Friday, September 14, 2007

Seducing the Classics

That's me--the Classics Seductress.

My first book, of course, is Unmasqued, a blatantly erotic version of The Phantom of the Opera. Note that I say erotic, not erotic romance. There's a biiiig difference, as was clearly discussed earlier this week on Dear Author.

I happen to agree with much of the discussion there, in particular a comment made by romblogreader:

"...But in well written erotica and erotic romance...the sex scene can fulfill just about any function, storywise (just like any non-sex scene can), and in an erotic romance, that function is in the service of a story that ultimately, has a HEA. And if you come across that eight page love scene in erotica or erotic romance, and you either skim it or flip a switch that says, “okay, time for the loveless boinking” and only see it for its smut/arousal factor, there’s a possibility you’re skipping over the very thing that you later complain is missing from the book - character development and emotional connection."
Right on, romblogreader! The sex scenes are the major vehicle for character and plot development. That's why it's an erotica.

Anyway, as I was saying, my first book is an erotic version of a classic, and my second book, Master, will also be an erotic take--this time of The Count of Monte Cristo, a book that I dearly loved (all 1247 pages of it).

So now I'm thinking about what to do next...I've got a myriad of ideas, but I'm curious to hear from the peanut gallery. Are there any classics you think just beg (heh) to be seduced?

11 comments:

Sophie Athens said...

Oh man, I can't wait to see what you do to the Count...er, so to speak. haha. One of my favs, too.

Insofar as remakes of classics, I think an erotic remake of Jane Eyre would be awesome. Mr. Rochester was one of the first heroes to make me swoon as a young girl...

Sophie Athens said...

I had another thought. Wuthering Heights...oh, I loved Heathcliff, too.

I'm all about wicked heroes. hahaha

Colette Gale said...

Sophie, I looove the wicked heroes...and let me tell you, Edmond Dantes is quite the wicked seducer in MASTER.

In writing this version of a classic, I was much truer to the original story than I was in Phantom--and it was a lot of fun.

Sophie Athens said...

Awesome...I can't wait to read this one, too!! I'm reading Unmasqued right now...*swoon*

Unknown said...

I've always though the Iliad would be great to do, especially Hector!

Unknown said...

You know, it's a shame I can't really think of a good way to make A Tale of Two Cities erotic. 'Cause Sydeny Carton? Swoon. There's just something about his whole dissolute, sardonic manner that makes me think poor Lucy really missed out when she picked Charles! I second Sophie in regards to Jane Eyre. I'd love to see what you could do to that! Samuel Richardson's Pamela and Clarissa both really lend themselves to erotica as well.

Colette Gale said...

Kate, funny you should say that--one of the ones I'm considering is Helen of Troy.

And Rachel, someone else was mentioning A Tale of Two Cities. Hmm. Maybe I ought to give that a closer look.

JRMullany said...

Treasure Island. AAAAR.

The Three Musketeers? aka the Musketeer Menage?

Colette Gale said...

Ha! Jane, I hadn't quite thought of it in that way. Those three musketeers. Weren't there really four, though?

Pam Rosenthal said...

Well, in that case, how about The Brothers Karamazov?

Anonymous said...

I always loved the story of Sleeping Beauty and would be very interested in reading an erotic version of that story.