kellysbishop.com

I remember my mother telling me that when she was a child, Grandma & Grandpa would go to the next town over if they wanted to see a movie. Because he was a Southern Baptist preacher and somehow movies were too racy??? (This is the 1930′s & 40′s, I’m talking about people…) You’d think aww how cute & silly and boy have things changed. Think again.

Apparently a Pennsylvania parent found out that her son’s English teacher was writing erotic romance in her spare time – using a pen name. Judy Mays has been both a writer and a teacher for a loooong time now. But when the parent ran to the local news station about it, somehow it was considered “newsworthy” and “shocking”. The news station ran an incredibly inept piece that should be shown in journalism school as an example of how to be an embarrassment to your profession in one quick tabloid sound bite. If anyone actually gets fired, I hope it’s the reporter.

In the internet outrage that’s boiled up, several people have written that this is exactly why they use a pen name/or will once they become published. But Judy Mays DID and was still outed. My objection to pen names is that it may give the writer a false sense of security. If you believe you can publish under a different name and nobody will ever find out who you really are – just have a little chat with Judy. That may have been true BEFORE the internet and social media. Not now.

You can show your support for Judy on Facebook at this link -

http://www.facebook.com/SupportJudyMays