A Wizard Revealed…

When you watched the Wizard Of Oz the first time did you like it better when the Wizard was the ‘all powerful being’ behind the curtain or did you relish the moment he was outed by Toto? For me it was a big disappointment because I really wanted to believe that the Wizard was this great and powerful force, but then when he was revealed I realized he was just a regular old guy who knew some cool stuff. Kind of a let down, ya know?

The ‘reveal’ idea is making me think about a few things now that my debut BDSM romance novel, Reclaimed Surrender, has been published. How ‘out there’ do I want to even be to my readers? That is the question.

I’m reminded of my first reader – author meet and greet. I was the enamored reader and my author crush was this stunning, ethereal beauty in a flowing white gossamer gown who was going to read her beautiful prose with a soft and totally cultured English accent or so I thought…

There I was sitting in the hot auditorium. My sweaty little palms clutching her masterpiece. I was trembling with excitement at the thought that any moment my for realz goddess was going to make an appearance, when this stranger walked up to the podium and cracked opened the haloed book.

I swallowed my disappointment at the sight of her. Meh, so what if she wasn’t the five foot eight ethereal beauty I had envisioned. Five foot nothing but stout was okay too. I plastered a tight smile on my face, wiggled to get comfortable in my chair and waited for that gorgeous voice to speak those temporal perils of wisdom by which she wrote.

When she spoke the effect on me was like a bucket of ice water landing on a sunbather who’d been soaking up the rays for an hour. I nearly fell off my chair. There was no cultured English accent. Nope, she had a gritty smoker’s voice that railed when she inflected. I can remember wincing it was so bad.

Huh? What? This couldn’t be. Where was my beautiful author that had been my friend through the whole book? This short, stout, coughing and wheezing woman wasn’t my author!

…But she was. And after checking to make sure a few times, I got over my initial shock and determined it didn’t matter what she looked or sounded like her words and stories touched me and that’s all I need to know. So I figure if I can get over the Wizard reveal my readers should be able to.

I wonder if they’d be disappointed to know that I don’t wear lingerie because I hate doing laundry and unlike my heroine I can cook and do so every freaking night.

Does anyone else wonder how their readers perceive them?

Riley