Have any of you unpublished authors, or those published under a pen name, ever worried about what your family, friends and social associates might think about certain risqué or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”.
Cindy Callens, on the Belgian book review site Draumr Kopa, kindly asked me to do a guest blog. I shared some of the more amusing comments people have made since Saxon’s Bane was launched. Click here for Draumr Kopa.
Here’s what I had to say:
People have said some strange things to me since Saxon’s Bane was published.
“I never knew you were like that,” an elderly lady from my local church said one Sunday.
“Like what?” I asked. The question made me stop in my tracks, and the departing congregation flowed around us.
She shuffled, making that eyes-lowered squirm with which Christian ladies of a certain age simultaneously mention and avoid mentioning delicate subjects. “Well, you know…”
“No, I don’t know. What’s the matter?” I sensed that the subject causing her such embarrassment was of a reprehensible and possibly sexual nature, and my mind raced in a frantic ‘Oh-God-what-have-I-got-to-be-guilty-about’
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Sarah Potter Writes 
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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Good, that’s a relief and explains why I’ve always felt saner than the rest, despite my bizarre outpourings!
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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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When I used to do the fantasy role playing game “Call of Cthulu” I tended towards being a real kick-ass character, but in real life I hate violence.
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I don’t mind being a touch mad!! though I have yet to be called risque – in my writing that is lol!!
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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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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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Out of interest, how full is the Quarantine folder?
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I would imagine 20-30 prose poems which I consider to be unfit for human consumption.
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