Hi y'all,Something happened today out there in cyber-space which made me profoundly grateful and profoundly uneasy at the same time.
You see, when I first started writing, I told myself I wasn't writing romance. I was writing epic fantasy. The happy-ever-after didn't happen until the final book in the trilogy. That's not romance, right? Turned out I was wrong. I was sooo writing romance! But I didn't find that out until I joined Romance Writers of New Zealand. And even then, it took me a while to accept that I was truly a romance writer.
I'm ashamed to say, it took me even longer to feel comfortable with telling people that I wrote romance. And longer still, to own it, and not feel like I had something to hide, or that I needed to justify writing what I loved. And, as any "reformed" anybody is wont to do, I've embraced being a romance writer, and will vehemently defend those who denigrate romance writers of any genre. I'm not published in category romance, but boy, will I wade in an defend the skill and brilliance of category authors if anyone dares to denigrate the genre. Anyone who espouses crap about it being formulaic had better hope they don't do it in my hearing, is all I can say.
Now erotic romance. That's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I'm sick to death of being introduced as "Hey, this is Maree. She writes porn." by people who haven't even read my books. Sheesh. Go read one, already. Afterward, click on my blog post about Porn vs Erotica vs Erotic Romance and actually read some definitions. Then come back to me, and we'll have an adult debate about what exactly it is that I'm writing.
None of this, of course, makes me feel particularly inclined to straight out announce what genre I'm published in when people ask me about my books. I usually just say I write paranormal romance. Of course, there's always the situations where I'm prepared to take a risk and come clean.... And wait for the reaction. And hope it's a "balanced" one.
Speaking of balanced reactions. Some of you may know that I write erotic romance under my own name. It just happened that way. And luckily for me, I've never suffered any fallout, even when I've been interviewed in the local newspapers. In fact, when my kids were at primary school, their teachers inevitably found out that I was an author. Two of them were interested enough to bail me up and ask me all sorts of questions, including the killer: where they could buy my book. Oh noes. It was gonna be kinda obvious when I directed them to the Red Sage Publishing website and they copped a look at the website banner, which at that stage was something like, Red Sage Publishing, the leader in women's erotic romance.
What to do? I mean, these are my kids' teachers--what will they think? How will they judge me?
Turned out I had nothing to fear. They were awesome. They even asked for signed bookmarks, LOL.
Okay, so I kinda figured that it was no big deal that I was writing e-rom under my own name. So what, right?
Until today. When I read today's post on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog. It's subject is an erotic romance author, writing under a pen-name, and who just happens to be a teacher (and a pretty awesome one, too, according to her students who've come out in support of her) who has been "outted" by the parent of one of her students. Turns out this parent had figured out who the pen-name belonged to, and her subsequent actions started a chain of events that lead to the worst kind of scaremongering and a pretty disgusting example of salacious journalism -- actually, scratch that. It's an insult to journalists who value their work ethic to even call it journalism.
This woman, who has every right to be a teacher, and write whatever the heck she wants in the privacy of her own home (OK, so long as she doesn't bring it to work and read it to her kids, and she's not done anything of that kind), has been called a pedophile. These people, who've never even read an erotic romance, and wouldn't know one if it bit them on their butts, are saying she's unfit to teach their children, and they want her school to fire her.
Good. Grief. Take a step back, and take a good hard look at yourselves in the mirror, people. As another author said on the Facebook page that has been set up in support of this author, "What next? Will women who write erotic romance be declared unfit mothers?"
I'm afraid I couldn't laugh at that because it hits too close to home.
Ignorance is not always bliss. But unfortunately, it seems that the ignorant often have a very very loud voice and hang round like bad smells.
So what to do? Well, aside from supporting this author on the Facebook page, next time someone gives you, or someone you know, a hard time (unintended pun alert *g* ) about writing "porn" ask for their email address. And buy them their very own erotic romance eBook. At the very least, they'll be educated as to what they're missing out on. And who knows, maybe they'll think twice before they toss off some offensive comment. It's a start.
Finally, I have this to say:
1) I write erotic romance, and damn, I'm proud of it!
2) To my kids' primary school teachers--you know who you are!--thank you for making me feel proud of my achievements. After today's debacle, I'm more grateful to you that I can say.
3) If there's any justice in the world, this author will go on to sell a shitfuckton of books.
(And I hope someone sends a few copies to the parents who are calling for her to be fired. Because if anyone needs educating, it's not the students, it's them.)
Cheers
Maree Anderson
(Writing as Maree Anderson)
14 comments:
I'm proud of everyone who writes erotic romance too!! I'm not ashamed to read it :D And this controversy REALLY made me mad!
Hear hear, Trisha! I'm spitting tacks. I just can't believe that this sort of thing could happen in this day and age. As one of the FaceBook commenters said, it's apparently fine for our kids to listen to, and watch, music videos alluding not-so-subtly to S&M and other "adult" content. But a high-school teacher's apparently not allowed to write racy novels under a pen-name in her spare time. Puhlease. Grrrrr!
If there's any justice in the world, this author will go on to sell a shitfuckton of books.
Hoo-yah! having read a little about this idiocy, I sincerely hope Judy makes a motza! That said it all, Maree.
It wouldn't surprise me if she sold more books this week than in her entire career up to now. I bought two myself - one for a gift basket and one for me.
I just hope the school board doesn't try anything stupid like firing her. I'd rather buy her books than contribute to her legal defense fund.
Great post! I also hope she sells a ton of books. I know I bought my first copy of her work last night :)
Spot on, Maree. Like so many others, this controversy drove me to introduce myself to Ms. Mays' work. I hope she gets to laugh all the way to the bank.
The lengths the accuser went to to stalk this woman's private and fictitious identity are the truly frightening part. I can't help but wonder what sort of petty vendetta the accuser was harboring when she went to such extreme measures to ferret out Judy's pen name.
Maybe someone should look into HER background.
Yeah, that's really rather creepy how they felt it was okay to dig that deep into her personal life. She was even writing under a pen name.
Now, I write under a pen name. But it's not because I'm ashamed of what I write or I care what people think. When I was 12, my mother said I had to have a suitably romance novelly pen name and Saranna DeWylde is what I came up with.
But everyone knows what I write and I'm proud of what I write and I'm proud of you and all the ladies here on the blog. Really, anyone who pursues their dreams. And we're living it.
Well said, ladies! Not that I'm at all surprised. Because, yanno, we are all most definitely intelligent life-forms capable of forming balanced opinions, and letting the majority of people do their own thing provided they do no harm... unlike certain parents featured in this biased news report.
I wonder how many copies of Judy's books have been sent to certain parents in the hopes they might learn a little tolerance? After all, it would be easy to find out their personal details since they were so eager to be named by the media *evil grin*
It's shameful that the parents are fearmongering to their kids and any idiot who will listen. Congrats for being proud to call yourself an Erotic Romance author. I applaud you!!!
On behalf of e-rom authors everywhere, thank you, Stacie!
Muwah!!
Wow - have I been out of the loop or what!! - Since when do porn (sorry) romantica authors need to defend their day jobs...oh, yeah, since forever. In fact, I think Jane Austin had to defend herself from the 'titillation' tag, didn't she? We travel through the centuries and nothing changes - very sad people have very sad hangups and the rest of us wear it. Thanks for the facebook link, Maree - I've liked it :)
It sucks the big kumara, eh, Tyree. Thanks for stopping by and showing your support! Hugs!!!
As an author that's just about to dip her toe in the erotic romance waters, this alarms me. I would hate to suffer a backlash from close-minded people simply because of what I write.
Kaylea, I think this debacle is another good reason for people to be careful of what information they make available on the public domain. Mind you, if a person is determined enough, they'll track you down regardless of how carefully you guard your privacy. I don't think there's a right way to go about this. People will always take offense -- it's the nature of the human beast. Scary, but true.
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