Erotic Review Interview

WriteWords

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WriteWords talks to the Erotic Review, a magazine who publish writing from 'the practically pornographic to the gently allusive.' Recently, published work has ranged through subjects as diverse as horses, caviar and a talking vulva.

Tell us about the Erotic Review

Erotic Review began as the newsletter for the art publisher the Erotic Print Society, then expanded exponentially and went independent for one year. It's now under the wing of Felix Dennis at Dennis Publishing ltd. It has always been edited by Rowan Pelling, and is now a glossy some 84 pages long. The content is a mixture of literary short stories, original features, extracts, photos and illustrations. Each issue is themed, ie "Hollywood" or "Motoring". Our definition of "erotic" is very elastic - the writing ranges from practically pornographic to gently allusive. There's a fulltime editorial staff of six (five women and one man).

What kind of writing do you look for?

High-brow, sexy, funny stuff.

Favourite writers?

Impossible to say! Our hall of fame of past contributors includes (to give an idea of the variety): DBC Pierre, Michel Faber, Sarah Waters, Anthony Bourdain, Helen Walsh, Auberon Waugh, Barry Humphries, Helen Cross, Kathy Lette, Miranda Seymour, Robert Irwin, Belle de Jour... This year we've had stories and features on things as diverse as caviar, Tahiti, horses, Bugattis, footballers, burlesque dancers, hallucinogenic drugs, yachts and a talking vulva.

What kind of writing excites you?

Something original, but still convincing. It's very hard to write good sex, and easy to write a comic account of bad sex: there are lots of traps awaiting the would-be erotic writer.
You need to be very precise in the use of language, and be careful with your euphemisms. Sometimes calling a spade a spade is preferable to calling it an exquisite rosy-hued digging device.
Then there's the cliches - lots of erotic scenarios can seem pretty hackneyed (ie Victorian-style initation of virgins, milkmen coming to call...). And we instantly destroy anything mentioning "rosebud clitori".
And you need to keep track of what the various limbs and orifices of your protagonists are at any given time - your orgy won't work if the person who was meant to be at one end is then simultaneously supposed to be at the other. It's a bit like Twister - if your right foot is on yellow, is it technically possible to put your left on green when you right hand is on blue.
Anyone who begins their covering letter "Dear Mr Pelling" clearly hasn't read the magazine, or else they'd know that our editor is a woman. The all time best example of this has to be the person who wrote "Dear Mr Pelling" and rounded up by saying "Are you the attractive leggy redhead in the photo on the website?" It's essential to know the publication, and it really shows if someone hasn't bothered to do their research. We're not looking for things that are unerotic or more suitable for Razzle or twenty pages long. Once someone sent in a novel and asked if we'd find them an agent and a publisher - which was pretty silly.
We're also not looking for stories that cover a recent theme - if we've already covered something, we can't run another piece that retreads it.

A longer version of this interview is available to WriteWords Full and Community Members.
Click here to learn more about becoming a member.

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Comments by other Members

Account Closed at 09:16 on 20 July 2004 Report this post

Great interview and it sounds like an interesting magazine. The web site is pretty snazzy and it does look very high-market. I'd read it ;)

Ste