As I said on Monday, I have run out of friends to hassle for REAL Man Monday and REAL Woman Wednesday, but I remain committed to highlighting the unrealistic views of love and beauty portrayed not only in the movies and television but on the covers of most books in my genre.
Today I stumbled upon a Facebook blog of X celebrities who are ageing poorly. When I looked through them, my jaw drop. People like Brad Pitt and Jonny Depp? Britney Spears and Renee Zellweger? But this one really took the cake…
Come on, people, get REAL!?!
This is a fifty-four year old woman…54. And she is still damned beautiful.
Why is it that we are not allowed to age?
Why is it assumed by my industry in particular that the only characters capable of finding REAL love are those in their 20s? Let me tell you a secret, folks…twenty somethings usually screw up their first loves/marriages, because they don’t have the maturity to appreciate how good they gots it.
I was really excited when a friend of mine released a novella about a couple, who were in their mid-40 and had been married for over 20 years. I thought…not there is a story I can truly appreciate. Then I saw the cover…20 or at best 30-something couple and he was definitely not sporting the slight paunch that she had so lovingly described in her book. I almost cried.
And that, my friends, is why Tara Neale books do NOT have naked people on the cover. I have toyed, of course, with the idea of putting REAL people on them…but look at the problem I am having getting them just to volunteer for REAL Man Monday and REAL Woman Wednesday. So until I can find brave souls, I will stick to my inanimate objects that are crucial to my storylines.
Oh and Meg, darlin’, DON’T listen to them! I would pay to see a re-make of ‘You’ve Got Mail.’ In fact, I think that storyline would make loads more sense for a couple in their 50s than their 20s/30s. I can so see that kind of angst between two strong, mature characters butting heads. Damn, you HollyWeird, you shot that wad too soon for sure.
Tara Cox - Literary Erotica 