Khul Waters, welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews! Congratulations on your first release Journey into Submission by eXtasy Books. Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about your book and writing in general.

It is my pleasure, JoAnn.

How long have you been writing?

I have been dabbling in writing for quite a few years , poetry and short stories mostly but it was not till last year that I decided to try and write a novel length piece of writing that would be sent to publishers.

What made you want to submit Journey into Submission to eXtasy Books?

Laughs, well as a 'newbie' writer and unpublished author I was ready to sign up in my own blood with Lucifer Press to get published. Stefani, the Editor-in-Chief at eXtasy, is probably related to Lucifer, but only distantly. (I had to add the 'distantly' as I will be sending the novel I am writing now to her and I am mindful that she may remember my comment above when this happens!) I had submitted my novel to several electronic publishers but eXtasy were very quick to get back to me and to sign me up. They are a very friendly and professional outfit. It is great to be a part of their organization.

With the release of Journey into Submission, does being published change how you look at writing?

No, well not as far as the process of creating and forming a story goes. When I write I am still only focused on getting the story out. However, what changed for me as a recently published writer is my awareness of the editorial process and the promotional effort needed to get my 'baby' out there. Tina, my manuscript editor, was very patient with me about the alterations she saw as necessary to change the 'raw' story into one that fitted the conventions of the print world. I expected that but the process of re-visiting and re-visiting a 90,000+ word manuscript became very tiring towards the end. I have no idea how many full reads and part reads of my story I have now done but it still feels like too many! I have heard film directors say something similar after months of editing but, not till now, did I truly appreciate what they meant.
What I had not expected was the time and effort needed for promotion. Laughs, I was not expecting the world to seek out my novel but neither was I aware of how much effort writers put into the promotional side of things. The chat groups can be fun, especially as I tend to bring my own fun with me. But there are a lot of them! I spend up to two hours a day touring the chat sites and getting my name and novel "out there". I have a great deal of admiration for the more experienced writers (and many inexperienced ones) who handles this promotional side of writing far better than I do.
My partner, who is the Kate in my novel, calls it PW, Product Whoring! Laughs, she does this with a smile on her lips but it IS true. Of course, she may say this because then she gets a lot of chances to ask me 'Are you being a good Product Whore, today?' (Yes, I have to put up with a LOT from her!)

Is Erotica the only genre you write or plan on writing?

I really have no idea what kind of writing I may do. I guess the genre will be shaped by the message I am trying to convey and the setting in which this happens. I don't decide on a genre and then write the story that fits this. I just try to tell a story. The industry and readers place writers' stories inside these genre tags. Certainly, my (almost finished) second novel will probably be classified as Romance / BDSM / Erotica as well. However, I see myself as a writer of romances who does not want to soften the raw eroticism of the romantic relationships between my characters. The fictional creation of loving intimacy is what gives me the greatest pleasure.

The books you write contain some BDSM, do you feel this may turn some readers away from your books?

It may well turn some readers away as many people see BDSM as being about abuse or as being about 'weirdoes who give or receive pain'. That would be a pity though as my writing is not about this. It is about loving relationships between a couple. I have no interest in writing about abusive relationships and have none in living inside one.
In fact, I don't even see myself as writing inside BDSM. Again, it is more to do with the tags others use to categorize writing. For instance, if a man restricts a woman's sense of freedom by tying her to a bed or if he spanks her, then this is seen as BDSM. Yet there need be no sadism or masochism involved in either action. And there is none in my story.
What IS involved is an amount of control over that person. So I would be far happier that, if my writing has to be characterized, then it is called D/s (Domination / submission). I believe couples connect in sexual situations with one person dominating and the other submitting. With some couples the Dominant is the man and with others it is the woman (in heterosexual relationships). Often the domination is only seen in small things. For instance, if one person likes to 'ride' the other during sex, controlling their partner's and their own sensations and his or her partner likes to be ridden so that both find a heightened sexual release from their positions, then this is D/s. Yet, whether it is seen in small things or larger things, it is about one person exerting a degree of control over the other and about that other person allowing that control to be exerted. I don't see this as BDSM except in a very broad sense.

Where do you get your inspiration for your stories?

I guess the honest answer is inside myself and from my own life. Laughs, I hasten to add that my story is fiction even if it is fiction based on real life. Clear as mud??? What I mean is that in stories the characters' lives acquire an 'intensity' that is rarer, less sustainable, in real life. Things are MORE. Smiles, my male hero is more physically capable, more sure of himself, more intuitive, just MORE than I am in real life. Yet Miles' experiences and his general views on life and on love are still mine. Idealized. Intensified. Larger than real life. Yet mine.
While it is not the only way to create realism, I do it by drawing on what I know, what I have lived, what I have hoped for and what I have day-dreamed. The setting is the world I know. The characters are people I know. The situations are ones I have lived or dreamed of living.
The places in the story are those around me here in Australia. I love the ocean and the beaches of OZ (Australia) and generally prefer natural places to cities. I have been fortunate enough to travel a great deal inside Australia and overseas so I have a rich personal store of places that can be used in my writing. (Smiles, also, I am not a research-based writer. Maybe I am just too lazy to do that much work! So I use the settings I know from my own life.)
Did all the events of my story happen to us? Mostly they did but keeping in mind the rider about the heightened intensity I mentioned above and understanding about the freedom from factuality that writing fiction allows me. That is why I described it as 'fiction based on real life'.

Were the characters Kate and Miles inspired from a real life couple?

Yes. Miles is me and the Kate in my story is my real life partner whom I call SS (suspect sub). The story is loosely based on the realities of our lives. I was married. I did meet this wonderful woman online in those dying stages of my marriage. I did move to be with her. I am discovering what a Dominant is and what kind of a Dominant I am. SS is a submissive and laughs, I am constantly discovering how flexibly she defines this. We talk about our 'contract', the rules both of us apply to each other. But both of us admit to a reluctance to show the other our copies as the ink is constantly wet from the many alterations we make. This sense of fun is a wonderful part of SS and my real lives and I hope it comes across in my novel.
I guess what I was trying to do in Journey into Submission was to put into words the joy and pain, love and desire, and laughter and intimacy that we have experienced. But I have added entirely fictional elements. SS has never had a relationship with her teacher. (Laughs, they were mostly nuns so that would make it a whole other kind of novel.) I have never used ice on SS but I have thought about it, fantasized about it. I have not tied her up as I have no need to. I can restrict her with just my hand holding hers or by telling her not to do something. Smiles, but those things might yet happen. If she wants them and I see that want and act on it.
As a short aside, SS just read what I have written and asked me to add that there is nothing suspect about me as a Dom. Apparently I am a natural. I bow to her greater experience in such matters. I am just blundering my way through my life as best I can. And yes we share everything, even my thoughts in an interview. There is nothing I do or say that is hidden from her and the same is true for her with me. It is this deep intimacy that I wanted to recreate in my novel. This oneness.

Do your characters tend to come alive and talk to you as you write?

Well, my characters used to talk to me but my therapist made me tell them to go away. (OK, I will try and be sensible again, but it doesn't come easily!) As my characters are closely based on SS and myself, it is more that what they will say comes out easily as we have already said these things or something like them. Knowing my characters so well means that I know how they will react and what they will say.

Where would you like to see your career several years from now?

The swirling mists part to reveal a fitter, tanned, more relaxed me sailing the emerald green waters of the Great Barrier Reef. SS sits alongside me typing my words into a laptop as these emerge from my lips in between sipping cold drinks and eating fresh shrimp. Laughs, yes that is a career daydream, JoAnn! OK so you wanted a more realistic answer but, hey, I told you I am a romance writer. Did I mention the sunset on the horizon? How careless of me not to do that. It is so overwhelming! "I 'wake up' as a reality wave splashes over me and come back to the real world" Writing for me is a hobby more than a career. I work full time so, until I can get returns from writing that exceed my salary as a teacher, it will have to stay that way. I did ring the Mercedes dealer when I signed the contract with eXtasy but so far the financial returns have left me still a long way short of being able to confirm an order for a convertible. The dealer did confirm however that I can afford the wheel rim at this point in time.
Smiles, still, dreams are not spoiled by reality so I will dream about the Mercedes and the yacht.

Authors tend to be book lovers themselves. Is this true with you? If so, who are some of your favorite authors? Genre?

Yes I love books. They are a wonderful form of escapism for me. Is there a better way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon than curled up on a comfy sofa with a good book. (OK so there is that! But let's imagine she or he is not there on this occasion.) However, with a full time job and writing and Product Whoring, I don't have nearly enough time to pander to my love of reading.
I have, however, always loved Science Fiction and Fantasy. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are long time favourites. But give me any story where good battles against evil and I am going to be sucked in. If there is enduring love tossed in then I am a goner. As I said before, I am a romantic, perhaps even a hopeless one. I don't seek out 'reality' stories, ones where people' s misery is the norm, where the ugly and the bad in life are the main focuses. As I said above, I like my reading to be escapism. Yet despite this I read widely when I can from Kazantakis' Christ re-Crucified, to Ayn Rand' s Atlas Shrugged trilogy, to Dr Seuss' children's books, which I love.

Are you working on any upcoming projects right now?

As I briefly mentioned above, I am almost finished my second novel. Tentatively called To Meet Her Needs, it is also an erotic romance but it is a little darker than Journey. It focuses more on the male character's perspective at the start as he drifts between jobs after his divorce. Later in the story he meets his soul mate and, from this point on, the story examines the particular form their intimacy takes as he battles with the scars his divorce has left on him. Re-reading that it does indeed sound 'dark' but it is not. It, too, is deeply loving and filled with the natural joy of living. I am also finishing my small part of a special project by eXtasy's writers that must remain secret for now.

In between these two projects I teach full time so I am finding time management a bit of a problem given that I also like to believe I have a life outside of writing. (Yes, I have been delusional for a long time now! And, no, not even telling my characters to stop talking to me have eased this!)

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors out there trying to get published?

Well, I am not sure I have the experience to offer any real advice. Laughs but that never seems to stop anyone else, or me, from offering it so I will cast around a few pearls of wisdom. First, just make your writing real. If the characters and their situations COULD be the reader then you are in with a chance of being signed up. Also, do the research and find out which publisher suit your kind of writing. Remember that electronic publishing is a great deal easier to get into than print publishing. Smiles, OK so that is not really a 'few' it is more like a pair of pearls but then I am a novice at this getting published caper.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Laughs as the PW in me surges to the surface and takes over. I just want to remind people that that Mercedes convertible is still gathering dust on the show room floor. This seems like such a shame when it could be having a loving, intimate relationship with ME. So I would urge you all to give and give and give till it hurts. Make this dream a reality! Buy multiple copies of my book! Send them to your family! Send them to strangers. Send them to Mercedes dealers everywhere! Spread the love and make one man' s dream a reality! (Donations can be made through eXtasy Books but unfortunately they are not at present tax deductible.)

Khul Waters, thank you so much for allowing us to interview you.

Interviewed by: JoAnn