Attention Readers: Spice in Fiction is Still, in Fact, Fictional

By S.L. Woeppel

“I love your book. But I had a hard time NOT thinking of you and your partner when I read the spicy scenes.”

This is the comment I received a handful of times after publishing my first romcom last year. Look. It’s a romcom. It has a touch of spice. Think medium to high spice in Minnesota and fairly low spice at a romcom convention. And I get it-it was my first published novel- it was a bit spicy. I can see how that would be a thing. -Oh wait, no I can’t. 

Also… gross.

My protagonist (Birdie) is salty and snarky with a short fuse. She’s also very funny. Sure, I can be funny, just not in the same vein as Birdie.  Anyway, no one has said to me that she reminds them of me because she’s funny.

Bridie also happens to be a superhero. She’s super strong and super fast. I’m… not not strong. But I only run when I hear an ice cream truck. So …you catch my drift. No one is picturing me as a superhero. She doesn’t physically resemble me nor do we really have anything in common. Also, the love interest is grumpy and brooding and antisocial, where as my partner isn’t happy unless he’s making everyone laugh. So, if we don’t remind them of my characters in any other way, why then? Just…why?

In the end, I’ve concluded that this is a them thing – the folks that have said this – and decidedly NOT a me thing. I’m should abstain from any reflection on what led them down that thought path. Maybe next time, just keep that reaction close to the chest.

But, now I’m left to wonder if – now that I’m releasing my second novel- a novel about a girl who is apprentice to her serial killer father, who, grown up, must face her lifetime of lies as well as her own nature – Will I have any friends after this? Will they come for dinner and nervously fidget across the table, avoiding the wine and pushing their food around- constantly watching the basement door. What will they think of my poor dad? Sorry Dad.

I have to say that these comments were a surprise to me. It was a surprise that people would associate my character’s story with my own life. It’s not a memior people. But I suppose that old adage holds for writers and non-writers alike- “Write what you know.” And in truth- I do that. I write what I know, but mostly just in the details, in that the basement resembles the basement in the movie Home Alone, in that the old man refers to dogs as “old soup hounds” like my father did, and in how I’m prone to get a “sandal tan” on my feet every summer that looks like an octopus was using them as a pacifier. 

If I’d have known that friends would look at me as though they’d walked in on me in a compromising situation, I would have thought twice about writing a romantic comedy with spice. I would have still done it, of course, I just would have thought about it more.

I’m going to assume that other authors have heard these same types of comments and dismiss them or come prepared with a witty quip. In the future, I’ll be prepared with some ironic response – like “oh that’s funny, because I was thinking of your parents when I wrote it.” I suspect that will end that round of discussion, awkwardly. 

In the end, you just have to laugh at it, as with most things in life. It certainly isn’t the worst things I’ve heard as a newly published author and certainly won’t be the last strange or surprising comment. My only wish is that I could always respond with a quick wit. But alas, I’m a writer for a reason, I’m much better on paper. 

 —

S.L. WOEPPEL is a BookLife Prize finalist for her 2024 debut Flipping the Birdie. Born and raised in Nebraska, Woeppel gets antsy living in one place too long. Currently residing in Minnesota, she has five great loves—her family, writing, reading, travel, and municipal bonds. She’s watched the entirety of the television series ER three times and she has an embarrassingly large collection of those tacky souvenir spoons (like, more than two hundred). She can’t help it; she keeps buying them wherever she goes.

Find out more about
her at https://www.slwoeppelbooks.com/.
Follow S.L. Woeppel on social media:
Instagram: @slwoeppelbooks

THE BUTCHER AND THE LIAR

Daisy Bellon thinks she may have buried her skeletons forever. At thirty-five, she runs a butcher shop in a forgotten corner of Chicago, keeping her past locked away. But when an anonymous letter arrives, she’s thrust back to the day her life split in two.

At nine years old, Daisy meets Caleb Garcia, a boy who makes her believe in the possibility of friendship and happiness. But that same night, she stumbles upon her father dismembering a woman in their basement and becomes his unwilling apprentice, sworn to keep his monstrous secrets. When the victim’s ghost appears in Daisy’s room, she’s bound to a haunting legacy. To endure, Daisy weaves a web of lies, clinging to the light of Caleb’s friendship while slipping deeper into the darkness of her father’s shadow.

More than two decades later, following the arrival of the mysterious letter, someone close to Daisy is brutally murdered in an all-too-familiar fashion. Forced to confront the truth about her family and herself, Daisy must decide whether to let the darkness consume her—or to fight for love and redemption, even if it means revealing everything she’s tried to bury.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing