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12 x Tops

My top stories tell a story

Recently writer/blogger Posy Churchgate tagged me to follow up on her article about her favourite Medium stories and articles. Paul Mansfield started posting about his 12 faves, and it’s becoming a chain of articles by writers not just listing but commenting on their most popular and favourite stories. And tagging other writers, inviting them to do the same. So here are my 12 x Tops.

Layover Lust is lonely at the top. Published at MyErotica, it has had 1k+ views till now which I’m sure is because of MyErotica’s large following of 21K. But what I like better than the clicks is the 56% read ratio, which means about 600 actual people read this story. It might be peanuts to some on Medium, but to me, that’s amazing. I’m writing erotic romance since 2018 and only started on Medium early this year.

I got a kick-start in writing erotica when I took part in the Smut Marathon in 2019. Not only did the assignments of this erotica competition keep me writing regularly, but also it introduced me to writers and bloggers like Marie A. Rebelle, May More and others who were quite supportive. One assignment of the Smut Marathon prompted me to write a small historical piece about the painter Toulouse-Lautrec as an enthusiastic peeping tom. For MyErotica I rewrote and extended it into Parisian Peepshow, still one of my faves.

Another rewrite of a Smut Marathon assignment is Duty Call. At the time, I used a well-known First Lady as a surprise ending. I thought it was funny, but it put a lot of readers off, which probably cost me votes in the Marathon. In the current story, the Principal is totally fictional, so you can enjoy her romp in a safe room with no distracting images in mind.

Two years ago I cancelled my gym membership and bought a gravel bike. I had enough of sweating it out in a space filled with people obsessing over their bodies. What bothered me most was the noise and the constant stream of shitty music. I used headphones for a while but sport for me is not bombarding my mind with more stimuli but actually getting rid of it. I now go off on my own to the countryside or through the dunes for an hour or two. Of course, my dirty mind doesn’t stop making up sexy stories, so Wheels of Fortune was conceived (a pun you’ll get when you read the story).

I’ve been lucky to meet Posy Churchgate and May More through the Smut Marathon, because earlier this year they established Tantalizing Tales and Titbits on Medium. I had just started out here too, and was considering writing a story serial for Medium especially. They gave me the opportunity to publish it with them, and Posy has been a wonderful and encouraging editor for what has become The Leatherbound Diaries. One of the most successful episodes in the series is this one. I’ve always liked the combination of food and sex, so to write a story about a young woman being devoured on a dinner table by a group of swingers was pretty enticing to write.

The series started with a simple story of a young woman picking up a man in a hotel bar and having sex with him in his room. Hotel sex is a favourite subject for many writers and readers. Recently lesfic author KC Bloom tweeted this:

She’s right. Hotel rooms make most people horny as soon as they enter them. I think it’s because hotel rooms are basically bed rooms without a personal history. It’s like, ‘O look, a comfy bed, shouldn’t we…?’ For Cathy, the main character in The Leatherbound Diaries, the anonymity of having sex in hotels is important. Why? Well, read the series and find out.

When I started out writing erotic-romance, my first idea was to develop a series of short stories, inspired by the chat rooms of the late 90s and early 00s. I planned on writing at least ten standalone stories, self-publishing them one by one and, in the end, offer anthologies under the umbrella title Stories from the Box.

The Pleasure Den is now the fourth in the series. But when I wrote it, I knew it would be the last one. Writing about a popular phenomenon from twenty years ago, soon lost its appeal. I wanted to bring in new tech, and it often felt a bit forced to do so.

In the end, I love the four stories I wrote, and The Pleasure Den is one of my faves, but do not expect more Stories from the Box.

After finishing the Stories from the Box-series, I wanted to do a collection of short stories that were brewing in my head. But then the pandemic took over daily life. I was lucky to continue most of my regular (paid) work, but I had more time to write. I didn’t realise it at first, but the consequences of Covid slowly crept into my writing. Most of the short stories in Queen without Clothes (2021) deal with isolation and lust, socially distanced desire and remotely induced satisfaction. The stories are still upbeat, humorous and sexy, but only when I read this wonderful review by Charlotte Ewings, did I realise how much the current circumstances influenced my writing.

Through my erotic writing, I’ve discovered I’m partial to exhibitionism and voyeurism. The theme of the Peeping Tom interests me. Anyone who’s read all of my published work (are you out there, diligent fan?) would certainly come to this conclusion. In The Leatherbound Diaries, there are many references to Cathy being an exhibitionist and, in episode 6, she discovers her neighbour is a peeping tom. I like the atmosphere of this short story. Plus, I was happy to include quotes from Georges Bataille like this one, “Eroticism shelters in a wildness that embodies an excess disrupting the rules of decency in everyday life.’’ I also love the picture I found to accompany it. This is Cathy to me. Her nudeness, the rose tattoo, the wig, but mostly her obvious vulnerability. True erotic romance.

Threesomes. You can’t ignore them as an erotic author. When I introduced Cathy to Caitlin and Werner for the first time in episode 5, I knew she had to go back to them for another threesome. At the end of part 5, I placed a hint with Caitlin inviting Cathy back, so four episodes later there she is. It resulted in my first pegging scene, which I guess people like, because it’s one of the more popular episodes in the series.

Do erotica authors think about their work like any other author? Of course they do. Obviously. But the perception of the erotica writer is unique. In The Wanking Writer, I’ve put down my thoughts on the subject. Maybe not a bestseller here on Medium, but pretty important if you ask me.

It’s often asked of writers whether they use different pseudonyms if they write in different genres. Naturally, opinions differ. In erotica there are writers who even use different names for every subgenre they write in, others who just mix it all up. When I completed The Leatherbound Diaries and proposed to Tantalizing Tales and Titbits to start an erotic vampire serial, I knew it was quite a leap from what I’d been writing till then and to dive into an entirely different (sub) genre. But here I am doing it, as Patricia Ray. In what way it affects how readers perceive Patricia Ray, I don’t know, but for now I’m enjoying myself immensely by creating this hyper-sexy and sometimes bloody supernatural world.

As Posy tagged me, I’ll tag a few other writers/bloggers to extend the chain of Top 12’s. Or 10, 11 or 8, it’s up to you: Natalie Hothorne, Sonja Rae, E. L. Byrne, The Secret Submissive, F. Leonora Solomon, Abigail Storm, Zahira Moreno (Miss Moreno) and Dierdre Winter.