Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Good Lord, she's seventeen?!!

There are two wrong things with that post title. Can you guess what they are?

*pausing to let you guess what they are . . . *

 
Yep. I mentioned the Lord and I made my heroine seventeen: apparently big no-no’s when you decide to write a book about a student/teacher romance.

I find it interesting that this book (out of every other book I’ve written so far) has been so polarizing. I mean, I wrote a gang rape scene in Going Under. The whole premise of that book was about a girl so guilt-ridden that she concocts an asinine plan to set herself up as a “rape victim” for revenge. I put “rape victim” in quotations because you cannot actually set yourself up to be raped. Rape is something which occurs completely out of the victim’s control. Nevertheless, that was Going Under, and no one attacked my character for it. My editor was scared to death for me. She sat on pins and needles during its debut, thinking that book would end my writing career. It didn’t. It put me on the map.

Before that I wrote Hoodie. Yeah. A little white girl put on the persona of an 18-year-old black boy, spoke through him, acted like him, and used the “n” word prolifically throughout the story. No one attacked my character for that. Only one snarky comment about how I must have learned everything about black culture through rap videos. This person had no idea that I grew up with two black best friends, but whatevs. My point? No anger. (Well, except over the ending.) Oh, and I almost forgot: Anton was a legal adult when he had sex with Emma, who was still seventeen.

But a love story set in high school? How dare I write such a thing!! Am I the first to write a student/teacher love story set in high school? No. Am I the first to write a love story with a heroine who starts out at seventeen and a hero who is much older? No. Am I the first to infuse spirituality in a story like this? Maybe. I know that’s a bone of contention: I must have an agenda, I’m shoving Christianity down people’s throats. Cadence is doing none of those things in the story. She’s grappling with her private faith, and the reader gets to hear that. I made her Christianity an important part of her personal identity on purpose. I wanted my story to be layered. I didn’t want Good to be all about “What if we get caught?!” That’s exciting, but that’s been done. A lot. I wanted a heroine who not only worries about getting caught, but worries about what a relationship like that will do to her soul. I wanted her to struggle with her faith, to question it, because that’s how readers can see her growth.

And as far as the age thing goes, I made sure to do two things:

  1.      Set my story in Georgia, where the age of consent is sixteen.
  2.      Make Cadence eighteen when they have sex for the first time.

I’m not a completely self-destructive author, but those above-mentioned caveats seem to make no difference with a story like this. I wonder had I tagged this story “erotica” if the sentiments would be different. I bet they would. I bet everything about the story would be okay. Well, except for the Christianity part. That doesn’t quite “fit” in the erotica genre. OR, I could have set this story in college where Cadence is still eighteen and Mark still twenty-eight, and that would have been fine as well. I wonder, are college freshmen so very different from high school seniors?

I have to make a choice as an author: write from the heart or write what I know will sell. Sometimes authors can do both, but that’s a lucky coincidence. I could have taken the easy way out and set this story in college. I could have started Cadence out at eighteen. I could have told the story from alternating points of view so that the reader knows everything about Mark’s motives from Book 1 in the series. I did none of those things because that wasn’t the story. It would have been wrong. And it would have made me a hack. A liar.

So there you have it. That’s the story. Readers don’t have to like it. They don’t have to like Cadence, her faith, her man. They don’t have to like me. (But they cannot call me a “Sex Pervert” on Amazon reviews.) My hope, however, is that readers like themselves—enough to read this story in the context and spirit in which it’s intended. It’s a fictional story of a young girl who falls in love with an older man. A girl who grapples with her faith. A girl who grows and changes and experiences. A girl who questions what it means to be good.

26 comments:

  1. It's on my tbr list but after this ima start it right away

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  2. You can't please everyone and to be quite honest, I actually enjoyed the story. I thought it was really well written and the story drew me in. As a fellow writer, I can only hope to be able to convey a story as well as you have in Good.

    I told my husband about it and how people were in an uproar over the age difference. You know what he said? He said that people should be upset at the fact that the guy waited until she was 18. I shook my head and laughed, but I knew he was right and I understand why you made them wait.

    Keep writing the stories the way you want because that's what makes them great.

    I'm looking forward to reading more of Cadence and Mark's story in the second book. :)

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  3. I've seen some of the comments and reviews. For me that makes me want to read it more :-) I wanted to see what all the drama was about. At the same time I think a lot of people are emotional readers and don't want to like things that society says are no no'. If they like a book that condones teacher/student relationships what does that say about them? However, this is a work of fiction. You make that clear. Did they not read the synopsis? Why read it if you weren't interested? Walking away from the podium now...

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  4. This book blew my mind. I just got off the phone with my best friend letting her know she had to read this book. I wouldn't let her off the phone until she bought it! I started this story because of the scandalous notion of it and I feel in love with it because of the different layers, especially the religious struggle of the heroine. Being a southern girl who came from a strict religious background, I often grappled with the same questions as a teenager. How to have your own relationship with God while going through the missteps that all teens go through. I and I'm pretty sure that alot of people who are pointing fingers have had the same experience. Just their struggles may not hand involved their 28 year old teacher. But it really doesn't matter how you got to your answers it is the journey getting there that matters.I'm impatiently waiting book two :-)

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  5. If you're pleasing everyone, you're doing something wrong.

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  6. Oh lord somebody always has their panties in a bunch insert eye roll! U LOVED this book and then you had her questioning her faith and if she was making the correct choices was just brilliant. And it wasn't like she was 10 hell she was 17 when they started seeing each and sex at 18. Did they not read anything about the book or read any reviews. Keep up the good wrk I'm ready to read the next one.

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  7. I personally love your books and the rawness of your writing. Keep writing the way you have been. I may be only one person, but I am one person who will always buy your books. Remember from the movie Argo? Argo f*** yourself? Well, there you go. Call your next book Argo and that is exactly what can be said to those who are freaking out over what you write about. Yeah, it's one of those days. ;)

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  8. Is people really making a big fuzz of this? Still living in a hypocrite society.

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  9. I loved this story, you did a wonderful job. A week or so before reading Good, I read Unteachable. Or I tried to read it, I couldn't get through it because the hero came off as a creepy predator to me. You did such a great job not making Mark creepy at all and I enjoyed it so much.

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  10. Wow, is that all it takes to become a sexual pervert nowadays? I hate to think what that makes all of us who pull out a sex toy every now and then! TMI? Ah well.

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  11. Well said, Ms. Walden! And Amy, you nearly made me snort Diet Coke out my nose laughing. "Argo f*** yourself?" YES. Great use of movie quote -- I'm stealing that one when I read malicious snarkiness about well-done, well-intentioned work like the great "Good."

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  12. I am a digital reader and a paperback reader!!

    I also shared your giveaway on facebook!!

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  13. I am new to your site. I am happy to be here. :)
    I will be following by email.

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  14. I love digital. I have lots of Paperbacks and Hardbacks but digital is easier for the go. :)

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  15. I shared your giveaway on facebook page. I wish I had read down the giveaway,this is my thrid comment. sorry :)

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  16. Shared on FB Following with email I have a Kindle but nothing is better then a signed copy of an amazing author Thank you so much for the chance would love to win a signed copy.

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  17. I read digital copies, but I always enjoy a paperback copy as well.

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  18. I read digital, but for a few authors...Patrica Cornwell, Jim Butcher, and Gena Showalter, they I have in both old school books AND digital!

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  19. Thanks for the great giveaway! Shared on Facebook :)

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  20. thanks for the giveaway!! Love your writing! xoxo

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  21. THanks for giveaway, i follow be email

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  22. Thanks for giveaway, I love to read a variety of books, And shared giveaway on facebook

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  23. I follow by email,thanks for a chance to win :)

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  24. I read both but I preferred paperback :)

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  25. I read digital but I do buy paperbacks. Sometimes when I get lucky I get them signed! I also follow your blog by email. Loving this giveaway!

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