Inspired By My Greatest Aunt

If you're not following @AmaliaTheresa on twitter, I thought I'd just drop this here for reference--it's the first tweet of a thread, so click on through and learn how my great aunt inspired me to publish these books!

Once upon a time at a family picnic, my great aunt sat me down and made it clear in no uncertain terms that she did not want me writing "dirty" books.

She is matriarch of my family, and I am her namesake. Her favorite of the great-nieces/nephews/niblings.

— Amalia Theresa (@AmaliaTheresa) February 18, 2020

Thread reads, in full: 

Once upon a time at a family picnic, my great aunt sat me down and made it clear in no uncertain terms that she did not want me writing "dirty" books. She was the matriarch of my family, and I am her namesake. Her favorite of the great-nieces/nephews/niblings.

When I finished writing HELEN OF SPARTA (as Amalia Carosella) I took all the sex out of the book, turning every scene into a fade to black instead. Then I printed it out and sent it to my aunt as a gift--my grandfather got one, too, though I'm not sure he ever read his.

My great aunt, however, DEFINITELY read hers, because she called my mother up when she finished and told her something that I will NEVER forget: 

"If she wants to be successful she's going to have to learn to write the sex."

THIS, after I had gone to so much trouble to STRIP the sex from my book!!

It was totally a classic Aunt Lottie move, to be completely honest. To hand down a directive and then be vaguely (or pointedly) critical of the result, as if she had no hand in the outcome.

Well, in PLAYING TO WIN, I *definitely* learned to write the sex, and now I can only hope and pray that my great aunt--whose names of mine I have given pride of place--will be right about the rest. That in throwing myself into this with abandon, I will find success.

If you want to inspire my great aunt to BOTH roll over in her grave at the public scandal AND be privately DELIGHTED by the same, order PLAYING TO WIN, the first in my SCORCHINGLY HOT ultra sexy romance series: https://books2read.com/u/47QDog

And who knows, maybe Aunt Lottie's opinion will turn out to hold the weight of prophecy.

Honest to god, it wouldn't even be the first time.

(Seriously, she had a gift. Another thing she passed onto me--albeit, different in form. Instead of visions, I got Thor.)