Interview

Hi Dan and welcome. I am so glad you could join us here at RomanceJunkies. To start, will you please tell us a little bit about your current projects?

 

I’ve just finished the manuscript for a new book entitled MY WISH WAS HER COMMAND. It’s about a husband who asks his wife for a little S&M, having been afraid to ask for a long time. He has to talk her into it at first, but once she gets going, she really gets going, and the guy gets much more than he bargained for...much to the delight of both of them. I haven’t really done any big BDSM pieces, and wanted to give it a try. Shortly before starting this one, I wrote a short story with an M/F spanking THEME (MY FAVORITE PUPIL, now available as an e-book from Cacoethes Publishing), but I wanted to try a longer one, and this time I reversed the roles. This one is also my longest piece yet, and it should end up in print as well as in e-book form (hopefully soon!).

 

While MY WISH WAS HER COMMAND makes its way through the final stages, I’m working on two other book-length pieces:  SCHOOL MEMORIES, about a small-town girl going to college and breaking out of her shy old self to explore and find out how much fun sex is (and also discovering that maybe she’d been unimpressed with sex because she’d only tried it with men...); and another one (as yet untitled) about a 40-something divorcee getting out of a bad relationship that was stifling her art and creativity, throwing caution to the wind, and spending her savings on a trip to the south of France to try to revive her inner life. Along the way, she seeks out some of the great sex she’s been missing during the years of her dying marriage, and this does wonders for her artistic inspiration. She also befriends a wealthy American couple who live in the area, but finds that things get complicated when some of the friendships become attractions and outright lusts - if things go that way, will someone get hurt, and could the friendship live through it?

 

Those are the two books I’ve started already. I’ve got a few other ideas in the works, but am not yet sure if they’ll be books or just stories.

 

Do you edit as you write, or finish the first draft and then begin editing?

 

I usually edit as I write. I actually work as an editor (of medical journals), so this is habit, I suppose. I do usually wait some time after writing a good long amount, though, and give things as a whole a read-through, and sometimes make minor edits. For example, MY WISH WAS HER COMMAND is a little over 200 pages of manuscript, and although I was generally writing a few pages a day, I didn’t do an overall read until I had about 60 pages. That gives me a little distance and perspective, and I can see if the ideas and language that I present from day to day actually hold together.

 

And of course, I always edit again when my publishers contact me with suggestions!

 

When did you first know you just had to be an author?  Do you remember your first writing project?

 

I’m actually an artist first; I’ve been drawing since before I could read. I didn’t start really expressing myself through writing until my early teens. That’s when I found that some things swirling or pressing within me could better be expressed by writing instead of by drawing—depends on what the things are. I still find myself choosing. Even with erotica, I sometimes write my ideas, and sometimes draw them. Both modes of expression have similar features for me: I can get very inspired and do a lot at once, or I can find myself stumped; I can try to make myself do something on a regular basis, but it doesn’t really work for me with either art or writing.

 

All of my first writing projects had to do with self-expression; they were more journalistic and poetic than essays or fiction. I poured out my heart, usually about negative things (stuff that made me really angry, sorrows that weighed on me, philosophical rants about time and death and the limitations of being human, etc.). I didn’t write my first real short stories until high school, and then they were mostly horror (I’ve been a fan of horror at least since I was 4 years old) and largely imitations of H. P. Lovecraft, who is my favorite author.

 

Name three traits a writer must possess.

 

I think this depends on why you’re writing each piece and who the intended audience might be. Writing paperbacks that you intend to sell to a definite target audience requires a different mindset than spilling your soul onto a page at any cost for the sake of future generations. There are some writers who appeal to popular audiences who carefully construct plots, who think of the mechanics of story arcs, who have a definite main conflict and its resolution, who cut out the excess wordiness and try to be straightforward and clear. Then there are writers who demand a lot from an audience, writing not to present a clear storyline but to create a texture, a flavor, to challenge linear thinking, to try breaking out of the boundaries of text and open up new worlds. Each of these entails different traits, even if the same writer is doing first one and then the other style, so I don’t think there are universal traits that work for everyone.

 

That being said, I think that every writer should know how to spell and be familiar with correct grammar. It’s fine to modify and play around with the rules (like James Joyce), but you need to know which rules you’re messing with before doing this successfully. A lot of people seem to rely on spell-checking software or on their editors, but writers should take responsibility and master the material with which they practice their craft.

 

If you could change one thing about your habits, what would it be?  What is the one thing you'll never change?

 

I sometimes wish that I was a little less distractible, but I don’t know if habit has much to do with that. One thing that I’ll never change is refusing to write unless I really have something in me. I can try to sit and force things out and say that I’m working, but the difference in the writing is always clear afterward, and it’s just a waste of time for me. If nothing is begging to be let out, then I should just do something else.

 

If you could retrace your path to publication, what would you do differently?

 

There’s not much that I could do differently. After my first year of grad school, I decided I should try to publish some of my writings. I had written a lot of non-fiction (essays, papers, mostly on the topics of philosophy and religion), a bunch of poetry, some short stories, and a bunch of experimental fiction in which I played with forms and perspective and timing. There was a lot of stuff that I took really seriously and that was important to me, but I had a hard time trying to find outlets for some of it. I had bought the current WRITER’S MARKET, but thumbing through it, I was disappointed to see so much that was standard, uniform, money-driven. I kept seeing things like “In your query, please describe the conflict and the resolution.” I thought, “What if there is no resolution yet? If I had resolution, I wouldn’t be writing most of this stuff. Isn’t there a place for writing that is simply well done, thoughtful, insightful, challenging, that wrestles with turmoil and conflict but comes up with no answers?” There didn’t seem to be. I sent a lot of stuff out, to any place that would even possibly consider some of my stuff - like college literary journals that paid nothing except a free copy of the issue. I didn’t even care about money so much as just finding a way of getting my thoughts out there.

 

Then, looking through the WRITER’S MARKET, I came to the “Sex” section - just a few pages listing magazines that sought out erotic fiction. The big names, like Playboy and Penthouse, were in there, but the info indicated that they never accepted unsolicited submissions. Others did, though. I also saw that while small literary mags or professional journals in my field were going to pay me $5 or $10, or even no money at all, the sex magazines were offering $350 for short stories. Damn! This was worth a try. I sat down and decided to write a quick porn story, attempting to make it sound like ones I’d read before in men’s magazines. I sent it off to Swank magazine, and they accepted it and paid me. Of all the writings that I had sent out, always careful to include SASEs, Swank was the only publication that even bothered to write me back. So much for the “literary” world. If they didn’t want me or were going to make me wait forever, I’d just write about sex and know that there were people out there who’d appreciate it immediately.

 

Thus, I started writing porn. When I connected with my current publishers (Cacoethes) a couple of years ago, I had a lot of conversations about target audiences, about the female readership, and so on, and I shifted my focus from porn to erotica. Everyone defines these differently, but to me, porn was the kind of writing that I was doing with men’s magazines in mind - quick, gritty, to the point, unabashedly profane and free of any niceties of detail, plot, character, atmosphere, and so on. The erotica that I’m doing nowadays is still explicit and has graphic sex scenes, but it also has emotion and takes more time in getting to the grit. I try to make the writing a little better, too, assuming a more intelligent and discriminating audience.

 

Anyway, that’s how I came to be writing what I’m writing now. I still have non-erotic projects on the back burner, but for now I’d like to give my publishers some more material.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?  Do you have any special hobbies or collections?  Any that you'd like to take up if you could just find another five or six hours in the day?

 

I’m a busy man, because a lot of things interest me. I spend time with my wife when we’re both free at the same time, but she’s busy too (besides a full-time job, she teaches a dance class, takes two dance classes, and is in grad school for law). Some of my spare time is spent writing - I have a full-time day job, and do not make a living (or even come close to doing so) with my writing. I’m also an artist and try to draw when I can. I spend a lot of time reading, too - mostly non-fiction, especially history and philosophy. I go to the gym a few nights a week, I take a fencing class once a week, and in the winter I ski when I can (I just learned downhill skiing a few years ago). There are some local figure drawing groups that I go to once in a while, to keep myself in practice by drawing from life (usually I draw from my head) - and I also work as a nude model as much as I can. In addition, my wife and I go sailing in the summers (we rent boats from the school where we learned to sail a few years ago). We also like to go camping and canoeing in the summer. I hang out with some close friends weekly, and I also like to watch videos at home and to go to the movies. I enjoy cooking, too. I also taught myself how to play guitar a few years ago, so I enjoy sitting around and playing some nights. I like to learn what I can of new languages, too; I taught myself passable German using books and tapes, and recently I’ve been working on French and Italian as well. For other fun I have a few favorite old video games that I play and a plastic model ship that I’m working on, when I need to just blank my mind out.

 

I also do freelance work as an editor and proofreader, apart from my day job. In addition, I recently started another gig writing reviews of adult movies - a company mails them to me, and I watch them and submit a detailed review. The pay is supposed to be based on people reading my review and then buying the movie by clicking on my review page, but it’s a start-up company and so far no money has come from that.

 

As I said, I’m a busy man. If I had more time in the day, I’d probably do more of what I already do. I might make more progress with languages and with guitar, and I’d certainly read a lot more.

 

What are the top three places you'd love to travel to and see someday?

 

My wife and I have a list, and I don’t know if any of the places are “top” (our list has about 20 places we need to see). For places I haven’t yet been, I’d say Austria, Antarctica, and Svalbard (an island north of Norway, in the Arctic Circle). I love winter, cold, snow, and ice, and don’t really like hot places, so I want to check out the chilliest places in the world. I’m also planning on taking the Trans-Siberian Railway someday, from Moscow to Vladivostok (hopefully during a nice, long, dark winter!). My wife likes the sun and warmth, though, so our list has plenty of those places.

 

What about the one place you've already been but just have to go back and visit again?

 

Well, there’s really two of these. One is Paris: I took my wife there for her birthday when we were just starting to date, but we only stayed for three days (two nights). That was much too quick, even though it was great, and we just have to go back and spend some more time there.

 

The other place is Switzerland. It’s called to me for much of my adult life, in a powerful way. I used to have dreams about it. I had only bad, minimum-wage jobs until I was 28, so it remained just a dream until I got my present job. I went there just after turning 29 - it was the first time I’d left the country or even been on a plane. It was everything I expected, completely magical, and it changed my life and gave me a certain inner happiness that will never go away. I went back there a few years later with my wife. It is one of the few destinations that we both love, and we would both be happy to live there. For me, it is the center of the universe, and I always want to go back.

 

How did you and your wife meet?  How did you know she was "the one"?

 

We met at work (I still work here, but she left a few years ago for a different job). We were only colleagues at first, and we were each in relationships with other people. We got to be friends, some time after each of our other relationships ended, and we started e-mailing and then hanging out.

 

Where did you take her on your first official date?

 

This is always a funny topic, because the joke is that for many months I didn’t realize that we were “dating,” but she did. I’d had a lot of strange experiences in my past with women who were a little nuts, and who suddenly revealed that they thought very differently about things than I did, so the lesson I got was this: Man, don’t ever conclude ANYTHING about what something means when it comes to women! They may call you a lot, or hang out at your place, or even sleep with you, but that does not mean that tomorrow they won’t just suddenly say that they can’t talk to you anymore. Never assume that they like you, let alone love you, and just take each moment and live it without thinking about it. Thus, for months I kind of thought that Chris “liked” me in a kind of romantic way, but I didn’t think I could be sure. Naturally, most of my guy friends were as clueless as me - I’d ask “So, she was sitting on the couch with me and we were eating ice cream while watching a movie - do you think that counts as a date? Or is that just something that regular friends do?” They would just shake their heads. So for Chris, the first date is that time she came over to my apartment for the first time, and we watched a movie and sat on the couch eating ice cream. I wasn’t sure that we were dating until months later, when I finally asked her if I could kiss her and she smiled and said yes.

 

Which is more romantic and why:  holding hands while walking or holding hands in the movies?

 

Well, my wife and I hold hands all the time, so we cover both of these. The movies might have a slight edge, only because it’s sometimes easier to walk if you’re not holding hands, like if the sidewalks are icy or if you’re in a hurry. At the movies, there’s never a good reason not to hold hands with your Honey.

 

How do you describe Dan Moran?  How does Dan Moran's wife describe him?

 

I don’t think there’s enough space here for how I describe myself. I have some apparent contradictions that really aren’t. Some people are freaked out by the fact that I wear nothing but black (which I’ve been doing since 1985), like horror movies, listen mostly to screaming blackmetal groups, and draw a lot of pictures of zombies and demons. Those who know me are not troubled by this, because I also draw angels, I cry at sad movies, and I’m so respectful of life that I carry bugs out of my house and never kill them (I don’t even kill mosquitoes). I’m deeply emotional, highly principled, and extremely individualistic (I have an inherent distrust of groups and of their power to oppress individuals). I’m steeped in Romanticism, and this is related to my love for horror. I’m creative, often highly energetic, and my mind tends to wander. Sometimes I talk to people and see their eyes glaze over because of my rapid babbling digressions, and I realize suddenly that no one has any idea what I’m talking about anymore. My mind works at high speeds, and most of what grabs my attention is abstract (that’s why I have a Master’s Degree in Philosophy and Religion). I’m often polite and rather gentlemanly, but some kinds of people make me very angry (like guys who beat their wives), and becoming aware of such people can send me into a black mood in which I pace and curse and want nothing more than to squeeze their throats. In general, I love life and want everyone to be able to be happy and to be left alone by all the bad things in the world. I tend to live my life by pursuing those people and things that reward me with positive energy, and tuning out those things that have negative impacts on my reality. I think that we can have a hand in creating our day-to-day worlds, and I wish more people could realize this instead of choosing terrible lives.

 

I’m not sure how my wife would describe me. I could always ask...

 

MORE FUN...

 

Spring is in the air!  What signals spring for you?

 

The snow is starting to melt around here. It’s April now, so I know that soon there will be patches of ground showing through the snow in our yard, and probably by the end of the month there will only be a few snowbanks left. This makes me sad; the winter has always been my favorite, and spring makes me sad and a little anxious. I know that I’ll have to wait six or seven months to see snow again.

Who is the better cook in the Moran household, you or your wife?  What is your culinary specialty?

 

I’d have to say that she’s better, because she’s had more practice. Until I was 30, I never cooked; I ate from fast-food drive-thru windows and from gas stations (fruit pies, beef jerky, corn chips, microwave pizza). My policy was to eat very soon after noticing that I was hungry, so I couldn’t wait to cook anything. I also had some bad jobs and not much money, so I never had cookware, and there were stretches of time in which I crashed on the couches of friends or even slept in the warehouse that I worked in, eating out of the vending machine. I’d always planned to start eating healthy things when I turned 30, which was my mark of becoming a “grownup.” I now eat salads regularly and cook real food (interestingly, because I was broke in my junk food days, I was severely underweight because even though I ate a lot of fat, I still was not eating a lot overall; now I’m heavier not eating any junk food). Chris has taught me a lot about kitchen stuff, and I’m reasonably competent. On our date nights, we both cook, and have a bunch of meals that we’re pretty expert at (Chicken Piccata, Chicken Marsala, Spicy Tilapia, and in the summer months a lot of fresh grilled fish, often with pesto that we make fresh with all the ingredients coming from our garden). My own specialty when I cook for myself (my wife doesn’t eat beef) is filet mignon with a red wine and tarragon reduction sauce; I start it on the stovetop and finish it in the oven. I also make our salad dressing, and do a damn good Dijon vinaigrette.

 

What is the one thing you do that drives your wife and family crazy?

 

A lot of my quirks drive my wife crazy. I’m a little absent-minded and do dumb things like going to a store with a list and still managing to forget something that’s on the list. I also have a tendency to leave a lot of my things lying around (my watch, my sunglasses, sweatshirts, books, etc.).

 

What is the one thing your wife does that makes you crazy?

 

She’s always insisting that I come to bed before 2:00 a.m.

 

And lastly, no interview of a writer would be complete without this question:  what is your favorite comfort food?

 

Tony’s brand frozen pizza.

 

Any kind of pizza is yummy!  Thank you, Dan, for spending time with us—it has been a pleasure.  Best of luck with your writing!

By Brooke Wills

Romance Junkies Publishing Editor Pam Sacknea

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