It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:43
Good morning Las Vegas. It's Zandra Pollard, it's where I am, right here on 91.5 jazz and more Today, my guest is Lauren Tallman. Lauren is a writer, and has been for quite some time. Yes, yes. She writes erotica, believe it, yes. I cannot wait to get into this book called harem of the dragon. Yes. So Lauren, I passed by, you had a booth, yes, and you had some books out. And we stopped, and we chatted, and you asked me, you said, Have you ever read erotica? And I said, No. And

Lauren Tallman 1:35
I wondered, why?

Zandra Polard 1:39
How long have you been writing? Oh,

Lauren Tallman 1:41
forever. I I started out a long time ago, just writing for my for myself, short stories. And sometimes I would come back to it, and I would think, Whoa, that was pretty good, okay? And was only later, when I started writing short stories about a young girl, I would send this my friend to read, and I would say, What did you think about it? And she said, put them together. You have a book. Wow. And I'd never thought of that. And ever since then, it's writing books. This is actually my fifth book, three of my own two with my own writing group. 11 years ago, I started the erotic writers group of Las Vegas. Now why? Because I belong to the Henderson Writers Group, which is a large and very well known Writers Group in Las Vegas. I'm the Vice President, and it's very odd. People could read about the mafia, you know, burying somebody vertically, or, you know, or some aliens sucking the brains out of something, but I couldn't read the erotica. It was, it was too touchy, for lack of better expression. Was too touchy of a matter. And someone said, why don't you just open up your own group? I thought, Okay, why not send out an email to everybody I knew the first meeting, people came and it's in my house. I bake. We have cake and coffee, and they start reading, and the writing is so good, but that's what erotica is. A lot of people would come or they would ask about it because it didn't know exactly what erotica, I don't Okay, this is all erotica is a whisper, okay? It's very calming. It's exciting. It's exciting. It's

Zandra Polard 3:17
a little bit more than like a romance book, right? Romance,

Lauren Tallman 3:21
he kissed her goodbye, and then you make a cup of coffee and you forgot that he kissed her. Okay with us. We show, we don't tell. We're not going to say he touched something, but we'll say her skin was like silk under his fingers. This is how we write. We bring out the feeling, the taste of something, the sound of something when he hears her voice, when he touches her neck. You know you don't you don't have to go into crass things. It was just the opposite. But the big thing here, people don't realize when you have erotica, you have to have a book. You need a solid story. For instance, harem of the dragon, in short, 17 year old boy in China, 1400s the time when they had the Forbidden City, and they just basically, you know, done most of the wall, the Great Wall of China. Here's this poor little kid. His father sells him to the he sells him to the Emperor, to the palace. He comes in the first day he's there. He's made a eunuch in one moment, his whole life has changed upside down. But then what happens to him through the book? He starts growing up. He starts being mentored by someone to reach one of the highest levels in the palace at that time, this is enormous research, the people that you read about the names they lived at that time, everything that the Emperor wanted. For instance, he liked little girls. He liked them 13 to 16. It's a known fact, 16 that were sent to other palaces. But his name is long. The boy's name is long, and that means Dragon, okay, so when long takes over the deep. Harem. He has to teach them. He has to teach them how to help deep how to enjoy the Emperor, how to make the Emperor very happy, but on pain of death, it was a very dark time at that period. In that period, they had to make sure that the Emperor loved it, and the Emperor, every night would be in bed with nine different girls from the age of 13 to 16, but he never reached the big O. He didn't because he felt if he could control himself like that, he was on a higher level. What do you mean the big O? He couldn't orgasm. Oh, hello. Oh, that O. And because this put him, this control put him on a higher level. Okay, on the other hand, when the Empress was they checked her, whenever she was ovulating, then he was so built up that when he went to the Empress, they had the royal heir. That's within shorter Royal Air. But meanwhile, long has to make sure that these girls are proper, the way, what they look like, how they act. He has to teach them, but all through the book as well. It's about his life, if you have him growing up where he suddenly he's so cocky with himself, thinking, I'm going to be a big shot and everything, and he's going in the Forbidden City, and he has to start learning how to teach the girls. And he figures, okay, I can do this and this and all this. In the end of the chapters, he's looking left and right. He doesn't know how to get back to where he lives, because there were 9999 buildings. They didn't they didn't want 10,000 they thought it would be, it wouldn't be classy, okay? And it shows how his life turns. And he starts getting bigger, and he starts learning more, and he learns how to teach the girls. But meanwhile, again, what about his life? One day he's walking and he sees a shadow. Now, you know, at that time period, they had these porcelain urns to the white with the blue, and had, you know, the birds and the leaves and everything. And he sees a shadow, but he figures can't be a dog, can't be an animal. And he sees a little girl. There's no way that a little girl would be in that part of the palace, and she had to run away because you have to read the book when she got there, and what he does is he basically takes her under his wing, and he said to her, you because she was frightened. She said, people will hurt me. He said, you stay with me. And this little girl, five years old, she bows to him and says, I will never leave you. But what happens later in the book, when she does grow up and someone does fall in love with her? Does she leave him? This is the daughter he could never have. She saves his life through the book at least twice. There are things that happen in his life going along and again. These are real moments in history. China was so advanced at that time, they had under floor heating. They had they made, they printed books well before Europe. And they were big, big in sailing. They were the best in the world. Their ships were phenomenal. And the biggest Mariner comes, comes to the palace, and he long realizes he wants to take over Long's position. He doesn't want to be at sea anymore. So what does long do? He can't come over, you know, say to the Emperor, hey, he wants my job. You know, he has to do something so clever to get him out of there. But you have to read. And it goes on. And then, of course, the last chapter is him confronting his father, now a grown man and having and suddenly realizing he never has to be afraid of his father ever again. And he comes out, and the last paragraph is that he comes. Look what luck is. It turns at the end of the the Great Wall of China ends at Dragon's Gate. I thought, Dragon, thank you. I couldn't be better than that. And he says, No, take me to Dragon's Gate. He stands there, and he says, the sea didn't dare make splash onto him. The winds didn't dare dry his eyes. And he picks up his hand, and he says, Look at me, winds, see me, book to see me water. I am long. I am the dragon. And, you know, so you write a book, and yes, it's sensual, it's totally, and we can be iffy. We can be edgy. Okay, we do things, you know, you can't be totally how to say vanilla, you know, the oh, you know, yeah, sex is sex, right? But in this whole book, you really don't have that much sex. You have the touching, you have the feeling, you have people wanting the touch, and that's what you remember. You're not going to, you know, anything stronger than that, you read it. You hear it, go, make a cup of coffee. You'll forget. You'll forget what you just read. Wow. But if you feel, if, if you know that someone touched someone in a certain way, held some, some part of a body in a certain way, you feel it, and you see it. You actually,

Zandra Polard 10:15
you can envision it. That's a strong writer. You know, I have a writing class right now, and I'm teaching youth how to write and use those senses. Oh, there you go. And to get research so important to enhance your writing, absolutely.

Lauren Tallman 10:31
Yeah. Someone said to me, you know, oh, you must have done so much research, research. And I went, Yeah, because, you know, I would be writing. And suddenly I thought, when I first started, I thought, if he's that poor, what would he be wearing, and what would, what would the place look like, where he sleeps, he wouldn't have a bed, you know, and all these things. And as I'm going along, did they eat duck? Yes, they did, you know. How did they eat? What did in winter and summer, what they wore? The colors were different. The floors actually looked like, and it says it it looks like waving water. The tiles were so they were the best in the world. They lasted till today. They looked like water. Looked like little waves of water. If you walk down the hallways, you would see the the birds and the trees painted on the on the walls, beautiful. So

Zandra Polard 11:23
in your research, were you ever able to travel to China? Or is this all from

Lauren Tallman 11:28
this is looking at every picture that I could find. If I said they were eating, I looked at plates. Okay, um, trays, anything. It's a When. When this because they had their slaves and they had their servants. Big difference. When they came in. They came in with the tray. How big was the tray? What was it made of? What did they eat with? Did they did they eat little rolls? Did they call them little breads? They would call them breads. Or, for instance, he said that someone had come from the Japans. That's what it was called, wasn't called Japan, the Japans all these little things. I thought, okay, if he's here, what is what is he seeing? What is he touching? What is he tasting when he walks? Oh, it was beautiful. The way it was set up. When he would walk from building to building, they would have the different bushes with different flowers. Everything was so pedantic. Everything was all set, and it was beautiful, and he would walk. But when it was snow, the snow went into his shoe or caught onto the bottom of his long robe, you know. And he had to, and I had to look what colors, what size, the sleeves were different. Style change. Then also, yes, so I had to look up all that. I loved it. I loved it. When I went back, I thought to myself, how much research did I do on this? And I looked at that one folder, you know, that you put on the side. I had 123

Zandra Polard 12:52
pages. Oh, wow. Of

Lauren Tallman 12:54
everything, everything the different women, the different royal women. Wasn't just the Empress. It was, it was literally a pyramid scheme, if you want to call it that, down to 13 women that he could be with anyone. Of course, she was the highest she had. She was just as treacherous as he was. And again, this is a book of erotica. It's sensual. It is. You see, the girls. The problem was that the girls in the harem, he had them once, and then he never saw them again. It was very odd. He could have, he had 1000s of women, girls through his life. So what do the girls do? They can't leave the palace. They never saw their families again. So it went into that part of Veronica, what these girls did with each other as well, to to not lose their minds. What did they do all day long? Though they were very educated, they were beautiful, educated. They they knew what to wear. How? Mostly they didn't wear anything, hoping that somebody would say, hey, The Emperor wants you. But it was doing what these women did. And again, I don't want to go to these two explicit but they do play with each other. Yes, of course, you kind of got to spend the time somehow. And it's the different. Do

Zandra Polard 14:06
you get into that as well with the women did with each other in the

Lauren Tallman 14:10
book? Or, Oh yes, oh wow, oh no, you have everything going on. Okay? And each chapter is something happening, some something new in the chapter, the middle is the erotic section, because now he's teaching the girls, and when he comes back, it's closing that that chapter. So every chapter has something except the chapter when he meets the little girl. Okay, I never realized that till later, that I didn't put neurotic section in there. And I thought because it wouldn't, I think even unconsciously, it wouldn't have fit. This is maybe this was his continuation of life. This was the daughter he could never have, but it was somebody that he could love. Until then, he was studying, he was trying to learn about these girls, and he had no sexual feeling whatsoever, because he had been made a eunuch. I. But he could still love. So I think it was just that he felt that love immediately, that that connection with her, and she put her little hand in his, and he held it, and he walked slower to keep with her pace. And that's the only chapter that doesn't have anything but the other ones, oh yeah, it can get they can get edgy, didn't get very edgy. Or sometimes you had three girls and they called each other by a color. So pink came over to yellow, but green it came between. You know, it was just making a difference. It's just like, you know, she did she did not, you know, let's give them a color instead of a name or nice, yeah, and looking up the names as well. That was something, and it said it tells you what the name means. When he meets someone, he goes, Oh, he goes, that's your name. He says, but that means something so weak. How did you get that name? You know what the names mean and how they attach to the people their names. The little girl that he finds she never has a name because she said, I don't know my name. I was with my big sister when I came here, they sent her away because the Empress said she's too beautiful. And I was called The Little sister, and that's all he calls her all her life, little sister. Now

Zandra Polard 16:15
the harem of the dragon is, which book is this? Is this your first? Is this your last? No, this is my or the fifth, I should say not last.

Lauren Tallman 16:22
That's actually the fourth. I have one after that that I made my own anthology. People said to me, You did two anthologies for your group. What about you? And I did. I made it. It's called come again, all right, but it's wonderful because it's writing, it's it's good writing. People in my group right now, when people say, you know, oh, you only write about sensual stuff, the people in my group right now, one has a murder mystery. Someone just got killed, and yet, it's an erotic move, an erotic book. Another one was a sci fi. You have, you can put erotica into a Western on the horse, but you can put erotica because it's sensual, and that's the difference. Okay,

Zandra Polard 17:04
yeah, good stuff. Yeah, you you really get into explaining this book and erotica, you do it so well. Thank you. And I think it's partially because you have a podcast yourself. Yes, okay, tell us about that.

Lauren Tallman 17:19
I was found by the Vegas voice. I got a call one day, and they said, and he said, Can you please come? He was the publisher, and I came in, said, Hi, and he said, I have this. They have the booklet that comes out every month, the magazine, and it's filled with everything, right? It's actually one of the largest, I think, even in the country, if not Nevada, for sure, for Nevada, okay, but I'm the he asked me if I could write a column about sex and seniors. And right away, of course, I said yes. And then I thought, why did I say that? You know? And I didn't move. My hands turned cold, and he goes, okay. He says, You know what, let's try this for three months, see if people today, I'm the most read column. I'm the most listened to podcast. Plus I won, I was awarded second place in America for the best column for seeing for senior magazines. Wow. And I got that coming out of the gate. Usually, I didn't know that. I thought people just get it. And people go, no, they said the first time you put in a column, and they accepted you. So this year has really been hopping. That has

Zandra Polard 18:30
been wonderful, yeah, and it's called, you're never too old to do it. Is that it seniors still do it? Oh, it's called, seniors still do it. Okay, okay, um,

Lauren Tallman 18:41
I know we're in the university right now, and I'm sure most of your listeners are from the university, right? No, no, oh, good, because I was gonna say something. Just because someone is younger, they shouldn't say ew to old people kissing. You know, I hate when they do that. Yeah, you know what? We don't see ourselves. We don't see that we are older. We don't see it. We don't look at our hands and our face, but we know what we feel, and that never goes away. That's right.

Zandra Polard 19:11
Well, I hope not. Oh no, okay,

Lauren Tallman 19:13
trust me. Take my word for it. In the beginning, I wouldn't put my my picture on anything on Facebook, and they said, every author puts their picture up. And I said, No, they're gonna say, Who's this old lady who's who's writing this stuff? And then I thought to myself, no, of course, we don't lose it. We don't lose it. If you're sitting together and you you to hold hands, it's erotic because it's sensual, it's more central. You touch each other, you talk with each other, you put your heads together, speaking of something, you smile together. It's sensual. It's not just fun, it's not just a necessity. It's actually sensual. When you're watching a movie and someone holds your hand, that's sensual. So I said to people, they do get to an age, not at my age, actually younger than me, they stop touching because, you know the kids the

Zandra Polard 20:11
house. Yeah, I know that part. I'm at that level. I'm trying to get kids out so that I can be more erotic in my home. Yes, you're

Lauren Tallman 20:22
going to have to wait. But the thing is, I said, Look, just when you sit together, kiss, kiss each other. When you pass each other, don't pass each other without touching. Nothing special. Touch the shoulder. Put a finger along the cheek and the neck touch. Don't lose the connection. It's terrible, because I have to say my first book was how to have an affair and not get caught.

Zandra Polard 20:48
Oh, my God, I saw that. What's the secret? Tell me

Lauren Tallman 20:52
the secret is shutting up. Okay,

Zandra Polard 20:55
don't say anything to nobody. It's true.

Lauren Tallman 20:58
It started out, it was supposed to be an article. And I thought, Okay. I thought, I'm gonna see if I can write an article. This was so long ago, and I thought I'm gonna be funny how to have an affair and not get caught. I don't know why I thought that, but okay, I'm sitting at the computer now, for an article, you need one. You need to focus on one point and keep going. And I remember this guy did that, and that woman did this, and he didn't come home early for my friend's house. I remember leaning out and I said to my husband, I think I have a book. I started doing research. That little book is research.

Zandra Polard 21:35
But wait, who's not getting caught? Is this like anyone? The woman or the man? Okay, both, because I don't think men are very good at it. Oh no, they stink. Yeah. I mean, to me, they're just so obvious. They

Lauren Tallman 21:46
can't do it. They can't do it. It's horrible how they can't do it. And it's a lot of reading. As small as the book is, you've got to know where to park, where to meet. No perfume, no aftershave. Yeah, that's a biggie, because also, women have a far sharper sense of smell than men. Okay? He'll smell somebody's aftershave. He's not going to think twice about he's going to think she got a new perfume. If he even thinks that, she immediately will go, That's not mine. It's all these different things. How to Act, not to speak to not to tell your brother sister, not your hairdresser, no one. That's the biggest problem. Never, ever telling because you don't.

Zandra Polard 22:27
Once you tell one, they're going to tell someone, there you go. Yep, it's

Lauren Tallman 22:32
keeping your home life together. And do we have a second? Oh, yeah, we still have time. I have a I have this very good friend who would come to me. This was a number of years ago. She knew I wrote the book. Now, the funny thing is, I see it when people come to me with that certain look, I think, Oh, God, don't tell me. Don't tell me. And they tell me they want to tell you they don't say something. But she came over really, with a problem, a young woman with children, a husband, she had everything. Oh, this, this woman was only to be envied, and she had an affair. No, her husband wouldn't sleep with her. No, I said, Did you go to a psychiatrist, psychologist, doctor? She said, we've done everything. No, I couldn't. It wasn't for me to say anything more about that. She said, What do I do? And I said, Look, here's my book. But past this, I don't want to know anything. I don't know what you're doing. What if you have a question? Please, you know, just say, just ask. But I don't want to know, but please follow the book.

Zandra Polard 23:31
I saw her get some love. Apparently

Lauren Tallman 23:36
she didn't. The next time I saw her, she looked gorgeous, radiant. And that's also a problem, don't look radiant. Oh, don't you guys. They shouldn't all of a sudden wear a tie when they never wore a tie before she suddenly gets her hair purple. No, you stay the same. Okay, you can have that. All this behind you. No one should know about it. What do people see up front is the same person, the same person laughs at a joke or thinks something stupid, it didn't like that movie. But what's happening behind the scenes only for that person?

Zandra Polard 24:08
Wouldn't that be hard to hide? Yes,

Lauren Tallman 24:11
I have people. Was like this woman, when I saw her, she goes, Listen. And I went, don't tell me, she said, so. She said, I just want to tell you, thank you. All right. I said, Okay. And she was still today with her family, with her. It didn't hurt the family. She had

Zandra Polard 24:27
a problem, and she fulfilled that need, yep,

Lauren Tallman 24:31
and it, oh, come on, who doesn't? Who doesn't need that? Everybody at every age needs that.

Zandra Polard 24:37
You know, I can't say because my son is in the studio. Oh,

Lauren Tallman 24:41
that's who you're looking at. My son. Go away.

Zandra Polard 24:45
Close your ears. Oh, yeah, we're talking erotica. Everyone right here with Lauren Tallman, give us some social media handles so that people can find the books.

Lauren Tallman 24:59
Yes. La. Lauren tallman.com, that's my site, and if they want to find out about my the writing group or something, lauren.talman@gmail.com

Zandra Polard 25:10
everything is Lauren Tallman, yep, that's

Lauren Tallman 25:12
my it's her. That's me. All right, that's my name.

Zandra Polard 25:15
Anything else you want our listeners to know before we

Lauren Tallman 25:18
let you go? Don't stop kissing

Zandra Polard 25:21
and don't stop touching.

Lauren Tallman 25:22
Oh yes, well, that sort of goes together. Okay,

Zandra Polard 25:25
all right, in passing, touch, kiss, we've learned a lot from you this morning. Thank you so much

Lauren Tallman 25:33
pleasure. This has been a pleasure. Yes, and

Zandra Polard 25:35
please come back. Oh, I will. Thank you. And if you missed any portion of this broadcast. You can find it on any major podcast platform, all right. So we will be back here next Saturday, 7:30am and for this occasion, let's listen to a little autumn leaves. You.