Exclusive Interview with Author T.H. Dillon

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• Can you tell me why you picked Thomas Hunter Dillon for a pen name?

Sure. When I wanted to come up with a pen name, I naturally started tossing around some men’s names that I liked. It didn’t take long, as I had done that twice before when picking out names for my children. The names “Thomas” “Hunter” and “Dillon” were my final three names that I had picked out years ago, in case I had a son. But I had two daughters instead so I never got to use them. So it just seemed natural that some combination of those three names would serve as my pen name. 

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• Will your true identity be a secret forever or just for now?

Just for now. I have no intentions to try and “hide” who I really am forever. I do it this way right now, out of consideration for my family. I come from a fairly old-fashion, traditional, Christian-conservative upbringing….so being an author of erotica books generally doesn’t mesh well with that. In my adult life, I’ve adapted my own set of beliefs to what I was taught growing up….and not everything I believe now meshes with the beliefs of a lot of my family still. So out of respect for them….I’m keeping this part of my writing separate for now. If writing erotica ever pays well enough to become my full-time job…..then at some point my family and friends would have to respect what I am doing, and the fact that I am/was good enough to make a living doing it. If I never do well as an erotica author, then there was no need to attach my family name to it.

Ideally….it would be up to me, at a time of my choosing, to reveal my real name. But I don’t trust that that will be the case. There are some people already….that know…..and whether or not they respect my family’s privacy, and mine, is the ultimate question mark. If they do take it upon themselves to “let the cat out of the bag”…..I think it would be done purely out of whatever insecurity is fueling them at the time. That’s why people do stuff like that……their own insecurities, jealousy, bitterness, envy, etc. I’m not going to worry about it though. I’ll do my thing, and they can do theirs. And if whatever they’re doing sucks so bad that they have to come troll my life…..then I pity them for having such a crappy life. 

T.H. Dillon is a persona. He is my persona that I created, that I perform. He is my persona for writing erotica and romance. Some people have a hard time distinguishing their real life from their author personas…..but I keep mine separate. When I am with my family and friends, I am me…..the real me. Most of my friends don’t even know I am T.H. Dillon…erotica and romance author. They don’t treat me any differently…and I like it that way.

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• Can you give your fans a brief description of yourself? Inquiring minds want to know.

Well…I’m 6’4” and currently 314lbs (and dropping). I am built pretty much like an offensive lineman, because that’s the position I played in High School. It’s kind of funny actually…..not that long ago I went to the store one day and as I’m walking in….Mark Tauscher comes walking out right in front of me. And I stopped and did a double-take as he walked right by me….not only because he is Mark Tauscher and I am a HUGE Green Bay Packer fan….but because we are of the EXACT same size and build! And I’m thinking to myself “Holy crap that’s Mark Tauscher! Holy crap I should have stuck with football!” LOL But, it is what it is. I have no regrets about giving up on football in High School. 

Other than that…I’m pretty run of the mill (I think). I have short brown hair and green eyes. I almost always have some degree of facial hair going on. If I have to shave more than twice in a week, I’m easily annoyed with it. As for an overall look…..I am not a “pretty boy”….and thank God for that. I am more of the “ruggedly handsome” type….or so I am told. Really I’m just a big teddy bear. 

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• How did you get into writing erotica?

Simply by accident. It started as a natural progression of a long-distance relationship I had when I was 22. We lived about six hours apart, and only saw each other on the weekends that I came home from college. The rest of the time….we wrote each other old-fashion love letters, and emails, and poetry, and then it eventually progressed into her wanting me to write more erotic things. And apparently I was good at it, because she always seemed to want more of it….and from there, it’s just always been a hobby of mine when I’m dating or getting into new relationships….if they indicate that they like that sort of thing, I usually spring it on them a little at a time….and it’s always worked out well for me in the past. So in 2012, I decided it was finally time to take the plunge and start writing erotica to publish, and see if it went over well on a larger scale.

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• Have you written anything besides erotica?

Oh yes, absolutely. I actually started my writing career in late 2007. I had gone back to college, and received some encouragement from an English professor after she graded my first paper I turned in to her that semester. She asked me to stay after class one day so she could talk to me. I thought I was in trouble…..and here she was telling me to drop her class and get into something more “challenging” for my writing style. And that was news to me. That was the first time I had ever had a conversation with someone about “writing styles”…or the fact that they thought I had a good one that needed to be put to work, or challenged.

So I stayed in her class that semester, but only if I promised to help her out by tutoring some of the other students in the class and help them with their writing. That was a very eye-opening experience for me….to all of a sudden go from minding my own business, to helping others with something that just seemed to come naturally to me…..and then to watch others struggle with it. You learn real quick…the nasty side of having to critique a person’s work, and do so in such a manner that you still build up their belief in their abilities. I say “nasty side” because some people are just uber sensitive ALL the time….and the slightest criticism is met with hostility. In the end…it has served me well to have that experience….because as an Indie author now…I see friends who struggle to word something effectively, and now I am better suited to help them out when they ask me…..without destroying their confidence. 

Well long story short….she kept on me that semester about “challenging myself”. I talked with her several times, and she finally suggested writing for the student newspaper. So I inquired about that and was brought on to write movie reviews and then eventually opinion pieces. That was interesting, because our student newspaper had some national recognition from winning a few awards at national competitions. So it wasn’t exactly a wham-bam thrown together student newspaper. These people actually had their shit together, and we put out a helluva nice, professional quality paper. That was no walk in the park either. We had some real quality people on that staff, and we had a great industry professional over-seeing our work. He gave me a lot of great feedback about my writing, a lot of encouragement about putting my abilities to work for me some day, and a lot of insight about what it takes to cut your teeth as a writer and make a living doing it. I respected the hell out of him….but eventually we got into a heated debate over a “counter-point” opinion piece I was writing, that was due to run opposite a controversial article that was planned. Bottom line was….I wasn’t pulling any punches with my writing in that piece and I held people accountable for their ignorance and cowardice. He completely agreed with what I was saying…..but he needed to think of his job at the college first, and running my piece would have opened up the student paper to some MAJOR backlash. I pleaded with him to let me put my student email address on it so the backlash would come my way, and I would deal with it myself…..but things don’t work that way when you’re part of an entire staff of people. You have to do what is best for the staff, and I would have brought too much negative attention to the paper, and the otherwise good people that worked there. So he told me the entire thing was getting scrapped, and I agreed to disagree with him over it…

Then the following year, another English professor pulled me aside and really took an interest in my ability. He had cut his teeth for YEARS in the publishing industry, and had written several books, articles, reviews, etc. You name it…he had done it if it meant making a living with his writing. And he took the time to really TEACH me about what it takes to be a writer, and how to be a successful one at that. So here was a guy with 40+ years of experience, actually giving a damn about me because of the things I wrote in his class….and he made time in his day to almost mentor me and encourage me. So I took note of that, and I took the things he taught me to heart. He encouraged me to enter some of my writing in a literary contest, and I did. I had one of my pieces selected and it got published in an annual journal, and that’s when I first started to give some serious thought to writing books. I wrote my first book later that year, and had it published in 2009. To date, I’ve written both non-fiction and fiction titles. I still don’t know where my future lies with writing…..but I have a feeling fiction will be a significant part of it….more specifically, erotica. 

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• When you are writing your sex scenes for your erotic stories is there a particular person in your mind you are imagining?

Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Sometimes a particular woman I know will inspire a scenario in my head and that’s what I write. Other times I have the scenario playing out in my head and so then the female character just kind of adopts the generic form of what my ideal woman looks like. As far as the male characters go…..the way I write erotica, the male character is usually some variant of me in real life…..either a physical variant of me, or a personality variant of me. I’m only ever going to write what I would do with a woman, or what I would want done to me by a woman……so the male character is almost always going to be a variation of me in some way. I’m not ever going to write about something I have no experience with. You try and fake your writing for the sake of capitalizing on whatever is hot and selling well…..then your writing still suffers from a lack of authenticity. I’m likely never to write at length about BDSM because very little of that lifestyle actually appeals to me. I’ll leave the BDSM people to write BDSM stories. 

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• Do you listen to music while you write? If so, can you give me an example of your playlist?

I always have music playing when I write. Always. It’s like a pre-requisite to my creativity. Music is such a major influence in my life now…..my creativity is dead without it. And I have such a wide taste in music….it really depends on my mood at the moment. I listen to a lot of Electronica or EDM. There is still a huge misconception about that sort of music…..that a person is either gay for liking it….or they have to be on MDMA to enjoy it. Both of which are horribly ignorant…..but hey…..there are plenty of ignorant people in the world still. As far as that genre goes, some of my favorites are Tiesto of course…..along with Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyke, and a lot of the old-school stuff. I’ll listen to some Deadmau5 every now and then….but I think David Guetta is over-rated. Usually I’ll find live sets on YouTube and let those play, or I’ll dial up a trance radio station out of Paris, France that I enjoy. 

Another big favorite of mine is 80’s music! I LOVE 80’s MUSIC! I’ve got so much of that, and a few favorite radio stations that are just all 80’s, all the time. When I’m in the mood for 80’s….I’m set. LOL

Then I have my moods where I need something more…..disturbing….aggressive….violent sounding even. That can range anywhere from Metallica to Disturbed, from Rammstein to Korn. I love Rob Zombie, Ozzy, and just all kinds of that stuff. That’s usually what I’ll work out to.

And then there are all the miscellaneous moods in between. Occasionally I’ll want to hear Disco. Or when I’m out in a rural area, out on the farm….I’ll feel the need for some country music (that’s about the only time I feel the need for country music). When I’m up north at the cabin, and you only get 4 radio stations out in the woods…and one of them just happens to play polka music for three hours every Saturday night….I’ll sit there and listen to polka music for three hours. LOL

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• Are you excited to branch out on your own, without a writing partner?

YES! Oh my God. Don’t get me wrong…..when I had the vision for what became The Little Purple Book of Passions….I was all about that concept. You have to be as an artist. You’ve got to be 100% behind whatever it is you’re currently working on…..or you shouldn’t be doing it. So yeah, I was totally amped up about the release of LPBP. But that whole concept revolved around me finding a suitable partner to pull it off with…..and I jumped the gun and made a judgment call that proved to be the wrong choice. Lesson learned. The horrible thing about any partnership….whether writing, business, marriage, etc., is that it only works as long as you have two willing participants to make it work the way it’s supposed to. As soon as one person in the partnership starts to change their mind about things…..then the partnership is fucked, and it’s just a matter of time before the other person is willing to accept it and let it go. Sometimes people wait too long to fold a losing hand…..and other times they know when to toss in their cards. I’d like to think we both saw it as a losing hand after a certain point. And her and I are both smart poker players….so us folding it down was inevitable. 

In the end though, it’s going to work out to be the best thing for both of us professionally. She is doing her thing, and she has her core of fans. I’m going to be doing my thing, and I have a core of fans. The one thing I didn’t like about that whole concept was the fact that those two books could end up being judged harshly just based on the reader not caring for one or the other of us. She had her fans that liked her stuff and didn’t care for my stuff. And I had my fans who liked my stuff and not hers. That was no secret to either of us. But then we’d watch some people make harsh, critical comments about the books….just based on the fact that they didn’t care for one of us. And I have no problem taking criticism from someone…..if it’s valid! I have taken criticism from industry professionals, with credentials I could only dream of right now…and it has been valid. I have taken criticism from readers via Facebook or email…and some of them made some valid points that I had to agree with. And I’ll be the first to admit when somebody makes a valid criticism of me. I’m secure….it doesn’t bother me to do so. But to sit back and watch somebody slam the book as a whole because they didn’t like ONE story….or they didn’t care for one of us as a writer….that sucked. That was the obvious flaw to the design concept of LPBP and LBBPP. I knew there would be some of that happening. There is always going to be someone who is never happy. 

So yes…..I am looking forward to this first solo erotica title of mine. My fans, that enjoy my style, and my writing……I think they’re really going to enjoy this next book of mine. For the readers that don’t know me yet….check out my blog…or download a copy of LPBP and read the odd # chapters to get a feel for what you’ll get with me. 

I’m looking forward to creating a book that ensures many repeat reads for the ladies and also making something that still offers a variety of sexy things…..but all done in my style this time. It’s going to be a mix of sexy narratives, directives, and short-story erotica. Hopefully I can create something that inspires people to be having better sex all around….and if not….then at least better “alone time” with their Kindles.  

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• Are there any other female erotica Authors you would like to co-write with?

Honestly…..coming off that last experience? I’d have to say no. I don’t anticipate teaming up with any other authors, anytime soon. I have enough trust issues as is from past relationships going sour……then you toss in a writing partnership that couldn’t even last 6 months. I have no desire to even chance a repeat of that. I won’t say “never”….but it would more than likely have to come down to me as a directive of a publisher I’m contracted with. If they were paying me, and they said “Hey will you pair up with so-and-so for a book?”…..well then I’m obviously going to consider it. 

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• I know female erotica Authors get tons of emails from men. Do you receive tons from women?

Not really. Not yet at least. I get some, but not “tons”. I have some really sweet and generous fans that have sent me things in the mail. If fans do contact me via email or Facebook….I try to get back to everyone when time allows for it. 

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• What's your favorite dirty word?

Probably the word “cum”…which is slang of course. But when spoken from one partner to another…it can convey things like no other. If spoken in the right context I should say. Some people don’t “dirty talk” very well…but it’s not hard to learn to do, and it’s fun to work on getting better at. I see people that struggle to even type that word….because they don’t feel they can say it….but it is what it is. Why avoid it?

My favorite is watching people misuse it in text. They mean to say “cum”, but spellcheck tells them it should be “come”…..so they change it. But in reality….you should write it as the people would speak it…..regardless of the grammatical correctness of it. I know people who will say “Sheeeee-at”, instead of “Shit!” So guess how I am going to write it to convey what I want to convey to my reader. But to be reading erotica and see an author use “come” instead of “cum”….that just kills it for me. I’ll end up laughing. If I read a female character saying to a male character “Are you going to come with me?”…..then in my mind, the male character responds with “I don’t know. Where are we going?”

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• Describe to me, your ideal girl.

You know Jodi…..I really no longer have an answer for that. When I was younger, I used to maintain this image in my mind of what the perfect woman would look like. And then one day I meet a girl who I thought had the face of an angel….and it clicked in my mind like “This is the face of my dream girl!” So what did I do? I proposed to her of course…..and that ended badly for me. So I don’t pretend to have an image of the “perfect girl” anymore, or what my ideal girl would be like. 

I can tell you what qualities I like in a person. What genuine characteristics I find appealing. I can tell you what physical features I find appealing. But I am finally single for more than 4 months, for the first time in 12 years. I am enjoying staying single. And talking about what I would want to find, or see, in a woman…..is kind of leaning towards yearning to be in a relationship again….which I’m not. Unless somebody special came along and really made me sit up and take notice. I’ve been single now for a full year this month…..and I see other people trapped or stuck in bad relationships…..and I don’t miss it. The drama, the frustration, the attitude, the arguing, the hatred, the resentment, the insults, the betrayal, the heartache. I lived a lifetime of that between the ages of 22-32.  I’m not exactly looking to sign up for more of it now. 

My ideal girl…..is not one I can look for. She is one that will just be presented to me in my life, and she will be so special to me, in my eyes…..that I’ll give up the peace and solitude of my life now…in order to try and make her smile for the rest of hers.

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• What are your dislikes in a companion?

The quickest ways to annoy me and make me want to not talk to you…….be needy, insecure, and clingy. I can’t stand that. 

People need to be able to look within themselves to fix their lives. I played the “knight in shining armor” act a couple of times already with women. That’s not me anymore. And I need my space. For the last seven years of my life…..some form of meditation has been a requirement of mine. I need to have my own time to center myself on a regular basis. Everyone should do that. Women need time to go out with the girls and be a girl. And men need their time with the guys to be a guy. And everybody should make time for just themselves, to center themselves spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. You have to take care of #1 first, before you can be any good to your partner. I see people ALL THE TIME….putting their partner first, above their own needs….and they are wondering why they aren’t truly happy in their relationships then. And they walk around going “I don’t get it…I do everything I can to make them happy. So how come they aren’t happy?” They aren’t happy because you’ve lost touch with who you really are first and foremost…and that comes through in your relationship then. In your words, body language, or actions. Your inner unhappiness is conveyed to your partner, and makes them unhappy as a result. It’s not rocket-science. It’s the law of attraction. Didn’t somebody get rich writing a book about that? You get back what you put out into the world, into your work, into your relationships, friendships, etc. If you don’t take care of yourself first, and you’re shit physically, emotionally, and mentally……then that’s what you exude into the world around you….and shit is what you will attract back to you. 

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• Tell me about your dream date.

My dream date is the one yet to come. Why? Madonna said it best in a song…”There is no love like the future love.” Meaning, the future love is yet to be, and therefore still as perfect as you can imagine it. Some day in the future….I’ll be somewhere dreamy, with a dreamy girl….and at that very moment….it will be the best date of my life. 

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• Where is your favorite place to make love?

Wherever you and I have the most fun doing it. Truly. A lot of things with me adjust from person to person. I don’t have a favorite place that I try to do it with every woman I am with. I am a giver, and more concerned with pleasing her….so her comfort and arousal will always trump mine. Every partner brings with them a new experience for you….and the two of you create a chemistry unique to just the two of you. So in my next relationship….my favorite place will be wherever hers is.

Though there are a few places I’d like to make love…..but that’s for show, and not tell.

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• Can tell me about your ultimate fantasy?

When I was younger….I had an “ultimate fantasy”. And then my ex-wife made it happen for me one night. And then it got checked off the list. LOL I’ll probably never have another “ultimate fantasy”…..but the one I used to have will always remain a favorite of mine. 

There are a couple of fantasies I have that you could call “ultimate” just from the sheer expense of making them happen…..and some day when I have the money to, I will make it happen. They’re not outrageously expensive…..but expensive enough to be a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience. 

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• What are your thoughts on 'The Forbidden Fruit'?

It’s delicious. I love eating it. *wink*

Wait…..are we talking about the same thing?

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• Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In 10 years I hope to be successfully running a small business somewhere nice, spending time with my daughters when possible, taking a collector car to car shows with a wonderful woman, and writing still.