“I never knew you were like that…”

Have any of you unpublished authors, or those published under a pen name, ever worried about what your family, friends and social associates might think about certain risqué or controversial elements contained in your fiction? Back in May, I interviewed Geoffrey Gudgion about his novel Saxon’s Bane. Since then, he’s published a most amusing post about some of the conversations he’s had with people about his novel, including one about “Shush, you know what”.

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Author: Sarah Potter Writes

Sarah is a British eccentric who writes offbeat fiction, haiku and tanka poetry. When stuck for words, she sketches or paints instead. She's into nature conservation, sustainability, gardening, dogs, natural health, and reading. Her sociability is something that happens in short bursts with long breathing spaces in between.

9 thoughts on ““I never knew you were like that…””

  1. I have a suspicion that writers of SF, horror and similar bizarre and outré outpourings are the most well-balanced and normal people out there. They can expiate their frustrations in writing.

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      1. The problem is that many otherwise perfectly sane and rational people simply do not understand that the behaviours and attitudes of characters need bear no relationship to that of anyone alive or dead, including the author. In fact, especially not the author. Some women have expressed concern about the sometimes extreme sexual violence in my books with the subtext that this might be some flaw in my own character. The truth is that when I write, I have to try new territory, and when I write about such things I don’t think it works until I get to the point where I find myself shocked and revolted by what appears on the page.

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      2. I’m worse than risque in my writing, if not controversial. Not purposely so. It’s just that my fictional characters come to life and take over the story and some of them need a cold bath, I think!

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  2. As I complete a prose poem it becomes categorised into one of four categories, Blog, Publication, Scrap and Quarantine. The Quarantine folder is where all the things go that fall into this ‘I never knew you were like that’ category.

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