This may sound weird but I had no idea my mother would want to read my novel The Buzz. I guess I should explain. My book was a labor of love that I worked on for about two years and my mom was one of the few people I shared the process with. Her support and the encouragement from my sister is what helped when I couldn’t move my characters from one scene to another because of writers block. But it never dawned on me that my mother would want to read The Buzz once it was published.

Because of the subject matter, I didn’t think my seventy plus year old mother would have any interest in reading it.

As in most families, my siblings and I show our mom a great deal of respect. So we don’t curse or do anything we deem disrespectful around her. Hence, the reason I didn’t think she would want to read my book. Afterall, I didn’t write The Buzz for my mom’s demographic. I wrote in a way that my characters would speak, not how my siblings and I speak around my mom. But once the book was published, she requested a copy.

“You’re not going to read it, are you?” I asked once she was heading out of my house with The Buzz in hand.

“No, I’m just going to skim it,” she assured me.

I know my mom very well and I knew that she would do more than skim it. So I tried staving her off as long as I could.

“Well don’t read chapter seven,” I told her.

And she promised she wouldn’t.

Within hours she called me laughing hysterically. She’d skipped the chapter I told her not to read, but she fully understood the plot, she loved the characters, and she loved the direction of the story.

A day later, she called and declared she’d finished The Buzz (having finished it in two days) and she loved it! For weeks, we laughed about the characters and plot twists and it left me wondering what was the big deal with her reading it anyway?!? She was a big girl, she could handle it!

As a writer, we reveal things about ourselves through our writing. Possibly about our experiences, sometimes pulled from the recesses of our imagination, but it leaves us naked for the world to read. A small part of me didn’t want to be naked in front of my mom! The world was fine but mom – not so much! lol

Was there anyone you didn’t want to read your book? What was your reasons? Please share in the comment section below.