Why I write what I do

I don't like being asked what I do.

"What do you do, Anna?"

"I'm a writer."

"Oh. What do you write?"

I usually say "Whatever pays." Last week it was an e-book on stock trading, a couple of articles on Istanbul, and three chapters of a book based on the life of Emma Hamilton. Come out with that little lot and I can see I'm losing my audience...

And also, I write erotica.

That gives many people the wrong idea. An awful lot of men seem to think that writing erotica means I'm 'available'. (Judging by the average attractiveness of the men who think this, they also seem to believe that erotica writers are blind ...)

So, why do I write erotica?

Well, as above; it pays. That's one reason.

Secondly, I find it an interesting arena in which to play slightly naughtily with different concepts. For instance, a voyage through the senses, each one taken separately. Or the idea that through acting, we're able to access different parts of ourselves. I like to be naughty and introduce historical characters in cameo roles (I'm just researching Daniel Solander, a Swedish botanist who worked in London in the late eighteenth century). For me, this 'naughtiness' as a writer is profoundly satisfying.

If you like this kind of writer's naughtiness, by the way, may I recommend Kingsley Amis's 'The Alteration' - a marvellous work of alternate history that is artful, arch, and thoroughly entertaining?

I write historical erotica and it's an interesting challenge to immerse myself in the life of a period, whether that's eighteenth century Europe, the Camino de Santiago in Chaucer's time, or Ottoman Istanbul. (By the way, one of the most challenging aspects is getting the clothes right; did eighteenth century ladies wear knickers? Do men's shirts unbutton down the front or did they have to be taken off over the head? Just how do you get a man out of his braies? It does help if you know some re-enactors.)

I enjoy writing strong female characters. It's actually highly enjoyable to lead your heroine along a path of sexual self-discovery. There's certainly more than a little feminism in what I write.

Erotica has less pressure than 'literary' fiction. I don't have the mind-freezingly oppressive thought that I'm not matching up to Shakespeare, Milton, John Updike, Jane Austen. They didn't write erotica. I do also write other genres, but I enjoy erotica because it's an open field - I can be inventive in my plotting or narrative structure, I can enjoy a little escapade.

And lastly... I was relieved to find that the late lamented John Updike found writing sex scenes something of a turn-on. It's not just me, then!