Dark Darling

 Cara Bruce is San Franciscos darling of dark erotica. As an editor, publisher and writer, the only taboo rejected by Bruce is normalcy. Her stories explore themes that are usually the stuff of nightmares, from necrophilia to self-mutilation. But at the core of this darkness is Bruces desire to represent sexual honestly. With her no-holds-barred attitude, Bruce probes the heart of human sexuality and takes her audience to places they might be scared of but will thank her for later.

Too Square: You've written and edited some pretty edgy and controversial erotica, like Viscera. What types of reactions have you gotten, both positive and negative, from individuals and in the press?

Cara Bruce: Most people have responded positively. All of the reviews for Viscera were favorable. I also published Embraces: Dark Erotica, which has gotten rave reviews and was nominated for an International Horror Guild Award. One night I was doing a reading with Marcy Sheiner at a bookstore in the Marina in San Francisco. The Marina is a pretty high-class neighborhood. Anyway, we were reading from Best Women's Erotica. It was the first edition in the series, and I read my story that is about a woman falling out of a window while being fucked and dying, and another woman watching from across the street and getting off on it. This man in the audience told me I was a misogynist and we got into an argument. But then it turned out that he had been reading Andrea Dworkin. Sex is not always pretty. I like the edgy stuff because I like anything that makes you feel.

TS: Why do you choose to explore dark and controversial themes in your work as opposed to more soft-core erotica?

CB: I'm more interested in pushing boundaries. I am very obsessed with sex and death. As I said above, I like anything that makes you feel something. I feel that as Americans we are pretty apathetic. If I could do anything to just make people cringe, hot, grossed out, happy, sad, anything that would make me happy. I like the dark side of life. I have always been drawn to it. I used to seek out bad neighborhoods to live in, I'm kind of over that now, but there is just something more real about it. I have had troubled relationships, so maybe that's part of it. I'm not too mushy gushy.

TS: What are your literary motivations? How have these inspirations changed over time?

CB: I have always wanted to be a writer. I just finished writing a health/self-help book about hepatitis C, which I thought I would never do. I want to write a novel. I am feeling almost over the erotica, but everything I write will have sex because I like sex. In fact, I wish I had more of it.

cara bruce

TS: What encouraged you to write your first piece of erotica? What was it?

CB: Heh. I answered an ad on the Internet for "Write Catfight Stories Get Paid!" I was working as a Production Coordinator for a business TV show and I was bored with lots of free time, and I needed extra money. So I wrote this catfight story and the guy loved it and soon I was banging those out -- about $50 for a half-hour worth of hardcore porn writing. I forget which catfight story the first one was, but I soon got bored of those, there were so many. Then I took a class with Marcy Sheiner, who, by the way, is my total mentor and great friend and I fucking love her. I wrote a piece in that class called "The Locusts," which she published in The Oy of Sex.

TS: I've read that women are more drawn towards literary erotica versus visual porn like magazines and movies. Have you found this to be true in your experiences as a writer and in presenting your work? Why do you think this is or isn't the case?

CB: It's true for me because I'm all about the head-trip. I really like smart men and women. I get off more in my head. When I masturbate, I get off by fantasizing, not by looking at fuck pictures. But I don't know if it's the same for everyone. I know that many, many women like porn. I work at the world-famous sex shop Good Vibrations and we sell a lot of it [to women]. I think it's unfair to say that women don't like visual porn, because they do. I like it too but I just like the stuff in my head better.

TS: Does your family know about your writing? What do they say about it, how have they reacted?

CB: Yes, of course they know, I live my life like an open book. I sent them my I FUCK BETTER T-shirts. They haven't worn them but at least they have them. My mom is very supportive. She thinks up story ideas. She is just happy that I get to do what I want to do. She is a very cool woman. She reads my stuff. The first big reading I did, I made her listen to me practice on the phone over and over, and that was the story about a two-mouth dwarf that gives double blowjobs, so if she can take that, she can take anything. My dad knows but doesn't want to hear about it. It's kind of like how I used to start talking about my period if I wanted him to go away.

TS: What kind of upbringing did you have? Where are you from and what's your background?

CB: I grew up in Reston, Va., which is a trippy, planned community outside of Washington, DC. I had a regular upbringing I suppose. My dad was a super physicist who became a real estate broker and my mom is a painter. My mom was the coolest. It was a very conservative place, and I was a punk rocker who sometimes fucked girls and did a lot, a lot, a lot of drugs. You know, normal suburbia.

TS: What writers do you admire and why?

CB: I admire everyone who writes because it's hard as shit and people don't realize it. I admire Carol Maso because her book, The Art Lover, made me sob. I admire JT Leroy because he's a friend of mine and he is so honest and so talented. There are tons of writers I admire, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, all of them. I love them all. As far as erotica, I admire Susie Bright, Marcy Sheiner, Thomas Roche, Simon Sheppard, and m.i. blue. He rocks; you should hear him perform if you ever get the chance.

TS: What do you think is the future of erotic writing?

CB: It will become more mainstream and less ghettoized. It already is.

TS: How do you see the Internet as having impacted erotic writing? Has it opened more opportunities and presented it to a wider audience?

CB: Definitely. Now anyone can be a "writer." The best thing about the Internet is being able to reach large numbers of people. I have a small publishing company and I would never be able to have done it without the Internet.

TS: Are you interested in exploring any non-erotic genre writing?

CB: Definitely. In fact, I think that's all I'm going to start doing from now on.

TS: Have you ever found anything too disturbing to publish, as far as the submissions that you've received? Why or why not?

CB: Nope. I think my threshold for being disturbed is very, very high. I read one thing once that disturbed me. It was by Peter Sotos. But he is a very disturbing guy. And he didn't submit it to me, it was in another book, Apocalypse Culture II, I think. Anyway, disturbing-ass shit about child rape or something. But I don't get anything like that submitted to me, not yet anyway. Once I read a story about necrophilia and afterward a guy came up to me and was really excited; he was really a necrophiliac and wanted to show me his tools. That was vaguely disturbing.

TS: You maintain your own Web site, www.venusorvixen.com, and a press by the same name. How did these come about?

CB: It's just what I do to represent myself and to give other writers a chance to get published. I started with the Web site and turned it into the publishing company. I have no idea about their future because I'm too busy with so many other projects. I have Best Bisexual Women's Erotica coming out on Cleis this month, Best Fetish Erotica (also on Cleis) coming out next spring, and The First Year: Hepatitis C coming out on Morse & Co. in February of next year. And I want to put together a collection of my own work and, well, I have so many things I want to do.

TS: What types of reactions have you gotten from folks when youve introduced yourself, or "outed" yourself, as an erotic writer?

CB: I think they think I will be good in bed. It's a good conversation starter but in San Francisco most people really don't care.

TS: Do you enjoy giving spoken word performance or readings of your work? Why or why not? Have you found a lot of support amongst the erotic arts community in San Francisco?

CB: Yes, I love it. It's fun and I get a lot of support. I have met some of my favorite people reading. It's very social and very fun. The first time I read I was terrified, and I sucked, but now I really get into it.

TS: What are your criticisms of contemporary erotic writing?

CB: We are starting to see more erotica that is written by people that aren't white, but the majority is white, middle- to upper-class. And I think that sucks. I would really like to see more diversity in erotica. I think it needs to happen and it's important. I do think it tends to be politically correct, although we are slowly moving away from that. In the erotic writing and sex community we have this term, "sex-positive." Basically, it means that anything goes as long as there is consent. And that's great. But it also implies that sex must be positive, and I don't think that's always true. That's why I like the dark stuff. I've had plenty of fucked up sex or sex when I was fucked up, and some erotic editors and publishers don't like to see that, although, that is changing as well.

TS: What are your criteria for selecting a good erotic story?

CB: It has to be well written, with a plot and characters and it must have sex. It's amazing how many erotica submissions I get that just don't have sex in them.

TS: Do you have any tips for those interested in trying their hand at writing this genre?

CB: Read a lot of published erotica and see why it's good. Or why you think it's good. Write as much as possible, submit as much as possible and don't give up. Also, submit more than one story to an anthology so the editor has more of your stuff to choose from.

Myriam Gurba

Bruce can be found online at www.venusorvixen.com. Coming to bookstores this month is Bruces Best Bisexual Women's Erotica (Cleis Press) and Spring 2002 sees the release of Best Fetish Erotica (Cleis) and The First Year: Hepatitis C (Morse & Co.).

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