One Page of Misery is proud to present romance and erotica author Philippa Maquente in this interview!
Auctor Trevel: Hello, Philippa! Glad you could join One Page of Misery for an author interview.
Philippa Maquente: Good day, thanks for having me.
AT: Tell us a little about yourself and what you have written.
PMQ: I am Philippa MaQuente, the amorous author. I have always loved reading, and writing became my passion in high school. My dream has been to publish and be known for my written works.
My body of work spans from classic historical settings to science fiction landscapes, and with an erotic twist. I write romances and erotica, with a Gothic, feminist tilt.
AT: After having read Afflictions of Unruly Passion and While Courting Our Demons, there are definitely dark and erotic elements that come together, especially in Demons.
What and who would you say have been your writing influences?
PMQ: [Edgar Allan] Poe is a big one for me. I fell in love with his verbosity, the haunted notes and lines of his poetry, the macabre, grisly pages of his stories.
I was heavily affected by the mysterious, sanguine presence of Dracula at a young age, and I’ve always adored ghost stories. The darkness in my work comes from Gothic literature and true history.
I turned to erotica and began exploring that later on in life. You could say I was inspired by Fifty Shades, but only in the sense that I knew I could do so much better, ha ha. Afflictions was born shortly after that.
AT: I agree that Fifty Shades is not the world’s best influence for erotica, especially as the relationship is depicted as abusive. In contrast, your fiction emphasizes consent and communication and also critical of abusive power dynamics in relationships.
PMQ: One of my most fervent causes as a feminist voice/activist is healthy, consesual sexual expression and healthy relationships built on trust and communication. Sex ed is severely lacking, which results in too many people getting their impressions of sex and romance from sources like pornography, books like Fifty Shades, or even rom-coms, which are also littered with toxic tropes.
So I write my stories to demonstrate what is healthy and what is toxic. I feel it’s my responsibility to do so.
AT: I agree it is a very noble cause! Also agreed that sex education—especially in the U.S.—is lacking and pornography, 50 Shades, and rom-coms have a heavily distorted view of sex and relationships, so much that they are considered the norm, which is a terrifying thought.
PMQ: Exactly. Our collective idea of romance is incredibly distorted.
People idolized Christian Grey and Ana’s relationship, just because he was rich and good looking, but she was naive and inexperienced, which made her easy to prey on, and he did. He stalked her, controlled her, and actually sexually assaulted her, which was all depicted as “romantic.”
Plus the series disparaged Kink and the BDSM community with these poisonous ideas. I was angry.
AT: I don’t blame you, especially given the 50 Shades trilogy started life as Twilight fan fiction, and Twilight has its own share of toxicity.
PMQ: Ho boy did it ever. Especially that final book, in which Stephenie Meyer thought it was perfectly reasonable to have a grown man “imprint” on a newborn INFANT. Literally grooming.
AT: Oh yes, very gross.
PMQ: Yet this made BILLIONS.
AT: Yeah, also terrifying of itself, and other facets of pop culture, sadly, are toxic.
Would you say your works are a rebellion against established toxic tropes?
PMQ: Sure, a little bit of rebellion, but I would call my goal more of an eradication. I don’t just want to push back against them, I want to see them DESTROYED. Like the hymen myth, for example. Not how it works.
AT: Good point about different sex-based myths persisting. It’s maddening.
I noticed that with both Afflictions and Demons, there are recurring themes that push back against the current toxic tropes present in romance and erotica but are written very different according to their respective time periods and plot.
How would you describe your writing process for Affliction? I felt like I was reading text straight out of the 19th century, which helped with its immersion for the reader.
PMQ: That would be because of my taste for classics. I love the archaic style and vocabulary use. I basically mirrored the writing techniques, dialogue phrasing, and core elements of such literature, researched the historical elements I needed to include, and then combined with a dash of wit. I like richly drawn characters, so that’s where I began.
After that I began planning the timeline, developed the key scenes, and began writing what came to me. I take the key scenes and piece them together bit by bit, leaving room for unexpected twists and character developments. It’s like a puzzle for me.
AT: I definitely see the classic influences!
What was the writing process for Demons like in comparison?
PMQ: Demons was an entirely different beast. Afflictions is the result of careful, fastidious planning and curation, but Demons is the result of primal emotion and savagery. It began as a short story that I wrote as a challenge to create something that was “85% dark” on the scale of my own measure. It’s based on the four main characters’ own perspectives, so was a real deep dive into four very different psyches. The whole series is about confronting the worst parts of yourself, enduring, and choosing to do what is right or face consequences. It’s also a scathing take-down of “dark” erotica.
AT: What were elements of dark erotica that were critiqued/satirized in Demons that are still persistently happening?
PMQ: For those not in the know, “dark” erotica is founded upon dubious consent, at best. Many of these situations are abductions or forced marriages/matings, underworld trafficking, and the like. In the end, the couple/group ALWAYS wind up living “happily ever after”, no matter how horrific, violent, or abusive the events were leading to the end.
My female main character (FMC) doesn’t just let her abductors carry away her heart no matter what they do. She fights back with wit, desire, brutal honesty, her own inner survival drive, and every ounce of willpower trying to make them do the right thing.
My story doesn’t exactly end with an easy rugsweeping HEA, either. How could it, when the boys did what they did, and she showed them all the ways they underestimated her strengths, wants and needs?
AT: Which was definitely needed! A “happy ending” after a traumatizing experience after being abducted, forcibly married, etc. also sounds incredibly forced.
PMQ: It’s just ridiculous to think someone would come out of that type of situation and be perfectly okay because “love.” My story shows mental health impact. It shows struggle and consequences. I portray the trauma without pulling punches.
AT: Which is what is needed in that genre, as well as an exploration of trauma being shown.
On that thought, do you have any other erotic works—dark and otherwise—currently in development?
PMQ: Oh yes, quite a bit. I’m veritably drowning in ideas and projects, haha.
My work does tend to pull me toward darker stories (I got my start in horror), but I do have some fun, lighthearted fare. In development I have the second and third Acts of Afflictions, a paranormal collection called The Widow and the Devil, and even an ambitious dark reverse harem college “bully” style romance with supernatural elements. Plus some more shorts!
I also just released part 2 of what I’m calling a “novella” despite that it’s already well over 100,000 words. It takes the main character set from Demons and reimagines them as a first-time high school romance. Much lighter, sweeter, yet no loss in quality or spice. All of them meet as seniors in high school about half a year from graduation, and the boys have to prove to their crush they’re soulmates before they leave the halls forever.
AT: Definitely a lot to look forward to! I understand the feeling of drowning in ideas and projects all too well.
PMQ: Usually my stories demand attention from me. If I don’t follow them, it can be hard to write something else!
AT: Most definitely! On the subject of prioritizing written projects, do you have any tools/methods to help keep on track and organized?
PMQ: I create note files to take ideas down, write out the rough synopsis for my more realized projects, and I brainstorm a lot. I also would advise aspiring writers to make time to write daily. I also go back over my work frequently
The two best pieces of advice I can give otherwise are show, don’t tell as much as possible, and write the book you want to read. I guarantee someone else does, too.
AT: One of my questions was if you had advice for any writers, and you have the answer perfectly.
PMQ: I’ll expand a bit, then.
“Show, don’t tell” is a common piece of advice, but it isn’t quite as simple as it looks. There’s room for both; the key is to find the balance. We don’t necessarily need to see an entire picture of a character’s childhood to understand their motivations in the story, but do a bit of narrating that information, along with some snippets and flashbacks of that life.
AT: As someone who is a big advocate of “show, don’t tell,” I agree with this assessment. This type of balance is difficult to strike, but when struck, it works wonders with reader immersion and allowing readers to fill in the gaps.
PMQ: I already produce so much material and often spend huge chunks of my work on a single day in timeline, it can’t possibly be sustained over an entire plot
AT: Right? On that note, do you use any other writing techniques/tools for your projects?
PMQ: Repetition of an idea or scene when I can’t always write it down is something I use. I think about a scene or conversation and draft it mentally over and over.
I also will say, read read read. It helps build your knowledge of grammar, structure, vocabulary, tropes, and character
AT: Reading is always solid advice.
Do you have any final thoughts of comments?
PMQ: Just that every human being deserves to know who they truly are and to follow their passions. Life is about passion and experiencing everything you can, discovering its beauty, and trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. That’s what I’m trying to do with stories.
You can check out Phillipa Maquente’s works on Amazon by clicking here. You can also check out Ms. Maquente’s Literotica account by clicking here.
DISCLAIMER: Ms. Maquente’s works are intended for readers who are 18+. Reader discretion is advised.
– Auctor
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