I'm so happy Robin you have accepted to be our guest.

I read The Lover some years ago, and I remember I was so struck by it I could not think of anything else for many following days.

It was the first time I read an erotic romance by an author who had the courage and such rare skills to write about the darkest side of society, abuses, humiliation and violence and in spite of this portraiting such shining characters.

For all the time I had a knot in my stomach, I couldn't put it down, I could only go ahead, even if what I read was hurting and desperate.

After reading your interview I must read Gabriel's woman.

You say love is our reward for the pain, but sometimes love is pain, if you're not brave enough to grab it and fight for it. I think your characters are not only survivors, but also fighters.

I'd like to ask you a couple of question: how did you start writing erotic romance? why did you choose it as your genre?

and how do you perform your historical research?

thank you in advance for your answer.

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Dear Naan! (I hope that is your name? It was at the bottom of your post, by some little boxes)

It is my great pleasure to be a guest here at ISN’T IT ROMANTIC?

I’m glad you enjoyed THE LOVER. It was a very dark book: I remember sending it off to my editor, and then waiting to hear from her. Over a glass of wine the day after I mailed it, I whined to Don that she wasn’t going to like it: She was going to throw it in the trash. He had only read the first six chapters, and asked why wouldn’t she like it? When I told him about the “dark” scene, he asked, “What were you thinking?! She might very well toss it in the trash.” Even as I was whining, my editor called and left a message on my voice mail that she loved THE LOVER. If only I’d had the phone turned on upstairs, it would have saved a lot of angst!

You’re right, sometimes love is painful. And if you don’t fight for it, well. . . . I think Mrs. Jenkins in SCANDALOUS LOVERS best sums it up: “ A woman's got one life: she’s got to reach out and grab it with both hands, or it'll pass her by and leave nothing but a smelly old fart in her face.”

To answer your questions. . . .

HOW DID YOU START WRITING EROTIC ROMANCE?

The first book I wrote was a science fiction novel. My second book was a historical vampire book that while it had a romance in it, it wasn’t a romance. My third book was a political satire, or what I fondly call my chicken book. None of them sold. In order to keep writing, I really had to make some money at it. So I sat down and evaluated what I had written. Each book was a “relationship” book. Romance was the hot genre at the time (and still is), so I decided to write AWAKEN, MY LOVE. 28 agents rejected it, one agent telling me I simply could not start off a romance book with a masturbation scene (the catalyst for my heroine to time travel). The 29th agent loved it. It sold to Avon Books five days after my agent submitted it.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE IT AS YOUR GENRE?

That’s simple: In psychology, we’re taught that we have three basic needs that drive us: the need for food/water; the need to avoid pain; and the need for sex. Sex is a primal need; I simply can’t ignore that. No matter what I write, it will include that primal drive for sexual intimacy. Romance seems to be more accepting of that than other genres, so I am marketed in the romance genre.

HOW DO YOU PERFORM YOUR HISTORICAL RESEARCH?

Anymore, a lot of it is available online. When I started writing, I lived at my library. They got so many research books for me. They even found a “Pillow Book!” They also found an unexpurgated copy of THE PERFUMED GARDEN. With SCANDALOUS LOVERS and CRY FOR PASSION I depended a lot upon law libraries at universities, but still, for everyday life in Victorian England, the web is a good source. Over the years, I’ve also accumulated my own library. I have a the translated copy of a diary from a Jesuit priest dating c1680. And I have a medical textbook dating c1840.

Thank you for your questions, and your very kind compliments.

ROBIN SCHONE