Interview: Angela Fiddler, Author of ‘The Care and Feeding of Sex Demons’

Angela Fiddler was born and raised in northern Alberta. She began writing at an early age, and has written more than her share of slash fiction in her life. She’s currently promoting the release of her latest novel. When she’s not following the exploits of hot vampires, she writes epic fantasy and has had several short stories published.

Congratulations on the release of your latest book. When did you start writing and what got you into Paranormal Romance?

It’s a fairly circular story. When I was eleven, I decided I was going to write a ten-page story. I don’t remember why it had to be that length, but that was the most important part of it. And as sure as television vampires will all inevitably pick up martial arts, all fantasies will eventually become a trilogy. Once I got older, I started to write a secret story running parallel to the original with heaps of sex on the side. When I was in Japan I discovered slash. I dove headfirst into fandom, but then started branching off back to my original characters. Somehow, my love for The X-Files and Highlander translated into snarky, kneeling vampires with my first erotica series, Master of the Lines. Sex demons seemed a natural next step.

Did you have any struggles or difficulties when you started writing?

When I started out, I found it really hard to match what was in my head with the final product. Something always got lost in the transcription. It took years to show what I wanted the reader to read. Then I took a hard look at what I was producing and I realized that what had kept me up at night writing was gone. It’s not enough to nail the perfect bit of description or action, it all had to be filtered through the point-of-view character’s thoughts.

What was your inspiration for this book?

Cy is one of those characters that don’t come along all that often. He exists in a world where the more Fae blood you have, the stronger you are. I love playing with unbalanced power dynamics where the only thing the good guy has on his side is his wits and guile. Cy has hardly any Fae blood in him, and yet he holds his own against enemies much stronger than he is. I have a lot of fun with the way urban fantasy lets you mix magic and the mundane, and setting the story in Calgary, where I’ve lived, lets me ground it in a real sense of place.

My biggest inspiration though was the titular demon. There’s snark, kneeling, chains and love nourishing where nothing else can. August is a sarcastic demon who feeds on sex, but that doesn’t mean he likes having it forced out of him any more than anyone else would. Writing about a world where sex demons are not seen as people and do not have rights could have made for a very bleak story, but it reaffirms what it is to be human.

What do you hope readers will get from your book?

There are a lot of stories out there where boy-meets-boy. Romance is typically the thrill of the chase. With The Care and Feeding of Sex Demons, Cy has slipped into a long-term relationship despite his best efforts. The whole book is about a mix of magic and mundane with the plot to uncover who is starving sex demons. This mix of ordinary and extraordinary exists within the relationship, too. He’s dating a Fae prince who has to dose him with magic potion in order to force him to tell the truth, but his boyfriend still trusts him implicitly on stakeouts with his sex demon. A good relationship is worth the compromise necessary to sustain it.

What do you do when your muse refuses to collaborate?

I used to do all the things people tell you to do. I played a lot of Bejeweled, went for walks and I had a lot of showers. When writing became my job, though, I started looking at writer’s block differently. I became very aware of how close my I can’t write, I’m blocked felt like I am so bored. Erotica can be many different things, but the one thing it can’t be is boring. If I’ve been bored for a while, I go back to the last place I wasn’t bored with what was happening and delete everything. If I’m just bored in the moment, I realize what I’m writing will bore my readers. I change it up and throw something completely out of the blue at the characters. This is especially bad when you’re just writing two characters talking, especially if they have been talking for a while. If they have time to talk, they have time to run from frost giants.

How do you keep your narrative exciting?

Frost giants. My job as a writer isn’t to make things easier on my characters. The art of telling the erotic story is showing the audience what the main character wants and then establishing valid and concrete reasons both internally and externally as to why they can’t, shouldn’t or wouldn’t want it any more. I hate romances where the only thing keeping the two lovers apart is a simple misunderstanding that could be cleared up with a conversation. The main point of the erotic story has to be overcoming all of the obstacles in the way of the two characters being together forever. If your protagonist isn’t actively working on overcoming those challenges, the story is stagnating.

And, if all else fails, figure out what is the worst possible thing that could happen in that moment of stagnation and then cause it to happen. You may leave your carefully planned synopsis behind, but you will never have a dull moment.

Do you have a website or blog where readers can find out more about your work?

I talk about writing in general and my books in particular at www.angelafiddler.com

What is your advice for aspiring authors? 

The most important part of story telling is your voice. The number one mistake I see people struggling with is trying to write as though they are filming a movie. Just like art isn’t a race to see who can capture the most photo-realistic painting, the art of storytelling isn’t trying to pin down with words the life that is happening around your character. There is no independent action, narration or description; there is only a stream of conscious that is the point of view character’s voice. How that character “sees” around her is exactly how you want to write.

Don’t try to be a camera mounted on a character’s shoulders, try to be a bug that’s implanted in their brain. Don’t let thought go down on the page without filtering it through your character’s way of looking at the world.