“In my view, erotica is not about sex per se. It is about the experience of desire.” — An Interview with Lisabet Sarai, author of steampunk erotica trilogy The Toymakers Guild.

JL PERIDOT: A prudish era. Steampunk sex toys. Lisabet, I think you may have outdone yourself with this series. Why did you chose Victorian England as the time and place for these kinky books?

LISABET SARAI: I’ve had an affinity for things Victorian for as long as I can remember. My siblings used to tease me about how excited I’d get when we passed a Victorian house. I wore ankle-length skirts, high-necked, frilly blouses and lace-up boots long before they were fashionable.

It may be that I was influenced by all the nineteenth century fiction I read when I was young: Sherlock Holmes, Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, H. Rider Haggard, and so on. (Certainly I was affected by the Victorian erotica I read later!) Sometimes I wonder if I had a previous life as a Victorian; my mental images of the time can be surprisingly vivid and the cadence of the period language seems to come naturally.

Anyway, I’ve been writing stories with Victorian settings for a while. My second novel, Incognito, originally published in 2002, has an elaborate sub-plot that unfolds in Victorian Boston. I have a steampunk story (Green Cheese) set in Thailand and another (Her Own Devices) that takes place in Hong Kong, while my novel Rajasthani Moon is steampunk Indian style. For a long time, however, I avoided writing a steampunk tale set in England itself because I was worried that my ignorance of the setting would be too obvious.

The premise for the Guild required, however, that it be located in England. So I bit the bullet and decided to give it a try.

JL: Your heroine Gillian is a strong, intelligent woman, and I understand you’re a bit of a nerd too! Tell us more about this, and what Gillian means to you. What will readers love most about her?

LISABET: I’m more of an engineer than a scientist, both by training and disposition. Although I was originally interested in molecular biology and astrophysics, I ended up as a software architect and developer. After many decades, I am still amazed by the fact that software begins as nothing but ideas. These ideas are translated into symbols, abstract representations of relationships and processes.

Yet ultimately, software has real impact, does real work, controls both physical and social phenomenon. This seems to me a kind of magic – akin to miracles of Genesis, materializing the world out of the Word. Of course, fiction has some of that same magical quality. We authors start with thoughts, pictures in our heads, and use them to form stories that can affect our readers intellectually and emotionally.

As for Gillian Smith, I have an essay somewhere about how she is and is not like me. Certainly she’s far more self-assured than I was at nineteen. I was shy, socially awkward and dogged by anxiety, whereas Gillian suffers from none of these weaknesses. She strides into the Guild without any self-doubt, ready to take on all challenges. The other apprentices (initially all male) are astonished by both her technical skills and her sexual audacity.

Actually, I guess that’s what I love most about Gillian: her openness to erotic experience. She thrives in the lascivious environment of Randerley Hall. As the series progresses, however, she grows and changes, learning to distinguish the quick thrill of a lusty interlude from the deeper pleasures of erotic commitment. Importantly, she comes to value both.

Certainly I think many readers will find Gillian surprising and refreshing. I’ll admit that some might think her a bit shocking!

JL: Where did the research for this trilogy take you? (I guess what I’m really asking is whether some of the sex toys actually existed!)

LISABET: My relative ignorance of British geography was one of the main forces propelling my research, coupled with questions about late nineteenth century transport. How long would it take to get from Tavistock to London by train? By horse and buggy? What was the schedule for steamer crossings between Dover and Calais? How bad was London traffic?

I also had to be careful to avoid anachronisms when referencing scientific discoveries. For instance, the Master Toymaker has invented a security device that depends on the photosensitive properties of selenium. I needed to make sure these properties had in fact been discovered by 1888. At another point, I wanted to suggest that aluminium might be a part of an invention; it took some research to determine whether the metal was available during that period. (It was, but it was very expensive.)

In fact, the second half of the nineteenth century saw an amazing flowering of science and technology, not just as theory but also applied to everyday innovations. Progress was the watchword of the times. I recommend the book The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage. He describes the extensive practical, social and political changes that flowed from the invention of the telegraph. As we can see today, technology can have many unexpected and far-reaching consequences.

That being said, I admit to playing quite fast and loose with many of the inventions I describe. I was striving for plausibility, balancing that against the reader’s surprise and delight. Many of Gillian’s engineering feats probably would have been impossible in her time – some might still be! – but I hope I still managed to make readers believe in them.

I also plead guilty to some in-jokes that will only be appreciated by my fellow nerds, particular with regard to artificial intelligence.

JL: What do you feel has been your biggest challenge in writing erotica?

LISABET: My first novel (as is the case with many authors) flowed from a desire to capture something of my own erotic experience and to extrapolate from that reality to explore my fantasies. Raw Silk is not nearly as well-crafted as my more recent books. It rehashes tired clichés (e.g. the alpha male) that I didn’t even know existed at the time I wrote it. Nevertheless, it remains popular at least partially because readers sense its authenticity. Though fictional, it captures the profound emotions associated with a woman’s initiation into dominance and submission.

As time went on, my work became less autobiographical, but it has always been personal. I write stories that interest me, that arouse me and that satisfy me. I’ve been thrilled to discover that I can evoke similar responses in at least a few readers.

The first decade of my publishing “career” was the golden age for erotica. There were many publishing venues, including a lot of anthologies. Editors and publishers were looking for fresh ideas and premises, surprising or transgressive actions, and high quality writing. It was easy to find stories to read that would make you wonder, gasp and shiver. It was easy to sell that kind of stories.

The next decade saw the rise of indie publishing and the dominance of erotic romance. It became difficult to sell a story that did not have a focal relationship or a happy ending. Genres and tropes started to become straight jackets.

These days, I think that erotica as I knew it is pretty much dead. Romance has become ossified into genre boxes. In the realm of erotica, authors churn out one book after another, plainly labeled with the kinks or tropes, with titles like “Pregnant for the Grumpy Billionaire Daddy-Dom”, “Hot Wife Hot S3x”, and “First Time Surrender”. (These are actual titles from the most recent issue of a newsletter to which I subscribe.) There’s no suspense or variety. Apparently readers want to know exactly what they’re paying for.

I strongly suspect that despite being very explicit, many of these books do not offer much eroticism either. In my view, erotica is not about sex per se. It is about the experience of desire.

JL: Readers unfamiliar with your work will be stoked to discover your expansive publishing history. Any recommendations on which titles would suit different readers wanting to get to know your style and work?

LISABET: If readers want to explore my books, I recommend they go to https://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html

You can pick from a wide range of categories, then see the books that fall into those categories. The problem is that most of my work does not neatly slot into a single genre. Plus some of my work is deeply romantic; some is pure smut-for-fun.

To get an idea of the extremes to which I’ll go, readers might like to check out my mash-up novel Rajasthani Moon. I wrote this for a publisher who had a long list of sub-genres from which to choose. I deliberately tried to incorporate as many items from that list as I could: steampunk, shifter, menage, BDSM, BBW, Bollywood, spies, multicultural... let me see, have I forgotten anything?

JL: Out of everything you’ve ever written, do you have a favourite?

LISABET: That’s a really hard question. If I had to choose a single book, I think it would be my BDSM erotic romance The Gazillionaire and the Virgin (first edition 2016).

In that novel, I revisited (emotionally) the relationship whose intensity fueled my first book. By the time I wrote The Gazillionaire, I could look back with a bit clearer perspective and capture the dynamics of that relationship in a more nuanced and realistic way.

Note that this book is even less obviously autobiographical than Raw Silk. But the characters were ultimately inspired by me and my former master.

JL: For fellow writers out there, what’s your process? How do you stay so inspired and motivated with your writing?

LISABET: Process? What process? ;^)

I’m inspired, I guess, because I love being Lisabet Sarai. It’s a side of me that I don’t get to express in my daily life. I value my connections to readers and to other authors (including you, J.L.). I revel in the freedom to make my imagined tales into realities that can affect others. I stubbornly reject the tyranny of the market (easy to do when your writing is an avocation rather than your livelihood) and continue to create stories that shred tropes or turn them upside down.

These days, I’m working a very demanding job, and I don’t have much time to live as Lisabet. But I savor every minute.

The Toymakers Guild by Lisabet Sarai

At Randerley Hall, lust is a lubricant to creativity. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is forbidden.

Defying the repressive morality of the Victorian era, the Toymakers Guild uses advanced technology to fabricate bespoke sexual devices for the discrete pleasure of select clients. Its members are not only brilliant engineers but also sexual renegades seeking freedom from the prudish society that surrounds them.

Nineteen-year-old prodigy Gillian Smith arrives at Randerley to apply for an apprenticeship in the Guild. With her technical abilities and her lascivious temperament, she is eminently suited to join the Master Toymaker’s close-knit band of uninhibited erotic artisans. Gillian flourishes among the Toymakers, designing and implementing ever-more-outrageous carnal contraptions. Each voluptuous commission she completes, each sensual adventure she enjoys, binds her more tightly to the Guild and to the perverse, tortured genius who is its founder.

If you like brilliant, wanton women and kinky steam punk sex toys, dive into the alternate universe of the The Toymakers Guild.

Buy the boxed set on Amazon (free on KU)
Buy The Pornographer's Apprentice (Book 1) (DRM-free on Smashwords)
Buy The Journeyman's Trial (Book 2) (DRM-free on Smashwords)
Buy The Master's Mark (Book 3) (DRM-free on Smashwords)

Genre: Erotica, Steampunk, Historical Fiction
Length: 821 pages (256,000 words)
Publication Date: 27 August 2023
Publisher: Lisabet Sarai

About the author

Lisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website, along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance, she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads, BookBub and Twitter. Join her VIP email list.