Jacqueline Carey, author of the Kushiel and Naamah series of erotica/historical fantasy novels, did a reading at the local library Monday night. Though I’m not that familiar with Carey’s works, I decided to attend.
The audience was mostly young women. I have a strong impression that the up-and-coming generation of kinky women will have their “aha!” moments from reading Carey’s books. (Certainly better than from reading Gor.)
Carey did a good reading, featuring a scene of a forthcoming novel in which an alternate Renaissance-era courtesan meets with the emperor of an Aztec empire-analog. She talked a lot about her love of historical research.
Curiously, she said she didn’t consider herself an erotica writer. Her main consideration was how much of the total length of the work was given over to sex, which is a fair criteria. She also said she got in on the ground floor of the historical/fantasy erotica boom (which includes its conjoined twin genre, the paranormal romance/urban fantasy). I had hoped for more discussion on the history of erotica and where Carey’s work fits into that, but she said she didn’t know about that topic.
