PG Forte - Waiting For the Big One

Nikki - I love your tag line "PG is a name, not a rating". That is great. How did you come up with it?

PG - Oh, self defense, definitely. *grin* As soon as I started writing erotic romance the teasing began. I mean, PG erotica? That's such a contradiction in terms, don't you think?

Nikki - Do you use Berkeley, California as the basis for the setting in your book? If so, why?

PG - Nope...although I'm certainly not ruling it out for future books. Waiting for the Big One is set in Los Angeles. That was very important because it's the kind of story that could only take place there, for a number of reasons. The first, and most obvious, reason being that the seed concept--that everyone in LA was waiting for the big one--was something that came to me while I was living there...and expecting my first child...who did turn out to be rather a big one, now that I think of it. Hmmm. I don't really think there's that same focus everyplace else. My previous series, however, was set in the fictional town of Oberon, California. Now that was an amalgamation of several places I'd lived in California, including Berkeley. Setting is very, very important to me so I do need to feel as if I know the location just as well as I know the characters. Also, I love California, so I love setting stories here.

Nikki - The idea of moving a relationship from friendship to something more is a common concern. What are your feelings about this shift in a relationship?

PG - I think it's hard not to fall in love with your friends. And I think it's even harder to fall out of love with someone without the friendship suffering as a result. Tom Cruise had a line in the movie Cocktail that kind of sums up my feeling about that: "Everything ends badly--otherwise it wouldn't end."

Nikki - I notice in your synopsis that there's a crisis in Gabby's life and she re-evaluates her relationship with her good friend after he helps her through the problem. Do you think that is one of the most common situations that make a woman take a fresh look at future possibilities with a friend who could be more?

PG - I think it's human nature to cling to what's familiar unless we're pushed by circumstances into doing something different. Most of us are creatures of habit. We rarely ever simply wake up one morning and decide to change without some sort of catalyst.But it doesn't have to be a crisis. I broke up with a boy in high school after reading Ibsen's The Doll House. Hardly a traumatic event, but it crystallized things for me somehow. In Gabby's case, even though she was obviously attracted to Derek all along, it had always been safer and more comfortable to maintain the status quo than to risk losing their friendship by trying for something more.

Nikki - Did you have a similar relationship that sparked the idea for the story? If so, would you like to tell us about him?

PG - I don't really think I based the story on anything I've been through, although, now that I think about it, when I met my husband, I did go through a period where I tried to deny how serious my feelings for him had become. I'm much more impatient than Gabby, however. It didn't take a crisis or more than a couple of months before I came to my senses. Actually, all it took was a friend asking me who I was planning on inviting to go with me to an upcoming event. It was a perfectly reasonable question, since she knew I was seeing several people at the time. But, when I found myself thinking, "well, that's ridiculous--who else would I want to go with?" I realized things were more serious than I'd been willing to admit.

Nikki - What do you think is the most attractive thing about a man? What draws your attention and makes you think he could be someone special?

PG - Most attractive? You mean on first meeting someone? Oh, that's impossible. I mean, it could be almost anything. Seriously, a lot of things are capable of drawing my attention. LOL! To quote one of my characters: "Nice eyes, a deep voice, a sexy smile, a great set of buns, any of those--or any one of a dozen other traits, like broad shoulders, or strong legs, or the right kind of smell--and she was a goner. Every time." Mmmm.But, as for being someone special, well, I don't really think that has very much to do with physical attractiveness. In the end, who someone is, how he behaves, how he thinks, is much more important. On the other hand, my husband got me on our very first meeting simply by flashing me the most dizzyingly gorgeous smile I'd ever seen. I've been trying to get him to recreate that look for years.

Nikki - Do your female characters share similar thoughts? If not, what appeals to them in a man?

PG - Sure, a lot of them do. But they are individuals so I think it's fair to say they each have their own individual take on the matter. Gabby, for instance, is quite enamored with Derek's muscles. That's probably what's making it most difficult for her to stay 'just friends' with him. I mean, she knows he's a great guy--that's why she's so reluctant to risk their friendship. But those muscles...For April (Love, From A to Z), on the other hand, it's Zach's gentleness, his humor--and his guitar playing that make her fall for him. And for Claire (Let Me Count the Ways) I think it's Mike's voice that does it for her. Or, as she puts it: "that deep, dark, delicious river of sound that could never be anything but male and can't help but leave you wondering, what's all the fuss about Tenors?"

Nikki - So you started writing sexy stories while you were in a Catholic school. Do you have a favorite story about how that went with your friends and the teachers? I'm picturing a teacher who wasn't impressed with your literary skills

Well, my English teacher certainly wasn't impressed--she accused me of plagiarizing some of the work I turned into class because she didn't believe a teenager could write that well. Kind of a backhanded compliment, I guess. The teacher who was most supportive of my writing was my Biology teacher. Go figure, huh?But as for the stories you mentioned, it was actually one, long, on-going serial, very open-ended--sort of like a soap opera. I started writing it while I was bored in French class one day...which probably goes a long way toward explaining why I never did learn to speak French! All the characters had the names of my friends or people I knew. And even though the action was largely fictional, it mirrored some of what was going on in our lives--if someone was sick, if two friends were fighting with each other or if someone had a new boyfriend or a new car, etc--the same things would likely occur to their 'characters'. So it was us, but not us, if you know what I mean, and 'we' all got to have fantastic adventures. I wrote most of the installments during class and then I'd pass them around. As more and more people heard about what I was doing, they'd ask me to write them in as well. Luckily, most of the action was set in a previously abandoned hippie commune/farm in New Mexico that we supposedly discovered and moved into, so the location could accommodate a very large cast of characters--especially since a lot of the 'extras' were only written in for a few episodes. My Algebra teacher managed to confiscate some of it, at one point and...well, I don't quite think she understood that it was fiction, so it was probably very shocking for her. I mean, it certainly wasn't as explicit as the erotic romance I write today but, on the other hand, she was an elderly nun. She looked shocked, in any case; her eyes just about popped out of her head. Probably because she recognized so many of the names. I don't believe I ever bothered to clear up the confusion. lol! I know--very mean of me.

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CJ Maxx - In The Arms of a Warrior

Nikki – I see you used to write military citations and efficiency reports. How does a person make the jump from that to romance?

CJ – If you're a writer, you're a writer. When I was in the Army I wrote several citations and numerous efficiency reports. Both types of documents must be written well if they are to represent the recipient properly. In one you're describing an action, in the other a person's performance. Both require using descriptive language that accurately portrays what you're trying to say. That's pretty much what you're doing when you write a book. Jumping to romance wasn't a simle transition though. I had to teach myself to my romance scenes. I write from both male and female points of view. I had a lot of 'supervision' from the females in my life until I got the female stuff right.

Nikki – Your character Susan Ambrose, has a strong family history in the military. How did you decide to give her this background?

CJ – The premise I started with was Susan, the product of a warrior family, wanting to marry outside that culture. I work from a rough outline so I don't know what's going to happen in my stories. The influence that her family, especially her father, had on her just came out as I wrote. It became much more important than I originally envisioned.

Nikki – Defense contractors seem to be playing a much larger part in war situations in the 21st century. Did that increased importance in national security play a part in your decision to set your story in this environment? If not, what prompted your decision?

CJ – I needed a role for David that would eventually show that he was a warrior. Selecting a program that would require him to go to a war zone worked well. I didn't consciously select a defense contractor for any other reason than it fit the story. David had to be a civilian and one who wasn't obviously a warrior. He's not your typical romance hero--in the beginning.

Nikki – Most men I know tell me they are visual and enjoy watching sex scenes, but I’ve noticed more and more are reading sex scenes. Do you think that’s a shift in attitude or is it just the men I know?

CJ – I hope things are changing. It seems like the majority of erotic romance readers (and writers) are female. That's always been the female source of sexual fantasy, reading explicit novels. Men had their x-rated films but also would read things like the letters in Penthouse. I think men's fantasies are more pure erotica than women's Getting them to read something titled 'romance' is difficult. Most think romance novels won't be that erotic. Boy, are they wrong. Their interest in something with the term 'romance' in it isn't there. Obviously, they will read erotica. They need to understand that women, and some men, are writing stuff that will fire them up. If all men knew the effect erotic romance had on their significant others, sales would boom.

Nikki - If it is a change, what do you think has lead to the change?

CJ – The erotic romance doesn't have to change, just the packaging. The term 'erotic romance' works great with women. We need a similiar term for men, 'smut for men' seems too crude. We need something provocative that will catch their attention.

Nikki – What sort of reactions do you get from women and other men when they find out about your books?

CJ – Easy question. The women's eyes light up and the men shrug their shoulders.

Nikki – Many women mention that they write erotic books under a pen name because of family concerns. Do you have these same concerns? Why or why not?

CJ – I use a pen name because my given name is so obviously male. I didn't want a potential reader turned off by the fact that a man wrote it without even seeing what it was about. It wasn't a family thing, all the women in my family think it's great that I write erotic stuff.

Nikki – Female writers often use their initials when they write thrillers because men are more accepted? Did this sort of idea lead to you using your initials?

CJ - That's interesting. The ladies use their initials to mask the fact that they're female and I use them to mask the fact that I'm male.

You can visit his website at http://www.cjmaxx.net/.