1. Can we start with your name and where you’re from?
My name is Zak Jane Keir, though I also write under Sallyanne Rogers. I’m from south London.
2. Most authors love reading, is this true for you and if so who was/is your inspiration?
Yes, I am a total bookworm and always have been. I think the first writers who made me want to write were Ed McBain and Paul Breeze, though I also love Stephen King, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Jilly Cooper.
3. What genre do you write in or do you cross over into many?
In terms of published work, it’s nearly all erotica and erotic romance. I do dabble in horror and crime fiction occasionally, but I never seem to get those stories finished.
4. If you could take any character from someone else’s book and make him/her your own creation who would it be and why?
Ooh, that’s a tricky one. I mostly like (and almost believe in) other people’s characters the way they have been written. I suppose I’m not the only person who might have liked to make Anastasia Steele less of a vacant, soppy dipshit.
5. When did you first start writing?
When I was a kid. I was about 7 or 8 and I sat down one day and wrote a ‘book’ about murdered ballerinas who came back as ghosts. I was always thrilled when homework involved writing a story, as well.
6. Do you plan every inch of your books or do you just let the words flow?
A bit of a mixture. Some books have started with a synopsis (usually when I planned from the start to submit them to a publisher whose policy was to request a chapter and synopsis), some others with a concept. Usually it’s an idea of who the main two or three characters are, and why they want to have sex with each other, and the reasons why they might have difficulty getting there.
7. Who is your favourite character and why? (your own character)
I like Rosa in Black Heart: there’s a lot of me in her. Only she’s tougher and cooler than I am, and makes a better impression on people.
8. Was there an event in your life that triggered a particular book, or even a scene in a book? If so what was the book and what was the event?
Quite a few, really. Lots of the BDSM stuff I write is based on things I have either done myself or watched other people do. Though the biggest one was a dream I had; an incredibly vivid dream about a woman being tied to a post and whipped, then fucked up the bum, and it also featured a dream version of a friend of mine. That turned into The Switch, which was my first published novel, in 1997. I won’t link to it as it’s out of print and also has not aged very well. The friend who featured in the dream got written into the book as a fairly thinly disguised version of himself, and he absolutely loved it. He told me once that it had helped him, er, win the affections of a woman he was chatting up when he explained that he had been featured in an erotic novel…
9. Are you working on anything at the moment? If so can you share any tasty morsels?
Yes. I have a few short stories planned out, at least approximately, and a novel I am working on intermittently but hope to finish later this year. Here’s a short extract, hopefully without any typos. I keep telling people it’s ‘the one about rope bondage and Brexit’ though that doesn’t quite sum it up.
Tanis, under the shower, water beating down on her face, her shoulders and her breasts, turned her thoughts determinedly back towards Hush. His profile identified him as male, but his avatar was as unrevealing as hers: he’d gone for a photograph of bundled ropes. It wasn’t just rope they discussed when they messaged each other privately, but rope was very frequently the topic of conversation. Tanis thought about rope and her hands made shapes in the air, under the streams of water. She traced lines around each wrist with the fingertips of the opposite hand. A double column tie on your wrists, and you’d have to follow me wherever I led you… She turned the shower off, stepped out, grabbed a towel from the hook and flung it round herself, picked up the another and gave her hair a quick, vigorous rubbing. Glancing in the mirror as she combed her damp hair into shape, she noticed that her nipples had hardened. The flat wasn’t cold – Tanis had, over the past week or so, been allowing herself to put the heating on in the evenings as winter approached. She’d been accustomed to pay-as-you-go meters in previous flat shares and was still inclined to be cautious about how much energy she used, even though Shaz and Michael contributed to the electricity bill because of the amount they not only used to run some of the machinery but which they could also claim back as a business expense. Tonight, though, with a damp, chilly mist in the air and plummeting November temperatures, she’d given the radiators a good half hour session, so it was comfortably warm; warm enough to sleep naked, but her nipples were definitely erect. She finished drying herself and ran her palms over the taut, tingling buds. She felt a similar tingle from her clit, and grinned to herself. Maybe it was time to do something about that.
She took the time to clean her teeth and dab a bit of moisturizer onto her cheeks and forehead, quite enjoying this bout of procrastination. She thought of rope again; the way it could bite in or slide over the skin like a caress. She thought of Hush and the phrase he sometimes used: ‘the infliction of pleasure.’ It was definitely time for bed.
10. What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting out?
Read a lot, write a lot. Most of your first efforts will be crap, and that’s OK, because most of everyone’s first efforts are crap. Keep going. If you want to self-publish, pay for an edit if you can possibly afford it.
11. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Outside of paid work and family/household stuff, I am a Morris dancer, I like going to fetish clubs and rope groups, and I also run a book stall at events like Brighton Twisted Market.
12. What is the hardest part of the whole writing, editing, marketing process for you?
Probably the marketing. I am fairly clueless and terrified of pissing everyone off by spamming them to death. Though the thing that drives me the most insane is trying to get Amazon reviews. People who ask for ARCs and then don’t bother to read them or write reviews, grrr!
13. We all have those friends or family members who make sweeping statements about our writing or the process, which is your particular bug bear?
The people who think authors are all loaded – and the ones who think that women who write erotica are nice cosy housewives who ‘just have a vivid imagination’. Yes, some of them are, but there’s a whole range of attitudes and experiences.
14. What is your idea of happiness?
Financial security ie not worrying about the bills, everyone I care about being healthy and content, and new experiences to look forward to.
15. For this one I want you to showcase your creativity by painting me a picture, with words, of your ideal setting to write in.
I’d like to have a corner table, near the open fire, in a proper country pub with a lovely view out of the window – either a light sprinkling of snow on the fields, or blue skies and blossoming trees. Except I’d probably end up getting distracted by the beer, and the other customers, and not get much done. Where I actually write is in the room I call my office at home, which is a complete tip full of cold cups of tea and discarded newspapers.
16. What makes you laugh/cry?
I have a vulgar and childish sense of humour, so I generally laugh at fart jokes and bad language. Things that make me cry tend to be loss eg bereavement, worry and frustration.
17. You’re stranded on a desert island and you can take three men/women who would they be and why? This can be practical or purely sexual in nature.
I wouldn’t care as long as one of them had a top-of-the-range mobile phone which still worked and could summon rescue.
18. What is your most annoying habit?
Probably my keyboard-warrior tendencies. I love a good ruck on the Internet, even if it’s about relatively unimportant things.
19. Please tell me about your books? For each one please send a pic (kindle cover would be perfect)
I have one novel out, Black Heart, which is a femdom pansexual romance. Otherwise I mostly have short stories included in anthologies: there are probably too many to list but here are a few of them.
Who Thrilled Cock Robin? – erotica inspired by folk songs
Inked – sex and tattoos
Silver Desire – women over 50 having sexy adventures
Goodbye Moderation: Lust – a brilliantly dark and twisted collection, but not for those who prefer erotic romance with happy endings
Sticky Fingers and Warm Leatherette – an anthology that is all my own work; mainly BDSM-themed.
- Lightning round
Tea or Coffee? – Tea, with no milk.
Cash or credit? – With my awful credit rating, it has to be cash
Cats or Dogs? – Neither, thanks. I’m allergic to both.
Beach or Mountain? – I like both equally
Summer or Winter – Either, as long as the weather is seasonally appropriate.
Sweet or Savoury – Savoury
Early riser or late riser? I prefer to get up late but have to get up early for the school run.
Morning or Night? – I’m a night person.
Christmas Tree – real or fake? – Fake. Needles are a pain in the arse.
Sex – Lights on or off? – On, but not too brightly. I want to see what – and who – I’m doing.
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions.
Please leave Facebook, Twitter, Website links so we can check you out further.
Facebook: Zak Jane Keir (or Sallyanne Rogers)
Twitter @decadentmadamez or @dswsallyanne
Website: www.dirtysexywords.com
Amazon author page https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zak-Jane-Keir/e/B00J8YMLKG/
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Maria Gibbs 