Early career as a singer-songwriter

Lewis studied recording and audio engineering in New York City, after moving there from her home town of Columbus, Ohio in 1980. She worked in New York City as a singer-songwriter under the name Marilyn Jaye, and later under her married name, Marilyn Jaye Lewis, until 1994.

Writing and editing career

Lewis began writing erotica in the 1980s. Her first erotic stories were published in the early 1990s in queer zines such as Bad Attitude and Frighten the Horses [1], and in anthologies of queer and women's erotica. While continuing to write mostly queer-oriented fiction, she worked in 1996-97 as head writer for Dada House. While at Dada House, Lewis helped create RomAntics, a bisexual CD-ROM game that won the AVN award in January 1998 for Best Interactive CD-ROM - game. Entertainment Weekly singled out Dada House's erotic fiction series as the "best Web soap opera" in its roundup of "the 30 most beautiful and entertaining websites in the world".

In 1997, Lewis also produced a website, Other Rooms, featuring the work of other erotica writers. In 1998, Lewis launched a second erotica website, Marilyn's Room, which featured stories and interviews focusing on the art and literature end of the erotic spectrum, designed to appeal primarily to a female reader and listener base.

Lewis' first book, Neptune and Surf, a collection of three erotic novellas, was published by Masquerade Books in 1999. In 2001, she won the London-based Erotic Awards in the Writer category.

She went on to write several erotic romance novels as well as a collection of her short stories, Lust: Bisexual Erotica (Alyson Publications, 2004), and edited anthologies of erotic fiction, memoir, photography, and Yaoi. Lewis' own work has been translated into French, Italian, and Japanese .

Authored

Fiction collections

• Neptune and Surf, Masquerade Books, 1999, ISBN 1584190019
• Lust: Bisexual Erotica, Alyson Publications, 2004, ISBN 1555838162

Erotic romance novels

• When Hearts Collide: An Erotic Romance, Magic Carpet Books, 2003, ISBN 097263391X
• In the Secret Hours, Magic Carpet Books, 2003, ISBN 0972633944
• When the Night Stood Still: An Erotic Romance, Magic Carpet Books, 2004, ISBN 0972633979

Edited

Anthologies of erotic short fiction or novellas

• That's Amore!: Four Novellas of Erotic Romance, Magic Carpet Books, 2004, ISBN 0972633995
• Hot Women's Erotica, Running Press, 2005, ISBN 1562014765
• Stirring Up a Storm: Tales of the Sensual, the Sexual, and the Erotic, Running Press, 2005, ISBN 156025727X

Anthologies of erotic photography

• The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotica, co-edited with Maxim Jakubowski, Running Press, 2002, ISBN 0786709219
• The Mammoth Book of Erotic Photography, co-edited with Maxim Jakubowski, Edition Olms, 2004, ISBN 3283004315

Other

• Zowie! It's Yaoi!: Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys' Love, Running Press, 2006, ISBN 1560259108
• Entangled Lives: Memoirs of 7 Top Erotica Writers, Alyson Publications, 2007, ISBN 1555839983