Saturday, June 8, 2013

Amish Erotica

Should I write Amish Erotica? Apparently the latest trend in publishing are romantic stories set in the Amish world. They are generally written by non-Amish and marketed toward the non-Amish world.
One woman has sold twenty-four million copies. Let's just say that that  is at least a million more than I sell when I write my silly stories about neurotic lawyers in the Southwest.

What do I know about the Amish? Or erotica? I have seen one example of Amish love in my life and it was on the screen between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis in Witness. Both my father and my sister went to school at Bucknell which is in Pennsylvania at least and I drove there a few times.

I'm sure I could fake it if I have to.

Should I have to? Should we write what sells as opposed to what we want to write? I took ten years to write my first novel, Rattlesnake Lawyer, which was based on an autobiographical experience about being a public defender in Amish Country...well, actually in Roswell.

Part of the reason it took so long to sell is that I was so focused on being authentic that the main character was not very likeable or heroic at first. I wasn't very likeable or heroic at first in real life.  The main character also does not find love. Bad idea...

Going back to my Amish idea-- a woman in Amish country is accused of murdering her evil husband. She hires an outside lawyer and needless to say they fall in love and risk it all. That actually isn't such a bad idea.

Why don't YOU write it?

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