Two sides of me – Musings from an erotica writer
I’m going to a adult only dance at my kids’ school tonight. The parents of our little school enjoy getting together for a drink (or several) and our dancing takes over the gym stage. From those I haven’t seen on the playground in a while, I’m sure there will be questions about my writing (I hope there will be!!!) and I’ll happily tell them that my book The Secret Life of Charlotte Dodd will be released next week.
I probably won’t mention Touch.
And this drives me crazy! Why shouldn’t I take the opportunity to tell everyone I have a new erotic romance novel out, that it’s about a woman who falls for a man and his wife and it has a pretty good girl-on-girl scene at the end? I could tell them it’s the first of a series, that the next book will be out in March. I could go on about how it’s different from my Husbands and Wives books in that Making Friends et all were about a neighbourhood of swingers and Touch is only about a couple and their unicorn. Maybe they’d ask what a unicorn is.
It’s not that my kids go to an ultra-conservative school. Heck, I’m sure I’d garner quite a following if it got out what I write about. And it’s not that I keep it a secret. Close friends at the school know what I write but the reactions I get vary from wide-eyed shock (usually from the women) to hubby getting a slap on the shoulder and a heh-heh-heh (from the men). This isn’t a joke to me. It’s my livelihood.
It seems that these people see me as Holly – community mother, volunteer, nice, friendly, helpful. Writer of books that their children shouldn’t read because of bad words and adult situations.
No one wants to acknowledge that I’m also Anna – full of dirty thoughts and a great imagination who writes books full of sex and adults having sex with people other than their partners. I’m not sure they’d know what to do with me! Would they censor their words and stories in case I’d use them one of my books?
Mwah-ha-ha! Great idea!
To other writers of erotica – how do you deal with this? What are reactions you get when people find out what you write? Do you it a secret from friends and family? Do they read your books?
I let my sister read one of my books once and she hasn’t be able to look at me the same since!
And since I won’t be discussing my new book with anyone, you can bet that I’ll be busy observing everyone and wondering what their dirty little secrets are. Because everyone has one.
Anna Ellis 