D.H. Chewins

On a little tropical island in the Strait of Malacca, growing up in a family of 3 brothers and 7 sisters. I am the youngest, No.11, a spoiled brat according to my siblings.

Not as a career, only as a hobby, as a ‘bucket-list’ project. I have one story I have always wanted to read but no one would tell it, so I took it upon myself to write it, for my own consumption. I wasn’t sure I could write fiction in English which is not my mother tongue; I learned English as a second language in schools.

An Immoral Erotic Parable of American Eve & African Adam. It was a “What If’s” piece of work, touching on biblical fantasy, albeit erotica. It was not a long story, but it became readable only after I broke it up into 33 short chapters, each one ending with a tease for what happens next.

I’ve always been a fan of erotic fictions. Love without lust is a missed opportunity to tell emotional, very human stories. My epigraph says it well, “To lust is human. To love is divine.”

Also, I think the world is more permissive now, not unlike in the 80’s when D.H. Lawrence’s seminal work “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was once condemned as being obscene. We can now write c- and fwords without reproach, for they have become everyday vocabulary.

I based my FMC character on a TV drama “Vikings” personality. I borrowed her age and her look, but I made my FMC 3 inches taller without heels. The MMC was incidental, not inspired by anyone. I have often wondered when I’m writing, who could act in my movies? Which actress would be perfect for this or that role? But the story comes first, then the characters get defined & refined.

My stories are all made up, but they can happen in real time. I wish they were real, haha, for I’d like to be friends with my characters. It’s my purpose to make them full-body and realistic. I have described places I’d like to visit, like The Ocean House in Rhode Island, Park Slope in Brooklyn, or Atlanta GA, yet I have never set foot in the United States; I am based in Sydney Australia. I write in American English, you see. My knowledge comes from copious research and TVs and movies.

Some writers describe people they have met. I describe people I would like to meet. Most stories have remnants of the writers’ life experiences; mine are no exceptions.

It’s a sequel to my first debut book “An Immoral Erotic Parable” which to my surprise had ranked up to #1 Best Seller in Urban Erotica and #1 New Release in Romantic Erotica, and I owed it to my readers to follow up on what happens to the FMC Katheryn Kellington. It’s meant to be some sort of a closure. But, as they say, the story never really ends.

Katheryn Kellington is one fantasy woman I have no chance to love but I can write lovingly about her in my story. Surely, she is too damn hot a sexual woman to stay married to one man; she needs to be divorced, set free, and have financial independence ($3,750,000) to indulge in constant orgasmic pursuits with a sexy giant negro buck or two. It will be a shame if she, a fuckable vixen, cannot be enjoyed by other worthy men, albeit her favorite color is now black.

Five stars and an encouraging long review by Gardy Harp, an Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer, who deems my work pornographic but very entertaining and who wonders if I might continue with my writing project, which I did answer his challenge with “Lust2Love” of which he also reviewed & rated a 5 stars.

Sorry, I don’t have a favorite. I read widely, but prefer assassin thrillers by the late Vince Flynn, or detective stories by Michael Connelly. I seldom read horror but I’m a fan of Stephen King whose nonfiction work “On Writing” is a ‘bible’ that I refer to now & then. If I have to pick a memorable one, it will be “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo.

I have never been pressured to finish my work. Being a self-publisher, I just let my mind dictate what story to write and when to write it. I do not have a set routine, like a quota of word counts to finish each day. My first work took me more than a year, but that was because I did not intend to publish it in the first instance; it was supposed to be a hobby. The second work took only a few months. I didn’t have an outline; I just created as I went along. The surprise was, I didn’t know I could tell another story after the first book, and the same Amazon reviewer said my writing was more elegant the second time around with beautiful prose and constructions.

I often would sleep on an idea and let my sublimely subconscious work while I was busy doing something else. The results always surprise me. Time solves most problems.

I’d like to quote Lee Child who regarded himself not as an author but a book writer. He said, “You ever hear of truck-driver’s block? (Writer’s block) was just ‘a fancy name for not wanting to go to work that day’.”

I think my weakness in writing is not having a plot or an outline. I tend to string it along like Lee Child did, solving the problem as it arises. That’s bad for writing to market. Not thinking about how to capitalize on the first impression that can be gained from Amazon’s “Look Inside” preview feature.

My strength I think is my adequate command of English. I can write with poetic justice, humor, with good enough vocabulary and grammar to not bore the readers. I am also careful with my spellings, word choices.

There were two.

First, it was supposed to be a product of a conversation between Lucifer the Devil and God in the early days of Great Creation, but then happened in present days. So how could I tell the story? By using a prologue. And since I started with a prologue, I needed to close it with an Epilogue. These devices are no longer trendy I’m afraid. They say most readers skip Prologues and Epilogues. But I like them, for their unique purposes if the stories warrant them.

Second, it was a porn movie setting and I wanted to introduce film script writing in the story (movie scripts were invaluably typed in Courier New font), but Amazon Kindle would not allow 2 fonts and it mainly uses its Bookery font styles. My solution is to set the script in Bold but smaller point size, to distinguish it from the body text. I have no problem for the paperback or hardcover versions which use Courier New for script and Dante fonts for the body text.

I will give the same advice Stephen King gave me in his book, “to be able to write well, you have to read more.”

I’d add, in editing, listen to what you’ve written. I use Microsoft Word Read-Aloud feature to detect subtle errors and words that spelling checker missed, especially in dialogues to speak naturally, e.g. “I’ve…” rather than “I have…”, “hasn’t” vs “has not” and so on.

I won’t say it’s a book, but a collection of erotica shorts. No plan to finish it yet. I still don’t know how to continue the Katheryn Kellington stories or expand the Zen & the Art of Interracial Love series. Any idea?

I cannot say for sure AllAuthor has helped me increase the sale, but I’m sure it has raised awareness. So, I would recommend it to the others. However, I’m disappointed to find the monthly best book cover contest is a farce; it is judged by the number of votes an author can gather from friends and acquaintances, and not by design criteria merits.