Robin Slick talks to Noveltown about Big Apple Books and Erotica - By N.L. Belardes

Robin Slick... Erotica or Chick Lit writer?

If I were to crown the most wickedly delicious queen in all of Philly, I would have to give the crown to Robin Slick. Why? Simple reason. Robin Slick has one of the most fabulous names ever for a writer. It’s not long, or drawn out, or overly flamboyant. It’s hip, urban, and has, dare I say it, sex appeal, in a nicely naughty way of course. You have to love the way the name rolls off the tongue.

Robin Slick’s real name? It’s probably something long like Yaminslickovich. Only Robin can tell. But would she? Though Slick writes on-the-edge fiction teetering, and often full on diving into erotica, she is as mysterious as her fiction. She spends time writing books, writing blogs, hovering around LitPark.com—not in a bad way of course—though I would say she lives up to her stylish name—a devilish comment here and there. She’s clearly a blog addict, as even admitted as much in an interview on Susan DiPlacido’s blog, “Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be happier as a non fiction columnist. All the energy I used to pour into my writing at 5:00 a.m. every morning I now spend blogging.”

I know the feeling.


Get her book...

Slick self-labels her fiction as “Wickedly Delicious”. Oh it is. Her characters are both sexually conniving and humanly complex. She’s written several published books, including Three Days in New York City and Another Bite of the Big Apple.

How can Robin Slick and her erotic fiction be so mysterious? Believe me, there are mysteries surrounding Slick, her real life and her prose. Let’s dig right in…

Interview:

Noveltown: Robin, I read Three Days in New York City. It’s a story of a woman discovering more than she’s just unhappy with her TV twisted jock husband. She discovers her sexual hunger and her artistic self-center. I’ve read that you don’t really like the erotica label. Is this true? Because, if that book isn’t erotica, I don’t know what is. Straighten me out here.

Slick: Oh, okay, okay. If I’m forced to label the book, and I totally despise labeling, it’s erotica because of all the graphic sex contained therein, but since you’ve read the book, you know that said graphic sex was an integral part of the story and there was no way I could whitewash it. But because I also edit for my publisher and erotica is what they primarily publish, I know it’s not formula erotica because that stuff makes me cringe. I’m serious. When I sit down to edit for my publisher, I don’t get turned on, I get nuts. Where is the sparkling dialogue? The humor? The unique, interesting characters? Oh, right. This is supposed to be about sparkling, unique sex. Okay, yeah, I guess this novel I’m editing contains all that. Interesting. The ones that make me cringe the most are usually the best sellers because they are all sex and that’s what the readers who make up a good portion of my publisher’s fan base are looking for. But seriously, don’t you think Three Days in New York City is really is a chick lit comedy with a sort of warped baby boomer coming of age back story? When I was sending the book out to agents four years ago, I was told the same thing over and over again. We love this but it’s not marketable as is—either take out the sex and make it mainstream or market it as erotica. I was like, Huh? Why can’t it be both? But damn it, my timing was off. A year or two later, erotica suddenly became big business and if I were to sub that book now, I’d probably get a totally different reaction. Anyway, there was no way I could take the sex out of that book—besides, I think the some of the sexual scenes are laugh out loud funny and totally in line with the character/plot, etc. —so I was a rebel and decided to start subbing it myself to small, independent publishers. And that worked. Mundania/Phaze grabbed it, and it was a best seller for them. They came to me and asked me to write a sequel, which I totally never intended to do, and that book (Another Bite of the Apple) been in the top five rated erotic books over at Fictionwise for the past six months. And that’s got way less sex in it than Three Days, trust me.


I stole pics from Robin's Photobucket. Is this Monty the wonderdog?

Noveltown: I was poking around at past interviews you’ve done and I read that you once received 500 emails for threatening to quit your blog, www.inherownwrite.blogspot.com. What particular book or event has caused such popularity? Or should I just start writing about sex to build my audience. Feel free to call me a shallow male.

Slick: Well, I’m pretty lucky because I can draw on my audience from many different places. When I first started the blog in 2004, my readers were about a hundred or so parents and kids from the Paul Green School of Rock Music because I spent the first few months blogging a novel I was writing about them following a two week west coast tour in which I participated as a chaperone for my own two kids, who were just graduating the program at the time. (I’ve since deleted those posts…see answer below).


School of Rock! School of Rock! One of these beautiful people is really Jack Black.

At that time, there was only one Rock School and it was in Philadelphia. Then they went corporate (argh) and they opened up something like thirty branches nationwide and I inherited all of those students and parents from all over the country who would google “Rock School” and find my blog. My big break came when the Picturehouse documentary “Rock School” featuring my kids was released internationally in theaters during the summer of 2005. I landed a bunch of readers who were not only movie fans but diehard Eddie Vedder/Pearl Jam, Jon Anderson of Yes, and Heart fans because my kids played with them at the movie’s premier parties – everyone who googled Pearl Jam or Yes, etc. found my blog because naturally I told little stories about having pizza with Eddie Vedder and posted accompanying photographs I’d taken. In 2006, when Adrian Belew hired my son and daughter to be his new power trio, I got a gazillion more readers from prog rock forum boards all over the world. My son, Eric, is also drummer for Project Object, a Frank Zappa tribute band featuring the original members of Frank Zappa’s band so then I got a strong Zappa fanbase visiting me daily and let me tell you, there are millions of them – who’d have thunk it? So combine this with all of my connections in erotica land – my readers, other writers, as well as all of my friends/editors from Zoetrope, which is a mainstream on line writing workshop sixty thousand strong…and well, it all just multiplied. And for the piece de resistance, when I thought I “discovered” Neil Gaiman and started writing about him…well…next thing I knew I was up to 10,000 hits a week. And then last month, I won fifth place in the Best of Blogs 2006 Award (www.inherownwrite.blogspot.com), diarist, and my numbers skyrocketed. But the million-dollar question is: Are any of these blog readers buying my books? God I hope so. My royalty checks have been decent at times so I’m hoping that’s the case. But it’s a struggle for me because I really do find I prefer writing about music and my kids’ careers a lot more than hawking my books. God I hate that part of the process—being a saleswoman, that is. I’m more of an oral person…err…I mean, word of mouth via people who have read my book is the sales method I prefer but then again, that’s me living in fantasy world, huh.

But yeah, last month was my biggest month on the blog ever—I had 125,00 hits between December 15-January 15. That’s Neil Gaiman territory, baby. Oh god, now I feel guilty. I really should be talking up my books more, as well as those of my friends. Note to self: At least do it weekly for Christ sake, you slacker you.


Does Robin kiss and tell? Does Monty?

Noveltown: OK, so I read more of your interviews than I probably should have. But you called your works in progress, Chick Lit. And then you went on to talk about how you pop open some wine and then add all the gooey sex to your stories when you write them. So really, you don’t write erotica, you write sex-revved chick lit? Either way, I read your work fairly quick. I had to know what happened. Call me shallow, again, please.

Slick: Okay, Shallow be thy name. Yeah, it’s true. I can’t just sit here at the computer stone cold sober and write about down and dirty, nasty sex. Masturbation, yes, sex no. (Why is that, she asked, holding her wrist in agony and wondering if she has carpal tunnel syndrome) So, like I said above, I really don’t consider myself an erotica writer at all. I like writing about twisted/contemporary relationships but since I’ve been successful writing about sex, I drink the wine, close my eyes, and go for it. But I think those days may be over—I’m currently writing a mainstream novel.



Noveltown: As I bestow you with a crown for being the most wickedly delicious queen in all of Philly, I have to ask, is Slick your real name?

Slick: Yeah. Well, it’s not my maiden name, it’s my married name. My husband is a cousin to Jerry Slick, Grace Slick’s ex-husband. It’s been funny to see how this has been whispered down the lane when I google my kids. I find everything from “Hey, Eric and Julie Slick are Grace’s grandchildren” to “their mother is Grace’s sister”. Pretty bizarre. And of course, oddly enough, David Bowie had a guitarist named Earl Slick… I’m not sure about this, I should probably hit Google, but I believe Earl came on board with David after Adrian Belew left. So poor Eric always gets confused with Earl. “Eric Slick plays drums for Adrian Belew? I thought he was David Bowie’s guitarist? When did he change instruments?” It’s all kind of weirdly incestual.

Noveltown: On to the subject of character development. How do you explore? You seem like a wanderer, like your main characters. I mean, you may sit still when you write your blog, but in reality it’s an exploration of your life and rock and roll, and of your mini-travels.

Slick: Oh, without a doubt my mini-travels and tours are the total basis for most if not all of my work. In my current still not quite finished novel—which is about a former groupie/hipster who struggles to come to terms with middle age and a faltering marriage when she reconnects a legendary guitar God from her wild past while accompanying and allegedly chaperoning her young rock star offspring on a tour across America—I directly drew from my experience from the west coast Rock School tour of 2004. Hence why I deleted the aforesaid posts in my blog—I did need to use some of that stuff in my current novel though I trashed most of it.


Monty, what are you doing?

Noveltown: And settings? How does you chose a setting like New York for your stories? Do you just say, “I want to write about New York?” Or what…

Slick: Err…I spend a lot of time in New York. And even living in Philadelphia, I’m a city girl (I live downtown), so I write about what I know. And frankly, I write what I personally would want to read. I know this is going to make me sound shallow (hey, we can be Mr. and Mrs. Shallow), but I could care less.

Noveltown: Last question: Are obsessions a part of your life and part of your stories? I mean, maybe stories are your obsession, but I think you’re a lot more complex than that.

Slick: Well, I’d be lying if I said I don’t get obsessions. And I’m an equal opportunity obsessor—I get fixated over everything from food to sex to music to certain authors living in Bakersfield, California. I mean, I’m not a stalker or anything, but once something or someone interests me, they kind of take over my brain and yeah, I need to write about it. Or them. Or him. Whatever. But do I need to be obsessed over something to write? Nah. Though…hmm…on second thought…my best writing comes from my various compulsions and at the moment, the well is dry. Maybe that’s why I’m currently in limbo.

Okay, that does it. Obviously I need a new obsession so I can finally finish my novel. Any takers?
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This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Wednesday, March 14, 2007. You can leave your response.