Authors are getting "outed" and I figured this was just as good a time as any to come clean. It's not that I wanted to deceive my fans, but it was just part of my branding to be a slightly chubby, big-haired heterosexual white girl from Pittsburgh.
It's difficult to write romance and have folks take you seriously when you look like this....
Sigh. I know. It's not pretty. I'm actually a Bonaire Giant Sea Anemone. Condylactis gigantea. It's pretty embarrassing. I'm not cute and cuddly. I have stinging cells on the tips of my tentacles.
If I were writing sci fi or marine biology textbooks, this would make for perfect branding. But alas, it's not so great for romance. How do you hug someone with stinging tentacles? It's difficult....really difficult. Although not impossible. Just ask my husband. He's a super good sport about the whole thing.
Folks seem to forget that authors have this ultra amazing thing called....imagination. We don't have to be a man to write from a man's POV. We don't have to be gay to write a gay story. We don't have to be a vampire to write about sparkly blood-sucking guys. And most importantly, we don't have to be terrestrial vertebrates to write about them.
I hope you don't all hate me now. Don't come too close or I'll sting the crap out of you.
With the utmost sincerity.... (Seriously. I'm not kidding this time),
Penelope
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