising Arizona". The main child-rearing lesson I learned from that movie - do not sit the car seat with child inside on top of the car before driving away.

8. "The Catcher In The Rye" by J. D. Salinger. Another book about a misfit kid. I could relate.

9. Ikea instructional manual on how to put together my bed. Pure, unadulterated horror. No further explanation necessary. Ikea instructional manuals are probably responsible for the rising tide of insanity in America.

10. "Mothers On Trial" by Dr. Phyllis Chesler. True-life horror. It's about all the grief mothers go through in divorce and custody cases to protect themselves and their children. At the time I read it I was going through a very ugly divorce, and it kept me sane.

So there's my list with explanations. What about you? What are your ten books that stayed with you?

Velvet Curtains, Love Muscle, And Other Embarrassments

E. A. Black writes dark fiction, dark fantasy, and horror. She writes erotic romance and erotica with the pseudonym Elizabeth Black. Visit her web sites at http://elizabethablack.blogspot.com and http://eablack-writer.blogspot.com. Friend her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabethablack

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[Image from Punch an Pie, by Chris Daily and Aeire]

I've edited many books as exchanges for my own edits or as a favor. One thing I've noticed is that sex scenes are sometimes dragged down by the same old descriptive words: cock, pussy, cunt, willie, shaft, slit. Blah de blah de blah.

Sometimes you have to shake up the words, but you don't want to go overboard and end up writing purple prose. It's too easy to let yourself fall into Bulwer-Lytton Awards territory, like the 2012 winner, runner up, and dishonorable mentions in the Romance category:

Winner:

“I’ll never get over him,” she said to herself and the truth of that statement settled into her brain the way glitter settles on to a plastic landscape in a Christmas snow globe when she accepted the fact that she was trapped in bed between her half-ton boyfriend and the wall when he rolled over on to her nightgown and passed out, leaving her no way to climb out. — Karen Hamilton, Seabrook, TX

Runner-Up:

“Your eyes are like deep blue pools that I would like to drown in,” he had told Kimberly when she had asked him what he was thinking; but what he was actually thinking was that sometimes when he recharges his phone he forgets to put the little plug back in but he wasn’t going to tell her that. — Dan Leyde, Edmonds, WA

Dishonorable Mention:

Tucked in a dim corner of The Ample Bounty Bar & Grille, Alice welcomed the fervent touch of the mysterious stranger’s experienced hands because she had not been this close with a man in an achingly long time and, quivering breathlessly, began to think that this could be the beginning of something real, something forever, and not just a one-time encounter with a good Samaritan who was skilled at the Heimlich Maneuver. — Mark Wisnewski, Flanders, NJ

Chain-smoking as he stood in the amber glow of the street lamp, he gazed up at the brownstone wherein resided Bunny Morgan, and thought how like a bunny Bunny was, though he had read somewhere that rabbits were coprophages, which meant that they ate their own feces, which was really disgusting now that he thought about it, and nothing like Bunny, at least he hoped not, so on second thought Bunny wasn’t like a bunny after all, but she still was pretty hot. — Emma DeZordi, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec

Their love began as a tailor, quickly measuring the nooks and crannies of their personalities, but it soon became the seamstress of subterfuge, each of them aware of the others lingual haberdashery: Mindy trying to create a perfectly suited garment to display in public and Stan only concerned with the inseam. — D. M. Dunn, Bloomington, IN

So you want to use words other than The Usual Suspects? How about some of these substitutions (From The Glossary Of Sexual Slang):

anus

asshole, bung hole, butt hole

breasts

boobs, headlights, knockers, tits

buttocks

ass, behind, buns, butt, fanny, rear

clitoris

button, clit

penis

cock, dick, dong, joy stick, meat, organ, pecker, peter, poker,  prick, rod, tool, wang, weenie

semen

come, cream, cum, jism, load, love juice

testicles

balls, family jewels, gonads, gones, nuts

vagina (or vulva)

bearded clam, bearded lady, beaver, box, cunt, honey pot, manhole,  muff, pussy, quim, snatch, toolbox, twat

Other substitutions:

vagina (or vulva)

fiery slit, cleft, folds, velvet curtains

cock

joystick, hammer, love muscle

You get the idea. There are all kinds of creative words you could use when writing your sex scenes. Just make sure you don't cringe when you use them.