Q: What was your motivation for writing, Behind the Ad?
Erica Jones: I am a very romantic person and enjoy the process of writing (because it allows me to find out how the story ends), so I was making a list of possible story ideas and Behind the Ad was the story I most wanted to know how it would end.
Q: Being that your book is an erotica, what would you say to those who might shy away from your book?
Erica Jones: I am first and foremost a romantic, and my book is a romance. And while the sex in it is described quite vividly, it all has a purpose in advancing the story and letting us know who the characters are, and ultimately making the ending more satisfying. Read the book, skim the parts that you fear you might find offensive. The story is a traditional romance, in fact, so much so that even though I wrote it, parts of it can (and generally do) bring me to tears when I read it.
Q: Why do you think erotica is so "taboo" and why did you write an erotica as opposed to a more traditional romance book?
Erica Jones: I struggled a bit with the idea of making it an erotica or more traditional romance. Personally, I am an erotic person, I think that romance naturally leads to love, and that love causes a person to want to give themselves to another in the most intimate way possible. And while I could have suggested the intimacy rather than describe it vividly, this story needed the sexual contrasts in the story to emphasize the difference between some of the characters, and to provide the emotional power of one of the pivotal scenes. I think that the best writers write for themselves, and I personally love sex.
Q: What have Bradley and Angie taught you about your own life?
Erica Jones: That love is not discovered in the passion, but in the communication, and that real love lifts us higher and makes us a better person.
Q: What can you tell us about Erica Jones? The one thing all her fans should know?
Erica Jones: I got into writing because there were unfinished fragments of stories floating around in my mind and I wanted to know how they would end; but the greatest joy I get in writing is when I hear from one of my fans, telling me how one of my stories has touched them. Leo Tolstoy said, "ART is when one person can convey to another to another the same experiences and emotions that they have experienced and felt." When a fan tells me what they have felt when reading my work, what I felt when writing it, I feel that I am an "artist".
Q: What can we expect from your next project?
Erica Jones: That's a very good question, I always have at least a half a dozen of ideas bouncing around in my head, and when one gets formed enough that I am intrigued by it to the point that I need to know how it will end, then I start to write. It may be erotic or it may be more traditional, but it will touch my heart (and hopefully my readers' hearts as well) and make us all remember that true love exists.