- Your novel, Naked Montreal, published with Buttontapper Press. How did you discover Buttontapper?
Buttontapper Press is the book publishing wing of my vast Vixen Enterprises empire. Okay, Vixen Enterprises is still a work in progress, but it’s slowly building steam. It started with my “V for Vixen” sex column in a Montreal alt-weekly newspaper, which became a collection of essays called The Vixen Files: Naughty Notes from a Montreal Sex Columnist. Adding to the catalogue, I’ve published two installments in the Naked Montreal series: Part 1 is subtitled “Sex and the Underground City,” while Part 2 is known as “Porn Stars and Peccadillos.” I have at least two more installments in the series planned before I combine them into an omnibus edition, all centering around the sex life and times of Francesca “Frankie” Parker, a saucy tour guide to the Sin City of the North. Under the Buttontapper banner, I’ve also published a ninja novella, several sexy haiku collections, and The Portable Laura Roberts, which is a round-up of my short stories from across various genres. I’ve got several nonfiction books in the works, including Hack Your Love Life, which spotlights the best sex apps for Apple and Android, and look forward to releasing many more sexy, humorous titles in the future.
- Where did your inspiration come from for this book? Was there a character that just had to be heard? Was there an event that inspired you to start writing?
For Naked Montreal, my inspiration was my time on the beat as a sex columnist. Instead of writing the typical Q&A column, à la Savage Love (because really, who can compete with Dan Savage?), I considered myself a sex reporter and went out in search of anyone and anything connected with sex work and the sex industry. It’s a multi-million dollar industry, yet it rarely gets any serious coverage by the mainstream media – isn’t that funny? Anyway, in Montreal most people have a fairly casual attitude towards sex in general, so it was fairly easy for me to meet people who were involved with burlesque, stripping, organizing sex-themed parties, selling sex toys at female-friendly stores, and all that jazz, and I just asked them a ton of questions. They were all super friendly, artistic people who were happy to share their stories, and although I wrote about a lot of that stuff non-fictionally, I also had a lot of stories that didn’t make it into my columns, which I turned into this series, led by an intrepid tour guide who shows people around the “real” Montreal. It’s really fun to write, because I don’t feel I have to censor myself as much as I might with a nonfiction book, but also because I really like these characters. They’re playful and don’t take themselves too seriously, and they know how to turn every day into a party.
- Does your background (in terms of job, family, geographic location, etc.) play into your writing? What kind of research went into your story?
Yes, I always like to use my background as inspiration for my stories. Although they’re not strictly autobiographical, they do weave in some of my personal experiences as well as stories other people have told me about their own experiences doing sex work and exploring their sexual selves. I’m really fascinated by seduction, in all its forms, and the ways that people view sex and sexuality. I also really dislike the way sex work is typically portrayed in fiction, with characters like the “hooker with the heart of gold” or the drug-addicted stripper falling into the abyss, and I really wanted my characters to show a more complicated and somewhat more realistic side of sex work and the people who do it – even if my books are works of fiction. In Canada, sex work is a lot less criminalized than here in the U.S. (though it’s still not a perfect system), so there are some interesting cultural differences at play as well. I think Montreal is perceived as very exotic to most Americans, because it’s a French-speaking province, has a lower drinking age than in the States, and is quite permissive about a lot of the things that American culture is pretty uptight about, so it’s a really great setting for my stories, which show both the good and the bad sides of sexual encounters.
- Describe the genres in which you write (paranormal, contemporary, westerns, etc.) If write in more than one genre or area (poetry, non-fiction), do you have a different process when you’re writing different kinds of fiction or non-fiction?
I write mostly erotica and humor on the fiction side, and have started writing more educational or informational books on the nonfiction side. There’s definitely a different process there, because the fiction side requires conjuring up scenes from my wild imagination, whereas the nonfiction side is mostly about hunting down research and then presenting it in a fun way. Both play on similar topics, usually involving love, relationships and sex, but approach them from a different angle. When I’m writing fiction, I’m just letting loose. When I’m writing nonfiction, I feel a little more editorial, since it’s a lot of rewriting and bringing facts forward in an educational but sassy manner.
- What is your mind set or process as you sit down to write? Do you have a playlist going? Do you need complete silence? Are you a 6 am writer or an 11 pm writer?
I’m one of those weird writers who needs silence to write. I typically can’t write with any playlist going, unless the music is pure instrumental. I do like to write with classical music playing (my favorite station is called Venice Classic Radio, and they play nothing but nonstop classical hits, with almost no interruptions) if the neighbors are getting a little too rowdy, but since my day job involves transcription and I frequently have headphones on all day, I really prefer to just lose myself in the writing and ignore all the outside sounds. My best time of day to write varies, but I think I’m probably better in the morning before I have any work weighing on my mind. If I can just get up, hop on the computer, and go, that’s a lot better for my fiction than trying to get to it after I’ve already checked my email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Just that blank slate really helps me start conjuring up new ideas and figuring out what to do with the story I’m trying to tell.
- How do you balance writing with work and/or personal life?
More and more, I need to set aside specific times to write or nothing will get done. If you lose momentum on a project, it can be really difficult to get back to it. So I try to just chip away at things a little bit each day, even if it’s only to make notes about what I want to do when I have more time to get back to a project. I work from home, so it makes it a little bit easier to just say time out and hit a writing project for a little while, but I also have to remember to get up and walk away from the keyboard, too, since sitting down for 8 hours a day is killing us all. I bought a Fitbit to remind me to get up and moving every day, and that little frowning face is strangely motivational!
- Do you have any other projects you’re working on?
I’ve got a few, including a sexy murder mystery called The Case of the Cunning Linguist; a collection of short erotic stories based on star signs called Zodiac Sex; and a book that combines educational info about sex toys with short fiction involving said toys called Play With Me: Sex Toys from A to Z, which is based on a month-long A to Z challenge I did in April of this year. I always like to have a bunch of projects on the go so that if I get stuck on one, I can switch to one of the others.
- Any words of advice for aspiring writers?
BIC HOK TAM: Butt In Chair, Hands On Keys, Typing Away Madly. It’s the motto of the Book In A Week website, which is kind of like a mini-Nanowrimo that happens every month. You choose your own daily goals, and update your page count each day, and there’s a community of people cheering you on. Join up if you’re lacking the motivation to keep going with one of your projects.
- Social media: Tell us where readers can find you (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, website)
I’m on Facebook – http://facebook.com/LauraRobertsWriter
Twitter – http://twitter.com/originaloflaura
GoodReads – http://goodreads.com/lauraroberts
Google+ – https://plus.google.com/+LauraRobertsButtontapper
And my website is http://buttontapper.com
10. Book links: Tell us where to find your books!
You can find my books at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble (for Nook), in the iBookstore, on Scribd, or you can hit up the Buttontapper Press bookstore (http://buttontapper.com/my-books/) for links to your favorite booksellers.
