Nice Girls Don't Write Smut. Except When They Do.

by Allison Pang

Before I get into my post here today, I just want to give a shout of massive congratulations to our fellow Word Whore, Kerry Schafer! Kerry's accepted representation by the fabulous Deidre Knight (and I'll let Kerry tell you all about it on Saturday after she's had a little time to let it all sink in.) Congrats Kerry!)


*ahem*

And now back to our regularly scheduled post, aye?

I've actually been a tad envious at some of these earlier posts this week, namely when it comes to sharing writing.  Since my mother passed away 10 years ago, she's obviously never had a chance to read anything I've done (not since the early days of high school maybe?) And to be honest, her mindset was always far more practical than fanciful - writing was a hobby, not possible job potential.

I'd like to think she would have read my books, though.

My dad? I had to laugh about that because smut is not his thing. He's read A Brush of Darkness. Bought it in bulk and handed it out to his law interns. (When I found out about that, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Dad. You're a judge. And you're handing out books that I wrote. To your employees. With demon sex scenes in them.")

*sits back to wait for the sexual harassment lawsuits to start up.*

To be fair, I did warn him there were smutty scenes involved.

"Oh, like Catcher in the Rye?"

No, Dad. Not like Catcher in the Rye. But points for trying.

On a good note, I actually got hit up by a fair number of the interns who did, in fact, read it and liked it, so yay for that.

But as far as the smut scenes themselves go? We don't talk about them.  Maybe it's that Irish Catholic upbringing. Maybe he skips them completely. I don't ask. His overall opinion was that sex sells, so it's perfectly fine for me to have it in my books. (Although, I have to admit that when I mentioned I'd gotten dinged in the Huffington Post a few months ago (Worst Paranormal Sex Scenes) for using "turgid magnificence" (in a tongue-in-cheek way, mind - bleah for context), his only comment on the matter was "Well, you don't really want to be *good* at writing that sort of thing, do you?"

And I think that's sort of the line in the sand for him. Okay to write about it, okay to have it in the books...but don't smut it up TOO much, because...what? People will think I'm into it? I have no idea. Maybe it's a father/daughter thing.

Other family members? I heard from one aunt who loved it - but otherwise, I haven't heard a single peep out of any of them. Except for that through the grapevine type of thing. "Where does she come up with this sort of thing?" "She's got a good imagination, anyway." "It was...uh...interesting."

To be fair, a lot of that may have been less about the smut and more about the fact that it's Urban Fantasy. It's not their thing, and that's okay. It may also have been the whole first person thing. I think for a lot of people, that writing voice sounds an awful lot like *me* and that becomes a tad too personal for them to want to relate to. (Don't even get me started on the co-workers...)

"If you were actually sleeping with demons, I'd be concerned..." (Yeah, I got that one too.)

(A few certain very religious family members have basically been told not to even pick it up. The ones who think reading Harry Potter is cause for damnation? Yeah, I'd probably be disowned because of demon peen.)

Although the best thing? Getting hit up by a much older 3rd cousin who I've never met on Facebook. He read it and was totally scandalized by the language and smut...but enjoyed it anyway. (And was probably the ONLY person who got/commented on the King and I reference I threw in there.)

Is a puzzlement, indeed.