Opinions are like assholes...

Opinions really are like assholes, everyone has them. Normally I don't let what other people think bother me. I tend to let things go and not internalize them, of course that's now. For the first thirty years of my life I did the opposite and caused enough personal pain and problems that I finally started to think differently.

However, there are times when opinions can hurt, and times when they're downright annoying. I write erotica, sometimes I write about love and sometimes I write about personal growth, and always lots and lots of steamy sex. To me writing about sex is fun, it's a way to express myself and create little fantasies for my characters, and I would hope someone reading them would find them enticing and spicy.

When I tell people what I write, or they find out, I get one of three reactions. 'Wow, that's really cool!"- a great reaction, I love hearing it. "Wow, so do you actually do all that stuff you write about?" - a little personal, especially if I don't know you but I guess I'm the one who put it out there so it seems logical for some people to ask. "Wow, you must be some sort of sex freak, that's sick." - a really shitty reaction and one that I usually hear in conjunction with "You need Jesus in your life" or "You're husband/mother/father/child(ren) must be so proud/humilated/disgusted." This is a reaction I can do without.

I wonder if mystery writers get asked if they've committed murder. Or if fantasy writers get asked if they're witches or time travellers. Do Sci-Fi writers get asked if they're really aliens, or if they know any real aliens?

I find it interesting how no one blinks an eye when there's blood and gore and death in a book, but write in a sex scene and holy moly, this is NSFW. Write a whole book littered with sex and stop the presses, it's so taboo we can't have this.

I realize erotica isn't for everyone and there is a large portion of the population who will never read it, and that's fine. I only have issues when those people make assumptions about me and decide things about my life based on what I write for a living.

***On a lighter note, I have been thinking of renaming my dog 'Jesus'. That way when someone tells me I need Jesus in my life, I can look them right in the eye and say "I have Jesus in my life, and he sleeps in my bed every night".