Interview with Lucy Felthouse

by C. Margery Kempe

I’m pleased to have Lucy Felthouse join me again to talk about her latest publication, Ditched. I’ve had the opportunity to do readings with Lucy in London and Leicester, so I can attest to her being just as bright and lively in person as her stories are.

If you were a book, what would your tagline be?

Enter with caution

What inspired Ditched?

A friend of mine used to be in the army. He has a very dirty mind, so I’m always asking him for ideas for stories and things, and he often comes through. On this occasion, though, he’d just been telling me about when he went on exercise, because I love to hear army stories, too. He told me about a screw up with a pickup, and how he and the guy he was on exercise with had to wait for hours in a ditch.

So that gave me the idea to write a military story with that as its basis. But I’m certain that my friend did absolutely nothing erotic with the guy he was with—he’s as straight as they come. I haven’t told him I wrote the story yet!

What started you writing romance?

A dare at University. I actually started out writing pure erotica, but the longer I’ve been writing, the more variety I’ve put into my work. Different pairings, situations, locations and also romance. Or not. I write all sorts!

How did you develop your craft?

I’m still developing it. I don’t think I’ll ever stop. My degree is in Creative Writing, which I think helped me a lot, but I certainly didn’t graduate as a perfect writer!

What makes a great heroine?

It depends on the person, really, as everyone has differing opinions. But I tend to write heroines that I like; quite strong, fun women who know what they want.

What’s sexy?

A sense of humour and a nice smile. And Jeremy Renner, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, etc.

What makes you laugh?

All kinds of things. My other half, we’re always laughing together about stuff. My dog makes me laugh every single day—usually every single time I look at him. He’s bonkers. My favourite TV shows make me laugh. Books. My friends. My family. I laugh quite a lot, often at myself.

Do you ever incorporate real people/events into your stories?

Sort of. Like I mentioned earlier, I took a real event, twisted it and made it erotic. I’ve done that before—that’s why I like talking to people because I can glean ideas from stuff they say. I’ve never written someone I know into a story—I tend to use actors and actresses as my muses, but of course I don’t really know what their personalities and sexual preferences are, so I have to make all that stuff up! But that’s the best part—you can make your favourite male actor absolutely fabulous in the sack, with a great body. That may not be the reality, but that’s the beauty of fiction!

How do you balance writing with the rest of your life?

I just cram writing in here, there and everywhere. I run my own business helping writers with promotion and creating websites, so that has to take priority as it’s a guaranteed income. But it also means that I can shift my workload around to allow me chunks of time in which to write.

What’s the most common mistake people make about you?

Non-writing folk often assume that because I write erotica, that everything I write about is something I’ve done. I then have to point out that I’m neither a man, a soldier, a police officer, a vampire, a werewolf, a lesbian… the list goes on. It usually shuts them up, too.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?

I’ve achieved quite a few of my ambitions this year in terms of publishers and editors I was aiming for, so my next goal is to have a novel published by the time I’m 30. I’m in the process of writing a novel, so by the time it’s finished I’ll have a couple of years to get it published—wish me luck!

Good luck! I look forward to reading it. What’s the best advice you ever received?

Don’t be precious with your words. You might think a particular phrase or word is brilliant, but if it doesn’t help the story, you have to be prepared to remove it.

If money were no object, what would be your ideal vacation?

Oh wow, so many places I’d like to go! I would absolutely love to tour America in a camper van with my other half. To go anywhere we fancied at our own pace, see cool things, meet cool people… the possibilities are endless!

What’s next for you?

Finishing my novel and hopefully getting it published!

And now, here’s an excerpt from Ditched:

“This can’t be fucking right!” said Lance Corporal Michael Scott, checking his map for the umpteenth time.

“I can assure you, Scott, that it fucking is,” responded his colleague, Private Damien Stone. He nudged the other man, pointed to a place on his own map, then raised his arm and indicated a rise in the ground in the near distance.

“See, that’s that long barrow, so we are in the right place.”

Looking at the barrow—one of the many on Salisbury Plain—then down at the map, and finally at his compass, Scott had to agree.

“So where the fuck are they, then?”

Stone had no answer for that one. He looked up into the lightening sky, which in the distance was being slowly tinged with pink, but saw no sign of their pick-up helicopter. Straining to hear even the faintest sound of rotor blades, Stone remained silent. Hearing nothing, he shrugged.

“Dunno. Perhaps we got the time wrong, or something?”

“I hope not, otherwise they’ve gone without us!”

“Nah. We’re early, if anything. The sun’s only just coming up.”

Sighing, Scott stuffed his map and compass into a pocket, and said, “Well, I guess we’d better find somewhere to shelter. I don’t like the look of that.”

The that he was talking about was an ominous-looking black cloud being buffeted in their direction by the wind, which was picking up rapidly.

“With you on that one.”

On an unspoken command, the two of them immediately split up and started to look around for somewhere they could keep out of the wind and imminent rain. It wasn’t long before Scott shouted out, and Stone immediately turned and headed in the direction of his colleague’s voice.

When Stone arrived, Scott had already removed his backpack and dropped it into the ditch he’d found and was striding down the slope to join it. Luckily, there’d been no rain over the past few days so the ground was dry. If the coming rainstorm ended up being heavy, it was entirely possible they’d get wet arses, but for now at least they’d be

reasonably comfortable.

Following his colleague’s example, Stone shrugged off his pack. Turning, he saw that Scott was standing with his arms out, ready to catch it. Tossing it, he gave a curt nod of thanks before heading down into the ditch.

Once there, he saw that some scrub covered a couple of sizeable rocks, meaning that they would at least be able to sit down. It would have to rain pretty damn hard for the water level in the ditch to get as high as the top of the rocks, so they’d be all right until the chopper arrived.

Buy Ditched

*****

Lucy is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied Creative Writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story – so she did. It went down a storm and she’s never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Constable and Robinson, Decadent Publishing, Ellora’s Cave, Evernight Publishing, House of Erotica, Ravenous Romance, Resplendence Publishing, Sweetmeats Press and Xcite Books. She is also the editor of Uniform Behaviour, Seducing the Myth, Smut by the Sea and Smut in the City. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9