D.M. Pratt's Blog
February 10, 2014
Stepping Outside of My Comfort Zone
When my husband, one night after a particularly rough week of work, a couple of glasses of wine, and a few too many hours of Showtime, suggested we quit our jobs and open a place where people could have sex in public like the characters on TV who were being arrested for just such a thing, I laughed.
"Honey, you are extremely shy, and I'm...not suitable for public viewing," I said. (I may have slurred a little from the wine.)
"WE don't have to do it, but other people like it," he assured me. "We should do it for them." (Cue heroic background music.)
"Hmm, it's a good idea...for a couple without kids, maybe," I agreed, " but I don't think it would be very responsible of us as parents. I have a better idea, why don't I write a book about a couple with six kids who open a club like that?"
And so began my journey deep into the center of a whole new world. You know how they say "write what you know?" I took that advice, crumpled it up, and swallowed it with my morning coffee. I am far from innocent. I am not shy about sex. Anyone who knows me will tell you I talk about it quite openly whether they like it or not. Getting naked, and doing other things in public, however, was not something I had any interest in trying. What if I did it anyway, though? That was the question I kept asking myself as I wrote Nate and Lucy into life.
Nate and Lucy's personalities come from our lives to some extent. Their silly conversations, weird ideas, love for each other, and even crazy blushing insecurities are pure us. But Nate, and especially Lucy, are far more brave than my husband and I will ever be. Oh, we talk a big game, but in the end, we'd never become members of Mile High Club. While Lucy is out singing on street corners and christening family bathrooms, I'm sitting here worrying about what would happen if anyone ever laid eyes on my browser history from the research I did for this book.
Still, writing it was the easy part. When it was done, and I hit the send button on the email to my publisher okaying the final draft, it occurred to me that we now had to tell other people...people like our parents, our exes, our kids. We couldn't keep it a secret (despite my husband's mantra after every chapter as he read, "our kids can NEVER read this!") The whole point was to sell it, hope it became well known, and maybe even make enough to help pay for our six daughters to go to college.
In the end I chose the very un-Lucy-like way of telling them...I didn't say much at all. I casually mentioned to the in-laws that I wrote a "risque" book. I told the kids that I wrote an "adult" book that they could read when they were much older. I told the exes I wrote a "a book." I told my mom she'd love it (and she did--as did my Grandmother after my mom sent her a copy). I told my dad I'd be okay with him never reading it at all. And I left it at that. I know, I chickened out a little bit, but I figured if it ever became an issue for my family, it would likely be because my book was famous, in which case, I'd be able to afford therapy for all involved.
D. M. Pratt
431 Superior
"Honey, you are extremely shy, and I'm...not suitable for public viewing," I said. (I may have slurred a little from the wine.)
"WE don't have to do it, but other people like it," he assured me. "We should do it for them." (Cue heroic background music.)
"Hmm, it's a good idea...for a couple without kids, maybe," I agreed, " but I don't think it would be very responsible of us as parents. I have a better idea, why don't I write a book about a couple with six kids who open a club like that?"
And so began my journey deep into the center of a whole new world. You know how they say "write what you know?" I took that advice, crumpled it up, and swallowed it with my morning coffee. I am far from innocent. I am not shy about sex. Anyone who knows me will tell you I talk about it quite openly whether they like it or not. Getting naked, and doing other things in public, however, was not something I had any interest in trying. What if I did it anyway, though? That was the question I kept asking myself as I wrote Nate and Lucy into life.
Nate and Lucy's personalities come from our lives to some extent. Their silly conversations, weird ideas, love for each other, and even crazy blushing insecurities are pure us. But Nate, and especially Lucy, are far more brave than my husband and I will ever be. Oh, we talk a big game, but in the end, we'd never become members of Mile High Club. While Lucy is out singing on street corners and christening family bathrooms, I'm sitting here worrying about what would happen if anyone ever laid eyes on my browser history from the research I did for this book.
Still, writing it was the easy part. When it was done, and I hit the send button on the email to my publisher okaying the final draft, it occurred to me that we now had to tell other people...people like our parents, our exes, our kids. We couldn't keep it a secret (despite my husband's mantra after every chapter as he read, "our kids can NEVER read this!") The whole point was to sell it, hope it became well known, and maybe even make enough to help pay for our six daughters to go to college.
In the end I chose the very un-Lucy-like way of telling them...I didn't say much at all. I casually mentioned to the in-laws that I wrote a "risque" book. I told the kids that I wrote an "adult" book that they could read when they were much older. I told the exes I wrote a "a book." I told my mom she'd love it (and she did--as did my Grandmother after my mom sent her a copy). I told my dad I'd be okay with him never reading it at all. And I left it at that. I know, I chickened out a little bit, but I figured if it ever became an issue for my family, it would likely be because my book was famous, in which case, I'd be able to afford therapy for all involved.
D. M. Pratt
431 Superior
