April Author Interview Answer #5 “Violence in Your story, YAY or NAY?”

Have you ever read a Romance or an Erotica book with violence being a part of the story? What do you personally feel? YAY or NAY? We have asked this question to all 7 authors as their stories are capable of shaping the mind of young readers. It’s time to know what all SEVEN Romance & Erotica authors think about this. Yesterday, we revealed the answers for Question #4 “If you write sex scenes, do you write it because you feel it is important to the story, or because you think you need one to sell the book?“ For those of you reading this post and not knowing what’s going on, we interviewed Romance and Erotica authors last month. You can click on the authors’ names below to learn about them more.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all seven authors who took part in this author interview!

This month, we are interviewing Young Adult authors and if you have any questions for them, please send in your question via this link. It will take less than 5 minutes. I promise! 🙂 

Here is the answer to the 5th question: “Have you ever incorporate violence in your story? What do you think of stories exhibiting male dominance? How detrimental is the effect of it to readers?”

1) Author #1 Anne Conley

Sometimes violence is a great plot device to add conflict and suspense to a story, however it can be overdone, and I try to be careful about that.  I enjoy reading books with strong, dominant males, but have a hard time writing them.  To read a book with that sort of character, they need to be damaged somehow, have some sort of weakness to redeem by the end of the story. I don’t know the effect it would have on readers, generally, but I don’t enjoy reading about assholes who get the girl by being an asshole.

2) Author #2: Marie Lavender

That is a good question.  Truthfully, I abhor violence at all, but I know life is full of it.  I think that a violent hero might be necessary in certain situations, like in war or in the midst of protecting someone.  But, violence toward women or children is simply inexcusable.  It makes me really think back to the bodice rippers of the 60s or 70s because a lot of those tended to have male dominance.  I personally dealt with this issue in one of my own past relationships so it really hits home for me.  I think that it’s not necessary to have that kind of male dominance.  A real romance is a relationship between two people that have mutual respect for each other.  Having an arrogant character is one thing.  But, violence?  No, that’s not acceptable.  I can’t even stomach BDSM scenarios in erotica. Have I written about sensitive topics before?  Of course.  Because it’s out there, and it happens.  But, it doesn’t mean I want to show that it’s okay either.  The violence that happens in my books is done by other characters, by villains.  A hero should have some redeeming qualities even if he is a little dark, and he should certainly know how to treat a woman.

3) Author #3: Emily Eck

 There is violence in my books. As per questions three, my heroine is rather dominant. I know there are many alpha male books out there, and women eat them up. I think as a woman, it’s wired into our brains from prehistoric days to want a man to take care of us. In this day and age, women no longer need to be physically taken care of. What we are often looking for is a man to take care of us emotionally.  Sure, you have stories where women get kidnapped, are victims of violence, or other heinous acts to which the hero saves her from, essentially being her physical caretaker. To many women, I think this speaks to those prehistoric desires to have a man ready to lay his life on the line for his woman’s protection. Either way, in the romance genre, a weak hero is not going to sell. So a dominant male is commonplace. I personally do not care for weak heroines, though there are women out their who do. I have nothing against them, the books, they read, or their preference. To each their own. I know there are people who disliked my heroine’s aggressive nature. That’s fine. We are all different.

The sexual slavery theme seems to be all the rage. I personally cannot read it. I find it gives me nightmares. There may be a happy ending in the story for those fictional women, but I can’t read it long enough to get there. It makes my stomach roll. That being said, I don’t have issue with others who read this material. In the United States, we are more or less free to read what we please. I would never want to take the right away from someone. Unfortunately, in real life, sexual slavery is real, and there is no happily ever after for those women. 

4) Author #4: AJ Summer

Yes, I have violence in my stories. But just like with everything else that comes their way, my characters survive. They grow through it and come out stronger. 
How the reader experience this all depends on their own situation.
As for male dominance, if you aren’t into that type of read, then don’t read the book. I do believe the author should warn potential readers about it beforehand. 

5) Author #5: Lucien Bane

I like to demonstrate the right and wrong dominance in the Dom Wars Series. It’s important to strike that distinction in the mind of readers, it’s what they’re all wondering about. They’ve seen the wrong way glorified when in reality, there is nothing glorious about it. Show them the good dominance and the good pain, and they are able to choose what they want and not get fooled into the other.  

6) Author #6: Annie Edmonds

Yes I incorporate violence in my stories. And male dominance is prevalent in a book with BDSM. But there are men who will step over the line of Dominance and those are the men that are evil. 

They take advantage and use women for their own sick sexual pleasure. I write this kind of story because women should be aware of who they are submitting to before they decide to be submissive to any male. 

Trust is important in any relationship. But when that relationship involves kink or BDSM it’s even more important. And trust doesn’t happen over night. It takes time. 

This is something that I’ve learned a great deal about from the FetLife.com  community. Don’t go and meet a so called Dom who you’ve only spoken to over the phone or internet. 

To think he is going to be Christian Grey from Fifty shades or a Jake Monroe, or Mike Sloan from my books would be a huge mistake in real life.  

7) author #7: Larae Parry

Wow . . . this is deep. Yes. I incorporated violence in my story (The Danish Pastry). But, I swear Troy, the antagonist, wanted to do it.

I don’t think much about stories exhibiting male dominance—domination comes in all forms. For good fiction, the story must have conflict and tension—it doesn’t matter where or who it comes from.

I don’t know how detrimental the effect of male domination has on readers. I hope my readers realize they are reading fiction. Gulp.

 

Question #6 is “Do you believe that Romance can shape the thoughts of the younger generation through their stories? Can they successfully convey their message to readers?”

What do you think these authors’s will be? Watch out for the next post !

Signing out,

Jasveena

Founder of IBP

http://www.internationalbookpromotion.yolasite.com