Sex, sex, sex! (Okay, Gender)

Jeff Cohen

 I love hearing from readers. Truly, I do. Every one of them, even the ones who send emails to tell you how disappointed they were while reading your book (Really? You had to take time out of your day to inform me of that?). They ask questions, many of them say nice things about the work, and sometimes they try to get you to read their work, something I never do, for legal and otherwise common sense reasons.

But the emails that come in through the account for E.J. Copperman are special. They do pretty much the same things as the others, but the readers who get in touch are dealing with an unknown, as very little personal information on E.J. exists, mostly because there isn't any.

The best part is that they think E.J. is a woman. 

I've posted here before on my delight at that assumption; it means that the illusion is working and the voice of the Haunted Guesthouse novels is authentic enough, which is very pleasing. Much of the credit goes to the series editor, Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, who is a bona fide woman and nudges me back in line when I make Alison sound too guy-y.

But the interesting reactions come when people find out that E.J. is indeed more a man than, you know, not. They are, in some cases, astounded. Again, I take that as a compliment. The questions one gets, however, are a little baffling.

"How can you possibly write from a woman's point of view?"

Roughly half the people on the planet are female. If, as a writer of fiction, I can't imagine their point of view, I had better restrict myself to stories in men's correctional institutions or look for another line of work. 

Spencer Quinn (aka Peter Abrahams, not to spoil your illusion) writes a series of mystery novels in which the narrator is the detective's dog. I'll give you a moment, if you haven't read Chet and Bernie (and you should). A dog. And he's the narrator.

Now, a number of questions might leap to the mind of the astute reader. For example, can the dog type? Does he write these things while his human counterpart is asleep? Has Bernie read the books? Does Chet dictate them to a person who can decipher barking into human English? None of these issues are addressed in the books.

But nobody bats an eye when Quinn/Abrahams writes from the dog's point of view. I write from a female character's viewpoint, and it's amazing? 

I know it's hard to fathom, but I've met a number of women in my life. I'm married to one of them. We've been living together for 26 years.  Another was one of the two people who raised me. I lived in her house for 20 years. Writers observe other people and use what they observe to create fiction. I have observed women. (When I was younger, I observed women a LOT, but I'm married now. To a woman.)

If I wasn't able to at least speculate about what a female human might think in any given situation, I'd be a pretty bad writer. So the astonishment at being able to create believable characters who are women eludes me. 

Of course I can write women. I can write men, or children. Or dogs, if I decide to put my mind to it. I've written beings from other planets (not in books). I've written movie stars. Soldiers. Police officers. Ghosts. Never been any of those things, either. 

It doesn't seem to bother anybody that I can write at least somewhat believable murderers without having killed anyone (that I can discuss). But a woman! Amazing! How does he do it?

I imagine stuff and write it down. That's my job. Thanks for being shocked that I can fool you sometimes; it means I must be doing something right.

Comments

[Carolyn J. Rose]

The only person who complained about me writing a male POV for Hemlock Lake and Through a Yellow Wood was a friend who hadn't read the books but thought it was just "wrong" for me to do that.
Why?
She never could explain.
Go figure.

[Patty]

It is a bit of a double-standard. Most people don't complain if women write men. I figure if the author can make the story believable and give me characters I like, I'll like the book. Matters not to me if there is a man writing a woman's voice or a woman writing a man's.

[Toni Lotempio]

Patty's right. women write men's pov's and no one bats an eyelash (this is because, most likely, most people operate under teh assumption men don't totally GET women - remember what happens when you assume??????)

anyway, I had never heard of that Spencer Quinn series before. I'll have to check it out. As one who wanted to write about a talking cat and had that idea quashed, i'm curious to see what this one is like. :) (and yes, Josh, I'll probably always be ticked about that till the end of time)

[Patrick Balester]

Women writers have been doing this for years, and also using male pen names. Shouldn't surprise anyone these days. Glad to see you're having success with it!