What Are You Working On?
Writers on their works in progress

Alison Tyler

writer and editor

Alison Tyler is the author of twenty explicit novels, including Strictly Confidential, Sticky Fingers, and the upcoming Tiffany Twisted (Virgin Publishing's Cheek Imprint). Her novels and short stories have been translated into Japanese, Dutch, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish. She is the editor of twenty anthologies, including The Merry XXXMas Book of Erotica, Luscious, and Exposed (all from Cleis Press); and the Naughty Stories from A to Z series and the Down & Dirty series from Pretty Things Press. Her erotic novel The ESP Affair is in pre-production as a feature film by Point Reyes Pictures. The producer is Scott Rosenfelt, whose movies include Mystic Pizza and Smoke Signals.

Back in high school, I used to always have several pairs of jeans in rotation: one brand new, dark and crisp; one ideally faded pair worn to fit my body perfectly; one pair so thrashed with holes and ballpoint graffiti that my mother was always attempting to throw it away. My writing projects tend to fall into similar categories: the brand-spanking new ones, the half-completed ones, and those that are almost (but not quite) finished.

Right now I'm polishing up a few anthologies, including Red Hot Erotica and Slave to Love (both for Cleis Press). And I have a new Naughty Stories collection (Naughty Stories from A to Z, volume 4, from Pretty Things Press) about to come out. These anthologies are so much fun -- trying to choose the best pieces while ranking them alphabetically. I'm also working on a several new short stories and writing Tiffany Twisted, my latest novel for Virgin's Cheek imprint.

 
What led you to this project?

Tiffany Twisted is about a girl who switches bodies with her boyfriend. The concept came to me years ago. I was dating a man who had many amazing qualities, but was basically a fuck-up. I often fantasized about having one month in his body to clean up his life. Of course, that never happened, but writing about the fantasy feels great. I have absolutely exorcised those demons!

 
What are you trying to do with this project that you haven't done before? What challenges are you overcoming?

I've written from a male point of view before, but never from a man trapped inside a woman's body and vice versa. I had a great time daydreaming about what it would be like to wake up with a cock. But I didn't want to make the male scenarios clichéd. I've been working hard to create sympathetic characters while having fun with the unusual scenarios each one experiences.

 
What has been rewarding about this particular project?

This is probably my favorite novel since Sticky Fingers. I love the characters. Although strangely, the character I like the most only appears in two scenes. I'd enjoy trying to write a whole book about him. That has happened to me in the past. With my second novel The Virgin I created a Dom named Adam whom I would happily have married. He's appeared throughout other works, but he's never had a whole piece devoted solely to him.

Tiffany Twisted has been enjoyable for me in many different ways. I think it has my richest plot so far. I appreciate the heroine's quirks, because I think I share a lot of them. She's constantly cleaning up after other people, trying to organize their lives. She doesn't see this as annoying at all. Writing her boyfriend's character has been invigorating. He is patient for only so long before he snaps and starts to act out in her body. That has been a blast to write. Mostly with TT, I'd say that I'm working at description -- putting on paper what I see in my head -- but what I'm really struggling with now is letting it go.

 
When do you expect (or hope) to finish, and what happens next?

The book is due now, so I really have to put on the finishing touches and send it on its way! Next, I'm about to start on a new novel called With or Without You (also to be published by Cheek).

Links

Interview on the Erotic Authors Association site

June 2004 feature in the East Bay Express (alt.weekly in Berkeley, Calif.)

Interview with Clean Sheets, December 2004

See more What Are You Working On? interviews.

published 13 Jan 06 on Too Beautiful. email copyright 2006 Mark Pritchard, Bernal Heights, San Francisco