Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

    These words, written so eloquently, with so much passion, came from the pen of a new, and very talented writer, known as HH Self. SUITE tracked down this author, no easy feat, given their grueling schedule, but we felt it was worth every minute of our search. For those of you unaware of this author, SUITE is here to tell you a bit about the person behind the pen -- and we guarantee -- you will be surprised.

SUITE: Tell us, briefly, who HH Self is. 

HH: Thank you, Tamara for asking me to do this interview. You have an excellent magazine. I am HH Self, and I am living in Colorado, not all that far from the farm where I grew up. I have been a firefighter/medic for the past fourteen years here, and enjoy the work.

SUITE: What got you started writing…erotica especially? And how long have you been writing?

HH: My dad was a great storyteller, so growing up around it I had to try my hand at weaving a few yarns of my own. I wrote only for myself up until about three years ago, when I discovered the Roll Playing Games on Yahoo. Not quite the D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) we did as kids. There are all kinds of themes from soft, sweet romance to…well…wherever you want to stop. The RPGs gave me a chance to experiment and learn. In high school, I was the kid in the back of the English class just trying to get through. Though I loved making up stories, writing them was more difficult. Having dyslexia and not having it diagnosed, led my teachers to believe I would be lucky to ever write a grocery list, let alone a story like Open Door. So, a big part of the help I got from the RPGs was in building confidence in my writing. I just had to learn to look for the errors I always make, which was also a good start on the road to editing.

SUITE: I have a son that is dyslexic so I know what you must have gone through. What an absolutely amazing accomplishment for you!

HH: Thank you, Tamara! 

SUITE: What’s the response you usually get when someone finds out that not only are you an author, but you write erotica and romance?

HH: That depends on who asks. With men, I usually just get this blank look, and then they ask, “How erotic?” With women, it’s almost always a shy smile and then, “How erotic?”

SUITE: Do you think, that as a MAN writing erotica, you give the story a different slant than a woman writer in the same genre?

HH: I think so. I feel we draw from our experiences in life when we write, even the paranormal stories like Open Door. We use how things feel, taste, and smell to us, and reflect that in what we write. That goes for the love scenes as much as anything else. Though some things are universal, passion, want, need, love, even lust, are not.    more >>