What do family and friends think of your career?

What do my husband, family and friends think of my writing?

This is a question I get frequently in interviews, probably because I write erotic romance. Since I believe in being completely honest (or joking around if I can’t be) I’ll give you the surprising truth.

My husband tells me I’m the coolest wife ever. Okay, that’s not so surprising. At first he wasn’t very supportive, thinking this was just another “pipe dream.” But eventually he realized that this writing thing made me happy and I was working my fingers to the bone to succeed. Now he’s a big fan and wants to read all my work as soon as it’s finished. I’m glad I didn’t let his earlier feelings discourage me! He says he even tells the guys at work about it now. They all think I’m the coolest wife ever too. One guy said, “Let’s compare wives. Accountant? Erotica writer? You win.”

My daughter vacillates between being proud of me and refusing to acknowledge I’m her mother. “Just don’t tell my friends,” she says. Okay, I can understand that. But once in a while one of her friends or coworkers wants to know where they can buy my books. Ah ha! She does talk about what I do and I’ll bet she even says it proudly. But does she read my books? No. Never. And that’s fine with me!

Let’s see… How about the in-laws? Well, my father-in-law and his third wife think it’s great that I have a career and make some money to contribute to the household. Do they read it? Nope. They’re “nice” people who go to Mass every Sunday and volunteer in soup kitchens. Of course, I could be completely wrong. One never knows what goes on behind closed doors. (Unless you write erotic romance and have a good imagination.) *wink.

My mother-in-law. This was the biggest surprise. When she broke her hip, she stayed with us for a month and I took care of her. She saw how hard I work and then, without my knowledge, she picked up an anthology with one of my short stories in it! Oh my goodness. I almost fainted when I heard that she read it. But, she liked it, and said so! She even told me about the parts she especially liked so there’s no doubt in my mind that she did, indeed, read the whole story. Okay, score a whole bunch of cool points for my mother-in-law.

Now friends and neighbors. What an odd mix of reactions I get from them! Friends support my career. As far as I know there’s only one who wants to read my books and is waiting impatiently for the ebooks to come out in paperback. Several neighbors, however, freaked out and don’t invite me to any more Tupperware parties. Aww… I’m crying into my checkbook, which used to bleed green because of all their product parties!

The upshot of this article is: if they love you, they only want your happiness and will continue to associate with you. If they don’t, perhaps you were never truly friends in the first place.

Ashlyn Chase
Where there's fire, there's Ash
www.ashlynchase.com