Forbidden Fruit Blog Tour - Interview with Author Niki Crow

For this stop on the Forbidden Fruit Blog Tour, I get to interview author Niki Crow;  an excerpt from her story "Ash" is at the bottom of the interview questions. Check out the main blog tour page for giveaways and comment on this blog to be entered!

1. What inspires you?

Oh, that's a difficult question. But I think most of my inspiration comes from reading others' stories, and from my favorite erotica authors. A location or a single character can inspire an entire story, too. At the moment, I'm quite driven by calls for submissions, meaning I simply write for the calls that spark my imagination.

2. Do you have any hobbies or interests you'd like to share?

I'm into herbology. I take great pride in my herb garden,  my cabinet of dried herbs, and my knowledge of how to find healing herbs in nature. I have a few ancestors to be inspired by, women who would have been burned at the stake had they lived a hundred or so years earlier than they did.

3. What are some of your favorite kinds of stories to read? To write?

When it comes to writing, I have a special love for very direct, usually foul-mouthed, short or very short stories. I like to keep the pace up, and take great care to have rhythm in my writing. A story needs not only to flow easily, but have a beat as well. Not sure readers will notice, but it's important to me. When it comes to reading, my favorite stories are always well written, that's more important to me than genres or even a strong storyline.

4. If you could travel anywhere or anywhen, where would you go and why?

I think I'd go to the future, hoping to find it more tolerant and equal. It would be such a comfort knowing everything will be okay in these times of growing intolerance and injustice.

5. What are you working on now?

I just had a short-short story (800 words) accepted by Circlet Press, which is due to be up on their website as a free read on October 10th. Other than that, I'm putting the finishing touches on an erotic story featuring a lot of coffee (which I admit to being addicted to). ;-)

6. Tell me about your story "Ash" in "Forbidden Fruit: Stories of Unwise Lesbian Desire ".

The story is about Dr Susan White, head of her department, who falls head over heels for one of her new employees, the confident (and much younger) Ash.

"Ash is the fourth person on the list of possible employees and the last candidate we’re interviewing today. I’m sipping what must be my tenth cup of coffee and am making desultory conversation with Graham, when she shows up. She’s wearing a black suit and if it weren’t for the heavy gauge titanium jewelry, she’d look like a business woman instead of a nurse. She smiles, and an electric impulse travels like a tidal wave along my neural pathways, cerebrum to cunt. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that way about another woman. I blame Jennie for that too. She could never understand that it’s okay to look. I never touched. Seven years together and in that time I never let myself lust after another woman.
    But now, in the clinical hospital light, I can almost feel Ash’s pale, cool lips around my clit. It makes me want to bend her over my desk and fuck her with whatever I can find that’s thick enough to fill her. Right here, right now, and to hell with Graham. He can sit there in his gray suit and be outraged by the lack of self-restraint in his employees, or whatever excuse his moral self can invent. He’d have a hard-on he’d never forget. He’s the kind who would.
   Instead I gesture for Ash to sit in the chair opposite my desk, and give what I hope is a professional smile. "Hello, I’m Doctor Susan White,” I tell her."


Thanks, Niki!
 The next stop on the Forbidden Fruit blog tour is Nicole Wolfe who is interviewing L.C. Spoering.