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Lynda Koolish
Zane (1967– )
A writer, novelist, publisher, Web site manager,
businesswoman, and bookseller, Zane is the au-
thor of many of today’s best-selling erotica nov-
els. Given the raw sexual content of her work,
Zane, married with children and the daughter of
a schoolteacher and preacher, uses only her pseud-
onym and refuses to be photographed in order to
protect the privacy of her family. Bored by her life
as a salesperson working throughout North Caro-
lina as well as by the book she was reading, Zane
began writing erotica one night in her hotel. She
sent the product to a friend, who began circulating
the story like a chain letter. This eventually led the
business-savvy Zane to set up her own Web site,
where she published her creative work and corre-
sponded with thousands of fans, mostly women,
who enjoyed Zane’s candid, simple, and realistic
treatment of sex.
In 2000 Zane, who still manages her own Web
site, Eroticanoir.com, which gets more than 1 mil-
lion hits a year, inaugurated her official self-pub-
lishing business and company, Strebor Books,
releasing her first collection of erotica short sto-
ries, The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth, in
which she sets out to debunk the myth that men
are more sexual in nature than women and that
women are sexually inhibited. Featuring female
protagonists and characters who run the gamut
from housewives to sorority girls, Zane divides the
stories into three sections—“Wild,” “Wilder,” and
“Off Da Damn Hook”—to present and support
her premise and argument. In 2002 Zane followed
her first collection of stories with a second, Getting
Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles 2, Vol. 2. (2003) Together
the books sold more than 250,000 copies by word
of mouth alone.
Also published by Strebor Books, Addicted
(2001), Zane’s first novel, is typical of the genre—
popularized by such writers as TERRY MCMILLAN
(Waiting to Exhale), BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL (Yo u r
Blues Aint Like Mine), and rapper-turned-novelist
SISTER SOULJAH (The Coldest Winter Ever)—that
she has helped redefine: “fictional works in which
middle-class African American women work
hard and play even harder, asserting both finan-
cial and sexual independence as they negotiate
hectic jobs and frantic love lives” (Younge). Zoe
Reynard, Addicted’s heroine, is a successful busi-
nesswoman with a loving and equally successful
husband, three children, and a loving, protecting
mother. On the surface Zoe’s life seems ideal, but
as the story continues the deep restraints and tor-
ments she confronts internally are revealed. She
comes to believe she is addicted to sex, after tak-
ing on three extramarital affairs and dealing with
her husband’s lack of sexual openness. Zoe turns
to a professional therapist when she begins to feel
her life crumbling beneath her. During their pri-
vate sessions, Zoe learns that she has concealed
deeply hidden secrets about her childhood, in-
cluding being raped. At issue as well is the fact
that her husband’s mother had been a prostitute.
Zoe’s infidelity comes back to haunt her and in-
terfere in her professional, domestic life as well as
endanger her safety. In addition to her two col-
lections of stories and Addicted, Zane’s New York
Times best sellers include Skyscraper (2003), Ner-
vous (2004), Shame on It All (2001), and The Heat
Seekers (2003).
Zane’s stories explode with sexual liberation
and indulgence in sensual appetites. Her charac-
ters and stories are well developed with intricate
plots and twists. She hurries to dispel the criticism
that her work is merely pornography. “Porn is just
straight sex,” she has said. “My books have a story.Zane 579