For your Monday evening enlightenment.
Romance novelist ‘Jessica Blair’ is an 89-year-old man | The Passive Voice | Writers, Writing, Self-Publishing, Disruptive Innovation and the Universe
11 Monday Feb 2013
Posted in Random Posts
T. W. Dittmer
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I guess he wanted to “come out” before he dies. 😉
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LOL! 😀
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Well, whether he wanted to or not… 😉
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You know, Tim, on one hand I find this sad. His publisher wanted the first book, but under the female name they suggested. A prolific writer, popular books, and his picture was never shown, nor could he do in-person interviews – or Good Morning America! On the other hand, he was 68 when he started the romance series, so maybe such things didn’t matter to him.
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Well, he did okay. His work got out there and did well in the marketplace.
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Yes, he did well. 🙂
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I’ve heard of this happening before – but it used to be females disguising themselves as males. This is a good twist… 😀
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The world has certainly changed. 😉
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I bet George Sand is giggling about now.
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What an interesting story- I wonder if he had published with his real name if it would really have made a difference- if his female readers would feel that the story was somehow less of an authentic experience for some reason or another. Thanks for sharing!
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Isn’t that something? Georgia Sand. 😉
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Ha!
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This is kind of funny, kind of sad – for me it always comes back to the reader, and why there always have be ‘deceptions’ to make them buy books, whether it’s manipulating the writing, putting in a cheesy hook, or turning a man into a woman.
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Astute observation. Many people blame the industry for this state of affairs. I’m not so sure about that.
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My grandfather wrote articles for women’s magazines as Daphne Lawton – I think this was back in the 1930s.
People are always choosing names other than their own for whatever reason. If you just wanted to sound like a man or a woman, whichever you aren’t, it is only necessary to change the first name. So what was thought so marketable about Jessica Blair?
Is there soemthing about age, class, nationality etc that might be inferred from names as well as gender?
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It sounded like the publisher suggested that name. Somebody had it stuck in their mind for some reason. 🙂
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