09.17.08

Ally gets dissed!

Posted in Rant at 12:41 pm by Ally Blue

Kind of. Maybe not. I don’t know! Which is part of the problem, really. 

Here’s what happened. I was contacted by a new Western North Carolina women’s magazine, because they planned a piece on local romance authors for their July/Aug. 08 issue. Excitement! So I went out to their office to bring them the two books they’d requested for review. They were very nice, polite and friendly, enthusiastic about their magazine and introducing outstanding women to their readership.

Then they saw the books.

It’s not like they suddenly because cold or distant or anything. They didn’t. They asked questions, they seemed interested in the phenomenon of straight-women-writing-gay-male-romance (which they had no idea existed until I walked in that door, obviously). They thanked me for coming by, said it was nice to meet me. They were professional and personable to the end. But the second they saw my book covers and it dawned on them exactly what I wrote, I saw that sort of horrified, “oh shit” look in their eyes, and I knew it wasn’t going to happen.

Sure enough, it did not. Here’s the article. Notice my absence in it. My theory on this, for what it’s worth, is that they felt a woman who writes about men falling in love and having gay sex with each other is somehow not The Right Sort to be featured in their publication catering to the modern woman. Sadly, this attitude (If I ideed read them right) is all too common. As much as I love where I live, as open-minded and accepting as many people here are, there is an element of snobbery here. A book about a gay man or woman’s coming out or a bio about a gay painter or something would be embraced and welcomed. Gay erotic romance? Not so much. You get a sense that many so-called open minded types think That Sort Of Thing is low-brow and beneath their notice. (Though to be fair, I get the feeling ANY erotic romance is considered sort of uncouth by many here) Now, I’m not saying the ladies at Verve thought that at all. I don’t know them, and I have no idea what their personal beliefs are. I also don’t know the circumstances of the article. Maybe they gathered LOTS of books and author info but only had room for those four, and a whole bunch of others got left out too. I don’t know. All I know is the deer-in-the-headlights look they both got when they saw my books, followed by the fact that I was left out of the article. Make of it what you will. 

The one thing I can say for certain is, they could have avoided what seemed to be a nasty shock for them if they’d, y’know, actually researched Ally Blue’s books before requesting them for review. Sigh.

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