From wild nights with Werewolves to steamy scenes with multiple people, bestselling Romance and Erotic Fiction Author Anna Lores writes the secret fantasies her readers' crave. We talk sensual escapes, paranormal fantasies and Fabio. Then, a special attractive Top 5.
Interview with Romance and Erotic Fiction Author Anna Lores
Speakers:
Nick VinZant: Profoundly Pointless Host
Anna Lores: Romance and Erotic Fiction Author
Nick VinZant 0:13
Hey everybody, welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant coming up in this episode, romance, erotic fiction and attractive men.
Anna Lores 0:25 your couple has to come together, even if it's many couples getting together at the end or a woman with five man or, you know, a man with five women, it doesn't matter. There's got to be that happy ending and it's got to be satisfying. You know, it is it's a tough industry, especially when people find out you write about sex in your stories. People can be really inappropriate, and you have to suspend a level of disbelief. With him being a werewolf, you know, it's like, I don't Anywhere we'll know anywhere we'll know. men cannot be perfect. women cannot be perfect all the time. But in your stories, they can be darn near it. And that's a great escape for a little while.
Nick VinZant 1:15 I want to thank you guys so much for joining us. If you get a chance to like, download, subscribe, share, we really appreciate it. It really helps us out. So ever since I was little I remember going to stores like Walmart and places like that, and seeing these romance novels, and then you would see him people would be reading them in TV and movies. And I always just wondered who's writing these? And where are they getting these ideas? Our first guest is one of the authors who writes them. She's an international best seller that focuses on romance and erotic fiction. This is Anna Lores So did you read romance novels before? Or was this a That you kind of just jumped into.
Anna Lores 2:02 I'm an avid romance reader. And I was before I started this journey into publishing, but I have an English literature degree. So my background, his middle and Old English, so I translated and read, you know cuckoos of Old English and Middle English works, which really sparked my interest in the romance genre. I didn't understand what the romance genre actually was until I started writing it. I didn't know that there were all these rules that went along with it. That really, that really sparked my my love for romance and romance novels. And books and stories. So
Nick VinZant 3:02 what there's rules to it like what are them?
Anna Lores 3:05 Okay, so I didn't know this when I first started. They you have to have a happy ending, you have to have a happy ending. It's not a romance, unless there's a happy ending. The driving force of a romance novel is the couple and their relationship. So that's going to be the central driving force of a romance novel. If you're writing romance, you have to have those two things straight up. If you don't, you're gonna upset every romance reader out there. So, yeah, they have to, your couple has to come together, even if it's many couples getting together at the end or a woman with five men or you know, a man with five women, it doesn't matter. There's got to be that happy ending and it's got to be satisfying.
Nick VinZant 3:59 A man who has five women. I mean that does sound satisfying. Okay. So where do you get these? Where do you get the ideas?
Anna Lores 4:06 Okay. Well, you know, that's really interesting because I've got a couple stories on how a few of my story, a few of the novels that I've written and been published, came out. One is with a woman with five with three, three men. And it's called Ella's triple pleasure. And I was at my house. I was living in Memphis, Tennessee, I was at my house, all my kids ended up with the flu. And I had a, you know, it was awful. All I can say is, it was horrible. And my husband was traveling on for work. I was to come with three, you know, Sick Kids, and they finally got a law and I got on my couch and I thought, Oh my gosh, how wonderful would it be if I had a man Help me. And that's what sparked that story. It was just I was desperate. I was exhausted. I was every mom out there who had, you know, three kids with the flu or one kid with the flu.
Nick VinZant 5:15 So when you're looking at it like most people would maybe think the title is more from like a sexual thing. But you were just looking for some help around the house basically.
Anna Lores 5:24 I was and it turned into a sexual you know, in the story, because that's, that's what I was writing about. But it's sparked from just pure desperation of, wouldn't it be fabulous to have three guys helping me out at home, and then pamper me when the day was over? So that's, that's how that came about.
Nick VinZant 5:48 So is there a difference? Is there a difference between romance novels in erotic fiction, or is that the same thing?
Anna Lores 5:54 No, it's actually different there. You could have erotic fiction is is different than erotic romance. So I write erotic romance which ends with a happily ever after. And the story is about the couple. So it's got the romantic elements of a centralized story with the character's relationship. And then it's got a happily ever after. But it also includes sex in the bedroom. So your instead of the door closing in a novel that you might read from, you know, like a mystery or some other story and erotic romance, you walk into the bedroom or public room and you experience their sexual relationship
Nick VinZant 6:44 Do books have ratings. Can you only make it so? R rated or pG 13? Like how does that work?
Anna Lores 6:51 Well, erotica, it can be anything under the sun I mean, with erotic romance and erotica, the two things that they are that are the same or the steamy hot sex but there is not a day a PG rating. If it is considered a erotic romance or erotica, it pretty much automatically puts you into an over 18 category. So, you know, which makes sense. I have children, they don't need to be reading my books, you know, right now their lives. They wouldn't you know that, therefore adults. So Amazon has this special rating if you're if you are in the erotic romance, writing, you're pretty much not going to be shown to almost anybody. So you have to specifically search for that book. But if you there's a like 50 Shades of Grey has it's got an erotic rating, but it's also got a romance rating. So it is shown under contemporary romance as a lot of books, like I write are. So I have some that are more steamy that I have put it into the erotic category because I feel like that's where they should be. But a book like LS, triple pleasure or my paranormal series one night of love those have some sex in it, but not any more than you really more so then you would get in a contemporary romance. I mean, you might get a little bit more but it's, it's still in that adult range.
Nick VinZant 8:50 So how did you get started? What motivated you to kind of write the first one?
Anna Lores 8:55 Well, I I ended up with insomnia. It's, I've had it for about 14 years now. And I started reading. I read 400 to 600 books a year, at a minimum. Yeah. And I was homeschooling my children. So I was homeschooling during the day, I was reading most of the night. And my husband was like, why don't you just write your own book? Because I would tell him about these books. I'm like, I really, this is what I want to read. You know, he's like, just write one. And so I thought, I'm gonna give that a shot. And so I called a friend of mine, and I said, Who's, who's the big reader? And I said, I'm gonna probably write a lot of crap at first, but would you've read it and tell me what you think? And she was great. She gave me a really good feedback. I finally Got a couple of stories that I really loved. I ended up taking that encouragement, and then sending it to some copy editors that I knew, and some avid romance readers just that we all we all talked about books. And so it ended up being kind of like a book club of my books with my girlfriends. It brought me back to college where everything ended up being read on the page. And when I got the, the right story with the right characters, and it got picked up. It's been an interesting ride, but it all started with insomnia.
Nick VinZant 10:47 So when you write these novels, like what's the ultimate kind of goal behind them? Are you are you trying to arouse people? Are you trying to fulfill a fantasy or are you just trying to tell a good story?
Anna Lores 10:58 It's always The story for me, so it's the story and the characters. And I guess I'm an adult. So I write what I like to read. So when I am working through the characters, they fall into bed just like a normal couple would. Whether they're married or whether they're not married yet, there's something that drives them together. And usually the first connection is chemistry. So, that plays a lot into it. Am I trying to, you know, it's my, my initial goal always, oh, let's make this arousing. No, it's where are those characters? What drives those characters? What are their flaws? what? what pushes them into those, those places where they are together and what happens when it's their first time?
Nick VinZant 11:56 from the audience perspective, though? What is like what is most of the audience In smoking for, are they looking for the arousal for the fantasy story? Are they looking for kind of just to be entertained?
Anna Lores 12:07 I think for me, it's an escape for real life. And it's a central escape. So is there a sense? Yes, there is definitely a sense of arousal, but it's the story that makes it work. So it's the story between the couple and their relationship that makes that makes it arousing or makes it not arousing
Nick VinZant 12:30 what his family or friends said about it, right? Because you hear like, Oh, I'm a romance novelist. I'm an erotic fiction novelist. Is there a reaction to that? Or are people just kind of like yeah, and some people, you know, work as accountants.
Anna Lores 12:45 Yeah. But I my family does. They're like, my immediate family knows what I do. But yeah, my extent now. Just my like, my husband and my kids know exactly what Right about but outside that not so much I've got some friends. I've actually told a few people and gotten hate mail over it and it's been really weird to me. But I've also you know, but the fans are great. I got a great review the other day and it was you know, you get good reviews you get bad reviews you've been if you've been a writer long enough it's gonna run the gamut. You can't please everybody and that's okay. It's not every story is not for everyone. But a great review, like I got the other day is someone wrote, you know, I read this five times. I love this story. You know, it's like, wow, you hold on to those because you might get a, you know, a one and it runs the gamut with that with friends and family too. My family's pretty supportive overall of everything. They don't read my stories. They shouldn't, you know, my children don't need to be reading adult fiction like this and my husband is not a romance reader. You know, it is it's a tough industry, especially when people find out you write about sex and your stories. People can be really inappropriate at times, and you just kind of have to roll with it.
Nick VinZant 14:31 So between reading your book titles, billionaire 43, billionaire 44 Ls triple pleasure, curse to love. Which one is your favorite book title? Just the title itself like, Ooh, that's a good romance title.
Anna Lores 14:48 Oh, boy, I think one night of love. You didn't mention that one. But that probably is the winner. When I came up with that, I just was like, yeah, even now I'm actually looking at the cover of that book. I love that.
Nick VinZant 15:10 I love that title. So for people who are just listening to this, I'm looking at the book title one night of love. It has an attractive man and woman on it, and then a wolf in the background or the foreground. I get those confused. So he's a wolf. What's the deal?
Anna Lores 15:27 Is he and she doesn't know it. So she is just desperate to have a baby. Her husband is dying of terminal cancer and she's in denial. She goes, she's a massage therapist to the rich and famous. And she's in Las Vegas where people go to do things they would never do in their normal lives. And she hooks up with a wall. She hooks up with With a wolf unknowingly and then leaves, oh, no. And that's where things get crazy.
Nick VinZant 16:12 Just to be to be clear, it's it's a werewolf. It's not just a wolf. It's not that kind of thing.
Anna Lores 16:18 No (laughter) this isn't Greek Mythology?
Nick VinZant 16:23 So this is kind of my immediate reaction to that. It's right like, and just explain it to me the way it is. Like at one point, I think like, Oh, my God, that sounds so ridiculous. Why would anyone read that? And then the other part of me is like, Oh, that's an interesting story. Like, how do you balance those two things out?
Anna Lores 16:42 I think that is a great question.I think the story is within the balance, it is one of those where there's got to be a plausibility, you It's like Shakespeare, you have to be able to suspend your disbelief. And so you're reading about these two people. And you have to suspend a level of disbelief. With him being a werewolf. You know, it's like, I don't know, anywhere we'll know anywhere we'll go.Or maybe you do. I don't know if you do. Okay.That's the story itself is, is my own take on werewolf lore. So it's a little different than you would see and other stories. It's got a sexual take on it and the meetings, the mating ritual is a lot more intense and there are drastic consequences to being apart from your mate. And there's a I hope that the that it works with the storyline that her situation is so desperate that it's just plausible enough that you can suspend your disbelief with the other elements of the story.
Nick VinZant 18:20 best romance writing trope, worst romance writing trope.
Anna Lores 18:28 You know, I'm a fan of the billionaire's. So I'd have to say that's one of my favorites. Were for me personally, I am not a fan of theOh gosh, what is it called?Um, it's the one where the guys are jerks. They're just total total jerks. I don't know how to say that in a nice way.
Nick VinZant 18:57 Not like the BDSM stuff, but like the guys just a jerk
Anna Lores 19:01 yes there there is a romance trope where the guys just treat the women like total crap and the women just women just dig that. I don't even I just don't like that in BDSM you get the full range of a meal gut feeling billionaires PDFs you know, great guys total jerks you get it?
Nick VinZant 19:26 Is there like a section of the romance erotic fiction area that sells better than others like supernatural sells better than Western and that sells better than this or is there like a subset that people target the most?
Anna Lores 19:44 It varies actually, from year to year. So paranormal always sells. I mean, it always sells I love paranormal erotic romance and that's one night of blood. And kirsta love those two are both in that genre. Those always do well the billionaire series always do well. But it is up and down and it it depends historicals are huge historicals are huge. That's Yeah, the men in kilts. All those. Yes. Really? I just thought oh my gosh, yes.
Nick VinZant 20:32 What is it about the kilt? Is it the killed specifically or is it just like anything?
Anna Lores 20:37 It's just that genre of writing you've got, I think it's with, you know, royalty and there's this. There's the fantasy of, you know, being swept away, you know, by a Duke, you know, you're a lowly made or something, I don't know. And then if there's, I've read a bill And those books and I love. I love them.They're just fun. They're fun.
Nick VinZant 21:08 What is the best erotic line or best line that you've written?
Anna Lores 21:14 Nick I've written a lot of words but there are some times when I reread and I go Wow! I had a good day that day.
Nick VinZant 21:24 Is there one that you look back on though? You're like, Oh, that's that's a little cringy. Like I even maybe I even went too far there.
Anna Lores 21:38 No, I usually added this out. If I don't feel good about it.
Nick VinZant 21:42 How do you feel about Fabio?
Anna Lores 21:44 Oh my gosh, you know, he's an icon.And I love what he's done with his career and how he makes fun of himself now. I mean, he has been on a bus zillion covers. He was Mr. Romance. You know if you saw a book with his cover the you knew exactly what you were getting. He did a great job in branding himself. And then now that he's older, he's doing a great job continuing to brand himself and kind of poke fun a little at himself. I love those like, something about the butter. It's like the, I can't believe it's not. Didn't he do those commercials? Yeah. They were awesome. I would giggle over all those. So, you know, Fabio is one of a kind. And I I do enjoy Fabio.
Nick VinZant 22:50 Especially now that he's out there, who's who's kind of the heir apparent though is there a new man or woman that's kind of taken over that romance novelist cover roll.
Anna Lores 23:03 You know there's a guy Jimmy Thomas. He has been on hundreds of covers. He is pretty incredible. He lives in California. I think he's a weight training dude. And he seems like a No. Oh, yeah. He's got a good luck for it. Yeah, I just, I just
Nick VinZant 23:31 I just googled him. I'm now look, I'm a married man and like, Okay, I get it. Jimmy Thomas looks he definitely looks like he works out, doesn't he?
Anna Lores 23:42 He does work out. I think he spends his entire life at the gym.And that imposing so I actually saw him speak at a conference. And he seems like a, you know, a decent guy. So just seems like a normal normal guy. He definitely
Nick VinZant 24:01 you can see why he could get so many covers right because he could do multiple. He's kind of got like the supernatural look, and the kinda clean loo he's got a lot of looks.
Anna Lores 24:13 Yeah, he's got a lot of pirate looks too. I think he's been on a must have been on so many covers of historical romances.
Nick VinZant 24:23 Have you ever written something that made you blush?
Anna Lores 24:26 Yeah. Huh? Yes, I my husband, my head I write in my, in my bedroom. I have like, sectioned off. I've got a little divider. And my husband comes in and I'm writing fiercely on the keyboard and he's like, Oh, what's this?
Anna Lores 24:47 Like, oh, You're blushing. A naughty scene? I'm like, yeah, honey. Yeah, yeah.
Nick VinZant 24:54 I don't know what the follow up question for me. Should be All right, I didn't know if I should. I didn't know if I should keep going or if I should just drop that one.
Anna Lores 25:14 (Laughter) I think we can move on but it makes for an interesting life, that's for sure
Nick VinZant 25:19 I would imagine it does. Like what do you think though? What do you think is the the need for this? Like why do people kind of get drawn to these books?
Anna Lores 25:32 You know, from personal experience just, I can really only speak to my own and I think it speaks kind of to a certain age of women. The books that I write really appeal to women around 30 to 5560. You get to a point in your Life and it's just like any internet escape. These are not hard reads. They are. You don't have to work at them. You can pick them up, you know, enjoy an escape, enjoy reading about a very good looking man. You know, pleasing a woman and wanting to do all the things that are kind of unrealistic in real life. When you're married, you have life, you know, you've got kids, or you don't have kids, you've got dogs or cats or you're living alone and, you know, you're working. You're schlepping a job, you're, you've got all of these responsibilities and romance novels take you out of that. And I think that you know, I actually have a better relationship with my husband now that I'm a romance writer than I did prior to doing this. I talk a lot more to them are.And it's, there's a you know, knowing that I've got this book boyfriend to go, oh, wouldn't it be like I said, you know, with LS triple pleasure. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I had a three men to just do you at all? You know, that's not realistic. And men cannot be perfect. women cannot be perfect all the time. But in your stories, they can be darn near it. And that's a great escape for a little while.
Nick VinZant 27:52 Oh,that's a great answer. Um, that's honestly pretty much all the questions that I have. Is there any anything else like what's coming up next For you,
Anna Lores 28:00 well, I have three more stories and my fertile virgin short story books coming out soon my editor has them right now and she's working through them. And then I've got the my debut novels that I just got my rights back from the horseless series. That's going to be coming out in the next month or two. And then I've got I'm hoping to have two more of two more stories that no one has ever seen before come out by the end of the year, so I've got a lot to happen in. This is a big year for me. Big year.
Nick VinZant 28:49 I want to thank Anna so much for joining us if you want to connect with her. We have linked to her on our social media accounts, or Profoundly Pointless on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and have also included links to her books. And to her website in the RSS feed that's on this podcast. I think that she said something really interesting at the end, because you hear some of these stories and like what the themes of these novels are about. And maybe you think it's this and maybe you think it's that, but who cares? If people like them, if it's an escape, let people enjoy themselves.