FYI, for those who haven’t read the book yet, this post contains spoilers. Consider picking it up right now and coming back to this later!
Hello friends!
I had a conversation recently with some entities beyond the veil who read my work and made some comments that got me thinking. I know TDWDoG isn’t a NY Times best seller (and definitely never will be), but I wanted to share some tidbits on its creation and some of my thought processes when it comes to writing erotica. It may be interesting to some and yawn-worthy to others, but hear me out if you will.
So originally, this was supposed to be no more than 8k words. I can’t lie, I was mostly inspired by Chuck Tingle, because who ISN’T inspired by a beautiful human being who just wants to prove love is real? Legitimately, I think Chuck Tingle is fantastic. One only needs to venture to his Twitter to know he’s a wholesome buckaroo.
But I digress. The idea was to poop out as many crypid erotica/romance/satire stories as I could in an attempt to try and make a quick buck, because there are at least 100 articles that will tell you churning out erotica like rabbit turds is a great way to make money quick.
And they’re all lying. I have spent almost as much money in Facebook ads at this point as I have earned in book sales. I’m still learning, but as far as I can tell this is not a ‘get rich quick’ sort of career. That’s okay though, because you know what? I discovered I really like doing this.
I wrote, and then I wrote, and I wrote more, and before I knew it, I was at 10k without any actual sex happening. I didn’t want to just throw Georgia to the wolves (or the devil, in this case), and I didn’t want her to be two-dimensional. Maybe in this way, I failed at erotica. I forgot my main goal and just sort of went with what I wanted. I love stories. I love romance, and I love happy endings. Most of all though, I love making people laugh and smile. I guess you can say it’s my kink, which means you would be kink shaming me if you called me cliche. Don’t kink shame. Society does that enough, you hear?
So I’ve got this amalgamation of something meant to be hilarious epoxied together with something that is sexy. Does it work? I dunno, you tell me. People have told me they found it hilarious and then got horny. I don’t see a reason why those two things should be separated. You can laugh and get an erection at the same time! Have your sexy cake and eat it too, friends.
That would be why the sex scene at the end is just straight steamy. Look, you don’t fuck with a good sex scene. Yes, I have read satirical romance where the punch line is ‘lol u put it in the wrong hole’ and that’s all good and fun (not that any hole is a wrong hole if you like it), but I don’t want that. I don’t think I’ll have that in any of my stories unless they’re super short, and anything like that will likely be posted in this blog.
As a note on the setting, I tried to be as accurate as possible. I know, there’s no 100% agreed upon birth place for The Jersey Devil, nor is there a fully agreed upon story surrounding him. There is, however, a place out in The Pine Barrens, tucked inside a nature reserve, that locals speculate is the original Leeds home where the 13th child was born. For anyone who knows of this place, if you feel I didn’t accurately portray it, all I can say is I did my best. I have only passed through New Jersey during travel, and it’s not like I have a publisher who will pay for me to visit these places to accurately convey the scene. All I have is Google Maps and a dream. At the very least that’s more than writers had 25+ years ago, soulless beasts that they were.
It’s weird. Maybe it’s because I’m an immortal (and immoral) creature with a skewed sense of time, but it really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long ago since I wrote this book. and yet, here we are a year later…
Still not rolling in money and/or book deals. Time’s ticking publishers. I’ll only be on the market for so long before someone plucks this lil’ diamond from the cellar where it was left by the bourgeoisie centuries ago after a ritual orgy went terribly wrong (or right, depending on your pain tolerance).
Anyways, if you have any questions or comments about this book, feel free to leave them below and I’d be happy to answer them.
Aloyster Crowlay 