Current Project:Agent Daddy
Status: page 232
Pre judge. That's what prejudice means.
A couple of weeks ago when Lisa blogged about a pen name for her romance career to keep her own name separate for her career in academia, I have to admit I thought it might be over reacting. The days of bias against romance are over, aren't they? Who worries about stuff like this anymore?
Well, the days of prejudice are not over. I found that out around a friendly campfire when a nurse I'd never met before asked who I wrote for and I told her Harlequin Intrigue. I said it with pride. I love writing the books I now write and I'm proud of the company I sell to. They have treated me very well through the years and the editors I have gotten to know are wonderful, dedicated people.
The nurse rolled her eyes. "Wow!" I said. "You just rolled your eyes. Why?"
With a smirk, she informed me she's never read that kind of book. I asked her what that kind of book meant. "You know," she said and followed it up with, "So, how many books do you have to punch out in a year?"
"You're on a roll aren't you?" I said, adding I didn't have to "punch out" any books in a year, but most years I wrote two or maybe three. Frankly, I was just incredulous she was pushing things this way. She asked another snotty question and I asked her if she wanted to know my secret formula for making each book like the other. When she eagerly agreed and I admitted there was none, she finally dropped it.
This came on the heels of a comment made by a male friend about how he could help me meet my deadline and then launched into a vivid oral rendition of a scene that involved a guy's hand down a woman's blouse, etc... The people standing around in ear shot all laughed. He looked stunned when I mentioned the bruised and broken condition of my h/h and the two murdering thugs out to get them.
These people were both nice people with good careers and better than average educations and yet their view of the most popular genre in the country is mired in decades old prejudice. How would they have liked me making fun of their careers in front of others? Why did they think it was appropriate to make fun of mine?
Mostly when I say I'm a writer and I work for Harlequin I get positive reactions and I won't take those for granted anymore. So, I'm curious. When's the last time (if ever) you ran up against someone knowing all about what you write without ever having read a single word? How do you handle it?
8 comments:
Wow! What lame brains you ran into last weekend!
I'm finding it hard to come up with anything since I sold four books- one each of my historicals to a historical society in Owyhee County Idaho yesterday. I went in to gather research for my next project and after I read through their reference books and purchased three of their books, I nonchalantly handed her a business card with the cover of Miner in Petticoats on it. She asked about my books and if I had any with me. I always carry three copies of each in a bag in my car. I took them in, she read the back covers and bought them, saying if they looked like something she could sell in the museum she'd e-mail and buy more.
However, I have had some people ignore me when I say I write romance or change the subject. Being one who shuns confrontation, I just drop the subject. then I have others who say they could never write a paragraph let alone a whole book.
I'm sure if I get out in the world more ( I tend to hang out with writers) I'll come across the skeptical majority who roll their eyes and bad mouth my genre. But you know what? For every one of those a hundred others love what we write!
Oh, and she wants a copy of the one I was researching when it gets published.
I'm speechless. Whoa. That's just rude. I never talk about my writing to anyone but writers to avoid this very thing. But there's prejudice between writers of other genres, too.
I don't write romance, but even so, imagine the looks I get when I say I write steampunk urban fantasy. Yeah, deer in the headlights. So I don't bother.
That's terrible!!!! Oh man... With the whole pen name thing, that was part of my concern. Academia is still quite a man's world, unfortunately. But also, I feel like a pen name gives me freedom. If I decide to take a personal day to go to a book signing a state away, I have more of a choice to say whether or not that's what I'm doing, if I'm writing under a different name. Plus, the whole teaching students thing. I think it's good to keep that separate. I think it's hard enough to earn the respect of a student, and I think most students would have a bias toward romance. For whatever stupid reason. And I don't want a student analyzing sex scenes I write and wondering how my sex life is. For all these reasons and more, I think a pen name would work for me. I can't believe what you went through!!! That's just insane. It's a double edged sword for romance writers. We want to be proud of what we do, but people keep knocking it down.
I get teased by my inlaws, giving me sex scene ideas because that's what they think is in them. But they don't mean it poorly, they just like to tease me :) If I sold a book, I know they would be the first in line to buy it, the first in line at a book signing, and brag about it to all their friends. So I can shrug off their teasing. But I haven't run into a lot of strangers being negative about it. I guess that's because I don't talk about it a lot since I haven't finished a book! haha!
Been reading my book today to see if it hangs together before I figure out how to do the ending. I'm not entirely sure what the answer is. Ack!
Meanwhile, thank you everyone for responding.
Paty, you're right, the majority of people are interested in knowing about writing and are supportive and very flattering. This whole experience just seemed so outdated to me, so yesterday's news. I thought everybody had gotten over it. Wrong! And like you, my favorite people to hang out with are other writers.
"... imagine the looks I get when I say I write steampunk urban fantasy." Karen, that's just hilarious. But I bet you get looks of abject worship from some and respect from others (I like the way it all sounds strung together that way). I almost always say I write mysteries because that's what I feel in my heart I do write, but I write them with a romance, so that's a truth, too.
You know, most these people probably love a nice love story in a movie. They just weren't thinking.
Lisa, yep, I think you're right, I think keeping your names separate is wise. LOL about your in-laws. I have those kind of people in my life, too. I take it the same way you do although I have to admit, I'm getting a little tried of the one note joke of it all. 'Course, I've been hearing it longer than you!!!
Crawling out of my cave (finally) . . .
What numskulls! Really! I admit, though, that prejudices like these are what keep me from being more "public" about what genre I write.
Way to go Paty! You are the queen of self-promotion.
I hope you encounter far more supportive people THIS weekend, Alice, and you were far kinder than I would have been. It's one thing to be biased against a particular genre and another thing to be biased against someone's profession. I'm sure she would have taken umbrage had you asked her about bed pans and supply closets and how she squeezes hand holding in around flirting with doctors . . . .
Kinda leaves you speechless for a moment, doesn't it? I don't recall ever getting this kind of reaction when people find out I write romance.
However most of the people I talk to about writing are people who already know me and know other parts of my life (like my dogs or graphics/Web design or from when I was working) and they are totally delighted (and surprised) to learn that I write romances.
If I got the kind of reaction you got--after a moment of stunned silence, of course, and a look that says I can't believe you said something that stupid--I think I'd make up an outrageous lie to tell them. "Yeah, I made three million dollars last year in sales of my romance books."
I do get blank stares when I talk about energy healing, though. Maybe I should come up with stories about that! :)
Wavy -- Glad to see you are among the living! Welcome back.
I came kind of close to saying something along the lines of , "Oh, we got the Playboy channel once for a week," wink, wink, "and I know how you nurses get your patients up and at 'em again...."
In the end, though, maybe being friendly chipped away at a stereotype, who knows.
And Genene, Damn, girl, I wish I'd said that three million thing! That is absolutely perfect. (I could have told her write under my pen name, Nora Roberts...)
Post a Comment