Over the weekend I was talking with a bookseller friend of mine, who was telling me a customer had come in to return a book by A M Homes. He said he never would have bought it if he’d known she was a woman. Nice.
One of the questions I get asked a lot about my novel, is how come you write so convincingly as a man? I feel like sometimes the answer they want is that I have lived as a man for a period of my life.
In New York recently a man asked Is it the sort of book that I would like, or is it a girly book?
In Melbourne on a panel of women who have written as male characters, we were asked What made you write about men rather than writing Chick-Lit?
I’d like to know why writing about a different country from the one you live in, or as an animal, or a ghost, as God, the wind or whatever, is not as surprising as writing in a different sex. Or is it just when women write as men? I can think of plenty of men who write as women and no one seems to lift an eyebrow. I’m not complaining – I’ll take all the attention I can get – but why the big deal?
Any suggestions of books written in the opposite sex?
From Chris Cleave’s website:
“Why does a man like you choose to write from the point of view of a female?”
Read the whole thing here:
http://www.chriscleave.com/main/?p=398
I’m sure there’s loads of books, but do you remember the song ‘I Could Never Be Your Woman’ by White Town. There was something of a big deal about that being written from a woman’s POV, while carrying a male vocal.
Another vaguely related fact: I remember hearing a while ago that when playing computer games, (if given the option) roughly 50% of men choose to play female characters, while less than ten percent of women choose to play as men. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I thought it might be interesting brain fodder for you.
I used to enjoy being the female character on Golden Axe.
But I also liked being the dwarf.
I didn’t like the boring average-to-tall man.
Someone should write a novelization of Golden Axe. I was friends with someone just because they had it.
I’m too am a bookseller and a while ago an old fellow was just about to pay for an M.J. Hyland book, until it was somehow revealed that she was a she… at which point, he wrinkled his face in shock/horror/whatever, put the book down and stormed off.
Great.