Authors Interview - Leone Ross
Writing erotica
Happy Friday!
It’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, which means we are off on Monday.
But before we kickstart this long weekend, I will share the interview I gave you a little tease off last week. I hope you enjoy it and that it opens up some discussion. This interview was conducted five years ago, but the themes are definitely still relevant and interesting.
Enjoy!
Leone Ross is a writer. She writes short stories, novels, and flash fiction - and she writes erotica. “I’m obsessed with writing, and to find the right words. I want to find the right word to express racism, the colour of a coat, the taste of prunes, the feel of sunshine, and every sexual experience that feels authentic,” she says.
Leone, sat in her office, offers me a purple plum. She truly captures a room and her Jamaican features add to both the spice and the calm in her voice. Speaking to Leone is like being wrapped up in a bowl of curry – comforting with a bit of heat.
Writing, as well as being curious about sex, has always come naturally for Leone. Although born in London, she grew up in Jamaica. “I had sex education early, with very liberal parents who were happy to answer my questions. I happened to be a curious kid who was intrigued by sex early in life,” she says happily. “I always thought sex sounded like a magnificent thing, even as a kid!”
The interest started with a kids’ book that her parents gave her at the age of six. Leone says, “I had this book called ‘Where do I come from’. It was this loving and body-positive introduction to what sex was. At the end it described the physical act of sex. You lay on top of each other, man inserts his penis, etc. And I’m sitting there, like, wow that’s interesting,” She laughs at the memory and continues, “Then there was this sentence saying, ‘This is the closest two human beings can be’, and I thought that was magnificent.”
Leone has always been excited and comforted by sex. She can talk about it, in all shapes and forms, with anybody. But she quickly noticed that not everyone felt the same way.
“As I became sexually active, and as I watched people around me who were sexually active, I saw the layers of misinformation, the mythology, the ignorance, the fear, the often disadvantage for women in particular, but generally the effect of judgement and morality on young people around me of both sexes, I just sat there thinking, what the fuck is going on?”
This has inspired Leone’s writing. And writing about sex has become who she is. “It seemed very natural to me to write about sex, and it seemed to me that stories would have something profound missing if I didn’t write about it”
Writing erotica is still controversial and people have strong feelings about it. Many wonders; is there a difference between erotica and pornography? Leone says, “I feel many things about pornography, including the fact that I am a consumer of it. Also, the fact that I have learned things from it, including how to write. To my mind, pornography is one-dimensional. Pornography’s intention is to arouse you, and usually to cause orgasm, and to make money. Erotic literature tends to do everything that good literature does - it creates characters who are profound and multidimensional, creates plots that are well paced and work well, it includes description that are interesting and beautiful, challenges the nature of the universe, and looks at big questions and small questions. It makes us giggle, laugh, and arouses us.”
Leone is not afraid to use the English language to its full potential, in her writing nor in the way she speaks, “You can say all kinds of things: love me baby, be inside me, touch me. All of these things can be profound and beautiful and interesting and important and horny, but there is also space for ‘Fuck me’.” Leone also says, “And that’s one of the most delightful things about sex. If you’re doing it right, sexuality can provide us with so many of those precious, complex, infinite moments that tell us what it is to be human. And I want to find the true language for it.”
Erotica can be explicit, but it doesn’t have to be. Sex, and arousal, is so personal, and this is shown in Leone’s work.
“The sexuality is explicit in my work, sometimes,” Leone says while eating one of the plums. “Food of course can be very erotic for people, particularly for women. And also the idea of love.” She says while licking the juice off her fingers, “We eroticise feelings.”
Anyone who want to explore all layers of human nature, and how sexuality can be developing and inspiring, can write erotica.
Leone says, “When writing erotica, focus on clearing the clichés, the thrusting, boobies bouncing, of for god’s sake, take them away.”
She continues, “Like in any other writing, tell the truth. That’s the problem with porn, everything is perfect, everything slides in where it needs to go, nobody stops and giggles, no one is in the middle of THE moment and he falls out, and no one goes Jesus we need to stop this and have a bath! Like any other writer who is concerned with form and structure, think specificity, economy, and detail. Think texture, and light, and colour and motion.”
Erotica is just fiction, made, from at least Leone’s point of view, to clear the taboo, the negatives, and the stigma around sex. “Someone once had a giggle and said, someone might be masturbating to your work. I don’t give a fuck; I don’t care what they are doing. I could have written about an elephant, and they could have masturbated to that. Who knows what people masturbate to? That’s their business and I am not troubled by that,” she says.
“If I write a sentence that intends to arouse and it arouses, I am just as pleased as I am if I write a sentence that intends to amuse, and it causes laughter. It has the same effect on me.”
Hope you will have a wonderful weekend! And pick up some erotica if you want to spice it up.