AN: Let’s get back to our writing, which is an embarrassment to our own parents. How do you cope?
LH: It’s really hard, actually! I want so badly for them to be proud. When Daddy’s came out my mom called me to say she was very worried about me. My dad makes sure to tell everyone, even strangers, that I’m a writer but that they shouldn’t read my stuff, and I know he doesn’t mean to, but it hurts me deeply! I get it; it’s hard to read anything a family member writes, much less story after story dealing with sex, loneliness, bodily fluids. And you don’t want people thinking you were a terrible parent and that’s why your daughter writes what she writes. Happily, my mom read DON’T KISS ME and was able to see the forest for the trees. Many times she’s called to tell me how she finally gets it: I’m a writer, this is fiction. Aside from that I cope by never really bringing up my writing life with family members. They don’t ask, and I don’t tell.
How have your parents reacted? Are they aware of the buzz around Tampa?
AN: Similarly, the poor dears! They are very conservative. Like my father will leave the room if a bra commercial comes on television. I’m trying to keep them as sheltered from Tampa as possible. My mother didn’t know the title until she asked me last week. Luckily they’re not that tech savvy. I live in fear that they’ll one day decide to Google my name, but it hasn’t happened yet.
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