59: Judy Mays
I woke up this morning to news of a small town news station ‘outing’ a high school teacher (of 25 years) as an erotic romance writer. The romance community has swarmed the social networks (blogs, Twitter, Facebook) to share exactly what they thought about it.
I agree with most of what has been expressed-and others have done it more eloquently and more intelligently than I could.
Simply put, how could this have warranted a news story? This was not an expose on how an author had abused her position and sold her books to kids, read her books to her students in class, or otherwise used her students for her stories.
In all the fuss, all accounts-including the so-called news report-indicates that Judy Mays kept both aspects of her life separate. Nor did being an erotic romance writer appear to have made her any less of of a good teacher (if the comments from her current/past students are anything to judge by). And according to Mays’ Goodreads page, she’s written 23 books , and there are a bunch of 3+ stars-Good on you, Ms Mays.
She kept both professions separate, and conducted her respective businesses as best as anyone could had they focused on simply one route.
So, why then, did the news station deem this worthy to report? Because some parents got wind of her other job, judged her for it, and kicked up a fuss?
It would have been better, perhaps, for the news to report on the controversy of parental reaction, but there was such an apparent slant in both article and clip that I can’t help but agree with Sarah (of SmartBitches) that the news segment pumped up the story for salacious content for hits/ranks, even going so far as to “assist these parents in holding her up for public ridicule-and, in the case of one class act of a parent, accusations of pedophilia. “
Augh.
And now that it’s out there, all the condemnation comes out of the woodwork, too. Because, right, writing erotica is an awful, bad, dirty thing. I wasn’t quite as annoyed with the article as I was with the interview sound bytes they’d chosen to air.
“Unbelievable. I can’t even imagine someone would write such stuff.”
“I’m shocked. I think it’s disgusting.”
Augh.
What I am proud of, though, is to be part of a community that not only supports their own, but defends their own, too. Good on you all, ladies (and men).
I agree with most of what has been expressed-and others have done it more eloquently and more intelligently than I could.
Simply put, how could this have warranted a news story? This was not an expose on how an author had abused her position and sold her books to kids, read her books to her students in class, or otherwise used her students for her stories.
In all the fuss, all accounts-including the so-called news report-indicates that Judy Mays kept both aspects of her life separate. Nor did being an erotic romance writer appear to have made her any less of of a good teacher (if the comments from her current/past students are anything to judge by). And according to Mays’ Goodreads page, she’s written 23 books , and there are a bunch of 3+ stars-Good on you, Ms Mays.
She kept both professions separate, and conducted her respective businesses as best as anyone could had they focused on simply one route.
So, why then, did the news station deem this worthy to report? Because some parents got wind of her other job, judged her for it, and kicked up a fuss?
It would have been better, perhaps, for the news to report on the controversy of parental reaction, but there was such an apparent slant in both article and clip that I can’t help but agree with Sarah (of SmartBitches) that the news segment pumped up the story for salacious content for hits/ranks, even going so far as to “assist these parents in holding her up for public ridicule-and, in the case of one class act of a parent, accusations of pedophilia. “
Augh.
And now that it’s out there, all the condemnation comes out of the woodwork, too. Because, right, writing erotica is an awful, bad, dirty thing. I wasn’t quite as annoyed with the article as I was with the interview sound bytes they’d chosen to air.
“Unbelievable. I can’t even imagine someone would write such stuff.”
“I’m shocked. I think it’s disgusting.”
Augh.
What I am proud of, though, is to be part of a community that not only supports their own, but defends their own, too. Good on you all, ladies (and men).