7 Questions with Megan Hart

1. On a scale of one to ten, rank your current level of insanity–where ten is belongs-in-lunatic-asylum insane–and tell us why.

Eight. It’s more than five, because I’d say five is probably “normal” but it’s less than ten because I can still make a determination, and if I was a level ten I’d probably be saying I’m at “one.” 😉

2. You have an extensive backlist of shorter length fiction. Do you just like writing novellas better?

I wrote a lot of short fiction for various reasons, one being that it takes way less time to write a short story than it does to write a novel. Particularly when I got started in erotic fiction, Amber Quill was one of the few, if not the only publisher at the time, to offer short stories. I was writing novels and novellas, too, but the shorts came out so much faster and therefore could be published faster, that I built up a backlist of the short stories. I can’t say I prefer shorts to novel length pieces. It depends on the story.

3. Are you still writing for your e-publishers?

I have two stories scheduled for Amber Quill in 2007, a piece for their upcoming Space Trucking AmberPax and a fairy-tale story for another collection due out later in the year. I love writing for Amber Quill and don’t intend to stop.

4. All three of your Spice novels, Dirty, Broken and Perfect, are written in first person. Was there a reason why you wrote them in first person? From a reader’s point of view, third person tends to be easier to read.

I really enjoy writing in first person and always have. Quite a few of my stories are written in first person. Particularly for erotic work, I find the deep point of view of first person can lend so much intimacy to a story and a character that I really like using it. As I reader, some of my favorite novels have been in first person, and I’ve never found that reading in third is better or worse than first. Because I usually write books I want to read (I’m just selfish like that) they come out in first as often as they do third. To be honest, I don’t understand why people don’t like first — I really enjoy it.

5. Spice is an erotica line, yet your earlier are romances. Are your Spice novels erotica, or do they have a traditional romance Happy ever After?

I would not call DIRTY or BROKEN traditional romances or even traditional erotic romance, but I wouldn’t say they’re not romance at all. As for the HEA…I would say they end the best way they could. The way they had to. In my mind, they end positively, but to say they have a traditional Happy Ever After might disappoint someone whose idea of that is different than mine. DIRTY is romantic. It’s about love. But ultimately, I think I would allow the reader to decide for herself if DIRTY and BROKEN are “romances.” I would not consider them straight erotica, though. And there we have the problem — there are so many subtle differences between erotica, erotic romance, romance, erotic literature…my books are erotic fiction about the relationships of the characters within them. Dirty is more “romantic” than Broken, but Broken has a definite love story woven within it. That’s the best answer I can give.

6. You’ve written quite a few SFF novellas. Do you see yourself making the transition to pure SFF (as in, where the SFF part is more important than the romance part) in the future?

I would love to publish my drawer babies — I have an entire trilogy that is straight SF without a true romance in it (though there is a love story, can’t get away without having some love!) But will I completely transition? That’s hard to say. I love writing about love and relationships so much I doubt I’ll ever move away from writing stories with those elements, and who best appreciates stories about love and romance but romance readers?

7. Me, I’m a firm believer in the power of purple ink. Since you wear purple slippers every day at home, you understand the power of purple too…Right?

Purple rocks. lol!

Megan blogs and is a MySpacer. Broken releases this month.