Memory Lane ~ Mar. 12\/25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are romance authors responsible for the age of their readers? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a sticky question that I was forced to confront recently. Before I went on parental leave, I had spent the majority of my adult working years in bookstores, and my answer to this question was simple\u2014I\u2019m not your mom. A young-looking person asks where to find the Sierra Simone? I\u2019m not your mom. A teenager comes through my till with Punk 57 in the middle of a stack of books like it\u2019s contraband? I\u2019m not your mom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when I had my first book signing event, perhaps the fact that I was now someone\u2019s mom made me falter. There was one girl who approached my table, who, to my eye, looked quite young. Like, I\u2019m guessing 14, maybe a very youthful looking 16. I awkwardly tried to give her my pitch while peppering in my disclaimers that there were some pretty mature scenes, which was as explicit as I was prepared to get at the front of a busy bookstore on a Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, she looked me dead in the eye and, with no small degree of irritation, said, \u201cI can handle it.\u201d It was clear I needed the reminder\u2014I\u2019m not her mom. She got a copy, and I do hope she enjoyed it. It would be disingenuous for me to pretend that I wasn\u2019t reading equally and more explicit stories on fanfiction.net at the same age (look, it was 2004 and we didn\u2019t have Wattpad yet). And if you are the girl in this story and I\u2019ve severely misjudged your age, I\u2019m very sorry about that. For what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019m really stupid. So much so that I briefly forgot I wasn\u2019t your mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until next time, travelers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gael Romer
P.S. There was also a lovely family that approached because their young son loved the artwork. It was a bit of a relief that I didn\u2019t have to explain the type of book I was selling, instead passing on a business card with the website and socials for my cover artist, Nyco Rudolph.
It was only after they left that I remembered Nyco\u2019s prominent collection of ghostly prominences. Oops.
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Memory Lane ~ Mar. 12\/25 Are romance authors responsible for the age of their readers? This is a sticky question that I was forced to…<\/p>\n