Hello Everyone, I hope you all had wonderfully Holidays, mine were quiet but busy, so I am a little behind but catching up. Our special guest today is Lucy Felthouse, this woman makes my being busy look like a cake walk at a school carnival, WOW.
(LL) Hello Lucy, welcome to Laura Lu’s Book Reviews, I am excited to visit with you. When I started working on question for this interview it was with the sole purpose of learning about Brit Boys: On Boys. By my research has found a very interestingly complex life of a woman who has her hand in a lot of different things that seem to center around writing. How do you manage your time with you have going on?
(LF) Hi Laura Lu, and thank you so much for having me on your site. It’s a pleasure to be here!
I manage my time by strictly prioritizing everything. As you’ve already seen, I do several jobs which make up my full time career—PR, marketing, web design, social media, editing, writing and some other things I’ve probably forgot to mention!
My paying clients must come first, as must the editing. I then manage my writing deadlines and special projects—like Brit Boys: On Boys—around this. Unfortunately this does mean that my writing usually has the lowest priority as it’s not guaranteed income, but if I’m efficient enough in other departments, I still get time to write. Somehow it all works out!
(LL) Do you have any spare moments for yourself, for unwinding from all of that?
(LF) Absolutely. I don’t work weekends—so that’s when I step away from work and the computer and have fun.
(LL) What is it like working with other Authors for an anthology like Brit Boys: On Boys?
(LF) Well in this case all of the authors were contacted directly and asked if they’d like to write something for the collection. So I already knew all of the people involved—in fact, I’ve met all but one of the authors in person and we all get along really well. It’s been great putting the collection together—it’s got a theme, but the eight stories are still all very different, which I love. It’s also been fantastic putting our heads together and coming up with promotional ideas, fun stuff for readers and much more!
(LL) Admittedly I am in the middle of reading Love on Location first so I can’t chose myself yet but which is your favorite besides your own of course?
(LF) I really enjoyed Ashe Barker’s Bodywork. The setting and plot are simple, and Ashe has pulled together a seriously sexy story with great characters. I think perhaps I identified with this story most as Ashe and I live the closest to each other geographically and the humour in her tale really resonated with me. And hey, who doesn’t love a sexy mechanic?
(LL) I like reading guy on guy action, especially if there is a woman sandwiched in there somewhere, how does a person go about writing those bedroom scenes? Do you have outside help for those or have you done research?
(LF) I started out writing M/F fiction, then moved to F/F, ménage and M/M. They’re all the same, really. All you’re changing is body parts—you have to make sure everything makes sense, is physically possible. And with same sex and multiple partners, you have to ensure it’s clear to the reader who is doing what to who! I think it just comes with practice.
(LL) I have read a few authors who need to practice even if I do like their work. So how much practice did you need?
(LF) I’m still practicing! I certainly hope I’m a better writer now than when I started out, but I also hope that I’m continuing to improve.
(LL) Is one of your favorite Authors sharing this anthology with you?
(LF) Yes—I really enjoy Lily Harlem’s books, no matter the pairing, and The Chase is no exception. It’s a super-hot M/M/M ménage tale!
(LL) One of my blog readers is interested in Locked Out by Josephine Myles so I think I will read that and The Chase next.
(LF) Sounds like a good plan to me!
(LL) How does an Author become part of anthology, and then how is the order of the stories decided?
(LF) It depends. Some publishers put out calls for submissions, inviting anyone to submit. But as I mentioned before, in this case, Lily and I (we’re co-managing the project) approached authors directly to submit. To make things fairest and easiest, we did everything using the alphabetical order with the authors’ surnames.
(LL) When I was looking at your web site you have a lot of books to your credit, I saw a few covers that I will have to go back and explore as future reads, do you have any favorites you would recommend?
(LF)It depends what genres you like to read, really. I’ve got erotica and erotic romance in there, both contemporary and paranormal, with lots of different pairings. My novels hold a special place in my heart, though. Stately Pleasures is a M/F/M ménage erotic romance tale with a curvy heroine, and Pack of Lies has both M/F and M/M pairings and is a paranormal mystery/thriller with erotic romance elements.
(LL) I find that I really get into M/F/M, M/F and M/M with the first one and the last one surprising me a bit as I didn’t think I was into such things.
(LF) I guess you don’t know unless you try
(LL) Tell us about Erotica for All and your motivation for creating it.
(LF) I wanted somewhere to showcase my book reviews, to start with, and since I’ve always been enthusiastic about helping authors get the word out there about their work, the idea grew and grew into the site that I have now, which offers everything from guest blog spots to paid advertising.
(LL) I enjoy helping authors myself and always feel bad when I give negative feedback not matter how small, especially since it is in such a public venue, how do you deal that both from the reviewer and the author stand point?
(LF) From a reviewer standpoint, if I really don’t enjoy a book and can’t find anything positive to say, then I simply won’t review it. I’d much rather do that then write a review which isn’t true.
From an author standpoint, I take poor reviews with a pinch of salt. Reading is such a subjective thing—what one person loves, another can despise. And, unless one of my books had only bad reviews, then I’m okay with it. If a book had no positive reviews—then I’d have to ask myself where I’d gone wrong.
(LL) Awesome attitude about being reviewed I hope all my authors feel that way. Last question with everything you do in your career do you have a favorite part? And why is it your favorite?
(LF) My best part of everything I do is finding out that someone is enjoying my books. It never gets old
(LL) Thank you for joining me today I always enjoy conversations and I hope will visit again in the future.
Laura's Book Binge 