Fifty Shades Author E L James Has a New Book and Says There's Handcuffs—Maybe

From Oprah Magazine

• E L James is releasing The Mister, her first romance novel since she finished the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy in 2012.

• At an interview with Hearst Magazines on Monday, she admitted she's "quite nervous" because this book is different than Fifty-though it's got "handcuffs, maybe."

E L James has officially moved on from Fifty Shades of Grey. On April 17, the British author will release The Mister, her first novel since she published the last book in the Fifty Shades trilogy back in 2012.

This week, James stopped by the Hearst Tower, where OprahMag.com is headquartered, to talk about her new project. During a roundtable sit-down with editors from various Hearst Magazines brands including Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and, of course, O, James got candid about what it's like trying to follow-up a mega franchise.

James-born Erika Mitchell-has been reluctant to step into the spotlight since she unexpectedly became a best-selling author after her erotic fan fiction take on Twilight went viral and later became Fifty Shades back in 2011. But three books and Blockbuster movies and eight years later, James is releasing The Mister, a contemporary novel set in London centering on a British aristocrat who fall in loves with his house cleaner, a woman from Albania with a mysterious past. While largely a romance, The Mister manages to also touch on everything from classism and sexism to immigration and government.

"Fifty was just ridiculously successful, so I'm quite nervous about this book," James said. "It is different, a far more conventional love story. It's very daunting, especially when you have fans who say 'We want another Fifty Shades Freed but...I've been wanting to write this book since 2009, and this is where the muse has led me."

Though, as she says, it won't be the same as the trilogy that made her famous, but an E L James novel wouldn't be, well, an E L James novel without...sex. And plenty of it. After all, a former TV writer who once passed the time during her commute by reading romance novels is likely always going to get a little steamy in her work.

"There's no whips and chains," James says, comparing The Mister to Fifty Shades "but handcuffs maybe, so...spoiler alert."

Read more from our Hearst Tower chat, including the influence the royals had on this book-and why she may never do another movie again.

This is a book about a British aristocrat who falls in love with an outsider. Was any of that...
"The number of people who have asked me if this is inspired by Meghan and Harry...so many! But it's not. I had this idea a long, long time ago, so I guess it just so happens that it's sort of timely, it just so happened to have hit at this particular time. And now I've finally had some time to write it. But it's more inspired by...the British are fascinated by what we would call class...we live in a class-based society in the U.K. that money transcends, so this is more about that."

Did the #MeToo movement impact the sex writing that you do?
"It has actually. It's been odd, because after, I just wanted to make sure it was very, very clear that [Ana] says yes. Looking back on Fifty, all [of the sex] was consensual. But some people choose to not see it that way or haven't actually read the books or what have you. So it was very important for me to make sure in this book that it's very, very clear."

Are there plans for a movie about The Mister?
"There are talks but...it's very early on. I don't know that I would do another movie. It's very difficult to let go of control as a writer. I'm not sure if I want to do it again. We'll see. It's such a huge process, everybody has a bloody opinion so...it's odd."

How do you manage to come up with so many euphemisms for women's, um, naughty bits?
"I like language to be really plain and simple, I don't like synonyms...I think it turns many women off. It turns me off! So I just keep it simple. Call a vagina a vagina! It is actually a vulva...the vagina is actually a different part..."

Do you have other books in mind that you want to work on next?
"I have got a few couples-and one threesome!-that are arguing in my head about who's going to be next. But it's about getting the time to get it done. But I definitely think there could be another story coming from The Mister."

A lot of literary purists still turn their nose up to the romance genre. Do you think Fifty Shades has helped with that at all?
"I read a lot of historical romance novels in my thirties when I was traveling on the tube into London. I usually had to bend the cover back because it's usually a bloke with a woman with her clothes falling off, and I didn't want anyone to know what I was reading. Which was why Fifty Shades had a tie on it, because it was really, really anonymous and people wouldn't know what you were reading."

"I think anything that's centered around a female audience that has a female sensibility about it is derided...anything that's based on a women's fan base. I don't think that's going to change. But I will say that it's a huge, huge industry. It's not for everybody, but there's room in the market for both."

How do you deal with criticism? Have you been bullied?
"I think when you have a barrage of criticism coming at you, that's kind of difficult, especially when you've just written this thing for yourself. Especially now, when you have social media and you have everybody and his dog coming at you with an opinion, you're like well, it's done...I can't change it. That's been hard, it just makes your portion of the internet get smaller and smaller. But the mute button is fantastic."

What were the last books you read that you loved?
"Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry, which I read over Christmas and really enjoyed. But the last one I read that I really, really enjoyed was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine which I thought was a fantastic book. I was completely wrapped up in it...I love damaged people. They make really really interesting characters."

You talked about the need to fold back the cover of romance novels on the train, and I wondered if that was something you kept in mind with the cover of this novel...
"I'm very lucky to have a publisher that will indulge me in the covers. I actually designed the cover of The Mister and took the photograph. This is the scene the main character sees out of his window. It was important to me...we tried lots of different covers, covers are so important. We tried a girl at a piano-the heroine plays the piano-but an indie author had used a similar photograph. And then we came up with this!"

When you're working on a project like this, how do you keep track of all of your ideas?
"I have a huge Excel spreadsheet for each novel. I had one for Fifty that's huge. I keep track that way; if I have an idea, I will e-mail myself with the working title, because you can have an idea anywhere, and if I don't write it down, it's gone in seconds which is so annoying. I also have a thing of Post-it notes on my computer, so I'll write things in there. I'm not very organized. I spend a lot of time staring into space and noodling ideas. I love that bit, because I've always been a daydreamer. And that's kind of paid off, really."

You didn't write Fifty Shades of Grey to be a massive crazy best-seller. You remained quite elusive at first. How has it been adjusting to the more public life?
"I don't have a public life-I get wheeled out! It's funny, because when I first did this, I was worried with fan fiction that someone is going to copy all of my ideas, which would be heartbreaking, because I spent two years working and writing that. I completely ignored my two children-but it's okay because they were teenage boys so they were also ignoring me. They're 24 and 22 now...so anyway, I decided to give myself a pen name, because I used to work in television and I always thought I would carry on working in television. And then I had a reporter show up at my front door asking if I was E L James, and I looked at him and thought 'Does your mother know you're out? You're so young!' but I said yes and then shut the door...and it was weird."

"I always thought I'd carry on working in telly, but it all went crazy. And even now, I've spoken about this a little bit, but as a middle aged overweight woman, I can be invisible. I can walk through the airport and no one knows who I am, and I love that. I'm very happy to be anonymous, it's like this all happened to someone else named
E L James."

We're all very proud of you for putting books out there that a lot of women needed.
"We all need an escape, especially now. The world is just grim, both here and in the U.K. as well. So I think at the end of the day, we all just need an escape."

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