July 2012
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Kiki Archer InterviewBest-selling lesbian fiction writer Kiki Archer talks exclusively
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When did you start writing?
Only about a year ago. It took that long for the children to go to sleep at night! I write in the evenings when they are in bed and when my partner is at work. She has a fantastic job that involves a lot of travelling and it is a perfect time for me to get lost in a story.
Do you write from personal experience, stories you have heard from friends or just complete fiction!?
It is a mixture really. I was a secondary school PE teacher for five years and I got a lot of the inspiration from there. Obviously I never had a student / teacher affair, but then again nor do the characters in the book. It is more about how they deal with their fast growing feelings and the realisation that their relationship can never happen – It does have a happy ending though! But I loved using my school experience to exaggerate some of the classroom scenes in the book and create some really cringeworthy teachers – come on, we all had them! I like to think the book is a light hearted take on a UK Comprehensive school, but that it actually deals with some hard hitting topics such as coming out and coming to terms with your sexuality – All of which I have had to go through.
Can you tell us a little bit about your Coming Out experience?
It was the evening before my twenty second birthday and I was at home with my brother, sister, mum and dad and we were all sat around chatting about current events in our lives. I suddenly realised that I had nothing to say, because everything that I was doing in my life at that time involved a certain woman. I had not planned on saying anything and I know this will sound dramatic, but something just made me say it. I could feel it building up inside and I just started to cry. I think my family were just shocked more than anything and it did take them a long time to accept that this was how I wanted to live my life. I think they just worried that my life would be so much harder as a gay woman. However ten years on and they are my biggest supporters. I guess I just shocked them when I came out ... and I shocked them when I said was marrying my girlfriend ... and I shocked them when I said my wife was three months pregnant with our first child ... and I shocked them a year later when I said I was pregnant as well ... and more recently I have shocked them by outing myself as bestselling lesbian novelist Kiki Archer – But what are daughters for hey?! And in terms of how much harder my life is as a gay woman ... well it isn’t. It is the easiest thing I have done because it comes naturally.
Does your writing help you to understand your identity as a gay woman?
I am a lesbian woman who lives a very ‘straight’ lifestyle. Marriage, kids, the school run etc... and you will find that most gay people live completely normal lives. I think perception is changing and a person’s sexuality is having less of an importance to anything. Gay, straight, bi, trans, it does not define you. It is just a small part of who you are. I love writing lesbian fiction because it is what I know. I don’t think that I could convincingly describe my heroine falling for some hunk of a man, because I have no idea what that feels like ... and to be honest I would not want to! Girl power all of the way!
What advice would you have for those still in the closet?
Jump right out straight away! The timing will never be right. The reaction will never be perfect. But you will be able to be yourself for the first time in your life and that is such a freeing feeling, well worth the half hour or so of anxiety and nerves. Just announce it. Don’t apologise. Just announce it and move on.
This website and the rucomingout project in general are such wonderful initiatives that are already helping thousands of young people. It is so important to come out so that you can start to live your life openly and honestly. Hiding your sexuality gives the impression that there is something wrong with it or that you are ashamed of it. Be proud of who you are and embrace the full life that you will lead regardless of who you happen to fancy. Then once you are out come back on here and share your story with others. It takes real courage to step up and make a difference, but I truly believe that everyone has that potential within them.
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'But She is My Student', is the number one selling book by Kiki. "Miss Katherine Spicer started her first day at Coldfield Comprehensive, confident, enthusiastic and very well qualified; that was until she met the eyes of the student sat hidden in the corner of her classroom. Kat’s final weekend of freedom was about to turn her life upside down and threaten everything she had been working for; how was she to know those mesmerising green eyes would reappear here? A cross between Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller and Sugar Rush by Julie Birchill. The novel deals with the many issues of sexuality in a gripping, yet funny manner, pulling the reader back into a world of teenage nostalgia and school day memories. But She Is My Student will make you laugh out loud and have you crying out for the fairytale ending." |
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Follow Kiki on Twitter - @kikiarcherbooks
Facebook - facebook.com/kiki.archer
Buy Kiki's book - Amazon
Visit Kiki's website - www.kikiarcher.com
Facebook - facebook.com/kiki.archer
Buy Kiki's book - Amazon
Visit Kiki's website - www.kikiarcher.com
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