Emerald, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here! Before we talk about your office, please tell us about your latest book.

Initiative: Tales of Erotic Boldness by Emerald

Genre Erotic Romance

Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R

From audacious proposals to first-time exploits to newfound inner confidence, taking initiative delves into the risqué in these thirteen smoldering tales. An accidental catalyst invokes a bold move in “Fulfillment,” while the brassiness in “Shift Change” belongs entirely to narrator Stacey. “Who’s on Top?” sees a meeting between fans of rival baseball teams turn into a game of chance and wits, and “The Beast Within” offers a present-day “Beauty and the Beast” rendition that puts a twist on ugliness, beauty, pain, and pleasure–and the surprising ways they can intertwine.

Sometimes brazen, sometimes subtle, the initiatives between these pages always showcase the erotic and how it can both inspire and evoke our most emboldened selves.

How long have you been writing?

Since I was about seven. My first project was an utterly scintillating, I’m sure, autobiographical account of life with my cat at the time.

Tell us about your writing space or home office.

In early 2016, I bought my first single-family house. It’s a three-bedroom ranch style, so my office is in the room right across from the master bedroom. I’ve had the same desk for more than a decade because aesthetically, I really like it. Its one drawback is that it is just a surface with no drawers or storage space, but to be fair, that probably keeps me from accumulating a disorganized mess(es) in any drawers. I do have a two-drawer file cabinet in the vicinity.

Last year, I decided I would get a Balance Ball chair for my desk. Sigh…it was a noble idea, but I have to admit to its being a failed experiment. All it really resulted in was my avoiding sitting at my desk! It turns out I just feel too frequent of an urge to lean back, sit cross-legged (yes, I do this on chairs sometimes), sit with one foot underneath me, or pull my laptop onto my lap for the Balance Ball chair to really work for me. So I recently gave in and returned my regular office chair to the location behind my desk.

I also have a wonderful black upholstered chair and ottoman in another corner of my office where I work frequently (especially when the Balance Ball chair was still behind my desk!).

Anything special about your space?

The corner of my desk features a small plastic gumball machine my older sister gave me for my fifth birthday. Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a predilection for circles/roundness, and I love bright colors. So I’ve adored this delightfully spherical plastic gumball machine with bright, round gumballs since the first moment I saw it! So much so that I still have it more than thirty-five years later…. You can see it on my desk in the picture.

In addition, my office has fabulous silver wallpaper, a wall calendar I buy every year that has gorgeous and inspiring garden photographs (the Secret Garden series–I highly recommend it), and a stuffed Hello Kitty in a hot pink plaid dress I consider my “writing buddy.”

What do you love most about that area?

I love the two windows that look out the front of my house. There are bushes right outside that I especially love to see in the summer when they’re green and, in the case of the rosebush, in bloom, but one of them is also holly, so it’s green year-round. The room gets a lot of natural light in the morning since it faces east.

I also love how I have the room arranged–it took me a couple tries to get it the way I want it. I reconfigured the desk and file cabinet setup a year or so after I moved in, and I like it much better now. Some would say the furniture arrangement is not particularly convenient because I have to walk specifically around and behind my desk (which has an “L” shape) to sit in it, but I actually like this because it means that when I go back there, I am working. It’s not a place I just sit casually or dart in and out of while doing other things.

If money was no object, what would your home office look like?

My laptop, printer, software, and any other technological equipment would immediately be upgraded! I would love to have the best/fastest/most efficient of such without concern for how expensive it is.

What office equipment do you use most, other than your computer?

My corner chair…I suppose that isn’t really office equipment, but I frequently sit on the upholstered chair in the corner of my office and consider it integral to my work process.

I also use the printer a lot because I feel strongly oriented toward editing and proofreading on paper rather than electronically. Though I lament that it’s not environmental, I’ve usually printed multiple drafts of projects I’m working on. (I do at least recycle them.)

What do you think is a must have for an efficient office?

I personally like almost anything I’m going to need to be within reach. It seems just the way I concentrate, but if I have to actually get up to get or look for something, it tends to interrupt my concentration and momentum. I want pen, stapler, printer, highlighter, my water bottle, scratch paper/notebook, and I’m sure some other things I’m forgetting to be right there, easily within reach. I do have my desk and space set up that way.

I also feel it needs to be comfortable (back to the Balance Ball chair…). Since I’ve tended to like to work for hours at a time, I sometimes lean back in my chair and pull my laptop into my lap and put my feet on my desk. When I’m not doing this, I seem, for some reason, to find a foot rest positively necessary. I like my chair to be pretty high, and if my feet do not feel anchored on the floor (which they tend not to without a foot rest), I honestly feel I can’t concentrate well.

Are you a writing mom/dad?

Of non-human children: I have two cats and two dogs (known as “the puppies” even though they’re five now), all of whom tend to be in and out of my office whenever I’m in there. And of course the puppies have no qualms about unabashedly interrupting me when it’s time to go out. The cats frequent my office, and when I’m in the chair in the corner, they’ve been known to fail to recognize the relative inconvenience of making their way onto my lap. Or perhaps they just don’t care….

On that note, I actually had two iterations of the Balance Ball chair. The first one bit the dust when one cat chased the other up onto it, and she landed with her claws out. (It’s as though she knew something I didn’t at the time!)

How do you juggle writing and family?

I try to make sure everybody is fed and, in the case of the dogs, has gone out recently so that ideally they’ll leave me alone for a while. :)

Where to buy Initiative: Tales of Erotic Boldness

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087C9955K/

Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/initiative-emerald/1136896418

Apple Books https://books.apple.com/us/book/initiative/id1510056262

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/initiative-5

IndieBound https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781734599138

Emerald Social Media

Emerald is an erotic fiction author interested in elevating discussion of and attention to authentic sexual experience. Her short fiction has been featured in more than thirty multi-author anthologies in the genre, and her book Safe: A Collection of Erotic Stories won the bronze IPPY in the Erotica category of the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards. The author of three short story collections, she has also penned dozens of blog posts at her website, TheGreenLightDistrict.org, on topics ranging from sexuality and self-awareness to politics, sex work, and reproductive justice. The majority of her wardrobe incorporates glitter in some capacity.
Website https://TheGreenLightDistrict.org
Blog https://TheGreenLightDistrict.org/wordpress
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Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/emerald
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