“Polyamory often boils down to sex”: meeting with author Erika Boyer

If you are a fan of New Novel in literatureyou couldn’t miss it author Erika Boyer. Extremely active since 2016, what’s left of us it is his twentieth novel. Touch everything, passionate about love stories and writing in all forms of her, Erika Boyer fights with her pen. All of his writings raise social issues or the lack of representation of minorities.

The author wants all her readers to feel represented in her “life stories”. It was therefore completely natural for her to approach polyamorous relationships with What Remains of Us.

to miss met the author to ask her why it was important for her to highlight plural relationships that go beyond the traditional schemes, but also what were her inspirations for writing this latest novel.

A committed author who rethinks the New Romance

To miss. Your bibliography includes love stories that mix genres, eras, eras, where does it come from?

Erika Boyer. I have a passion for love in general (laughs). And not just romantic love, as friendship, passion or self-love also mean a lot to me. If I’m careful to include diversity, it’s because I belong to different minorities: I’m queer, disabled and neuro-atypical, so outside the box (laughs). When I was younger, I couldn’t find many books to relate to and decided I was going to write what I wanted to read. Today I write thinking about the person I used to be and thinking about all the other people around me who need things to represent them.

To miss. Ideally, what should the current of New Romance look like today?

Erika Boyer. I don’t know if that should be the case, but I wish there was a lot more diversity. I wish authors of the genre followed less of the usual codes of American novels. By diversity I mean racialised, queer, disabled or neuro-atypical characters. In the best of all worlds, the New Novel it would also feature characters from different religious denominations so that everyone could find each other inside.

Gender is evolving, but the storylines follow a fairly traditional pattern with male, female, white, cisgender, and heterosexual. I might have gone a little too fast with evolution, but I think it would be nice if there was more diversity, in the New Novel. It’s not so much the stories themselves that have to evolve because I think they’re great, but rather the characters that carry those stories.

To miss. Why is it important to give this visibility in the literature?

Erika Boyer. When I was younger I didn’t find myself in writings, I thought I wasn’t normal, rather bizarre. I felt alone and society and cultural objects gave me a sense of rejection… Giving visibility to people who are in the minority also helps people who don’t care to see that we exist. Also, I don’t really like this word. Because when you put us all together, all categories put together, I think we are the majority (laughs).

Today I think if there are so many problems at the level of racism, homophobia and others. It is very related to the fact that there is an information problem around these topics and unfortunately the unknown is scary. If there was more exposure in movies or books or whatever, there would be some normalization, which would lead to less discrimination. There would no longer be any excuse to be racist or homophobic, as seeing minorities in cultural objects would give some form of validation. I think it can help to gently change mindsets.

Approach polyamory through a romantic, non-sexual prism

To miss. This is your first time dealing with polyamory, with “What’s left of us” what was your motivation?

Erika Boyer. I had seen it exploited in some books, but the word polyamory was not used and the plots were centered on the carnal or sexual aspect. I think it’s great, it’s something I exploit a lot, especially female sexuality, but I found that by highlighting the sexual side, polyamory just boiled down to sex. While there are asexual people who will fall in love. It’s a bit like defining romantic love by sex, it’s very reductive.

Not all couples have sex (laughs). It was important to show this because it is typically a way of loving that is misunderstood. We don’t talk about it much and everyone thinks it’s polygamy, debauchery or cheating. In my circle some people I talk to don’t know what it is and in these cases I have the opportunity to explain it to them. But to get the message across to others outside my circle, writing a book that fictionally deals with the subject can be a first step in education.

To miss. Have you experienced polyamory yourself, to give more realism to the plot?

Erika Boyer. Several people around me are concerned, I was able to ask them all the questions I wanted, it was practical. For my part, I think the emotional experimentation of polyamory doesn’t necessarily include a relationship. You can be polyamorous without having romantic relationships. I consider myself polyamorous: I am able to fall in love with several people at the same time.

To miss. Are you planning to approach polyamorous relationships or other types of romantic relationships more regularly in the future?

Erika Boyer. In fact, what’s left of us returns is part of a universe that has already begun. First, the two volumes of Promise kept which features a straight gender romance. Then there were the two volumes ink of the past, which is about a love story between two men. And finally Heads or tails which is again a straight gender romance. And in fact the entire initial cast of characters is a group with members each with their own way of life, being and different sexualities.

There is the character of Clément in ink of the past who is gay or Danny inside Promise kept who doesn’t use a label, but who by definition is pansexual. I respect when you don’t want to put a label, but to explain things, I have to come up with some (laughs). Riley is sexless and romantic. I won’t write stories about all the characters, but there are already several books that touch on the different kinds of love. On the other hand, there will be no sequel to what’s left of usis a single volume. I will exploit polyamory again in another novel later.

To conclude this interview, the author provides one last argument to convince Madmoizelle readers: it’s a story you won’t have the opportunity to read anywhere else that will make you question ingrained patterns about romantic relationships. For Erika Boyer the important thing is to make her readers think and grow. Go to the bookstore to devour what we have left published by Hugo Publishing.