The Advisor is the story of college advisor Cheryl Bracken. Cheryl is trapped in a very loveless marriage of twenty-plus years. It is not affectionate, it is sexless, it is without passion of any kind. She meets a student Brandon Cole who throws her into a whirlwind of emotions and passions she hasn't felt in years. She eventually falls in love hard with the young man but as the book reveals there is something deeper and dangerous about Brandon. There is a truth she will discover that will threaten to destroy the love she feels for him, and the escape she feels for herself.
Author Interview:
Can you describe your book in one sentence?
The Advisor describes the life of a woman wanting a change and willing to do anything to pursue her passions.
Tell us about your writing process.
I will go to a place where there are a lot of people, a mall, anywhere. I will take notes of the conversations, the physical messages people send. I try to create stories behind everyone's appearance. There might be short, stubby stories, or long, beautiful and dangerous stories.
Do you ever experience writer's block?
I consider the time I'm not writing to be writer's block. When my fingers aren't caressing the keyboard or using a pen on a notebook, my mind is continuously writing and creating stories. Therefore,the block comes from not being able to write when I want to which is ...all the time.
Do you work with an outline, or just write?
I write an outline that is in the fashion of having a conversation with a good friend about a good movie. Not ALL of the details are there but you get the gist of what occurred in the movie, and you keep the story going until (if you like to spoil) you reach the end. I do write with the ending first. Whether it's: "Andrew divorces Clara because she left him for Michael who is better with oral sex" or some other final moment that defines everything happening until that moment.
Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
Definitely Anne Rice and Stephen King. These writers taught me that the story is far more important than the mechanics. Not to say they are bad writers- they are wonderfully gifted writers but they also know how to keep the reader nose deep in the pages, missing their bus home, forgetting the bathtub is on, etc. Anyone can write flowery language, but only certain writers like Anne Rice, Stephen King, Chuck Palahunik, Cormac McCarthy, Kurt Vonnegut (just to name a few) can evoke the story and keep it moving, keep it sharp and bring the reader to a great ending. Reading a great book is like having a great orgasm.
Do you have a day job as well?
Yes I am a manager of a large chemical control plant. I also have 6 wonderful children.
What is the hardest and easiest part about being an erotica writer?
The hardest part is dialogue. Finding that perfect tone. That perfect pitch. Isolating how people really talk to each other. I take for example the film Juno which is terrible because no 16 year-old girl talks like that. Her speech is so unique that it almost becomes a joke like Napoleon Dynamite which IS how teenagers speak but it's a comedy. People can destroy a story with bad story telling. Erotica is a very fragile art: I can write that "Andre stuck his tongue deep in her pussy and she responded with a quiver", or..I can write.. "Andre kissed and cherished her glistening bud with a measure of affection that could not be measured or challenged". I've said the same thing but I used the Sammy Hagar/ David Lee Roth approach. Fans of Van Halen will know what I'm talking about. David Lee Roth wrote songs about fucking...hardcore...doggy style...no love..no passion (ref. "Ain't Talkin' About Love"). Sammy Hagar wrote songs about making love, kissing, touching, caressing, feeling, passion. I don't pretend, as a man, to know how to read a woman but there are different styles by which you approach a situation. Yes...there are some women that want to read about another woman being bent over a barstool and taken from behind by three strangers. But there are also women who want to read about a passion filled BDSM session where the man whips the breasts with a leather belt and then caresses the clitoris with a feather. Therefore, the second challenge is deciding between writing porn or writing erotica.
What is your favorite part of being an author?
It's refreshing to think I am doing something in my life beyond the mendacity of everyday life. I enjoy spending time with my family, but the best part of being an author is knowing I have the ability to literally crawl inside my stories or inside my mind and change what is around me. I can paint my own picture and if I don't like it...delete. It really is the control freak in me coming out. I can turn a sensual, erotic moment of fierce love making into a violent shoot out within seconds. I can make the moon and the sun collide and watch the apocalypse happen on Earth. That's the fun part of being a writer. I don't worry about sales because chances are I never will be a best selling writer. Would it be nice? Yes of course. But I wouldn't be doing it for me, I would be doing it for children. You cross a certain line in your life where you stop doing things for yourself and start doing things for your children. Not too many dads write erotica to supplement the lives of their children, but either way the knowledge I am providing for their future in some way is rewarding intrinsically.
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
When I was three years old, I wrote what appeared to be words on the walls of my bedroom and I told my Mom they were my "pretties". She didn't quite appreciate it as much as I did. I've always been a very imaginative person, sometimes to a fault. It created quite a few distractions. I started writing violent horror stories in the 5th grade along with poetry. A lot of it was just angst ridden poems toward ex-girlfriends. I thought for a short time I was Jim Morrison and then J.D. Salinger, and then Jack Kerouac. All within the same summer. The summer I first went down on a girl, actually. I thought I had discovered the golden ticket to Heaven. I was still technically a virgin, but I went down on a girl and she said I should write about it afterwards. I wrote a long story about how it all went down and she was a lifeguard and it happened at a park around 5 in the morning before swim lessons and she peed in my mouth (she actually squirted little to my knowledge) and how much I loved it. Anyways, a few of her friends found it , and they wanted to try me out..so by the end of the summer I had made around 20 girls orgasm multiple times and started writing about my experiences.
What is one book you wish you had written?
The Catcher In The Rye...it is the most beautiful, awe inspiring book ever written in the English language and I love every word within."
Amanda Rogers is the pen name for Caleb Dean, a 38 year-old father of six children. When not writing his passions through the eyes of Amanda, Caleb is busy working on his Master's of Business Administration as well as his Master's of Fine Arts. He also works full time as a manager of an industrial chemical plant. When does he find the time to write? Behind taking care of his wife and family, writing is his passion and he devotes as much time as he possibly can.
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