No Doors Needed

An unusual thing happened when I was selling and signing books at Wild Deadwood Reads a couple of weeks ago. Let me preface it by saying that it’s a free country where people can write what they want to write, and people are free to read or not read what they want to.

At this event, the ballroom is divided into two sections. On one side are the wholesome, sweet book authors, and the other side is the steamy, more R- and X-rated books. For the past three years, my shared table has been on the aisle that breaks the room into halves. It’s a good location for Megan and I.

So that Saturday toward the end of the day, two ladies clinging to each other walked out of the other half of the room and came across the aisle toward my table. As they crept my way, I asked them what they liked to read. They discussed quietly with each other. One said, “what was that phrase? Something about doors.” The other said, “We only like closed-door romance.” I knew what that meant. They only read clean books.

Having come out of the “open door” side of the room, I knew they probably felt a little “shell-shocked” in a way. They may have assumed everyone at WDR wrote that way. I could feel their pain. I was part of an event like that last year, where I was the only author is a very large room of authors that wrote clean, wholesome books. Funny thing was I sold more books than anyone else. Even the mother of one of the other authors came over and bought several of mine. She told me she wouldn’t read her daughter’s books. When authors started reading parts of their books over the intercom, I quickly packed my stuff up and left the venue, shell-shocked from what I heard.

Back to my story…. The two ladies were polite and listened to my spiel about my wholesome books. They kept asking about the closed-door thing and I finally told them, “My books are so clean, they don’t need a door.” Both looked surprised and bought a copy of my novella The Christmas Eve Wedding. They perked up as they went along. Farther down the row, they would have found charming children’s books, westerns, and other genres that fit their ideas of good reading material. I hope they like my small book and will visit me again.

Again, people are free to write and read whatever they want to. I chose to write and read clean books that need no doors to hide anything behind. If that’s what you like to read, then I’m your author. Look for me on the light side of the room.