Sam Clover

---

The SinfulWolf is a rare talent in the online horror world. I’ve honestly not read anything like the delectable mix of horror and erotica she weaves with queer fiction. We met a few years ago on an online fiction archive, in the comment/review sections, and slowly but surely she became one of the best friends I’ve ever made.

And I honestly think the world needs to know about this one, and the handful of people who stumble over this blog seem like a good start to me. Y’all are gorgeous.

Now, Onward to the Interview!

So! Hi darling. Let’s start off with an easy one. Well, they’ll probably all be easy, but I needed words to say. How would you describe your writing?

If in a few words, dark, bloody, and sexy. In more words, I tend to write very graphically, whether that be for sexual scenarios, or violent ones. I’ve always kinda viewed how I write as myself being a camera trying to capture the action of what’s happening. But I also try to inject a lot of tension in the moments, however that tension might present itself.

As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never shied away from explicit depictions of sex. Is that level of comfort something you had to develop in your adult life, or was there a time when you struggled with writing erotica?

Sexuality has been a large part of who I am since I’ve become an adult. More so after I was 20 and came back from Afghanistan. So in my writing I wanted to reflect that portion of myself, and the explicitness of it often mirrored my fantasies, but also my casual approach to sex. It’s also something I’ve been more forward with under my online alias (Sinfulwolf), as I have no ties to my offline life with it. So I’ve been able to just… put it all out there.

I remember seeing an interview with Ridley Scott, and why he doesn’t do much sex in his films, and that’s because he thinks sex is boring. I love the man’s work, but I couldn’t disagree more. Sex is exhilarating, it’s fun, and I find putting out the explicit content instead of being subtle about it just triggers the happy parts of my brain. And hopefully anyone who reads my stuff. I’ve also found the explicit sex went really well with the explicit violence I write, as… well, that’s how people fuck. It grounds my work… unless I’m writing tentacles and monsters. Then it’s just for pure fun.

How does your experience in the military and with being in active conflict as a soldier in Afghanistan still influence your writing today?

This is where the dark and violent portion of my writing comes into play. I use writing as a vent to kind of, pour some of my darker thoughts and “spicy memories” out of my head and onto a page. When I write contemporary, I often include some kind of soldier like character and I can let my experiences colour that person’s background and skill sets. But it also lets me get into some details of how they move or fight that helps sell the story I’m writing. When I write violence as well, I… really don’t like PG styled fighting. I think this is because I’ve seen the consequences of combat and warfare and fighting. I always try to show the physical ramifications of what happens when two characters are locked in a struggle against one another to stay alive.

Even with fantasy and my stories set in the past, I still focus heavily on warriors and soldiers, even with smutty stories, because I think it’s an avenue that’s not often explored in erotica. And having heard the rumour mills, and experienced my own sexual meets in an active warzone, I can show there’s a lot more to being a soldier or warrior than just fighting. It’s still about being human in some very fucked up situations.

Well said. Of course, I’ve read horror erotica before, but your brand of it is entirely unique, at least to me. What were your outside influences media-wise?

I’ve had a few. I think it goes back to sneaking into my father’s room to steal horror books. F. Paul Wilson was one of my earlier influences. The Keep especially which went outside the usual slasher route where nubile young girls were punished for having sex or being sexual. In that, an Immortal guardian got into a torrid affair with one of the local women, and neither was punished for having sex.

As I got older, into my 20s I started drawing from a few other places. The succubi in the original Diablo game sparked my obsession with them. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (or Hellbound Heart) really showed how dark one could get with erotic horror content. I also drank in a lot of visuals from H.R. Giger, and Luis Royo who often did erotic art with a darker edge to it all. Even Castlevania had its succubus boss that I always felt should have gotten way more attention. Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Dracula as well, showed how well the erotic and horror could mix.

Would you say those books are your favourites still? The Keep by F. Paul Wilson and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (assuming we talking about the book version)? Or are there new books on your list now?

I actually have far fonder memories of Nightworld by F. Paul Wilson over the Keep. But these days I’ve dived hard into fantasy, and I’d say the Of Blood and Bone trilogy by John Gwynne, and the Long War series by A.J. Smith are at the tops. The Long War especially had a lot of sexual cults, lovecraftian horror, as well as a take on Elves that I really enjoyed.

Tanya Huff is an author I always turn back to as well, especially her military sci-fi. She was a Canadian NCO in the Navy and was really tired of all the sci-fi books she was reading being a male officer being the hero. So she made a female NCO lead character and I’ve been in love since.

Violet Malan as well, partially cause she’s just such a lovely woman. Evie Manieri as well with her Shattered Kingdoms series, and the star of the series being The Mongrel (who’s also inspired some of my own characters).

You feature a lot of strong queer women in your writing. Did you do that from the start, or how did that begin?

Right from the start for that one. Just something I’ve always enjoyed doing. Partially cause I’m queer and a woman, but mostly I also just really enjoy those kinds of characters.

What do you hope readers get out of your stories?

Entertainment of some form first and foremost. Whether that be excitement from the action, thrills from the horror, titillation from the sex, I want folks to be entertained, and enjoy themselves.

I know you’re a lover of history. What period and place do you get the urge to write in the most?

Either late Antiquity with the Romans, or the “Viking Age” in Britannia. I have had the most ideas for the later, and I always just have a lot of fun diving into the research to get the little things right, and accurate, even as I twist things to better tell my story (lot more powerful women for example). But even with all them shield maidens and witches in the Emerald Isle and lands of mist, I still get the craving to go back to my Amazon Rome alternate history setting.

Would you tell us about that alternate history setting?

So, I’ve always been fascinated with ancient Rome, but also the Greek myths of the Amazons (myths that were based upon the real life Scythian people). Now Rome was heavily patriarchal, so I was wondering how I could write one of my types of stories in Rome (with the focus on a queer woman who is a soldier/warrior). So I came up with the idea of combining my fascination with Amazons, with Rome. Hence, Amazon Rome.

Overall, in the setting I have tried to keep a fair bit of Roman culture, politics, technology, and so forth intact, but just gave it a strong feminist twist. This has led to me having to come up with different naming conventions for my characters (Roman women didn’t have a first name. They had their family name and clan name), and I used ancient Greek feminine names to show that Hellenic influence.

I also gave them a far more open view on queer sexuality. I also got to do a lot of deep delving into Roman religion and played around with their Gods a bit. Juno is more important than Jupiter in this setting, being the head of their pantheon. Minerva is the Goddess the soldiers all pray to, instead of Mars. It’s also been really fun coming up with different festivals and the like for this historically inspired culture.

Overall, it’s a setting that embraces the debauchery of the Roman Empire for some beautiful sex scenes, but also just a setting where I can get a woman dressed in a Lorica Segmentatum (armour of the Roman Empire) and be a badass with some large pitched battles one would expect from movies like Gladiator.

You play around with religion a lot, both in your historical pieces and your more contemporary ones. Themes of corruption are not only prevalent but celebrated in your writing. What is it about religion and corruption, do you think, that’s so damn sexy?

Delicious corruption.

I’ve certainly been fairly critical of organized religion in my writing as a whole, but I think my celebration of corruption and that theme is that it’s freeing in a way. Freedom from an almost strangling sense of morality. It also speaks to the darker hearts in folks, I think. They enjoy exploring that darkness, the depravity that the erotic form of corruption brings, in a safe manner. It’s like how many people get drawn to a villain of a story. There is something inherently sexy about the dark side of the world. It seduces with sweet whispers and promises of much more.

And the more pure the character, the sexier that corruption is for people. To see the dark beating heart within them hidden away from the world. For me, seeing a nun fall to natural instincts that she’s been told is unnatural her whole life, makes her feel more powerful.

Speaking of sexy and corruption, I couldn’t conduct this interview without asking about one of the awesome things we have in common: a love for monsters. What was your favourite monster to create and write?

Ha! My knee jerk response is always succubus, but that feels like a cop out answer.

While not quite a monster, the Devil Asmodeus in Blood and Lace might be my favourite. He’s only seen in Hell, and it’s mostly a floating swarm of tentacles, above a vast landscape of flesh and partial bodies locked in eternal ecstasy, with blazing eyes. It was really fun to write the scene, injecting a lot of eroticism to the moment, but a lot of horror as well for the main character who ended up in his clutches. He was presented as this impossibly powerful being, that couldn’t be stopped by any means we know of, was incredibly smart, but also drew out the lusts and desires of those he interacted with. It was a really fun scene, and I’d like to play around more with him in the future. But, we shall see.

Basically… for me, I gotta give my beasts tentacles. It’s a throwback to my original days of smut, where I was in a hentai artist’s fan site (ULMF it was called. The Unofficial Line Marvel Forum). Will I top Asmodeus? Possibly. But… damn, it was sexy.

Jesus Christ, it certainly sounds it. What other fun horrific stuff have you explored in Blood and Lace? And what is the story about?

Blood and Lace was, amusing, originally just going to be a way to explore different sexual moments through an urban fantasy lens. But by chapter 2, I took it in a completely different direction. A far darker, more horror oriented direction.

The story is the tale of 4 soldiers who return from Hell (literally, they got out of Hell after a portal to Earth opened up), but all are under going changes into succubi (Or Succubae as I say in the story). As they are trying to deal with what they’ve become, a powerful demon is trying to overthrow the Devils of Hell and take power for himself, and that involves taking souls from Earth. So these 4 succubae (well, to be fair one’s an incubus) now have to stand against this evil and fight back, even as the world doesn’t trust them.

As for horrific stuff in that story… I’ve done some really graphic possessions. Lost souls forcing their way into a body that breaks the jaw sometimes. The person is fully aware of what’s happening, but can’t stop it. They can feel all their own agony, but the souls relish the pain and misery that is caused to them, and that they cause.

There’s also been mind control, shadowy soul sucking demons, tentacled monstrosities (with big cocks cause… this is still a smutty story somewhere in there), undead creatures created from unholy sexual pairings that often leave their insides as goop. I’ve tried to push into the obscene sometimes with that story to really sell the ‘Hell’ aspect of the horror. But there’s still lots of other sexual scenes as well that don’t delve into the horror elements.

Who’s the main character?

There’s four protagonists, and I brought in some military flavour for them all. So tried to make them all different backgrounds, and trades. So Kris is a Canadian infantry soldier of Ukrainian descent. Rasha is a British medic who immigrated from Afghanistan very young in life. Mia is a Spanish engineer whose family was originally from Mexico, and Derek is an American military police officer, whose Grandparents fled Ethiopia just before the Italian invasion in the 1930’s. (Ugh. 8 years from now and saying 30’s will make people think the present day)

I’ve been trying to show them all adapting and reacting to their personal situation (transforming into a succubus (incubus in Derek’s case)) in different ways. Kris is becoming colder, more vicious. Rasha has fallen into addictions via substance abuse and sex. Having four protagonists, on top of various other side characters, has been a challenge to make them all feel distinct. For me personally.

Do you have a favourite side character?

I was having a lot of fun with the Sheriff, Michael. A closeted gay man in a small town, who falls for Derek and lets himself embrace who he is. But he’s still determined, proud, and capable.

Okay! To wrap this up, could you tell us about some of your other projects? What are you working on? What have you completed?

My biggest project at the moment is a fantasy tale called Whispers Nocturna, where a human princess is rescued from zombies by a dark Elven warrior. As the two set off on a journey to find their families, while fighting off a Necromancer cult in the midst of a civil war, they start to fall for each other… even as their world burns. It’s been really really fun to write, and toy around with my own version of elves, and it’s been a return to my favoured genre of fantasy… which a good couple dashes of horror throughout.

I also have a Warhammer 40k fanfic that I’ve been releasing chapter by chapter, following the Sisters of Battle as their planet is invaded by demonic foes.

And lastly, another Morrigan’s Wolf story. A romantic adventure between an Irish warrior witch and a valkyrie of Norse myth. I’m playing around with a lot of Arthurian legend, Irish and Nordic myth, and historical setting.

As for completed projects, there’ve been a few. But I think my favourite two are Pressed Violet and Heretic. Pressed Violet was the first of my Morrigan’s Wolf stories, and follows a wounded Rionna (the Irish witch) being taken in by a Saxon healer who is suffering from past trauma, while a cult of Christian zealots hunts down the witch leading to violent showdown. I think the best review I got for it said I owed the reader a new shirt because they were crying so hard at the end. I felt I actually got a big emotional impact out of the entire thing.

Heretic is a historical horror tale, where a warrior nun is sent to an isolated convent in the Black Forest due to suspicions of demonic activity. Once there she discovers a great evil in the woods, and another sinister force within the convent itself corrupting the faith of the nuns. I felt I got the horror really good here, and it really was grotesque. One reader had to walk away from horror a bit after because it unsettled him so badly. I wear that one with pride.

An Excerpt from SinfulWolf’s story “Pressed Violet”.

“I’m not here to replace her,” Riona said, and Aedwen felt the flow of tears as she wrapped her arms around Riona.

The woman who caused her guilt, and such comfort at the same time.

Strong arms encircled her, pulled her close, a hand ran soothingly along her back. Aedwen let herself cry, feeling safe, accepted, for the first time since Mildreth was murdered. As her tears streamed along Riona’s skin, the witch began to hum softly.

Then she began to sing along with the tune that slipped away into the Gaelic verses that swelled into the hut. Aedwen couldn’t understand it, but she felt the sorrow in each word. Grief that slowly broke and cracked to give way to hope.

As the last words of the song died away, Aedwen found her tears had stopped. She pulled away from Riona, wiping at her eyes.

“Sorry,” Aedwen said.

“You have nothing to be sorry of. For a healer, you really are shite at letting yourself heal,” Riona said, and Aedwen looked at her, finding the Irish woman laying back with arms crossed under her head, and her red mane spread across the pillow. Her breasts rose and fell with each steady breath, a display of temptation to Aedwen’s lips.

Aedwen had to admit, she really did enjoy that view.

“Perhaps. But others I’m good at. So let me check your bandages,” she said as she got off the bed and moved towards her cupboard. She felt Riona’s eyes upon her, and God damn it, Aedwen liked it. She smiled, despite herself, and shook her head as she opened the cupboard. Pulling the jar she kept her poultice in, along with some fresh bandages, Aedwen soon made her way back to the smiling Riona.

Pressed Violet, by SinfulWolf. https://archiveofourown.org/works/28859739/chapters/70794537

---

You can find the SinfulWolf on Twitter! @theSinfulwolf

And on the archives where she posts these horrific, depraved treats:

Heretic
Archiveofourown
HentaiFoundr
Literotica

Pressed Violet
Archiveofourown
HentaiFoundry
Literotica

A Private Triumph
(An Alternate History Amazonian Rome Story)
Archiveofourown
HentaiFoundry
Literotica

The Handmaiden’s Contract
Archiveofourown
HentaiFoundry
Literotica

Here’s some gorgeous art she’s had commissioned of her characters!