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MOODCOUPLE INTERVIEW

Moodcouple has been publishing at ES for more than five years, and has close to fifty stories available for you to enjoy.

I think I first started writing for ES in 2004 or 2005. The first stories were autobiographical but not very well written, and I've deleted most of them as my writing has improved. I have two writers' accounts and between them I currently have 46 stories active or in the archives. If you add the one's I've deleted it makes, I don't know, a bunch.

Q. What was your most recent one?

I've recently posted the first two parts of a three-part series "Happy Valley." Part three should be up by the end of this week. I think it may disappoint some readers as it's going to end differently than I first thought, but it's a fitting conclusion for this tale. Sometimes the stories write themselves. When you get the characters set in your mind there are certain ways they are going to act and react that you may not have planned.

As an aside, sometimes writers will force their stories to illogical ends, or force unrelated events into the stories (usually unnecessary sex scenes). To me, this ruins the story, even though it might improve the scores.

Q. Now, is there anything you'd like to tell us about yourself?

I'm 65 years old, recently retired, living on top of a mountain outside a small town in Arkansas with my wife. We were both been married before (she twice) to jealous spouses, and when we were dating we both admitted that we'd often been unfaithful to those spouses - talk about a match made in heaven. Shortly before we got married we started swinging and subsequently attended a lot of Lifestyle parties and clubs in the various places we've lived. We've also been to several nude clubs, including a couple of vacations at the Hedonism II resort in Jamaica during Lifestyle week. There's nothing like a few hundred naked swingers hanging out on the beach.

Q. How and when did you begin writing erotic stories?

I began writing after reading several stories supposedly about swingers and/or swingers' parties. They were so unrealistic and completely unlike the real events that I wanted to let people know what they were actually like and what goes on there. The stories I read were all about young, good looking people with hard bodies and big tits. Plus there was usually a lot of drinking. At real swingers parties most of the participants are at or nearing middle age. I was fifty when we started. People at that time of life are more secure in themselves and their relationships, which is a requirement for successful swinging. It's as much about the sharing as it is about the sex. Most of the swingers we have known are average looking at best. And there is relatively little drinking involved. Guys, at a certain point in life you can drink or you can fuck. Choose one.

So I started writing more realistic stories about parties and events we had attended. These stories, while accurate, weren't all that interesting or well written. Once I got down off my soapbox I started writing real stories.

Q. Have you published anywhere other than ES.com?

I've posted several stories on Literotica in the past, but the process there is so cumbersome and slow - plus feedback is spotty at best, that I now post exclusively on ES.

Q. What is it about writing erotica that you most enjoy?

Telling a good story and getting inside a character's head. In my main account the stories are about people who are experiencing sex in ways different from what they are used to, how this impacts them and what they think/feel about it. Sex is the trigger, the story is about the characters. In my other account I post stories that center primarily on the sex acts themselves. I also sometimes write more experimental stories that have more limited readership.

Q. What is your favorite category to write in, and why?

I write a lot of stories in the Swinger and Adultery categories where I can thrust a character into these situations for the first time and explore how they react and adapt to the new situation. Of course, I've also had a lot of experience at both swinging and adultery.

A category I'd like to see added is "BBW." I've written a number of stories where the female character is out-sized and they always get positive comments from readers who say these are their ideal women. Personally, my most memorable lovers were all BBW's.

Q. How much of yourself do you include in your stories?

Not much anymore.

Q. Does your partner or any of your friends know that you write? What do they think?

My wife is generally aware that I write stories, but she's not a reader and I don't think she's ever read one. Other than that, no one knows.

Q. What, if any, difficulties do you face when writing - erotic writing difficulties and general writing difficulties? And how do you overcome them?

Frankly, after the first dozen times or so, writing the sex scenes gets pretty boring. There are only so many ways you can insert Tab A into Slot B. Sometimes I cut-and-paste sex from earlier stories, then revise it to fit the new story line. So far no one has noticed, except once when I forgot to change the names.

Q. How about in more general terms - how do you feel about the "outside world"'s perception of erotic writing?

Bear in mind that I live in the belly-button under the buckle of the Bible Belt, almost any public admission that folks have sex is shocking here. Maybe that's why about half of the girls in the high school senior class get knocked up every year. "Just Say No' doesn't work if you don't know what you're saying no to.

Q. One thing that I love about ES is that you very quickly build up a community of fans, who enjoy writing to and hearing from their favorite authors. Do you have any favorite topics that have surfaced in these "conversations"?

Not much that I can think of, although I have written several stories either about or for some of my favorite readers. I like writing stories on request, or turning people's experiences into stories for them.

Q. How do you feel when you receive negative comments or very low votes from readers?

I don't mind low scores if they tell my what they don't like. "You suck" doesn't count.

I did write a series about an adulterous woman which kept eliciting public comments from a couple of readers deploring the fact she was cheating on her husband. Hey, it was posted under Adultery - what did you expect. If you know you're not going to approve of a story, why would you waste your time reading it?

I once wrote a story about a couple cheating on each other on vacation which was told from the husband's POV. I thought it was interesting, sexy and pretty well written, but it didn't get good ratings. So I rewrote the same story from the wife's perspective and posted it on my other account where it got much better scores. I don't know for sure what that meant. Maybe I have a different readership on the two accounts, or it could be that stories from the female view score better. I think scores have very little to do with the quality of the writing.

I get very little actual constructive criticism ("here's what you did wrong and here's how you could improve it") and wish there was more.

Q. What kind of stories would you never write?

Other than the usual - kids, pets, and siblings - I would add Sex at Work.

For many years I wrote and enforced Sexual Harassment policies at companies I worked for. I'll read a Sex at Work story and can't help thinking "I used to fire people for that." More to the point, I've seen how badly sexual liaisons at work often end up and don't think of them as entertainment. It's just personal because of my background in the area.

Q. And do you read, and respond to, other writers on the site? Who are your favorites?

Honestly I don't read many stories any more. I'll read some of the new authors and try to give them encouragement and sometimes suggestions for improvement. But those of us with lots of stories on the site tend to write the same thing over and over with different characters.

Q. Do you remember the first pornography you ever saw?

Not the first, but I remember reading those Penthouse Forum letters in the '70's and thinking they were true.

Q. What's the kinkiest thing you have ever done?

Blow jobs on a public beach with a couple we just met comes to mind (Ah, Hedonism, no place like it).

Two others I remember fondly. We had a New Years Eve party and by midnight we were all naked and had spontaneously formed a single daisy-chain with all the guests connected to one another orally.

Or a party where the wife of a friend was spread-eagle on a bed with a man in her pussy, her husband in her mouth and a guy on either side sucking a tit. Every few minutes we'd move one place clockwise. Later she told me she'd never had that much fun before.

Q. Do you have any fantasies that you would like to fulfill?

No, but I have a lot of memories of things we've done I'd like to do again (see above), but probably won't get the chance to.

Q. How do you feel about same sex relationships, both personally and as a writer?

I don't have any problem with them, but don't want to participate. Once my wife was going down on a guy while I was screwing her from behind. He asked to turn around so he could watch what I was doing while she blew him. No problem - until he started licking my balls. Now that was a turn-off for me personally.

At the parties we've attended there were a lot of bi-females acting out their fantasies, but never any bi-males.

Q. Do you explore these feelings, positive and negative in your stories?

I've written a couple of stories that contained MM bi scenes, and several FF bi or lesbian stories. I hope I've captured how a real person would react in these situations.

Q. How long does it take for you to write a story? Could you talk us through the process?

It takes me about two weeks to get a story completed once I start to write. I'll have an idea, usually about a character and a situation, which I'll carry around in my head for a while working out where I want it to go and how I want to say it. Then I'll start writing. Generally the first draft will contain a lot of back-story and introduction, which I will later cut out. Nobody wants ten paragraphs of background when you can give the necessary information in two sentences.

I usually write in the evenings. The rest of the time I'll work on the story in my mind. Eventually it's almost as if the character is writing the story and I'm just typing.

Every time I sit down at the keyboard I'll rewrite and polish the part already completed. I'm very careful about what words I use and how I use them. I like for everything to flow naturally, without jarring the reader or being repetitious. I'm also very careful about grammar and syntax.

Also by reading and rewriting the completed portion, what I write next will naturally follow what's gone before instead of heading off in a new direction. Too many stories start about one subject and then wander away until you, and apparently the author, have forgotten what the story was about. A good short story should have a beginning and a middle, all of which move it consistently toward a logical end without a lot of digressions. If you're writing a novel you can go off in as many directions as you want, but if it's a short story, everything in it should move toward the logical conclusion.

I try to keep the paragraphs short and focused (think Hemingway). This makes it easier on the reader. There's nothing harder to follow than a long, meandering paragraph. Stream-of-consciousness is way overrated as a writing style. If you're not James Joyce, don't try it. If you are James Joyce, don't try it very often.

One of the trickier things to write is female/female action. When it's guy/girl you can say "he did this and she did that." With two women, "she" could be either of them and it gets confusing. You know who you meant, but does the reader? I try to either use names or descriptives: "the older woman did this to her blond lover."

When I'm finally satisfied, I'll submit the story on a Friday evening so it appears over the weekend. If it's a two-part story I'll submit part two on Saturday evening. If there's a part three, it'll be posted the following week. I've found I get more readers if the story is near the top of the New Stories list on the weekend.

Q. What do you think is the best story you have published here?

And which of your children do you love the most? They are all gems, of course.

That aside, one of my favorite stories is "My Little Star." This was written for one of my favorite readers. It is about a man traveling cross-country who stops for the night in "one of those 'I' states: Iowa or Illinois or something." He get seduced by a frustrated farmer's wife who wants to act out what she has read about on Erotic Stories. I wrote the story to bring her personal fantasies to life for her,oh yeah, and me too.

I think my highest rated story was "The Old Guy." This was about a young woman who is disparaging of an older man she meets on an airplane - until he takes her to bed and shows her the value of experience. Let's face it - a lot of our readers are old guys, and they loved it. So did I.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers of this interview and your fans? Now is your chance...

Being a good, discriminating reader makes for better writers. As reader don't just judge a story on how hot the sex it. Look for good stories that have hot sex - there are a lot of them out there and they need to be encouraged. I've found that some of the higher rated authors haven't written a real story in years. They just paste together some semi-related sex scenes with no story-line in sight.

When you find a good story, let the author know that you appreciate it. And if you don't like a story, let the author know specifically what you didn't like. That will help us write better stories to fulfill your needs.

Q. Finally, do you have a website or a blog, where your fans can visit and maybe learn more about you?

No, I'm far too lazy for that.

Please read Moodcouple's stories.