This week in The Loft: Author Lil DeVille!

Joining me today in The Loft is author Lil DeVille. A former nurse, Lil turned to writing erotica after becoming disabled in 2019. Her tales employ quirky characters involved in lusty encounters on a tropical paradise or a rustic mountain village to an all-male mining colony on an asteroid in the distant future. However, Lil's stories also address difficult subjects, such as alcoholism or past abuse. She prefers to end her stories on a Happy for Now note, with a promise of more good things to come. Lil lives with her adult son and three cats in a remote prairie town in Northeastern Colorado. When she isn’t cooking up spicy stories, she enjoys baking and crafts.

Lil DeVille's "Calling Card."

S:  Good morning, Lil. Thanks for joining me in The Loft today!

What’s love got to do with writing romance?

L:  I imagine a writer needs to know what it feels like to be or have been in love to write romance. It’s probably good to know what a successful romantic relationship looks like even if you’ve never had one yourself. Otherwise, one ends up relying on tropes.

S:  Well, there are certainly a lot of books that rely on tropes. Unfortunately, those can make storylines predictable.

Do you remember your first kiss? What was memorable about it?

L:  I may be the most uninspiring example of a romance writer ever. My first kiss, other than a peck on the lips, was spectacularly awful. I really wasn’t into the guy, but he wanted me to be. He mashed his mouth against mine and tried to stick his tongue down my throat. I think I was 14 at the time and he was the same age. Needless to say, that was not a moment when love bloomed.

S:  Fourteen was a pretty awkward time for many of us. Between the emergence of hormones and a sudden attraction to boys or girls, it was a lot to deal with.

What is the best/worst thing that has ever happened to you as a writer?

L:  I’ve enjoyed self-publishing my own work, although I’ve pulled some of my earlier books from Amazon and won’t re-release them until I’ve done a massive overhaul. I’ve learned a lot about the erotica genre since I first started writing it in 2018, after reading one of those articles saying I could become an overnight millionaire by selling erotica on Amazon. It isn’t really as simple as it sounds. It was a big thrill for me when "The Beasts of Hank’s Wood" was selected to be part of the Beastly Tales anthology. I’m very happy to be included in this wonderful collection of stories.

S:  What’s the best advice you have ever given?

L:  Telling my son to listen to his own intuition rather than what his grandparents insisted he must do, such as select a major by the time you’re eighteen, go to college, then work in that field even if you’ve discovered you didn’t like it as much as you thought you would.

S:  Listen to "your gut" is always great advice.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

L:  Bringing my son into the world. I’m not being hyperbolic. I think he is a person who makes a positive difference in his quiet way.

S:  Complete this sentence: “When one of my books is released, I….”

L:  Feel I have accomplished something wonderful and start thinking about what I should work on next.

S:  What inspired "The Beasts of Hank’s Wood?"

L:  "The Beasts of Hank’s Wood" was actually my third try at creating a story for potential inclusion in the Beastly Tales anthology. I knew I wanted to deal with the issue of the clash between Fundamentalism and homosexuality. My first attempt was a story about a young priest trying to come to terms with his sexual orientation while being haunted by a group of horny and angry spectral heretics. I got stuck working on that one. Eventually, I ended up with the idea for "The Beasts of Hank’s Wood." It pretty much wrote itself.

S:  Is there anything special you would like people to know about "The Beasts of Hank’s Wood?"

L:  Above everything else, it is a story about acceptance transforming lives.

Here's the blurb for the anthology--

Monsters deserve love too…

From werewolves, vampires, and even Bigfoot, these beasts manage to find love. Whether they are able to sink their claws into that love and keep it is another story. When it comes down to it, don’t judge a book by its cover. This anthology brings a mixture of what ifs and happily ever afters.

(Featuring stories from T.C. Mill, A.K. Moss, Toni Mobley, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Ashley L. Hunt, Charles Kyffhausen, Lil Deville, Kelly Piner, Jess Monica, and Karen Bayly.)

Here's the blurb for "The Beasts of Hank's Wood"--

Joe Schola III is the eighteen-year-old son of Joseph Schola Junior, a fire-and-brimstone preaching Fundamentalist televangelist. While young Joe is far less homophobic than his father, he is struggling to come to terms with his own sexual orientation. Will Joe dare accept the invitation to become part of a clan of shapeshifters, and will he accept the love being offered to him by the handsome fox shifter Lovell Azarola?

S:  Sounds like an emotional story. Where can readers buy the anthology?

L:  It's available at https://amzn.to/3UV0pmF.

S:  Lil, as always, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Good luck with the anthology! If you'd like to learn more about Lil and her stories, please visit--

Amazon Author Page:  https://bit.ly/LilDevilleAmazonAuthor

Naughty Netherworld Press Blog:  http://www.naughtynetherworldpress.com

Naughty Netherworld Press Books:  https://bit.ly/NNPBooks

Naughty Netherworld Press Substack:  https://naughtynetherworldpress.substack.com

Readers Roost Book Blog:  https://bit.ly/ReadersRoost

Readers Roost Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ReadersRoost

Naughty Netherworld Newsletter:  https://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews2