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Saturday 5 February 2011

Raping a story…



So, I’ve been writing some deep, dark books that are not pretty. Yes, there is sex and romance but the plot is ugly. I sent it off to one publisher. Yes, they liked the book and they wanted to give me a contract – but – I had to take out the rape of a secondary character. Could I have done this? Yes, but the book would lose its edge. The villain is ugly, evil, psychotic bad – not Cruella De Ville Disney bad. Taking out the rape would make him less a villain and more someone that’s just ‘not nice’ in that Disney TV dinner way. I declined the offer. While I respect their opinion and stance, unlike some I’m not about to completely sell my soul for a contract.

So – is it that we can only, as readers, accept ‘pretty’ romances? How bad is the villain allowed to be? Or do we have to homogenize him to be politically correct? Me? I think fiction is just that and we’ll politically correct ourselves to death one day.

Amarinda Jones
Penn Halligan
www.amarindajones.com
www.amarindajones.blogspot.com
Be daring...read an Amarinda book

4 comments:

Sandra Cox said...

Glad your safe and sound. And I assume have power again.
Good for you for sticking with your principles.

Sandra Cox said...

your=you're.
I always do that. sigh.

Your word verifications is creating Amarindaisms

anny cook said...

No, stick with your guns. I've been there. Sometimes leaving it out just weakens the entire story.

Angelina Rain said...

Resubmit somewhere else. There’s bound to be a publisher who accepts it the way it is.