Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hey there! I’m Ian Snow, and it’s my sincere hope my collections of steamy short stories and novellas are the ones you have to hide away, all red-faced and a little out of breath. I write erotica and erotic romance novels, with the aim of melding scenes I find hot with the good feelings of romance. While I’ve begun experimenting a bit with my endings, I do generally tend to like HEAs and happiness in general, and try to spread the notion that sex should be a joyous, exploratory affair for everyone involved. If that sounds like something you’re into, awesome! Give one of my collections a shot. Each one (with the exception of Bites) is novel length. I don’t mean novella, or a short novel – I mean they’re pretty good-sized, averaging somewhere around 95k or so per collection. Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll find in each:
Delectable Fancies – My first attempt at erotica, this one features a wide variety of shorter stories and a lengthy pair of novellas. This includes stories about a wife finding out from her ridiculously handsome (isn’t that always the case?) husband’s best friend that her significant other has been cheating on her; a kindly hypnotherapist looking to help a woman down on her luck in relationships and at work; a playful take on the billionaire trope; a smoking hot story about a community college professor who decides to treat her students (all of whom are over 19) for getting better grades; and the capstone of the collection, a lengthy, raunchy novella about a road trip between a guy, his gorgeous roommate, and her best friend.
Neighbors – The most serious minded of the novellas and the one probably of most interest to fans of erotic romances, Neighbors focuses on two lengthy novellas. The first is about a thirty-year old programmer who realizes she is developing deep feelings for the young college-aged student returning home for the summer next door. The next novella is my personal favorite of all my work. It’s called Coming Home, and it’s about a disgraced actor, universally vilified, who returns to his hometown to lick his wounds and heal. His beautiful next-door-neighbor isn’t his biggest fan until her adorable daughter strikes up an easy friendship with the actor. A story as much about redemption as it is love, it’s a lengthy character piece with some really hot scenes.
The Wives – Two novellas and a short story comprise this fun romp. The first novella features a couple working on discovering new ways to love one another after a sexual rut. When a friend of the wife needs to crash somewhere for a few weeks, they both find themselves facing down their attraction for their houseguest, and the truth about their feelings may either break their delicate marriage – or bring them even closer together. The second story is much shorter, and is a playful take on the “stranger on a train” trope. And the third, another favorite of mine, features a woman on the mend years after a man she still is deeply attracted to walked out of their life together. She protects herself by only dating men for two weeks, but when she meets an affable barista, her rules just might need to change.
Bites – An introduction of sorts to my writing, Bites is about half the length of my other collections. A fast-paced, smoking hot story about bank robbers on the run opens this one up, with an intense lovemaking scene that’ll hopefully leave you sweating. That’s followed by another short story about a happily wedded couple who find out their gorgeous new neighbors are camgirls – and they’re very interested in showing off what they’ve got. The collection is capped off by a sweet novella about a young baker given an opportunity to run her own store. She’s found a lot of happiness, but has a chance for even more when Javier, a young executive, comes into her shop and can’t get the beautiful baker out of his every waking thought. Culminating in a sticky, sweet foodplay scene, this one was a lot of fun to write.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Bites is my latest collection of erotica, and it’s inspired largely by a lot of the things I find sexy or fun. If it isn’t interesting to me, odds are, it’s probably not going to be interesting to my readers.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not anything really out of the ordinary, no. I won’t do things that irritate me as a reader, so you won’t find a lot of fluff or repeated stories across my collections. I like a cup of plain black tea, a quiet house, and a good clacky keyboard. Beyond that, I pretty much just write.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
A lot of Literotica stories throughout the years have been my primary influences in terms of erotica. In terms of romance, I tend to like quirky, smart novels – Alice Clayton’s Wallbangers or Tom Ellen’s A Totally Awkward Love Story, for example.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’ve got two ideas for themed collections. The one I’m working on currently focuses around lingerie in some manner. It’s a lot of fun and I really like the first female lead. The second collection I’ve begun notes on will feature a return to the community college featured in Delectable Fancies, as I really want to explore the extremely sexy (to me, at least) idea of professors male and female alike exploring taboo relations with students with an eye towards helping improve their lives. It would be utterly insane in real life, of course, but hey, it’s fantasy.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like my Facebook page for that – shameless plug, but you can find me there at www.facebook.com/writeriansnow
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Network, network, network. Everybody will tell you to write and write some more, and yeah, that’s obvious. You’ve gotta have a book to push. But the people you connect with will be your biggest assets after you publish. And be sure to actually converse with them. Don’t turn it solely into a means of advertising your own products, because no one likes that. Join relevant discussions on Goodreads. Follow writers in your genre on Facebook and Twitter. Get to conventions, book readings, and book signings. Shake hands, be happy, talk talk talk.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write for yourself, first and foremost. It sounds cynical, but odds are a writer probably won’t see success, so there has to be a foundation there of writing things you’d enjoy simply because you like writing them. If success happens on top of that? Awesome! If it doesn’t, hey, you’ve at least got a fun hobby that potentially makes you a few bucks here and there.
What are you reading now?
Everything. I’m going through a big suspense novel kick, so a lot of Craig Johnson and Janet Evanovich. In order to better my craft, I’ve also been going through erotic romance writers by the dozen, seems like. Currently reading some Rachel van Dyken.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan on keeping up with these collections, but I’d like to pursue some longer-form erotic romance novellas, perhaps in a series.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Stand is a must. Patrick Rothfuss, maybe, or Tad Williams. And maybe something I’ve never read before, something ridiculously long and difficult like War and Peace. At the very least it’d make for a great lifeboat.
Author Websites and Profiles
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