When people hear - or read - writers wrong

“I’ve been reading your website,” a friend recently confided. “Your next book sounds very interesting. About Jesus going to India.”

Whoa, whoa. No, I told her - I am not writing a book about Bollywood Jesus. I did write a blog post making fun of a movie that’s set to portray Jesus as an action hero traveling across India. “Ah,” she said, smiling. The relief in her eyes hinted that she was thinking Oh, thank God - Meg’s not as crazy, or as damned, as I thought.

This isn’t the first misconception people have had about my writing, of course. I’m repeatedly asked, “You write children’s books, right?” And when I say no, there’s incredulity. “Are you sure?” Yes, I’m sure. I finally realized why people asked this question when one woman said, “Then who writes The Princess Diaries?” That, of course, would be Meg Cabot.

But I’m not the only writer who faces misunderstandings now and then. When a good friend published a comic novel, she was startled to get a phone call from a priest at her church, asking her to come to the rectory for a chat. He wanted to know if it was true she’d written a pornographic book. She hadn’t. Her novel contained screwball innuendo, but not a single act of ribaldry, much less sex. After managing not to have a stroke, she reassured the padre that she wasn’t bringing shame upon herself and the parish.

And a while ago I was on a panel with the delightful M.J. Rose. Afterward, a man approached her and said, “So, you’re a sex therapist. What’s that like?”

“No,” M.J. said. “I’m an author. I wrote a novel about a character who’s a sex therapist.”