Beth Kery-Interview with the Author

Berkley Publishing will release an 8-week serialized erotic romance eBook BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE by author Beth Kery starting July 31. With the popularity of E.L. James Fifty Shades trilogy and Sylvia Day’s Bared to You, the market for erotic fiction has grown exponentially. Today we would like to introduce the author of BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE, Beth Kery.

TRC: Hi Beth and welcome to The Reading Café. We would like to start with some background information to let the readers know a little bit about the author. Would you please tell us about yourself?

Beth: Hello, thank you. I’m pleased to be here!

Well, I’ve been writing for the past five years. I have about thirty books and short stories under my belt at this point, most of which are either in the erotic romance or contemporary romance arena. I was first published at Berkley in 2008 with WICKED BURN, and things have sort of taken off since then.

TRC: BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE is your latest work-a serialized erotic romance eBook that will be released over an 8 week period starting July 31. Would you please tell us about the premise of the series?

Beth: BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE is a love story that begins as a sexual obsession between a billionaire entrepreneur and an artist/graduate student. He commissions her to do the centerpiece painting for his new headquarters, but there are threads that connect this couple even farther back in history than before their first meeting. Because of those threads—what I would call ‘soul threads’—what seems to be a sexual obsession in reality, from the very beginning, is just the beginning of a relationship between a couple that was destined to be together. Although, there’s no real evidence for that at first, as personal histories and insecurities are hurdled and shared.

BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE is a little bit Cinderella, Pretty Woman and Fifty Shades rolled into one. It contains elements of BDSM and D/s. For Francesca, the heroine, getting involved with complicated, enigmatic, controlling Ian Noble is a risk, but the excitement of it—the thrill of being with him and taking everything he has to offer her—is too great to resist. He’s the type of man that can whisk you away to Paris in a private jet for a romantic getaway and open up whole new territories of experience, both in the bedroom and out. For Ian, he can’t keep away from Francesca despite her innocence. What seems like a solely sexual obsession becomes the beginning path on the journey toward healing. Both Ian and Francesca have inner demons, but I love how we get to see them exorcised as they both teach the other valuable, needed lessons and thrive in each other’s presence.

TRC: What was the deciding factor(s) in releasing BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE as a serialized eBook?

Beth: That was the publisher’s decision. I would venture to guess, however, that they thought it was a promising concept due to many factors: the popularity of fan fiction and the changing technology for reading creating a new market for eBooks and shorter, less expensive purchasing options being a few. I like the idea of the book coming out once a week (on Tuesdays) sort of like having the reading equivalent of a favorite TV show that airs regularly. BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE begins on July 31, and continues until the last part is released on September 18.

TRC: Will the books or series be released in a paperback?

Beth: It isn’t scheduled to be released in paperback at this time.

TRC: How much research and background information was required before writing BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE?

Beth: The series takes part in several locales, the main one being in downtown Chicago, but also Paris and London. I live in downtown Chicago and am a long-time urbanite, so that part was fairly easy. Although I have been to Paris and London several times, I had to brush up on my neighborhoods. Francesca is an artist and Ian is an art connoisseur, so I definitely needed to research some artistic styles and concepts, and even some of the practical details of painting. Also, Ian is the scion of an old, aristocratic English family that is a minor branch of the monarchy, so there were some small details regarding titles, etc. Ian also fences, so I had to do some research about the sport—although I will admit I took some creative license with the fencing scene because it was supposed to be…well, super sexy. 🙂

TRC: The media has grabbed hold of the Fifty Shades trilogy et al describing it as ‘mommy porn’. Fifty Shades can be described as a romance story with some erotica, some BDSM, some romance, a HEA and a story about acceptance and forgiveness. Others believe it is nothing but ‘fan-fiction’ and compare it to the likes of the Twilight series and other best selling romance novels. What is your opinion about the ‘mommy porn’ label affixed to many erotica novels and why do you believe the label has garnered so much attention?

Beth: I find the ‘mommy porn’ label patronizing on many different levels (and why is it that even in writing, it seems to be said with a smirk?). I think if the creators of such labels actually bothered to sit down and read erotic romance authors like Sylvia Day, Jaci Burton or Shiloh Walker, they might be surprised at the high quality of writing, the interesting characters and conflict, and riveting plots. What’s more, a well-written erotic romance isn’t about gratuitous sex. Instead, sex is as an arena for character growth, plot development and conflict. Yes, it’s exciting and extremely erotic, but it’s not written for the purpose of stroke fiction. It’s telling a story, and often it’s a really, really good one.

As far as Fifty Shades goes, I think it was a gateway piece of literature. Erotica and erotic romance have been there in Fifty-type format for decades now, but for whatever reason, there was a big blockade to a lot of readers’ accessing it. Fifty Shades changed all that, and deserves to be appreciated for it. Whether it was because of its popularity in fan fiction, women becoming more comfortable with sexual topics and their own sexuality, or because people loved Twilight so much and were hungry for anything remotely similar to the hero and heroine, I can’t really say for sure. I’m not sure if people can ever really pin these phenomena down. It’s like things hit a threshold and…boom. A whole consciousness surges through a barrier.

TRC: Erotic romance novels have been around for a long time, but in the past few years the popularity has risen immensely. What do you believe has added to the rise in popularity of this particular genre? Do you believe the reader(s) are looking for something different than the usual romance novel?

Beth: I think that once the romance reader was exposed to higher sensuality and sexuality contents, they came to crave more. Even romance that isn’t considered to be ‘erotic’ is hotter nowadays, and readers expect it. I joke because I have a longtime friend who was excited when I was published at Harlequin Special Edition, because she thought her mother would now be able to read my stuff. I showed her a sex scene because she was worried, and her eyes sort of bulged and she was like, “No, I can’t see Mom reading this.”

Everything is a matter of perspective, but yes. I do think there is a trend in general for more sexual content, more graphic sexual content and more honesty about what happens in the bedroom in romance novels nowadays.

TRC: Did you face any challenges with the publication of the series?

Beth: Hopefully I don’t sound melodramatic saying this, but…YES!! It was a fun challenge, but a huge one. For instance, as I type this answer (July 3), BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE is not yet finished. I still have Part VIII to write. I just finished copyedits for Parts III to V yesterday. I’m worried about content specifics from Part I-III, because those are edited and sent off…but what about slight changes I’ve made in the story? Any author will tell you that she constantly goes back to tweak in the earlier stages because of something she wrote later that wasn’t necessarily planned. That part has been manageable—thank goodness my editor Leis Pederson and the Berkley staff have been so supportive and behind this project. Nevertheless, it’s stressful, especially when you consider I’m starting to think of a large publicity push, planning my website to incorporate not only a new book, but a new book with 8 covers, 8 parts, and 8 separate buy links, etc.

Yes. A big challenge. But one I wouldn’t have missed for the world. 😉

TRC: With the rise in popularity of the erotic romance genre and e-readers, the availability is instant and can be in the hands of the reader within seconds. But there is always the possibility that minors (under 16) will have access to erotic fiction because of the advent of eBooks and online availability. All that is required is a valid pay-pal account or credit card. What is your opinion regarding the ease of availability of erotica online from book dealers that can be accessed by all ages?

Do you believe a CONTENT WARNING or RATING SYSTEM (similar to the film industry) should be placed on erotic fiction?

Beth: I understand the concern in this regard. I certainly have young people in my life that I would prefer weren’t reading my books or any other books with significant amounts of sexual content when they aren’t developmentally able to process the psychological ramifications of what they are reading, or even understand the difference between reality and fantasy.

I’d also like to point out that while I do have an opinion on this, it’s ultimately a legal matter, not something that will be decided upon by an author or publisher, etc. I would have to say, however, I’m not a fan of a rating system. It calls to mind censorship, and I do have more of an issue of doing that with books than I do with movies or games.

First of all, there hasn’t been as many academic studies on the phenomena to convince me that any kind of censorship should be taking place—and yes, I do believe we need some of that before we start going around slapping labels on books or banning them from various arenas.

Secondly, how will we know what’s ‘acceptable’ and what isn’t when it comes to sex? What Reader A thinks is vanilla Reader B might think is lewd. Lastly, I’m not sure why eBooks are being targeted as potentially problematic. I know some ‘below eighteens’ might have credit cards, but for most of the underage crowd, a print book is a lot more available than an eBook. You can’t have a Kindle or Nook account, for instance without a credit card, whereas any sixteen year old can go into the local store and plunk down her cash for Fifty Shades. I recently found out, when giving Kindles to my parents, who refuse to give credit card information for anything that it’s impossible to set up an account to even download free books without providing credit card information. In the case of a phone, for instance, very few under eighteens pay for their own service, although I’m sure some do. For the most part, parents should have a pretty good idea about the activity for purchases because the credit card is in their name, though.

Of course it’s our responsibility as adults to make sure kids are safe. But explicit literature has been around forever, and yes, available to young people. It’s just that books like Fifty Shades made that fact more apparent. How we’ll deal with that as a culture has yet to be seen, but whatever happens, I do hope we don’t have a knee jerk reaction and rely on research and measurable data.

TRC: What difficulties or challenges have you faced as a writer?

Beth: For me, the first answer that always comes to mind is my constant time crunch. The writing itself is the easiest and most enjoyable part for me. Many people don’t realize how much an author has to do outside of writing and making deadlines. Keeping up a blog, doing contests, book signings, conferences, advertising, social media…the list goes on. It’s inescapable and all those things are necessary to being a successful author in this day and age. You just can’t live in a cave and write, unfortunately.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information between each other, their family members or friends. With whom do you bounce ideas and why?

Beth: I have a couple invaluable beta readers. They provide honest feedback, tweaking of sentences, etc. As far as bouncing ideas, my husband is the man. He knows so much about so many things, everything from business to technology to fixing a kitchen sink. He’s my ‘go to’ guy for so many things.

TRC: Many authors face writer’s block at one time or another. What are some of your coping strategies when you hit the proverbial wall?

Beth: I just write. Anything. Even if I hate it and dump it, at least I learned one thing—that’s not the direction I wanted to go, it’s actually this direction.

TRC: Have you ever considered writing a Young Adult series?

Beth: I have, but I probably won’t for one very simple reason. I tend to read outside of the genre of erotic and contemporary romance because I can relax into the reading experience more. I adore reading young adult, and I would hate to some day not get as much pleasure out of it as I do now. It’s such a nice escape.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Beth: BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE! 😉 Weird, huh, to be doing an interview about a book that I’m just finishing.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Beth: Only my thanks for the invitation to be here today. I can’t express adequately how excited I am about BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE, not just the serialization and concept, but the book itself. I really have fallen for Francesca and Ian as they’ve entwined themselves into my psyche for the past few months. Part of me doesn’t want it to end. I envy the reader a bit for getting to savor the eight-week reading experience.

TRC: Thank you, Beth, for taking the time to answer our questions. The idea of an 8-week serialized eBook is fascinating. We wish you all the best with the release of your new series.

Beth: Thank you again!

LINKS TO PRE-ORDER:  Because You are Mine-8 part e-novella series by Beth Kery at Amazon.com

July 31, 2012———–Book 1
Because You Tempt Me
August 7, 2012———Book 2
Because I Could Not Resist
August 14, 2012——–Book 3
Because You Haunt Me
August 21, 2012——–Book 4
Because You Must Learn
August 28, 2012——–Book 5
Because I Said So
September 4, 2012—–Book 6
Because You Torment Me
September 11, 2012—-Book 7
Because I Need To
September 18, 2012—-Book 8
Because I am Yours