It burns me up when people think that just because they wouldn’t make a certain decision, then nobody else would. For e.g., as most of you know my first book (My Daughter’s Boyfriend) is about a mother that has an affair with her daughter’s boyfriend. And many readers, rightly so, were appalled that a young mom could betray her daughter by stepping out with her man. Yes, it is disgusting, but guess what? It happens. You may not personally consider such a betrayal, but it doesn’t mean that other women won’t.
There are many things that other people do that I won’t do (get high on drugs, drink alcohol, hang out at the club, have sex in public places, strip, and lots more), but it doesn’t mean other people don’t do these things. We know this. It’s elementary! It’s all around us! And this is why sometimes I get very heated when people doubt my stories.
I tend to write about taboo issues, at least that’s how it is for the first two books. Taboo means it’s a secret, it’s not something you’re going around telling everyone, it’s frowned upon, it’s consider yucky, trifling, all the above. But people listen to me — folks are out here every single day doing some wild things. Do you watch CNN? Read USA Today? Skim through your own local newspaper? Things are going totally nutso in society. Morality is almost non-existent. People commit acts without thinking them through, without considering the consequences. And this happens regardless of race, gender, educational, socialogical, or economic background.
For some odd reason, I discover that the things that I write about end up being an article in some magazine. I’ll read real-life scenarios about my fictional books. Or, I’ll go to my son’s barber shop, and they always have juicy, mind-blowing, no-she-did-not, type of stuff that they’re talking about. Things you’d never imagine. And after I get over the shock about who’s doing what, I nod my head in agreement. And right then I am convinced that plenty of people are always willing to do what someone else is not. From putting their kids in an oven, to selling their kids for crack, to sleeping with youngsters, to raping 6-week old babies, to knowing that your husband is a tranvestite, and you still love him and want to stay with him, to a man having an affair with another woman, then he moves the woman in his house that he shares with his wife, so that the lady can have sex with his wife too.
All of these things are happening people. So, next time you read my book(s), please don’t doubt. Please don’t have that attitude, “Hmm, Cydney Rax wrote this improbable junk. I guess this could happen.” Ain’t no guessing to it. IT IS HAPPENING? Why? Because you are not the world. The world goes way beyond our own morals and thought processes, our personal interests, and temptations. I think everyone has the potential to be drawn into doing things that no one would think they’d do. We all have some little dark secret that only us and God knows about. It’s just that some folks are more willing to share their secrets than others, and it proves that everyone’s different, and are guided by different motivations. Think about it!! Because as hard as it is to believe, as painful as it is to imagine, it is da truth!!
Cydney, as I told you, I don’t understand why people think this can’t happen. They say, “A mother would never do this to her child!” Bull! You read and hear about mothers sitting by and watching their child get beaten by their lovers because they’re scared to be without a man, mothers being the abusers of their children, mothers prostituting their children, yet we have the nerve to say a woman won’t sleep with her daughter’s boyfriend. Crazy.
Right, Shelley, when you think about it there’s nothing new under the sun, but people still think something can never happen. Read the newspaper, people!! LOL. Don’t get me started.
I agree, Cydney. Just because some people won’t do certain things it doesn’t mean that other people don’t. The thing to remember is that you don’t need anybody else’s permission or approval to write whatever it is you choose to write. Even those who live in the backest and blackest country woods can get CNN, and all kinds of things happen in this world, whether we indulge in them or not. Besides, as a writer you have the liberty of taking creative license with your storytelling, and when others try to restrict you it’s usually because you are doing something they wish they could do, or had thought to do themselves. Write on. T!
At this point in my life, nothing that people do surprises me. So I say fiction is a great place for writers to explore the un-doable and the un-thinkable.
That’s why people read fiction… to escape from reality and to see how ordinary people (the characters) react in extraordinary ways to what’s happening around them.
Just my 2 cents 🙂
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Cydney, you are on point with this post. I’ve gotten the same thing, but I’ve had several folks email me and tell me they lied about having a boyfriend and one woman even faked a Las Vegas wedding and is still living the lie as I type this.
One person’s fiction is another’s reality. Let’s hope that the majority of the folks don’t or won’t do what we write…but if you’re a reader and don’t do it, realize there’s someone out there who either has done it or has thought about doing it.
Art imitates life. There are far more crazy things done than a woman sleeping with her daughter’s boyfriend. It is something I couldn’t imagine myself doing, but then I can’t imagine raping, killing, stalking . . . there is a list of crimes and sins. Anyone who has read the Bible knows this.