About Me — Patricia Ray

A Private Space of Me: Erotica Frees Me As a Writer

There’s this thing about finishing something at the last possible moment and after you think it’s done, you find out you made a mistake. It’s the story of my life, really. I seem unable to get my shit together and observe deadlines smoothly. I guess I load too much on my pitchfork, so I wobble to the hay wain as if I’m drunk. Most of the time, no one is aware of it. I correct myself and my mistakes. But I often feel silly and exhausted. I love writing prose because it never makes me feel silly or exhausted, even though rewriting and editing can be a bitch. In my daily working life, I’m always part of a collective artistic process. My need to write prose relates to the autonomy of it, which offers me a different joy and exhilaration from collaborating with other people.

When I started writing erotic stories, it was a private indulgence, something to try out. When I decided to self-publish under a pen name, I had realised the genre gave me an opportunity to roam more freely in my prose. Like many erotic-romance authors, this part of my creativity is mostly unknown to those around me. But this ‘secrecy’ also adds to my freedom as a writer.

I dabbled at prose on and off for many years, but it somehow never flowed. Although I always revelled in my imagination, erotica has truly opened flood gates. Not because of the explicit sex — although it plays an important part — but in general, I feel unhindered. I’m in this private space of me. The pen name is more than a superficial cover, it’s an alter ego. Patricia Ray has always been with me, and as another erotica author put it recently, ‘She just never had a playground to play at’. I cherish this playground. And hopefully, my readers cherish it too. Homo Ludens.

You can find me and my books through My Link Gallery.