"You must be good at sex."
Obviously specific to romance and erotica authors, this question is extremely confronting. An author's ability and confidence to write hot sex scenes is no reflection on their skills in the bedroom, and in fact it's quite rude to ask. It's natural to wonder, of course. But to actually ask an author such a personal question, or make the statement, is a little bit more information than an author usually likes to provide about themselves. The fact that an author writes about steamy sex scenes doesn't mean that they're asking for such questions, either. Rule of thumb: if you wouldn't want people asking about your sex life, don't ask other's about theirs. Even if they are a writer of erotica and/or romance.
"What does your mother think?"
There are a number of reasons why this question is a drag. Not every person knows their mother for one thing; you can't be sure the author hasn't lost their mother, or that they're in contact with their mother.
Aside from that, this is a question that suggests writing certain genres is shameful. Many authors have open relationships with their mothers, and so their mother might fully support their son or daughter in the genre they write; or maybe it's a sore spot between author and mother. This is another question that, although is natural to be curious about, is one best left unasked. It's personal, and only between the author and their family.
"Where do the ideas come from?"
I've been asked this in a few blog interviews, which I don't mind. But when you're asked by every fan you come across, it can quickly become a hated question.
Ideas come from many places. Maybe the author sees something on the news and the mind goes in to overdrive, spinning out possible story lines to follow or lead up to that event. Or maybe an odd conversation with a friend or fan sparks a story. Let me list two different examples for where some of my ideas have come from.
The Wolf in the Neighborhood, for example. I was lying in bed, trying to drift off to sleep but my mind just wouldn't pipe down. A random scene (the opening scene, in fact) popped in to my head vividly; I could feel the satin dressing gown, the heat of the sun and the cool breeze. It started writing itself in my mind so I flipped over to my stomach, grabbed my phone and started typing away in Drafts. That little snippet, probably only about 150 words, sparked the entire story, which then sparked the two sequels.
Acapello's Lady is one that I always share for a laugh. I was dancing around to Zumba with guilty pleasure song Cotton Eyed Joe on repeat, blasting away. The idea began to tease me. After the zumba session, the song still on repeat, I jumped in to the cold shower and the idea started forming in to something solid. Allowing it to form a bit more, I hopped out, straight to the computer and started writing. I always shake my head and grin at how random that one came about!
And so ends another episode of "Questions authors don't like." To see what other questions I've discussed so far, you can view the previous blog posts here and here. For the next two Fridays, I have two new guests, Karenna Colcroft and Kharisma Rhayne will be joining the roster due to busier schedules of Liz and Delena. These two ladies are quite lovely and very interesting, so I hope you're looking forward to see what topics these saucy ladies come up with!
