Forbidden Pleasures by Bertrice Small

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

Heart to Heart Interview with Bertrice Small

Heart to Heart: We love Forbidden Pleasures, your second erotic contemporary. For us, one of the special pleasures is the behind-the-scenes look at the world of romance publishing. It starts with a romance author who has been told to write hotter and the handsome Irish editor who's assigned to help her. We know this is fiction -- but has any part of this happened to you or your author friends?

Bertrice Small: I wish! No, my editors are lovely women who seem to get younger and cuter as I get older. I suppose I've inhaled a certain amount of minor publishing knowledge and industry gossip over the years, but none of Forbidden Pleasures is based on fact or real people. If it were, we would all be like the authors in this book, Emily Shann or Savannah Banning!

HtoH: As in Private Pleasures, this book features the mysterious interactive cable system, The Channel, which lets women dream up their personal fantasy and have a physical relationship with it? How did you get this idea -- and have you trademarked it?

BS: What a great idea! I shall trademark it immediately. As to how I came up with it, I'm very tech-challenged, actually, but I make up for it with a very deviant imagination. It's actually something I wish were real. And if it were, I would be the first on the block to have it!

HtoH: Many of your fans know you best for your historical romances. What are the challenges of working in different modes? Do they require a mental switch?

BS: Yes, different subgenres do require a mental switch. With my historical romances, I am very focused on both the story and the history. It's absolutely important to me that they mesh. And the characters have to behave properly for their time period. With the fantasy series I doing, I'm free as a bird to do whatever I want, and they are probably my most creative endeavors right now. I have no earth history to lock me in. I don't have to worry about names being correct for a certain period, or foods, or anything other than to write what I chose to write. It's very creatively liberating. The erotic contemporaries are the most difficult. I don't consider myself a 21st- or even 20th-century person. But once I created the small town of Egret Pointe, I found myself right at home. I live in small-town America, and I have to say that I love the characters in Forbidden Pleasures. And I believe anyone who lives in a close-knit neighborhood can relate. I keep these stories close -- something I learned from my friend Barbara Bretton. As for the sex -- well, some is from experience and some from darned good research. But of course there is just so much one can do with the human body. My husband likes to joke, "And how did they do it today? Upside down in a barracks bag."

HtoH: What and who are the TV shows and authors you enjoy most these days?

BS: I don't get a great deal of time to read for pleasure these days, but I've recently become hooked on Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series. It's so imaginative and sexy. As for TV, everyone knows I'm addicted. I love shows with good writing. I'm a big sci-fi fan. I think my favorite series was Babylon 5. I actually bought five years of DVDs. I love the original StarGate movie and the two series that came from it, and Dr. Who (I was watching him back in the '70s), and the new Battlestar Gallactica, and of course all the Trek series, and Dune. I am going to miss Everwood and 7th Heaven. I'm a big Gilmore Girls watcher, CSI, CSI Miami, Without a Trace, and of course, Survivor and The Amazing Race. My husband got me interested last year in watching Dancing with the Stars. Drew Lachey and Sharron blew me away. As I said, I love television, but then I was brought up in the industry. My late parents were network executives.

HtoH: What are you working on next?

BS: Well, next published will be a new historical series in October. The title of the book is A Dangerous Love, and it's set in both England and Scotland in the mid-15th century. I'm currently writing the third book in the World of Hetar series, The Twilight Lord, which will be out in 2007. Readers should keep an eye on my web site at www.BertriceSmall.com. Just go to the Coming Attractions pages.