Eloisa James on Potent Pleasures . . .

By Piatkus Entice
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Do any Enticers dream of being a historical romance author? Or any kind of author?

Here at Piatkus, we’re constantly seeing our authors encouraging new writers on their websites, on social media or in essays for magazines/blogs. They’re right – reach for the stars!

And sometimes, when someone you really admire, tells you a story from their past, about starting out and perhaps making a few mistakes, it’s tempting to think, ‘Yeah right!’

But yeah . . . RIGHT! Everyone was once in your shoes and in Eloisa James‘s first year as a published author, she learned and grew and was basically a totally tough battle warrior!

With the help of intelligent readers like you, some tough times led to one of her most well-loved books, (Potent Pleasures, the first in series that has just become available in the UK for the first time) and inspiration for all others that followed . . .

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Remember how much you longed to be a teenager?  When I was unpublished, the published state looked just as glorious as the magic year thirteen does to a eleven-year-old girl.  I had no problem visualizing myself signing my name with a flourish and meeting my editor at fancy New York lunches.  But First Years are often not exactly as one visualizes.  Take the First Year of Marriage, for example.  Magazines and movies portray it as a blur of romantic dinners and surprise gifts from one’s dearly beloved.  Yet even as my husband and I wander into our second decade together, I shudder to think of our first twelve months.  I am not just complaining about the state of the bathroom, either.  Why doesn’t anyone tell you that supposedly intelligent men turn out not to have balanced their checkbook for years?

And what about that long-awaited First Year as a Teenager?  I expected something marvelous to happen.  OK, breasts might have been a long shot, but secretly I hoped to transform into a graceful, slender girl with blond hair.  Needless to say, my hair remained obstinately red, my clumsiness was unmatched by anyone else trying out for the cheerleading squad, and my waistline was a matter for tears and French fries.  The year is summed up, in my mind, by one day at lunchtime when the boys (who generally stuck to their side of the room), were acting like rampaging animals, tossing about a garment of clothing.  I hadn’t the faintest idea what they were so excited about.  And it wasn’t until the said white scrap of cloth shot over to the girls’ side of the room and draped itself on my head (rather like the homecoming crown I longed for), that I discovered the existence of the jock strap.

I guess my real point is that First Years are often painful.  My first year as a published author was no exception.  The shock was all the greater because I so enjoyed the unpublished life.  I don’t happen to be someone who was wise enough to attend creative writing classes, or join the Romantic Writers of America, or learn how to ride before jumping in the saddle.  Nope, I hopped right on and started writing.  And because I loved it, I kept going.  The year I spent writing Potent Pleasures will always remain, in my memory, one of the most charmed experiences of my life.  I was juggling my job, my three-year-old son, and our household (my husband never did learn to balance a checkbook) – but at four o’clock every day I would sink into the story of Alex and Charlotte.  And I loved it.  Writing was something I felt I could really do well.  I don’t know about you, but I have to work hard at mothering.  It’s the toughest job I’ve done, and if I ever meet someone who says out loud that they do it very, very well, I will likely consider a citizen arrest on the grounds of criminal insanity.  As for being a wife, I was never much good at math.  And as for my job…it’s a job.  Hard one day, excruciating the next, kind of fun one week, stressful for a month.  But writing Potent Pleasures was pure pleasure.

So my first year as a published author should have been bliss, right?  Everyone who picked up the book would say, “Hey!  This is great!” and write me a letter saying so.  What’s more, the publication of Potent Pleasures was not the only wonderful thing that happened to me in 1999.  My second child, Anna, was also born.  Oh bliss!  Oh glory!  Oh desperation!

Why had I not realized that juggling a job, a household, a second book, a four-year-old son and a new baby added up to INSANITY?  At the same time that Potent Pleasures was hitting the bookstores, I was struggling to finish my second novel.  The contracted due date for Midnight Pleasures came and passed.  It wasn’t that the book wasn’t done – it was, sort of.  Sophie and Patrick was a gloriously funny couple.  I adored them and their jokes, their love for each other and their griefs.  The problem was their sex life.  They didn’t have one.  Well – I hardly had one, so why should they?  Anna was born at a low birth weight, and woke up every two hours for a feeding, every night for months.  And if she didn’t wake up, I was under strict instructions to wake her up.  Who needs sex?  Sleep is the ultimate pleasure.

The second problem was my readers.  About half of them loved Potent Pleasures.  USA Today loved it, Booklist loved it, and Publishers’ Weekly loved it.  Half of my readers fell into Charlotte and Alex’s story just as I had hoped when writing it:  with pleasure and affection.  But the other half of my readers wrote me blistering letters.  Charlotte and Alex dance a quadrille in 1803 – and there were no quadrilles in England until 1815.  Even worse, Alex wears pajamas – and there were no pajamas worn until the 1930s!  Here’s where my mortification came in.  You see, in my day-to-day job, I am a scholar.  Facts are my business.  I spend most of my days teaching undergraduates how to write footnotes and how to do research.  The mortification of being crowned by a jock strap was easily surpassed when I became the queen of the anachronism.

In my defense, I had no idea that some readers treasure historical accuracy.  Back in my blissful pre-publication state, my husband pointed out that men didn’t wear pajamas in the old days.  I dismissed that suggestion out of hand.  My Alex couldn’t wear a nightshirt!  Yuck!  My husband also thought that prostitutes were not known as hookers back then.  But I liked the sound of a Hookers’ Ball.

Now that Potent Pleasures was actually on the stands, more letters went up on Amazon.com every day.  Outraged letters battled supportive letters.  My editor described my Amazon site as a war zone.  My husband described it as forbidden.  After visiting the site, I invariably spent the whole day in tears (mind you, lack of sleep doesn’t make criticism any easier to handle).

Fortunately, there was a good nine months before Potent Pleasures was to be published in paperback.  I spent two of them in a frenzy.  A few anachronisms couldn’t be changed as they were woven into the texture of the story.  But some pages underwent as many as seven alterations.  Words changed.  Details changed.  Alex lost his pajamas and went to bed naked.  Charlotte’s garters descended to her knees and she attended a Cyprians’ Ball rather than a Hookers’ Ball.  Baby Pippa, alas, was forced to eat cake rather than ice cream.  I turned in the revised draft of Potent Pleasures in a state of complete exhaustion.

In my first year of as a published author, I learned that the art of writing is just as difficult as all the other good things in life, such as parenting or staying in a marriage.  But like those other things, the pleasure of writing well is far keener than the pleasure of writing easily.  By talking back to me, irate readers helped me become a better writer, in a way I may never have learned on my own.  The paperback of Potent Pleasures represents, to me, the very best story that I could write at this moment.  And yet the paperback is no longer just my property.  It is a collaborative effort, written with the help of intelligent, conscientious, and vocal readers.

My baby, Anna, not only sleeps through the night, but bops around her room listening to Justin Bieber.  My husband may not balance our checkbook, but he cooks a great pot of pasta, and he does all the laundry – and he even sorts the colors sometimes.  Sophie and Patrick regained their sex life, and became a more passionate couple for having lived a celibate existence.  I’m still writing novels, but now I find myself looking forward to letters from readers, whether they be irate, supportive or otherwise.  How else will I grow as an author?  I still don’t have time to take a creative writing class!  What was most difficult about my First Year as a Published Author has become a crucial source of help and inspiration.

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Potent Pleasures and the rest of the Pleasures trilogy is available now in ebook from Piatkus Entice, and in paperback July 3rd, 2015!