No, this isn’t about the Ratt song.  This is a partial apology to the four or five of you out there who followed my earlier blogs, and a reintroduction of sorts.

Since my first blog, things have been going well regarding the titles I have for sale through eXcessica.  Pretty Baby has done all right, but I have better hopes for my vignettes Last Wish for a Dying Man and Gingerbread, due in no small part to having Last Wish reviewed by Manic Readers.

But I’m not all that into self-promotion, and this isn’t exactly the forum for it anyway.  And that brings me to the point of this post.  I’ve never really been comfortable with the whole self-promotion thing.  I understand that in this business, especially the way many erotic writers are published, promoting oneself is a major part of getting known.  It’s unlikely that anyone, much less a big-name publisher, is going to stumble across an erotic work and decide that it is just too good to not snatch up.  So, we have to get ourselves out there, in the hope that, eventually, that big-name publisher will scoop us up.

But like I said, I’m uncomfortable with the idea of posting on other blogs, forums, websites, etc for the sole purpose of getting people to buy my books.  Some people do it as easily as breathe; I’m not one of those.  Maybe it’s a confidence issue.  I don’t know.  Besides, between my girlfriend, an adorable but demanding two-year-old, and work, I have precious little time as it is to write, let alone brag about it.

But I’m trying.  I guess my best hope is to build a fan base that will spread the word and get to the point where I’m known.  But that’s going to be a long road.

Someone asked me a few days ago where I get my ideas for stories. I thought about it, then looked around the restaurant I was in. “Right here,” I said. I pointed to a ratehr busty woman sitting with an older man. “See, that could just be a woman and a business associate, or . . . she could be cheating on her husband with an older man. Except, the older man is using her, because she’s in a higher position than he is, and as soon as he has enough photographic evidence of their affair, he’s going to blackmail her into stepping down.”

There are at least a good three or four basic story ideas I think of every day. Most of them, admittedly, are pretty contrived and none too original, but they’re ideas nonetheless, and that sparks more creative thinking. A casual mention of Russian prison practices by a friend of mine prompted a story that I am about to finish. The entire premise just popped into my head within seconds of hearing what he said. I love it when that happens.

I’ve always believed that the best stories were the most simple in terms of plot. What really drives a story, what gets the pages turned, are the characters and dialogue. That’s what I’ve always focused on, and it seems to work pretty well.

As this is my introductory blog post for eXcessica, I figured it might be prudent to start with why I began writing erotica at all.

A few years ago, I was looking for an adult chat room online, just something to pass the time. I found a few before clicking on one that was associated with a site called Literotica. I didn’t care for the chat room too much, but the site itself intrigued me, especially when I saw the wealth of posted stories.

Having been a writer since my teenage years, I’ve dabbled a little here and there in writing down some of my erotic fantasies. I never thought any of them would ever be read, of course. I wrote them mainly for my own titilation. But now, suddenly, I had discovered a place where such writing was accepted and encouraged. And the best part was that anyone could submit to the site.

So I created the name of slyc_willie for the site and began posting stories. Admittedly, they really weren’t more than tales of pure sexual fantasy and deviation at first. I thrilled at writing them, because I felt a sense of taboo-breaking. My writing had always been mainstream, and while I had only had a few short stories published, I longed to write something more risque that would be accepted. I guess I had always been something of a pervert.

The response, both on the Literotica forum, and through comments left on my stories and sent to me via email, was unexpectedly, and overwhelmingly, positive. Over the following couple of years, some of my stories were recognized as contest winners. I received touching responses from readers telling me how my stories had affected them, and not just sexually.

For the most part, all of my writing now is erotic. When Selena asked for authors to join her in eXcessica, I was hesitant at first. But eXcessica offers a chance at publication in a market which shies away from stories that involved highly detailed sexual acts. And that is what I write, for the most part. I write what I like to read, and what I like to read is detail.

My first novel for eXcessica, Pretty Baby, is due to be released soon. It is the story of Alyssa Green, told from her point of view, as she realizes a long-held fantasy of becoming a prostitute. The novel was originally released on Literotica as a six-part series, but the story, available through eXcessica is markedly different. It is cleaner, more concise, and while holding to the original descriptive detail, contains a bit more of a story.

There will be more coming from me in the future, that much I can promise. Some of it will be quite dark, but then, what do you expect from someone named Gabriel Daemon?

-Gabriel Daemon