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Lexie started writing to immerse herself in a fantasy world where women are adored and men fall at their feet. Then she realised that sometimes men do that so you can stomp all over them in your sexy stiletto boots and since then she’s been creating stories that stay true to her original romantic dream while exploring the erotic, the kinky and the downright filthy. She finally found the courage to unleash them onto the world and now writes about anything that emerges from the murky depths of her imagination, whenever she gets the opportunity.

Lexie lives with her husband and two daughters in a house by the sea on the south coast of England, and spends her days working as an accounts manager. She loves chocolate, theme parks, BBQs on the beach and cosy winter Sundays and her dream is to write full time.

This is quite an alter ego – staid accountant by day, steamy novelist by night – did you have any reservations about publishing such eyebrow-raising material in light of your job?

I honestly never thought that I would tell anyone what I did when I first started and Lexie Bay is my pen name so I only told a few people at first. Plus I love that people assume that anyone who works in accounts is quiet and shy and it makes me smile to myself that I have a secret other life. I fell into doing accounts – I always felt I had a more creative side. I find that my writing keeps me going when I’m in the middle of a crazy month, trying to get all the reports and figures out to the directors and dealing with all the issues in the accounts department. To know that when I get home I can disappear into another world that’s much more exciting is the only thing that keeps me sane!

What have your colleagues made of the ‘other’ you? And what about the mums at the school gates? Are they shocked or impressed?

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve only had positive feedback so far from the friends that know. I think people are a bit surprised at first, as I’m pretty quiet at work and I suppose everyone has a mental picture of what an erotic author should be like! I’ve only told close colleagues so far, but just the other day word got out to a couple of others which was a bit of a blush moment! Everyone I’ve told has visited my website and there are several free stories on there so it can be a bit strange talking to people and wondering if they’ve read them or not. I had a really funny moment the other week when I told a college friend and he went straight onto my website and read a story while we were sitting chatting. That was a novel situation, but if I’m going to do erotic readings in the future, I guess I need to get used to people reading my stories. I know that my friends are proud of me and that’s what important.

As far as the school mum’s go, I work long hours so I don’t often get to the school playground. I also thought it would be best to keep it quiet from that side of my life, especially as my eldest is at a church school and I don’t want to offend anyone who might find it a little too racy. Plus I think my daughter would die of embarrassment if any of her friends found out!

Erotic romance authors don’t always have any easy ride, highlighted recently when school teacher Judy Mays was ‘outed’ as an erotic romance writer and parents tried to force her out of her day job. So while I think it’s a shame that some people are outraged by something so integral to everyone’s lives, I don’t want to cause any problems for my girls so I try to keep their side of my life separate to my writing.

What triggered your move into erotica? Out of the whole fiction genre, what was it that appealed?

I wanted to write erotic romance because of the ability to explore the blissful highs and the dark depths of people’s emotions. I love the huge spectrum of situations you can work with. Of course I also love writing about sex! When you read my stories, hopefully you’ll identify with the characters. I want readers to become immersed in the story, putting themselves in the characters positions. I like the way that you can trigger a response with erotica, that it can open people’s minds to explore their boundaries and my words can fuel my reader’s fantasies.

I aim to create a world that my readers can lose themselves in, where women get to feel sexy and fabulous all the time. I like my heroines to be ordinary girls enjoying their sexuality, just like the majority of women who will be reading the stories. Plus when else do you get to create gorgeous romantic men and get them to do exactly what you want them to!

Another big draw for me was the freedom of the short story and the novella. I’ve written for pleasure for years but I find it difficult to make enough time to finish any of my bigger projects. We all know how busy life gets when you work and have a family to look after. Within the erotic genre there’s a wonderful market for short stories and I hope that I will be able to get more of my work out for people to read.

It’s obviously a massive industry, how did you go about it?

The first step was to talk to my husband about what I was thinking of doing. He thought it was a great idea and was really encouraging (he has been nagging me for years to do something with my writing). My first port of call was to Google “erotic authors” and make notes on the names and websites that I found. I knew that I wanted to have a web page and a Facebook account and that I wanted give myself a “brand” as much as possible right from the start so I wanted to see what else was out there.

Once I had an idea of what others were doing, I created myself a Twitter account under the nickname Chaospixe and started following the other writers that I’d found on line. I figured that if I was going to get into this myself, I needed to see how other writers went about it and what they did on a day to day basis.

The website that I first added to my favourites was Lucy Felthouse’s site. I didn’t know at first, but she’s been in the business for some time and is well known in the industry. Reading her stories on her site proved to be exactly the inspiration that I was looking for. Shortly after that Lucy started the website www.eroticaforall.co.uk which is an amazing source of news, stories, author profiles and interviews. I’ve been lucky enough to be featured on there which was brilliant! Around the same time Lucy put out a call for submissions for an anthology she was putting together called “Uniform Behaviour”.

I decided to go for it and wrote her my very first story about a policeman, called “Taken With Consent”. I submitted it and waited nervously for a response. As the deadline expired, Lucy put out another call to say that she had too many police stories, and was looking for some more submissions. My heart sank; I was certain that if she had hundreds of police stories mine, as a novice story, didn’t have a hope. So to give myself another chance I wrote “In Love and War” about a Russian pilot from WWII and sent that in too. When I got the email to say that not one but both of my stories had made it into the anthology I couldn’t believe it. I actually had a bit of a cry so it was a good job I was on my own in the office that day!

Since then, I’ve written several free stories for my web site, done a couple of guest blogs and I’ve just submitted another story for an anthology. I would love to get things moving a bit more so I’m going to try and concentrate on my writing a bit more this year.

Did you draw on your own and your friends’ experiences for plots and anecdotes or did you focus purely on the fantasy domain?

Ha ha, I shouldn’t answer this or no-one will ever talk to me again! I have to admit I do use anecdotes that I’ve heard and I do pay much more attention to detail when talking boys with friends these days! And yes I do use my own experiences too….. but I’m not telling you which ones are mine! I tend to get my inspiration in the strangest places. I find that I watch people, mainly couples and single guys, to see how they react to each other and it’s often a glance or a touch or a shared joke between strangers that can set me off on a “what if” path that turns into a story.

How has your material been received – both in the industry and by fans and friends?

Well I’ve been really lucky in that the very first two stories I submitted have been published! And I’ve had some fabulous reviews from people that have amazed me. Uniform Behaviour has had several five star reviews and one of my favourite writers, Sommer Marsden reviewed it and mentioned my stories…..she said that “In Love and War” made her cry which has to go down as one of my proudest writing moments!

I post free stories on my website and I recently had a request from a publisher to submit some work for their next publication, after he had read “Sweet Like Candy” on my site, so I guess people like what I’m doing!

There are regular readings at the Sh! Store in Portobello and Hoxton too, where writers and fans get together with pink fizz and cupcakes to read from and listen to their latest work and the lovely ladies at Sh! Have said that they would like me to read at one of their events, which would be so wonderful (although a little nerve wracking…. I’ve never read x rated material out loud before!)

Most importantly, what we all want to know, is how did your parents react to this? Adults as we are, we can’t imagine telling our Dads that we’ve started writing SERIOUSLY graphic novels!

Well I have to say that telling my parents was a little strange! My mum knew that I was thinking about doing it before I actually sent anything off, but I didn’t tell the rest of the family until I’d actually got stories published. My mum was very proud of me, but she does sometimes ask when I’m going to write some proper stories! She’d like to tell her friends that I write but I’m not sure how well it would go down at the W.I! My Dad was a whole different thing. I have to admit I’d had a bit of champagne before I told him, but his girlfriend was really interested and they’ve both been really supportive. I have several family members on my Facebook page which is nice, from brothers and sisters to aunties and uncles but I’ll be honest I don’t know how many of them have actually read the stories! My mum started one but she said it was too much for her so I think they’ll be supportive from the side-lines, which is fine with me.

Did it feel cathartic, or a little strange writing those first steamy scenes – and did your publisher get you to push boundaries further before the final edit?

The first time I actually put down the graphic details on the page I was really embarrassed! I thought, did that actually come out of my head! Also, the very first few tries were a little forced and it was hard to know what words to use to describe everything. You realise how few sexy words there are for describing the essential parts in sex! I knew that I wanted to avoid the soft euphemisms and go right into the hardcore stuff but at first I couldn’t even bring myself to read it back, never mind send it off to anyone to read! I discovered that if I wanted my stories to seem real and accessible, they needed to have some emotion in them rather than just raw, basic animal sex, although there is definitely a place for that too!

You know when you’ve got a good scene when it almost writes itself… and if it makes you hot while you’re writing it, you can pretty much guarantee it will make your readers feel that way too.

I haven’t had the experience of writing for a publishing house who might have more of a say in how the book turns out, so I haven’t been asked to push any boundaries yet…. I often think I push myself although there are several genres that I have tried yet that maybe I should take the plunge into!

What next – do you think you’ll develop a whole series of erotic novels?

Well, I’ve submitted a story recently, so I’m waiting to hear about that and I’m also working on a novella with M/M and ménage themes as well as a one based around two brothers and the girl they both love. I would like to release a short book containing 4-5 short stories around the theme of “The First Time” which is proving a lot of fun to write. I keep my ears open about any other calls for submission too and hopefully I can get a lot more of my work out for people to read this year.

What does the revelation do for your love life – what does your partner make of all this?

My husband loves it and he’s really supportive of me. He came with me to the Sh! Store a few weeks ago to meet some of the other Uniform Behaviour girls and he’s always tweeting about me – he’s a great promoter! Of course I try out all my ideas on him first!

Socially it must be quite a conversation starter – do people think you must have an inner wild streak, are they worried they’ll be used as plotlines if they talk to you?

My close friends know that I have an inner wild streak anyway, as I’ve never been one to shy away from the alternative side of things! I think a lot of people love the idea of starring in their very own fantasy and I’ve even had requests for personalised stories from some. I have one source who calls me occasionally with the most amazing stories of what he’s been up to, which can come in very useful if I ever get stuck.

What would your advice be to any other erotic novelists in the making?

Just go for it! It’s very liberating and you’ll never look back. The best thing about the erotic industry is that everyone is so supportive. I’ve found that the other writers I’ve come across are more than happy to talk to you about how they do it, people to contact, publishers to speak to and any other tips they can think of to help you. They’re happy for you when you have something accepted and they keep your spirits up when you get a rejection. It’s been like being accepted into a wonderful club and the more writers I meet that more I realise that it was the best thing I ever did.

If you’d like to read Lexie’s stories, then you can find her website here or you can read two of her stories in the fabulous Uniform Behaviour edited by Lucy Felthouse.

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