Interview: Aurelia Evans

Aurelia Evans is relatively new to the erotica genre, but she has a writing voice and style that guarantees we'll be seeing more from this talented author. Her story "Frosted Glass" is a bittersweet and erotic retelling of "The Snow Queen" and I'm delighted to have been able to include it in Fairy Tale Lust.


What inspired you to retell this particular fairy tale?

I started out wanting to write an erotic retelling of The Snow Queen because I re-fell in love with it during a fairy tale literature class in college. It’s a story that speaks to me mostly because of Andersen’s religious undertones that I’d like to turn on their heads. But I ended up writing quite a different story than I planned, and maybe I’ll write that version later, but this is the one that came out.


If you are new to erotica, what brought you to the erotica/erotic romance genre?

I don’t remember exactly how I came to write original erotic fiction. I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with sex, but I would say that it’s something that occupies my mind a little too much, and I like the way sex can more than just sex in literature. I love reading about sex, writing about sex, learning new things about sex … I suppose it was inevitable that I at least dipped my toes into writing erotica. Because sex is never just sex in literature. There are statements, politics, emotions, subversions, power exchanges … there’s always something. It makes sex a very useful way of moving a character or the plot forward, while having a little fun as well.

I’m not completely new to the erotica world. My story “In Circles” was featured in Amber Dawn’s queer woman’s horror erotica anthology Fist of the Spider Woman, which is still my favorite. Erotic romance doesn’t come naturally to me, actually. I tend toward the darker side of things. My next short story, a gay male vampire short called “Stained Glass” in the anthology Queer Gothic, edited by James Rasmussen, is also on the publication route. So I’m not new new, but I’m hardly established. But I’m not going away. :)


What is your writing routine like? Are you a full-time writer? What is your “day job?”

I wish I could say I had one at the moment. Right now I’m pecking away at things little by little, here and there, but nothing that makes me feel really productive. I’m working and going to school full-time, and that’s frying my brain. I’m still making an effort to find brain power to write, but it’s not easy.

Like most writers, I wish this were my day job. Unfortunately, I’m not so lucky at this juncture.


Why do you think erotic fairy tales are so popular right now?

I think there’s an underlying sexual tension underneath the proper romance and moralistic warnings, a salaciousness even the most uptight of old wives couldn’t help but add to these tales. And while we don’t always see it in our stories and fairy tale movies when we’re younger, as we get older and more sexually aware, those bits of suggestiveness start becoming more obvious. Also, fairy tales are things that we have in common over great distances. Not everyone’s versions are the same – sometimes Cinderella’s shoes are leather, glass, fur, etc. But there’s that familiarity just the same, the same archetypes that stayed with us since we were children, we bring with us as adults.

Also, it’s fun to play in a supernatural arena, and fairy tales give us a way to bring some fanciful magic to our more prosaic, carnal magic.


What’s next for you? Upcoming publications and current projects?

I’ve finished a supernatural erotic novel and need to polish before sending it out for editorial consideration, but I’m really excited about it. I’ve also got a few (mostly) non-erotic supernatural/horror/apocalyptic novels on my hard drive that I also need to polish and/or finish. There are a few erotic short stories as well. Lots of work that needs to be done, but not a lot of time. You can see why I’m frustrated! Still, I persevere.

(This pendant is called Frosted White Glass. Isn't it fit for a snow queen?)