By: Chrissy Corbett
Erotica. Few stories possess the same power to capture the mind with such relentless curiosity. Even those who would not claim to be avid readers of the genre must admit the passionate covers call for a second, third, and an “okay, last time” fourth glance.Today, one can walk down just about any literature aisle in a store and find some form of erotica on the shelves; however, this has not always been the case. In the past, people stuck up their noses at the sensual content of the novels, creating quite a few hurdles for many writers to attempt, but few to surmount.One writer who overcame these impediments is Maxim Jakubowski. As a writer of erotica, crime, and science fiction novels, he has impacted the world of literature for the better and created a path for many to follow.
Understanding Max
CC: Who is Max Jakubowski? How would you describe yourself?
A writer. It happens to be that for the last so many years I’ve been writing erotica and quite a bit of crime, but if you go back a decade or so I was also writing fantasy or mainstream. I don’t really like to say that I liked popular fiction and popular culture. Basically, I think a writer would suffice; if they put that on my grave I would be quite happy.
CC: How long have you been writing?
I started writing when I was 14 or 15; I published my first book when I was 16. I had to tell the publisher, “can you make out the advanced check to M. Jakubowski” because my father had the same initials. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to cash my check.
CC: Were people supportive of your writing at that age?
Not really. The editor’s who bought my stuff were supportive, but most of them didn’t know how young I was. I was a bit–I wouldn’t say I was ashamed–I was a bit embarrassed for them to find out how young I was actually was. The book, which was a collection of science fiction stories, when I look at it now, I am utterly, terribly embarrassed. I would not allow it be published now even for all the gold in Fort Knox.
CC: That is impressive. Sixteen is amazing age to be so accomplished.
On the otherhand, in the years that followed I thought I was God’s gift to creation, trying to write the great Anglo-French novel or whatever. I did not publish anything apart from a bit of journalism for another six or seven years. I was much too immature at the time. As time went on, hopefully, my writing improved.
CC: What inspired you to become a crime/erotica/sci-fi writer?
I just wanted to write stories. I was encouraged when I was 13 by a teacher at school. We had to do a weekly essay and one day he said, “you don’t have to be factual just invent a story”; that was all I needed and I started writing stories. The first one was “what did you do on your summer holidays?” I’d done very little; it was boring. So I would improvise I was hiking around the French Alps and got picked up by an eagle that took his nest which everyone knew, obviously, had not happened. It was much more fun writing than saying for two months I was cycling behind our mountain villa and the mountain roads imagining I was a bicycle racer in the Tour de France. Having the carte blanche to use my imagination was really the trigger. You couldn’t stop me after that. In those years I loved science fiction fantasy, crime, and thriller books so it was natural that I would orbit towards writing in that genre.
Be on the lookout for more novels by Maxim Jakubowski in 2017, and make sure to check out Honeysuckle’s Noir print edition for a feature story on the King of the Erotic Thriller. http://maximjakubowski.co.uk
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