E. L. James, whose real name is Erika Leonard, is the author of the best-selling books, Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades of Darker and Fifty Shades of Freed. But being an author is rather new to James (Leonard). Until about a year ago, she was in television production, married to Niall Leonard (the two have been married for 20 years) and the mom to two teenage sons.
Before Leonard was E. L. James, she wrote under the pen name of Snowqueens Icedragons. Yikes! For reasons that can probably best be tagged to a pen name like that, she didn’t have much success. But that all changed when she changed her pen name to E. L. James and Fifty Shades of Grey was available to the public.
E. L. James was just a dream for Leonard for many years. While she concentrated on raising her family and working, she dreamed of someday writing stories people would read and fall in love with. She got her wish…sort of.
She has definitely written stories people have read. Fifty Shades of Grey has sold over 10 million copies. Authors can only dream of that being the case with their work. But as for writing stories people have fallen in love with…well, that’s not so much the case.
Yes, E. L. James is the superstar of love stories to some right now. But most of those are people who wouldn’t know a really good book if it hit them on the head. By and large, the reviews of avid readers and professionals on the subject say the book is poorly written, juvenile, unrealistic and just plain ridiculous.
Did Ms. James think she’d spark such popularity and emotion with her books? Probably not. Dreamed about it, sure. But think it would actually happen…no one in that situation ever does. It’s just been one of those things that no one can really explain.
So what’s next for E. L. James? She’s said to be working on ‘another’ love story. One can hardly imagine what it might be about. But I’ll say this…if she were the mother of two teenage girls instead of two teenage boys I bet she wouldn’t be so degrading and disrespectful of young women in her writing. In fact, I bet her female characters would be treated like princesses.
Before Leonard was E. L. James, she wrote under the pen name of Snowqueens Icedragons. Yikes! For reasons that can probably best be tagged to a pen name like that, she didn’t have much success. But that all changed when she changed her pen name to E. L. James and Fifty Shades of Grey was available to the public.
E. L. James was just a dream for Leonard for many years. While she concentrated on raising her family and working, she dreamed of someday writing stories people would read and fall in love with. She got her wish…sort of.
She has definitely written stories people have read. Fifty Shades of Grey has sold over 10 million copies. Authors can only dream of that being the case with their work. But as for writing stories people have fallen in love with…well, that’s not so much the case.
Yes, E. L. James is the superstar of love stories to some right now. But most of those are people who wouldn’t know a really good book if it hit them on the head. By and large, the reviews of avid readers and professionals on the subject say the book is poorly written, juvenile, unrealistic and just plain ridiculous.
Did Ms. James think she’d spark such popularity and emotion with her books? Probably not. Dreamed about it, sure. But think it would actually happen…no one in that situation ever does. It’s just been one of those things that no one can really explain.
So what’s next for E. L. James? She’s said to be working on ‘another’ love story. One can hardly imagine what it might be about. But I’ll say this…if she were the mother of two teenage girls instead of two teenage boys I bet she wouldn’t be so degrading and disrespectful of young women in her writing. In fact, I bet her female characters would be treated like princesses.
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