First
off, about you as a person:
(1) Where do you live now, and where did you
grow up?
I live in Melbourne, but am a New Zealander through and
through.
Australia and New Zealand are both on my
Bucket List.
(2) Which of the following best describes you?
(a)
single (b) involved with someone (c) married (d)
married with children
I’m single widow
(3) Do you have a real job, or does your
writing pay the bills?
Neither of the above! Although I really hope that writing will
at least earn me enough to cover my champagne and travel budgets one day.
Hmm… I doubt JK Rowling earns
enough to cover your champagne and travel budgets!
(4) Of the places you’ve visited, where was
your favourite?
Antarctica, without a doubt. I was taken as a VIP to tour the
NZ science programme there, it was extraordinary!
We've been Facebook buddies for a while, and I know you've been around
(but only in a nice way). I have many memories of reading your posts about
numerous trips and thinking 'Oh, I wish I could go there.'
I should have modified this question for you: Where are the FIVE
best places you've visited, as you're a globe-trotter?
So, name four more places to join Antarctica.
France is a favourite, helped by the
fact that I've got lots of friends who live there and I speak fluent French.
I went to Scotland for the first time
this year and LOVED it. Such a beautiful country and of course I tasted as much
whisky as possible.
Japan is also amazing, it's such a
different culture. The food was outstanding, and I developed quite a taste for
sake.
Closer to home in the Pacific is the
tiny island nation of Nuie. It's been many years since I was there, but my
enduring memory is of scuba diving in water so clear it was almost like
swimming in mid-air.
The 'VIP for a science programme' intrigued
me because I used to be a scientist (though I'm not expecting ever to be a
VIP). Were you a scientist at some stage of your working life, or have you only
ever been a non-scientific VIP?
I'm a marine
biologist and spent many years researching humpback whales in New Caledonia.
You
have no idea how jealous this makes me.
(5) Is there anywhere you haven’t been that
you’d love to visit?
I’d really like to go to Borneo to see the orangutans, and I
also have a hankering to stay in an ice hotel and see the northern lights.
I can understand both of these wishes. I went to Lapland last year. My
kids wanted to meet Santa, but I just wanted to see the northern lights. I
never even got to see the northern skies – there was constant cloud cover (and
lots of snowing) for the entire four days we were there. I’m planning on a trip
to Norway in November, where I’m hoping to see humpbacks, orcas, and hopefully
the northern lights, too.
(6) How do you spend your spare time when
you’re not sleeping or writing?
I play golf, practice Iaido, travel and enjoy drinking
wine & cocktails
I did searches for naked golfers and naked sword
fighters, and was amazed at the number of hits I got of men ‘sword fighting’
with their willies !
I think the woman with the sword will cheer up male readers, while the
cocktail waiters is more for the ladies…
Okay,
moving on to your writing:
(7) Is Jacqui Greaves your real name or a pseudonym?
It’s a version of me, but it’s not my day-to-day name.
(8) I use a female name as my penname, yet I’m
a guy. So, ‘Cock or Minge?’ (that’s a crude way of asking if you’re actually male
or female)
I’m a woman.
(9) How many people who know you in real life
are aware that you write smut?
Almost everyone…I tell anyone who asks what I write.
(10) Do
you remember your first dirty story, and why you wrote it?
My novel, Gods of Fire, was where explicit sex first slid into
my writing. While writing it I used short stories to experiment with plot and
form. It’s how I developed my writing voice. I didn’t set out intentionally to
include erotica/explicit sex in my work, it just happened that way.
I'm always impressed when authors can write
several stories simultaneously, though I have 'taken a break' from longer works
to write a short story for a deadline (which I guess was the case where you
were trying things in short stories).
How long did Gods of Fire take you to
write, from the first jotted ideas to the final edited version?
I started Gods
of Fire in 2014 and it took a little over three years to get the final version.
(11) Why do you write erotica?
I’m not 100% sure what I write falls neatly into the
label erotica, it’s usually another genre with erotic content. I sometimes just
describe it as explicit sex as I don’t want anyone to mistake my work as
romance. For me, sex is as normal as breathing and eating and therefore I
include it as an organic component of my stories. I think it also enables me to
explore an extra dimension to my characters – our sexual behaviour doesn’t
always align with our behaviours outside the bedroom.
(12) If someone reading this interview had never
heard of you, how would you describe your stories?
Weird combinations of fantasy, science fiction,
historical fiction and erotica. Oftentimes, they are violent and dark, and are
rarely romantic. My stories are highly descriptive and filled with interesting
characters with dubious morals.
(13) What’s the nicest thing anyone’s said about
your writing?
That I made them ugly cry.
(14) What’s the nastiest thing anyone’s said
about your writing?
That my story lacked narrative. To be honest, I don’t
even know what that’s supposed to be telling me…my story has no story? Meh.
(15) Do you write in other genres under other
pennames?
Nope.
(16) Talk
us through your writing process. Do you have definite plot-lines, or just start
writing and see where the characters take you?
I start with characters, setting and theme. Then, I map
out a vague plan, with pacing, approximate word counts, and a loose plot. Once
I start writing, the characters hijack the whole affair and run off with me
running behind them trying to keep up. It’s terrifying!
(17) What’s
your most satisfying writing moment?
I LOVE the moment when my characters find their own voice
and start taking charge.
(18) I
know many writers of smut get derogatory comments through social media. Do you
get these, and how do you cope? Have you ever been sent pictures of men’s
tackle? [For the record, I’ve never been sent photos of women’s bits, but if
people want to send them, my email address in on my website J]
So far I’ve had nothing, but I don’t have an enormous
following on either Facebook or Twitter, and have made a conscious effort to
keep real me slightly removed from writer me.
(19) If
someone was going on holiday and could take only one of your books with them,
which would you recommend, and why?
Gods of Fire…because it’s my first novel and it’s
awesome! It’s got elves and fucking and fire and death and so much more!!!!
(20) Are
there any subjects you wouldn’t be comfortable writing about or including in
your stories?
I shy away from M/M, and avoid BDSM and kinks as there
are others who know what they’re talking about and do a way better job than I
ever could!
Those two are on my list for the same
reasons, along with incest (or even pseudo-incest). I love my family, but not
in that way.
(21) Do
you set yourself targets? What are your long-term writing goals?
I’m inherently lazy so when writing for myself I tend not
to set targets. My long-term writing goals are to keep writing novels that entertain
me and earn enough money to keep me at the pointy end of the plane when I
travel with a glass of champagne in my delicate fingers!
(22) What
are you writing at the moment?
A fantasy – scifi tale of revenge set in an ethnically
isolated edo-period Japanese moon colony. A young woman has lost everything and
been forced into prostitution, but she isn’t who she seems to be. Sculptures
speak to her and there is another entity within her. Only when she becomes her
true self will she be able to save the Empire and satisfy her hunger for vengeance.
Wow - most people
need to take drugs to come up with ideas like that.
Does it have a
title and/or a release date, or is it a case of 'keep checking my website to
see when it's finished'?
I have a very vivid and weird imagination!
Working title is simply "The Japanese Story".
It's a 'watch this space' project, I do hope to get it published in 2019, but
who knows!
(23) Last
Question: For twitter, I’ve invented my own hashtag, #BMBTAF, which stands for
Buy My Books, They’re About Fucking. What hashtag can you come up with to help
your sales?
I really like yours…can I share it???
Certainly. You could even have your own
version and modify it to #BMBTAEF – which would be Buy My Books, They’re About
Elves Fucking
Thanks Jacqui. It was lovely to have you on here, and
good luck with Gods of Fire. I’ve read it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fabulous plot and great characters - with my favourite being the nunda, closely followed by the sleazy vampire.
Highly recommended.
People can find out more about Jacqui and her work
from the following links:
Website: www.jacquigreaves-author.com
Gods of Fire: http://books2read/GodsOfFire
Twitter handle: @JacquiG_Author
Books
and Blurbs
Guillaume
is an elf like no other. Sentenced to death as an infant by his own grandfather
and abandoned as a toddler by his mother, he grows up with no idea of who or
what he is. All he understands is that he has a voracious sexual appetite and
the power to render himself irresistible to any woman he desires. Raised by
lutins in the forests of Caledonia, his idyllic life is shattered when his full
powers are revealed in a violent display of fire and murder. Forced to leave
the only home he has known, Guillaume sets forth to unravel the mystery of his
heritage. But before he can confront his murderous grandfather, he must first
track down his mother and her warrior lovers. His quest takes him through
France and deep into Africa. As his powers grow it is up to his lifelong
companion, Smoke, to help him control the depraved primal urges that his
powerful and dangerous father inflames. When Smoke loses her influence, it's
not only the lives of those close to him that are threatened. Can the world
survive the ancient being that Guillaume becomes?
