Carol (Carol Schmidt Series) (22 page)

Needless to say, the issue was actually about money. The student who
had complained was from a foreign country, and the embassy in question had negotiated
a deal to bring dozens of students to the college each year. The student’s
complaint was that s/he didn’t want ‘pornographers’ on faculty. As a
consequence, a tension arose between the department and the embassy, and veiled
threats were apparently made to cancel the embassy’s deal with the college.

See? It’s not always so easy to live a free and open life. There
were several important consequences of this: 1) the guy lost his job; 2) he had
to stop posting images of himself, and take down those he had already posted; 3)
just to get any further teaching work he had to pretend (aka
lie
) that
none of this had ever happened; 4) he had to live in fear that someone would
find out; 5) all faculty in the department, and indeed the entire institution,
were warned about ‘activities not appropriate for those working in the
educational sector’, which affected non-tenured teachers most obviously,
because their contracts could simply not be renewed if any issues were to arise.

What it really led to, though, was a culture of fear, suspicion and
distrust. Faculty started blocking their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and
generally looking over their shoulder a lot more. That, ladies and gentlemen,
was about a few nude photos. Imagine how my position might change of someone
got to know that I’d written
Carol
? I’ve got at least twenty years left
to work, and I don’t need that kind of hassle.

So, reluctantly, I am Lori Cook.

There is, however, a further reason for adopting a pseudonym. I
write ‘literary’ books as well. I’m not very well known, and I don’t know how
many more books or stories in fields other than erotica I’ll be writing hereafter.
The fact is, I have loved writing
Carol
, and foremost in my mind is the
sequel.

Even if I never publish anything else that is ‘literary’ in nature,
though, I’d like my existing work to escape the inevitable snobbery that would
be generated if I wrote erotica under my own name. Perhaps I should be braver,
and stand by everything that I write. That might come. Certainly, I cannot see
myself caring much about this kind of thing when I’m easing gently into my
golden years. But just for now, it would be nice not to have to suffer the
tarnished reputation of a ‘literary’ writer who went over to the ‘other side’;
not only genre, but erotica!

So, Dear Reader,

I remain yours faithfully,

Lori Cook