This Might Be Controversial
May
17
2005

But I honestly can’t not comment on it. It goes against my nature!

Today a woman who claims to write erotic romance put up a “diatribe” about erotic romance at a certain website. I’m not going to say who she is because she doesn’t deserve the attention.

This self righteous screed of hers comes on the heels of some priggish letters that showed up in a recent romance writers’ magazine. These letters attacked erotic romance as porn and the authors of erotic romance as being a negative influence on the genre as a whole.

This is all about jealousy. These people can’t stand it that other authors are doing well by kicking down doors and making new roads for themselves. They can’t stand it that their precious rules have been broken and more than that, readers are responding with their book buying dollars.

Yeah, that’s right, you heard me, jealous. And while you’re listening, understand that I’m saying what I’m saying and if people don’t like it, I will stand behind it because I have the integrity to own what I say unlike certain other people.

Here’s the perfect solution – if you don’t like erotic romance – DON’T READ IT! Simple huh? If you don’t like graphic love scenes, erotica is not the genre for you.

And another thing, if you are going to stand up and insult the people who write in your self defined genre, you’d better be something special at the computer. Your writing had better be amazing, especially when you admonish people not to spend money on anyone else’s books. Now, I’d be very petty if I said that having read excerpts that compared a tongue to a crustacean – that hurdle was not jumped, but I’ll let you all decide that for yourselves, because purple prose (even that which makes no sense) has a place in the world and I certainly think that people who like it should have authors to buy it from.

So here’s the thing, I am not threatened by people who write in genres that I don’t like. In fact, I’m always happy when other authors are doing well because it’s good that people can make a living with their writing AND I love that people are reading. But when people feel the need to launch a strike against their fellow authors for no reason other than to crow that they are amazing and everyone else sucks and that those readers who like everyone else are “verbal crack whores” – those people had better be prepare to either apologize or own what they’ve said.
Do not lie and say you were misunderstood. Do not backpedal and try and change the subject. Do not blame your words on someone else – these things make you look like a slug. Suck it up crustacean tongue woman, you said it, now deal with it.

One comment to “This Might Be Controversial”

  1. Gail Faulkner
    May 17th, 2005 at 6:53 pm · Link

    Hey Laura, came by to say I loved your commments both here and at the un-named site. You go girl!! I especially liked your over view. Gail Faulkner