The Latest

04.01.08
My First Published Story!

My story The Erotic Adventures of Jack and Dora: Cat and Canary will be appear in the April issue of Lucrezia Magazine! Lucrezia is a classy online Erotic Literature and Arts magazine. I am now a published author!

Warning: My story Cat and Canary contains explicit sexual situations and is recommended for adults 18 years and older (as is most content in Lucrezia Magazine).

What I’m Working on Now
I’m currently about a third of the way through the fifth draft of my first novel, The Adventures of Yesterboy and Tomorrow Girl. The story is equal parts romance, comedy and suspense about a soul-searching writer in San Francisco named Max who meets a smart-mouthed, mysterious throwback of a girl that turns his life upside down. Or is she turning it back right-side up? Seems to be flowing smoothly, and the level of writing has definitely improved since I began the book three years ago. Sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating, writing the novel is a real character building experience that requires patience and faith in both the process and myself. Read an exerpt now...

I finished several pieces for a collection called Letters to a Sassy Brunette. They are musings on love and longing written loosely in the form of letters to a lover. They are currently available to read here. I hope you find them amusing and not too maudlin. Most of my work, including the novelette I mention next, is not available to read on my site or available only as exerpts due to pubishing restrictions while work is being submitted. So, Letters to a Sassy Brunette will not be available to read once I begin submitting it for publication. I apologize, the rules are not mine. Read some letters now...

I also just finished a novelette (13,500 words) from The Erotic Adventures of Jack and Dora called The Designs of Doctor Maldovar. I’m hoping I can sell it to a magazine as a serial if not as one piece. Jack and Dora meet the mysterious Doctor Maldovar and his pug companion Mr. Lovecraft, who invite them to a private party that turns out to be a real Midsummer Night’s Dream. Exploring altered states of mind, archetypes of the collective unconscious and mythological sexual personalities, this is one of my most ambitious and, I believe, entertaining stories. And yes, there are really hot sex scenes; I had trouble typing one of them. See the fiction page for exerpts.

Which brings me to the subject...

What Is Erotica?
Honestly, I don’t know any more than you do. I don’t really consider my Jack and Dora stories erotica. I consider them situational comedies (tales of love and mischief) where sex happens, and is described in detail just as many other elements are. A fellow writer friend told me she had this same thought about the Jack and Dora stories herself, which made me happy. I’m not saying anything against erotica (whatever it exactly is); I’m just saying that I’m not writing the stories for the purpose of writing sexual scenes. The sex just happens to be integral to the characters and plot. Well, maybe that’s what erotica is supposed to be.

On Erotica Author Pen Names
A friend asked me if I was going to use a pen name since one of my stories was going to be published in an erotica magazine. I told him, “No, I’m Robert Zoltan Fucking Szeles!” He thought I should keep the “Fucking” part, by the way. The point was, I’m proud of what I’ve written and have no reason to distance myself from my work. ‘What Is Erotica?’ above will explain partly why. Now, I understand why some authors feel they need to do that, so you don’t need to email me and enlighten me about it. It just seems to me in this day and age, it’s not as necessary. I understand why people did it back in the days when Oscar Wilde was put in prison for being a homosexual. But now?

America still has an unhealthy view of sex left over from groups who thought that the body and sex were basically evil. And I’don't like hearing sex lumped in with violence (you know: sex and violence on TV). Sex is the driving force behind humanity, one of its greatest joys and the subject of most of the greatest art and literature human civilization has created. One generation without it and we perish. Sex: now THAT’S pro-life. It’s a gift, a bliss, a delight. No, we shouldn’t use it as a weapon to control people (in any way: whether we’re talking about fear of sex or selling it like a product or drug). But we should realize that it’s good to embrace it and enjoy it and celebrate it and respect it. Say it with me: “I’m Happy, I’m Horny, and gosh darn it, people like me!”

To add yourself to his author newsletter list, or just to tell him how offensive you find his stories, email robert@robertszeles.com.