Macie Carter

Kate (O’Flaherty) Chopin was born in Missouri the middle of the Victorian Era and grew up a strong, independent woman. Her husband, Oscar Chopin, “allowed” his wife freedom that most women of her day could only dream of having. But that independence and freedom were to become important to her family of five boys and two girls when Oscar died, leaving her their sole support. Eventually Kate had to write in order to support her family.

She began with her first novel, At Fault, published in 1890, followed by two short story collections.  However, it is her book, The Awakening, (1899) about a woman’s separation from her husband and children, an affair and self-realization that has placed Kate Chopin in the forefront of women writers of the Nineteenth Century.

1chopinThe themes in The Awakening caused an uproar when it was published and Chopin found herself ostracized. Therefore, she decided not to add her voice to the changes that were occurring for women as the dawning of the new century. Chopin died on August 22, 1904 of a cerebral hemorrhage—an independent voice for women’s freedom and artistic rights silenced too early.

For many years women were not supposed to enjoy sex, let alone write about it. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’ll look at several famous women who used their female sexuality as an important part of their art.

French-born writer, Anais Nin, is considered one of the finest female erotic authors. She was also a diarist, living among famous intellectual men of the 1940s and writing about her relationship with them. But, like Kate Chopin before her, it is Nin’s erotica that broke new ground for other women to write about their sexuality, especially during a time when women were not really considered sexual beings.

Nin, along with her lover Henry Miller, began writing erotica for a private collector; however, by the 1970s, with the social changes occurring, she decided to allow them to be published, now the famous Delta of Venus and Little Birds.

“Dreams are necessary to life.”

“People living deeply have no fear of death.”

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

Popular erotic romance writer, Page Burns, seems to have lost the “hotness” in her writing, or at least that’s what her editor informs her. Is it because of her self-imposed celibacy after a bitter divorce, or because she’s forty and just not interested? When she meets a handsome young stranger at one of her book signings, she decides what she really needs is a muse–in her bed. Fantasizing about the young man is just enough to revitalize some of her sizzling words. Can a forty year-old woman bed a man ten years her junior? Should she even try? But what Page doesn’t realize is that she’s not the only one fantasizing about teasing the muse…

I usually write mystery, paranormal romance and paranormal mystery. But no editor or agent was biting on any of my usual genres. So, when I saw a contest from a famous electronic and print publisher for erotic “cougar” submissions (older woman/younger man), I thought it would be the best way for me to stretch my “writing muscles”.

I’d read erotica and erotic romance but my only attempt at writing it had been a short story years before, a story involving a maiden and a dragon.

And I’d had only one encounter with a younger man. As a young 50, I’d once dated a 44 year old – not that much difference. I’m normally attracted to men older than I am.

So I had to do a lot of imagining…or fantasizing. I found it fun and very interesting to pretend to be the opposite of what I was – to “live” vicariously through my heroine, also a writer.

The first publisher passed on my manuscript. But at New Jersey Romance Writers I pitched it to an editor from The Wild Rose Press. She wanted to read it and a few months later they sent me a contract.

I imagined it. I fantasized it. I dreamed it. And then I wrote it.

Teasing the Muse will be released as an e-book novella on March 26!

Macie was at RWA National in D. C. last month and enjoyed meeting lots of aspiring and published writers. She’ll be at New Jersey Romance Writers Conference in October with her best friend, award-winning author, Mitzi Flyte.

Macie Carter’s “Teasing the Muse” will be released from The Wild Rose Press in the fall of 2009.

Hi and welcome to my new site at maciecarter.com. Stay tuned for more information about my upcoming book, Teasing the Muse coming soon from The Wild Rose Press.