Author Interviews

Author's Interview

Let's start with you telling us a little bit about yourself, Harper.
I’m a lesbian erotica writer living in Hong Kong. I also run Ladylit, a press focusing on lesbian erotica and A Hotter State, which publishes all genres of erotica.

What would people be most surprised to learn about you?
Maybe that I was born and raised in Belgium and, although I fell in love with the English language at a very young age, it’s not my mother tongue. This also prevents my parents from reading anything I write, which, in my genre, is not a bad thing at all. ;-)

When did you start writing? Is it something you've always been interested in, or did it develop later in life?
It’s definitely something I’ve always been interested in. I was ‘that’ teenager who preferred to stay in her room with her nose in a book as opposed to getting up to hormonally-induced mischief with my peers. While I’ve always written throughout every stage of my life, I only got really serious about it three years ago, though.

Has it been everything you thought it would be or not?
So much more. When I first started writing, it was a hobby and I never dreamed it would become my job—the best job in the world (for someone like me), by the way. My office is still tucked away in a tiny corner of our bedroom, but it’s all the room I need to dream up sexy and romantic ways of getting two characters together.

How did it feel when you realized that your very first book was going to be published?
I published it myself so it didn’t come as that much of a surprise. ;-)

What's your favorite part of writing a book?
Creating characters who, somehow, always end up with a mind of their own and surprise the heck out of me.

Do you get time to read for pleasure? If so, which books do you enjoy?
I couldn’t survive without always having a book with me. Since I started writing erotica professionally I don’t read it for pleasure that often anymore because it simply became much less relaxing. I tend to turn to crime and spy novels before bed now.

Are there any other genres you'd be interested in writing?
I’d really like to write a series about a kick-ass lesbian spy (who always wears leather no matter the temperature). I’d still keep it sexy, though…

Please tell us a little about your most recent release.
A Christmas to Remember is the second themed mini-anthology I’ve put together for Ladylit. (The first one called Sweat was all about sporty girls getting it on.) I’ve invited my favourite lesbian erotica authors to write a saucy Christmas story and they have (once again) surely delivered.

What can we look forward to in the future from you?
I hope to release my next novella Summer’s End just before the end of this year. It’s a romantic story of two lost souls who find each other on an exotic Thai island. It’s also about how love can sometimes be so instant it changes everything, even the most bleak of situations.

Anything you want to say to your readers?
I love you. ;-) All jokes aside, I really do. Without my readers, I wouldn’t be doing what I do. Thank you for all the support and the lovely messages. I promise to give you much more lesbian erotica in the years to come.

Harper Bliss's recent releases:
A Christmas to Remember
http://www.harperbliss.com/a-christmas-to-remember/

From the obligatory office party to a cabin in the woods, Christmas celebrations come in many shapes and sizes. The ladies in this Christmas anthology like to keep it original though, and get their festive groove on in bed shops and the Australian outback, not to mention the ‘Mermaids and Mistletoe Masquerade Ball’… A Christmas to Remember contains five lesbian erotica stories that will make your Christmas merry AND hot.

Girls Only: The Collection
http://www.harperbliss.com/girls-only-the-collection/

I Still Remember
http://www.harperbliss.com/i-still-remember/
Successful news anchor Elise returns to her hometown after running away from a love she couldn’t understand nor act upon twenty years ago. When she bumps into her old best friend Amy, the one she had to get away from, all that was left unspoken bubbles to the surface and they revisit the past in more ways than one.

Excerpt from Dress Code (one of the five festive short stories in ‘A Christmas to Remember’):
I hate these forced occasions of merriment, but I’m the boss and I need to set a good example. It’s the last afternoon in the office before everyone goes on Christmas break and, per tradition, my team and I spend it around a bowl of weak punch pretending we’re friends instead of co-workers. I like most of them enough to get along with on a daily basis in a work environment, but out of the eight other people crammed in the small meeting room with me, there’s only one I would voluntarily socialise with outside of business hours.

Emma is always dressed inappropriately for work, not because her skirts are too short, but because her trousers are made of leather and the shirts—obviously purchased in the men’s department—she tucks into them hug her frame a bit too tightly. I tried talking to her about her outfits once, in a friendly, understanding boss kind of way.

“This is who I am, Beth,” she said, leaning her tall torso against my door frame. “Would you prefer that I wore a pin-striped suit and performed below par?”

There were so many things I could have said. The words swirled in my brain, fighting to get out, to find their way to my mouth, but I suddenly found myself unable to speak. That day, she wore a red tie over a starched white shirt on top of the tightest pair of faded jeans I’d ever laid eyes on.

Instead of reprimanding her, I forced myself to reassess the dress code at work. She had that effect on me. Still has.

Today she’s dressed as a lesbian hipster tomboy Christmas elf. Emma didn’t need to come out when she first joined our team. She walked in and we knew. She was swag personified in her knee high leather boots with matching jacket. She didn’t even take the jacket off when she found her spot behind the desk assigned to her and started typing data into a spreadsheet.

Emma does things with numbers I, as her immediate superior, should instantly understand, but I don’t. Her brain works differently than most people’s. It allows her to get away with murder—or at least circumvent what is socially and vestimentarily expected of her in the work place.

“What are your holiday plans, Beth?” David, the person who always ends up standing closest to me at events like these, asks.

With difficulty, I drag my gaze away from Emma, who appears to be engaged in a passionate discussion with my assistant Drew. I’ll have to interrogate him discreetly later as to the subject of their conversation.

“Turkey with the family,” I quickly say. I know how my team sees me. A single women in her mid-forties who appears to be only interested in work. If only they knew where my interests really lie.

“Just like last year, then.” David obviously prides himself on remembering every bit of small talk he and I ever shared.

“How about you?” I try to inject some casual politeness into my voice, which is difficult, because Emma has torn herself away from her conversation with Drew and is headed in my direction.

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