Hello Fenner Jekyll, Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. It's a pleasure having you here with us.

Can you tell us more about yourself?

At the age of nineteen, having been unceremoniously ejected from a series of private schools across Europe and New England (usually for misdemeanours categorized as 'disgracing the uniform'), I headed south on I-95 in a spontaneously borrowed ambulance, of which the big advantage was space in back for a drinks cabinet and a double bed.

After a four-month trip and many adventures, I arrived penniless in Florida and took a job in the Kingdom of the Mouse which lasted until a visitor's camcorder happened to capture me and a fellow cast member behaving in a manner inconsistent with the wholesome family values of the resort. Despite the efforts of innumerable lawyers, a clip still circulating on the Web shows just what it's possible to achieve in a chipmunk suit.

I fled to Paris, and stayed there for several years, working as a caricaturist in the Montmartre district. Eventually a difference of opinion with the Catholic Church forced a move to Amsterdam, and a new career as a sex-shop administrator and freelance writer. My erotic contributions to the underground lifestyle magazine Puff'n'Stuff came to the attention of an Oscar-winning British actor who commissioned a series of stories in which he got to despoil the lipstick of various glamorous stars from the heyday of Hollywood musicals.

The fee for the stories paid for a leisurely year or two touring Europe - doing things, waking up places, regretting one or two choices but generally having a disgustingly good time. I came to rest in London, writing and drawing Blessed Art Thou, the satirical sex'n'horror strip-cartoon featuring Sister Maria Consentua, a rapacious and devout Carmelite nun.

In 2004 I returned to the US and travelled a while, spending a lot of time within sight of the Pacific before settling into a rundown old house on an idyllic island off the east coast, within easy reach of the mainland via the Lincoln Tunnel.

When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?

When I was very young I read a book in which this chick Jane told this guy Dick to see the dog. She was very insistent about it. She kept telling him to see the dog. Then he did see the dog, and he told her so. He saw the dog and went on and on about having seen it. Then the dog ran and they both saw that.

I remember thinking, "This is terrible. I can do better than this crap."

What has inspired you to become a writer?

I'm only good at two things, and it's illegal to do one of them for money.

Could you tell us about your current release, Mitigated Filth?

It's a collection of short stories that are passionate, dirty, funny, emotional and untidily spontaneous - pretty much like actual sex, in fact. In real life, sex is never insignificant. It's never 'just sex'. In Mitigated Filth, sex features as an expression of love, of anger, of risk, of hilarity, of trust or mistrust, of admiration or condescension, of sincerity or of the lack of it.

Often, erotica implies that everything is about sex. But actually the opposite is true - sex is about everything.

Are you working on anything?

My current project is to write a story for one of the readers of Mitigated Filth. There's a competition woven into the stories in the collection, and the prize is to have me write a story based on your idea or fantasy. The details can be found at the website.

When you are writing do you listen to music, watch TV or do you need it to be completely quiet?

I need no sound but the occasional pop of a Sauvignon cork.

How does your family feel about having a writer in the family? Do any of them read your books?

My mother famously said, "Yes, well it's all beautifully written, dear, of course. But can't you please try to produce just one or two stories in which ordinary wholesome people do everyday normal things?"

"What? No blow-jobs?"

"Fenner!"

Are there any other genres that you would like to explore in your writing?

I'm not very interested in genre. All I care about is the quality of the writing, the use of the language, the compulsion of the story. If I were to say, for instance, that I tend to avoid Westerns or Sword'n'Sorcery sagas, you can bet your life that next week I'd come across a fabulously well-written, intelligent, gripping novel about a dragon-riding warlock pursuing Jesse James across the Yukon in search of the Amulet of Glan-Dra-Foer.

What is the most valuable piece of advice that you have ever been given as an author?

When I first started writing seriously, I bought a book called 38 Mistakes That Writers make or something like that. Mistake #1, Sentence #1, Page #1 was 'Don't kid yourself that there's something else you have to do before you can start writing'. That seemed very sensible, so I tossed the book into the trash and turned on the computer.

When you are not writing, what are you doing for fun?

Living.

What do you hope readers get out of reading one of your books?

A change of underwear.

Would you like to share your website where readers can visit you?

Certainly. Drop in at fennerjekyll.com. Read the free story there, and leave me a message. I would love to hear from you.

Thank You Fenner Jekyll for taking time out of your busy day to answer our questions.

Thank you for having me.

If you are interested in learning more about Fenner Jekyll and her books please visit her website.

Interviewed by: Linda H.