Vindication

My wife thinks it is incredibly funny to watch my face every time I see a news report or visit the book store and see Fifty Shades of Gray being mentioned or perused.  Part of me is pleased of course.  Anything that promotes BDSM erotica into the mainstream consciousness is a good thing. But I have sincere reservations about Fifty Shades of Gray for a number of reasons. The first and most damning is that Fifty Shades of Gray started out as a Twilight Fan Fiction, where the author stole Stephanie Meyers' characters and created something erotic out of them.  Then when the story was getting so many hits, the author E.L. James (aka Erika Mitchell) took it out, changed the names and scenes enough to keep her from getting her ass sued off, and tried again.  A publisher bought it.  While I've only personally read bits and pieces of the first book, I found the writing acceptable, but not very deep. Had it been posted on the BDSM Library, I'd have given her seven, maybe eight stars.


But now I feel slightly vindicated.  A few days ago I received a review for my early novel (and I do mean early) Sigma Epsilon Chi, a Samantha Mayfield story, and was both delighted, and chagrined.

It's basically a lesbian 50 shades of grey. its got the same watered down commercialized bdsm and sado-masochism. which is what sells. i was about 75% of the way through the book and thinking for its genre, its not badly written as far as grammar and syntax and overall organization [far better than 50 shades...]then as soon as i thought that i started seeing spelling mistakes and incorrect usage of words [There instead of their]. this bothered me but overall, not bad. for its genre.- Grammarnazi

This review came from a reader named "grammarnazi" and while the description "watered down commercialized BDSM and sado-masochism" stings a little, the comment "far better than 50 shades" is what pleases me.  I've always thought so too.  And hey, it's original. It also looks that while Grammarnazi gave me four stars, had I been a little bit more diligent with my proof-reading (this one was posted before I had a decent proof reader!) I might have gotten 5 stars.

Well rest assured, my friends, I'm looking into a "second version" with the grammar errors fixed.  Not only that, but the sequel is coming and it will be proof read as well.  Hopefully I can manage something beyond the typical "commericalized BDSM and sado-masochism" this time!