Make sure you head over to Christina's blog, she reviews 'all things erotica', I am sure you'll find a blog post or ten that interest you!
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Getting to know Bree Guildford
About me
Hello! I am Bree and I
love writing erotic romance. A lot of my stories have a strong
girl-on-girl component, and I also enjoy delving into the world of
polyamory. I have always been drawn to stories that have a focus on
the emotional side of relationships, and this is an important aspect
of my own writing. I love writing about sex, but I also love writing
about the relationship between characters... in fact, I find it
almost impossible to write something that is purely sexual; this is
why I acknowledge myself as a writer of erotic romance, rather than
erotica.
While writing erotic
romance is a big part of who I am, there is a little more to me than
my dirty mind! I am happily married and have four children, aged
between four and ten. I am halfway through a communication degree
and hope to work in media relations after I graduate. I am a big
sports nut, and in my 'other' life, I write about rugby for various
online publications. I enjoy escaping for a weekend here and there
with my wife, but with four kids that only happens once in a blue
moon!
So how did I get
into writing erotic romance?
Ever since I was little
I have enjoyed writing. In my early teens I was all about the teen
angst driven poetry, in my mid teens I was more about romance, and by
the time I turned 18, I was taking a lot of pleasure (literally and
figuratively) out of writing secretive sex scenes.
I tried my hardest to
want to write something 'clean', to want to write something that I
could share with my mum, my nana, my grandma, my sister, my
friends... but those stories were the ones that fizzled out after a
few pages. Erotica, it seemed, was where my abilities lay, and I was
embarrassed about it! It got to the point that I gave up writing at
all, because surely it wasn't appropriate to be writing so explicitly
about sex!
Then I met the
wonderful woman who is now my wife. There was no such thing as 'TMI'
in our friendship, and early on I confessed to her that I enjoyed
writing about sex, but had always felt a bit awkward about it. It
didn't take a lot for her to convince me that I should give it
another go, so one day I began writing again.
It was a boy-meets-girl
story, and rather than trying to make the sex a not-so important part
of the story, I made sex one of the key components of the story.
Rather than feeling embarrassed about writing all things sex, I felt
somewhat empowered. I cannot even tell you how nervous I was when I
sent my friend-now-wife the document for the first time. It was a
couple of scenes long and I was so incredibly scared she was going to
laugh at me, or be horrified by what I had written. Her reaction
though? “MORE – NOW!”
And so it began.
That was almost three
years ago now, and while I have a lot of unfinished stories on my
computer, I don't let that get me down. No one can become an expert
overnight, and I have learnt something from every single story that
didn't make it. I look back on my earlier stories now and almost
cringe, because the writing isn't very good. The ideas are certainly
there, but my writing back then was nothing like it is now. I'm not
saying I have mastered the art – I know I haven't – but it does
feel good to look at my old work, and compare it to my new work, and
know that I have improved.
Toward the end of 2013
I decided that my writing shouldn't be something that I kept secret.
Until that point it was only my wife and a couple of online friends
who had read my work, and I realised that if I wanted to feel like a
real writer, I had to put my work out there for everyone to read. It
was a scary prospect. What if no one wanted to read my work? What
if the only feedback I received was negative? It was daunting, but I
knew it was a risk I had to take.
I decided on my pen
name, then created a Facebook and a Twitter account, as well as a
blog. That was the easy part though. The VERY first example of my
work that I posted was my story 'Georgia: Restrained'. I was so
nervous when I went to bed after posting it, and considered deleting
the post. What if no one read it? What if people DID read it, but
they all hated it? The next morning I woke up and found my story had
been read! There was even a tweet which was along the lines of
'loved your story, can't wait for more', and in honesty, it brought
tears to my eyes.
Eventually I
self-published 'Georgia: Restrained' on Smashwords, and have now
added another four books to what has become the 'Georgia & Zoe'
series. As with sharing my writing for the first time on my blog, I
was terrified about the response when I published Georgia: Restrained
on Smashwords, but when I got up the following morning it had been
downloaded 50 times! Within a week it was up to 200 downloads, and
that is what really gave me the confidence to embrace this side of
who I am.
I doubt I will ever
become a famous author, but knowing there are people out there who
are looking forward to the next story in the Georgia & Zoe series
coming out, that is enough for me! The next big step for me is going
to be putting a book on Smashwords and actually charging for it... I
think when someone actually BUYS one of my books, that is
going to be when I feel like I really do belong in the amazing
community of erotica writers!
Where you can find
me
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