camerynmoore

On the street, I get a full range of response, everything from parents shielding their children's eyes to laughter to hostility (in-my-face or drive-by) to sudden and explosive enthusiasm followed by someone plunking $20 right down on the table, sitting down on the sidewalk at my feet, and saying "LET'S DO THIS THING."

People have given me trouble, for sure. Once or twice I have been shut down or moved on by the police, and not every shop owner wants me sitting near their storefront, even if I'm not actually blocking their door or store windows. I would say, though, mostly people don't give me trouble. They give me bemused stares. I like to think that, even if people don't buy smut or pick up one of my cards for my shows, I am still injecting a note of surrealism into people's day.

I don't think people who pass me by and don't stop are weird. Most people are much more private than I am, and talking about personal things with a stranger--even a lady in glasses sitting behind a non-threatening typewriter--is not for everyone. The ones who I think are being chickenshits about my work are the ones who have to publicly and loudly make fun of what I'm doing. If they only knew how little I cared and how thoroughly they are revealing their own insecurities when they behave like that!

I do get repeat customers, not a lot, but some. Some of them order more smut online later. A rare few get a piece, and then come back a day later, or even later that night. They want something harder-core, maybe, or something as a gift.

I, uh, I don't have the luxury of writer's block. The customer has put down the money, and I have to have something ready when they get back. It's amazing how motivating fear of failure can be when there's money involved! I think I avoid writer's block by warming up properly, that is, cranking out a few REALLY stream-of-consciousness pieces when I first sit down, just keep typing no matter what comes out.

I don't make that much money doing smut. I don't think I could live off of it, except maybe in New Orleans. But it does help buy my groceries and gas when I'm on the road touring. It's not nothing. You know, I've never sat down and calculated my income from a season of smut ... <adds to to-do list>

I started doing this smut in June 2011, because I had gotten to the Montreal Fringe festival two weeks early and didn't have anywhere to promote my show slut (r)evolution, like, there were no other shows happening yet where I could hand out my flyers. So I set up the smut stand, in the hopes of getting people to stop and take a show flyer. It started out as a promotional gimmick, in other words, but after a couple of weeks of doing it, I realized it was worthy of my attention as its own project.

A good story is one that works for the audience it was written for. It connects in some way. That is totally up to the writer to figure out the best way to do it. I think for erotica, a good story should offer some kind of surprise, a new or unexpected action or emotion or something, so that both the characters and the readers find something new in themselves.

But, you know, I'm a romantic. :D