Wicked Fairy Tales Author Spotlight – Elizabeth A. Schechter

This interview is part of Wicked Fairy Tales Month at ForbiddenFiction.com. With the launch of our first anthology of erotic fairy tales, we decided to give folks more of a glimpse behind the scenes. So, to celebrate, we will have a drawing, author and staff interviews, and other fun bonus materials. For more information on this an the Wicked Fairy Tales anthology, see HERE.

Elizabeth A. Schechter

Elizabeth A. Schechter is a stay-at-home-mom who lives in Central Florida, where she enjoys seeing the looks on the faces of the other playgroup moms when she answers the question “What do you do?” by describing herself as a pervy fetish writer. Her first novel, Princes of Air, was published in 2011 by Circlet Press, and her second, a steampunk novel entitled House of the Sable Locks, is forthcoming.

Elizabeth has been nominated for the Romance Writers of America award, The Passionate Plume, for her book Princes of Air (from Circlet Press).  Help her get there to accept the award with her crowdsource project. See her blog entry for more information (and a discount on the book).

INTERVIEW with Author:

What was your favorite fairy tale as a child and why?

My favorite fairy tale wasn't really a fairy tale. It was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. I could quote pages from that book!

What is your favorite as an adult and why?

I have to pick one? Classic or Modern? If I have to pick a classic fairy tale, then it would be "Vasalisa the Wise". Partly because I really like Baba Yaga as a Crone figure, and party because I buy into Clarisa Pinkola Estes' view that the journey of Vasalia from downtrodden and abused stepdaughter to skilled artisan who catches the eye of the Tzar is a feminine journey of exploration and growth out of subservience into self-sufficiency.

For Modern fairy tales, I really, really like "The Tale of Elua," which Jacqueline Carey wrote as a companion to her Kushiel series of books.

What is the appeal of traditional fairy tales?

The good get rewarded, the bad get punished, and everything ends up happily ever after. What's not to like?

Most people think of fairy tales as children's stories. What makes a fairy tale erotic?

The people who think of fairy tales as children's stories have never read the originals. The original Grimm fairy tales, for example, were dark and bloody and full of sex and violence. And there are some Eastern European ones that are incredibly gory.

Would you describe for us your writing process?

Butt in chair, hands on keyboard, ready, steady, GO! Well, that's what works for short pieces. For longer ones, there is a little more to it.

But my short pieces are usually written stream of consciousness, start to finish. Sometimes, I might have scenes that get written and then connected. "To Market" had one of those -- the first scene that I wrote was Conn waking up in Durkin's house and... well, you'll have to read the rest yourself!

How long have you been reading and writing erotica?

I've been reading erotica since high school (the mid-80's, if you want to know approximately how old I am). I started writing erotica as an amateur in 2004, for a role playing game based on the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey. I went pro in 2009, when I sold my first story to Circlet Press.

How did you come up with the idea for your story (or stories) in the Wicked Fairy Tales collection?

"To Market" was originally written for another call (it made its first appearance in the anthology Like a Prince, from Circlet Press). For some reason I can no longer remember, I decided to take the decidedly not-traditional fairy tale poem "The Goblin Market," by Christina Rosetti, and take it that extra half step over the edge into the erotic. It didn't take much, let me tell you -- the section quotes in "To Market" are from "The Goblin Market!"

The funny thing is that I originally wrote it to have a three-way as the ending -- Conn and Bess and the Goblin all ended up in the original as a happy triad. I wrote it that way, went to bed, and got no sleep that night because Conn and Bess were both in my head yelling at me -- "That's not how it's supposed to end!!!"  The next morning, I got up and rewrote the ending to what it is now. I was so driven to fix it that I wrote the new ending BC (Before Coffee -- for anyone who knows me, that should tell you something!) That ending is what you have in this anthology. This story also holds the record for my fastest acceptance ever -- I sent the story to Circlet at 5PM, and I had the contract in my inbox by 3PM the next day.

Elizabeth's blog on FF can be found at: Musings from an Imp of the Perverse.

AVAILABLE:

And more in development!