Wednesday, July 19, 2006

sex in the morgue revisited

i'm dying to ask

i wish writers could do a reverse interview and ask the reader/reviewer about certain scenes.
some of you might recall it was strongly suggested that i remove the sex-in-the-morgue scene from PI. for people who read the ARC, did that scene bother you?

(like anybody's going to touch that question. i can see why this reverse interview thing wouldn't work.)

there's a fantastic review up at barnesandnoble.com:

Pale Immortal review

i know it's harriet and harriet is almost always positive, but this is beyond the usual harriet nice.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

It didn't bother me at all. It wasn't terribly morgue-ish in the end. If it were me, I'd probably have them test a pull-out table in the you-know-what refrigerator. ;)

Seriously, though, the scene is dark and forebodingly exciting. It's a key scene. It signals a fundamental change in Evan Stroud. And Rachel's perception of that change.

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Have to agree with Jason. I honestly can't see that scene taking place anywhere other than the morgue. I think the setting is crucial.

anne frasier said...

blogger's having a tantrum today.

jason and stephen: that's good to hear. although i believe you are both fairly fond of cemeteries... LOL!

i respect the honesty of my editor who truthfully found the scene disturbing and revolting. but i always have to ask: what's best for the book? is she being overly sensitive, or am i a total weirdass? ( i liked the scene and never even thought about it being revolting and kinky until she mentioned it.) i am kind of a weirdass, so in the back of my mind i worried that she was right -- even though i felt very strongly that the scene should remain in the book.

Anonymous said...

I just don't get it. How can that scene be disturbing? You did not pound the reader with morgue elements. They didn't use dissection tools. Someone's dead grandmother was not watching them. That's where Rachel works. Evan arrived. It happened. He left. It was totally believable, natural, and NOT weirdass.

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

Anne,

I'm going to snag a copy of Pale Immortal just so I can read that morgue scene. I'll read the whole thing, of course, but will have to flip through to the morgue-sex right away.

anne frasier said...

jason, that's what i thought. I absolutely didn't get her abhorrence. it wasn't as if there was a dead body right there or anything. it really made me feel like a perv, yet at the same time removing the scene would have weakened a fairly big section of the book.

tribe: thanks. why does that short sentence seem so loaded? :D

anne frasier said...

patrick, oh my god. thanks for the huge laugh! :D

i have to go check the page numbers.

267 - 271

:D

Jeff said...

The scene is sexy, well written, and an integral part of the story. :)

anne frasier said...

he says with a smile.

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

Holy cow! Rockin' review, Anne!! Congrats!! I've been thinking of posting a review on amazon, but I've never done one before. I'll have to try and figure it out. =D

Nope, didn't bother me. In fact, the scene was so intimate that it seemed natural. It didn't even make me go, hey, they're having sex in a morge, it was such a smooth scene.

anne frasier said...

thanks, kelly! i was hoping you'd weigh in on the sex issue for a female POV.

as far as amazon reviews go...just so you'll know... i think you have to have an account with amazon to leave a review. they also have a block on new releases, so no reviews can be left until...i'm not sure when the block is lifted. a couple of weeks before the release? or maybe not until the release date. i'm not sure.

but at barnes and noble you can leave early reviews. and i don't think you have to have an account. ;)

Bill Cameron said...

I don't wonder if we shouldn't feel bad for your editor. I mean, hasn't she ever had sex at work? You know, staying late, your sweetie comes by with take out Chinese to commisserate as you work, and the next thing you know all the paperwork is on the floor and you're sprawled across the desk doing . . . stuff.

That's happened to everyone, right?

Right?

(P.S.: I can't wait for September 5th.)

anne frasier said...

lol!

i'm not touching that, but now i'm thinking of putting up a poll about sex at work.

trotting off to bravenet to see what kind of polls i can find.

angie said...

Apropos of nothing in particular, I watched the Pale Immortal video again last night. It was cool, and I had a great time with "the passenger's dead" - or "the passenger's Ned" or Ted, or Jed, or Fred, or Zed. Nice to be easily amused...drove my husband nuts, and that's always the worth the price of admission!
;-)

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

"That's happened to everyone, right?"

I never have sex at work. What really sucks about that is I work at home...

Stacie Penney said...

I'll second Patrick B's thoughts...

My reaction was, "wait, they're in a morgue. But if they leave, the mood is broke. Why do I give a rip? It's where she works. She's used to it and it isn't any more creepy than my basement."

But thinking that took a split second and I was over it like that. finger snap.

anne frasier said...

angie: haha!
when my daughter asked my son if he would mind if she used that song (which is a rough, unfinished mix) in the video, he told her to go ahead. but it turned out he thought she was going to just loop a section and really bury it, especially the lyrics. ooh, he was not happy when he saw the video. we try to keep it away from him now.
:D

anne frasier said...

patrick, lol!

working at home was the first thing that went through my mind too.

i put up a sex at work? poll in the sidebar, but then took it down when i realized it only showed up with firefox.
back to the drawing board.

anne frasier said...

stay-c: it's good to get another female response.


in the back of my mind i was thinking: wait, guys usually don't care where sex takes place.
:D :D :D

no offense, guys, but you know what i'm talking about. ;)

Anonymous said...

"If we duck a little, no one else in the store will be able to see us behind this rack of floor-length coats."

"Does this barrel of used automotive parts make you as horny as it makes me?"

"Boy, this underpass is really making me hot."

"Look at that satellite dish! Let me just hoist you up there, honey."

Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about.

Bill Cameron said...

Um, that was me up there on the satellite dish.

anne frasier said...

oh my stars!

:O



;)

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

The immortal line I whispered at the age of 17: "Don't worry, I can hear your father snoring."

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

The immortal line I said to the same girl five years later: "I do."

There's a lesson in this story, but it escapes me at the moment.

anne frasier said...

aw, that's sweet, patrick!

Bill Cameron said...

Once or twice when I was in college I heard my roommate whisper, "Don't worry, Bill sleeps like a log."

anne frasier said...

hmmm, the roommate kinda sounds like that guy who always told girls he was already wearing a rubber.


should i have said that???

Anonymous said...

Anne: LOL!!

Awesome review. Can't wait for September!!

Anonymous said...

nienke: thanks for laughing at that. i was beginning to think maybe i should delete it. :D