I wrote 29,557 words in February. I’m still enjoying the Science Fiction/Fantasy experiment, and I’ve been working on revising that into a presentable form.

Could be Valentine’s Day.  Could be Fifty Shades of Grey. Could be the relationships I’ve picked to explore in my own work… but I’m fixated on sex and culture, right now.  That’s not exactly new, but it is coming to the forefront.  To be clear, I don’t write Erotica, but I absolutely think of sex as a part of the culture of my books. Does that prostitute work for bread, or cocaine? Tells you a lot.

On Valentines’ Day, I went to an elderly relative’s house to fix her computer and wound up talking about bondage porn. We are not the kind of family that generally discusses bondage porn. But, there I am, listening to a story about something that happened decades ago, and still bothers her.  Guilt story. Not a sex story. But it’s not the only one. I keep running into people who want to talk. And talk about things that I would never have suspected were running around in their heads.

The conclusion I ultimately came to… is that Fifty Shades’ popularity isn’t actually about the book, or anything that is or isn’t in the book. It’s about community and acceptance. Women being able to tell each other their stories. And relief. Relief because if a hundred million people read Fifty Shades, and they’re making a movie, and it’s on the Late Show, maybe my secrets aren’t so bad either.  Maybe you can accept me, too.