Do you ever read a book and you can tell it's been sanitized? It's like the author was censored. Maybe you haven't since we live in the US, but I've read that there are authors who want to do something with a character and they are overruled because the publisher is concerned about what kind of image that will portray. You're probably asking why I'm bringing this up. I'm about to tell you.

In Forbidden, I have an underaged smoker. He's seventeen and he's smoking through about the first half of the novel. Not only does he rarely get caught, but the punishment when he is caught is never carried out. Why did I do this? Because you're supposed to write what you know and I've been a smoker since I was fourteen (I'm twenty eight now. If you do the math, that means I've smoked for half of my lifetime. It's time to quit) and I thought it wouldn't hurt to throw that image out there. Then I throw into the mix a friend of this character who also smokes and is underage. One underaged smoker I think a publisher could overlook. But two? It might pose a problem.

I don't like the thought of making my smoking characters eighteen just because of propriety. Teenagers smoke. How on earth do you think you have adult smokers? You think adults just start smoking all of a sudden? Not very often, no. I can't exactly make the vampires smokers. I mean I could, but we all know vampires don't need to breathe, so why would they need to smoke?

My point here is this: if you feel it doesn't take anything away from the story, be prepared to edit out a characteristic that might not be PC with an editor or a publisher. If it takes away from the story or the character, fight for it. At least that's what I'm going to do. If you don't want to deal with it, don't put it in the story.

I just don't see what the big deal is though. We have erotica that's published and available in mainstream bookstores. Sex scenes show up in romance novels and mysteries and various other novels. We even have scenes with characters doing drugs in some instances. But you throw in some underage smoking or drinking or whatever, and people freak out. But that's just my opinion.