I was honoured to be a guest on Sue Cook’s podcast, The Write Lines, talking about making a career as a writer, along with super-writers and teachers Nicola Morgan and Sue Moorcroft. We talked about how we got published, the publishing world right now, and what you can do as a writer to make sense of it all.

(We also talked about inappropriate uses for Dyson hand driers but I don’t think that made the edit cut!)

Here’s a snippet of me, talking about (what else) my top tip for writing a sex scene.

The new series of The Write Lines will be available from www.thewritelines.co.uk from Monday October 29th and our programme will be released on Monday November 5th and you can follow all of us on Twitter: @SueCook, @nicolamorgan, @SueMoorcroft and @julie_cohen.

I don’t often have interviews on this blog, but today I’m making an exception. I met Electra Shepherd this past summer, in the middle of Hurricane Irene. My family was holed up in our cabin on the shore of Roxbury Pond in western Maine. The wind was howling, the trees were swaying, the pond was rising, the roads were flooding, and the power was out. We were huddled up in bed, using candles for light to see, with a bucket of pond water near the toilet in case it needed to be flushed.

In walked Electra. She picked up my laptop. She said, ‘Hey, does this have any charge in it?’

It did. She opened it up. And by the light of a Yankee Candle, she started writing.

The result is LOVE MACHINE,  an erotic science fiction romantic comedy novella about a woman who falls in love with a big blue robot. It’s out now, from Ellora’s Cave, and in honour of its release, she agreed to do an interview with me.

Who are you?

I’m a carbon-based lifeform with some interesting attachments.

Tell us about your debut novel, LOVE MACHINE.

It’s about good-time girl Cally Morgenstern. Cally’s father was a genius who invented many things before he died, including house robots to take care of his children’s every need. Cally, who knows the family genius genes have passed her by, is more interested in meeting hot real men than hanging out with tin ones. But one night, during a snow storm, she can’t hook up with any of her play partners. And when her vibrator runs out of batteries, house robot Blue offers to take its place.

Blue is six foot three, immensely strong, bald, and (obviously) blue. Following some recent adjustments by Cally’s geeky sister Ilsa, he seems to be rapidly gaining a personality. And, it turns out, he’s very curious about human sexuality. Cally decides to teach him everything she knows about sexual pleasure.

Even if she has to build him a few necessary parts in the process…

Why robots, Electra?

Robots are sexy. They will not rest until their Prime Directive is accomplished! And what if their Prime Directive is giving you sexual pleasure? Yeow!

If you agree (or even if you don’t), you can take my poll about who’s the sexiest robot. It’s only about male robots. There are too many FemBots around already; any old perv can make up a FemBot. What we need more of in this world are hot robotic men.

But why a blue robot?

Blue is also sexy. I refer you to this evidence.

Hmm. Fair enough. What inspired you to write this particular story?

I really, really wanted to write a scene about building a robot a penis. So I had to make up a story where that would be inevitable.

What’s next for you? 

I’m planning another two books about the Morgenstern family. Ilsa, the computer geek sister, finds love in a very unexpected place in MR ROBOTO. And Jonathan, the financial whiz eldest brother with no time to play, is introduced to novel ways of having fun in SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE.

I’m hoping there will be another hurricane soon, so I can write them.

You can visit Electra here, or fan her on Facebook here, or buy her book here. And do go take the poll about sexiest robots…

Personally, I voted for Data.

Have you ever had a cheese string? You know, that processed cheese stuff that’s individually packaged for kids’ lunch boxes? Fecklet has some and I just tried one. They’re really really good. Just saying. You should try one. Don’t steal it from a kid or anything, but if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, pop round and I’ll give you a cheese string.

All in all, I’m having a pretty good week, having sold a short story and a novella…and it’s only Thursday! I’m also pimping myself a bit around the web, and in real life:

There’s a 75-word paragraph from my story ‘The Black Sheep’ on Paragraph Planet (it’s archived now, alas, but it was there!), and also an interview with me there.

My recipe for cranberry nut bread, and a giveaway of Getting Away With It, are on Chick Lit Central.

On Saturday 10th December, I’ll be signing copies of my books at the Local Author Fair at Reading Central Library, Abbey Square, Reading. The fair runs from 10 til 4 but I will probably only be there till 1.30 or so. I’ll have copies of my new hardback, The Summer of Living Dangerously, and also pretty much my entire backlist for sale, including my Mills & Boon stuff. There are lots of authors there so it’s a great place to pick up Christmas gifts.

On Sunday 11th December, I’ll be signing my books again, this time at Windsor Waterstones, on Peascod Street in Windsor. They’ll have my latest hardback, The Summer of Living Dangerously, plus Getting Away With It, Girl from Mars, and some of my others. That’ll be from around 11ish till 4ish.

I’ve done some little drawings for Christmas cards to give away at the signings, with the web address of my free Christmas read, ‘The Black Sheep’. I think he’s sort of cute. Though not as surprisingly delicious as a cheese string.

Click on his cute little miserable face to read the story.

I’m blogging today on The Heroine Addicts about themes and characters that I just can’t seem to get away from. Come visit!

I’ll also be on BBC Radio Berkshire today at 2 pm. Here’s a link to listen.

I interrupt this Robert Downey Jr fest to post a few links, all about me, I’m afraid:

There’s an interview with me up today on the Minxes of Romance, where you can sign up for my newsletter to enter my contest for ARCs of GETTING AWAY WITH IT. If you haven’t already.

QVC presenter and lovely charming lady Debbie Flint has done a blog about my Cornerstones writing commercial women’s fiction course. There’s a video of my post-its, too.

There’s also a good roundup of the content of the course on Lisa Bodenham-Mason’s blog.

I did a guest blog about why CARS is the perfect movie for learning character arc and structure, on The Writing Playground.

There’s a fab review of NINA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF GLOOM on Singletitles.

And as always, don’t forget to check out my fabulous fellow bloggers on The Heroine Addicts.

Me…I’m trying to get this scene right! Agggh!!

Monday, Monday, Monday. I did nothing at all yesterday, just schlepped around the house with the Fecklet and watched Madagascar and washed some towels, so today I have to work extra hard on my book to catch up.

Meanwhile, I’m being interviewed today on brand new shoe and book blog, High Heels and Book Deals.

Thanks for inviting me, Mel!

I meant to put this link up ages ago…a nice interview with me on review site TheBookbag.co.uk, where they noticed that I keep on writing about chefs.

I really must stop writing about chefs.

Then again…

I’ve got an interview up at writing/reviewing blog Finding the Write Words today.

Thanks for the support and advice, everyone. I think I’ve solved my dilemma; at least I’ve come up with an idea that makes me laugh and want to write it, and I’ve written 1500 words of a new beginning, one which involves a crashing Land Rover, an explosion, and some swearing. So what’s not to like?

Meanwhile, there’s an interview with me up today on fab chick-lit review site Trashionista, featuring the pic of me hugging the Dalek. While you’re there, check out the interviews with Rowan Coleman and new author Cally Taylor, and give yourself a few moments of pure pleasure and watch the divine Marian Keyes’s St Patrick’s Day message.

Jennifer Yates is interviewing the heroes of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, Beau and Leandros, on her blog today.

Kathy and I did the interview over the telephone. It was hilarious. You gotta love any interview that begins with the response, “Lady, are you an alien?”

Anyway, pop round and check it out and join in the discussion: Would you give up everything on Earth for love?

…me say “sex” a lot on live radio? You can listen to Tuesday’s BBC Berkshire interview here.

Well, thanks to the very kind people at BBC Radio Berkshire who rocked him and cooed over him, The Boy managed not to wail for the ten minutes or so I was on the Henry Kelly programme. It all went very well, I think, and the cool part is that I’ve been asked to come back once a month to talk about a couple books I’ve read.

Which gives me a good excuse to read lots of books, and will be a great experience for me!

We’re off for a large hot chocolate with a bit of extra chocolate on the side to celebrate…