The S Word

Written by Guest Blogger Camille Minichino

Congratulations to contest winners Pauline Baird Jones and Brenda.

Today I welcome my first guest blogger, Camille Minichino. Camille is a retired physicist and the author of three series.  As Camille Minichino, she's published eight novels in the periodic table mysteries. Her AKAs are Margaret Grace (The Miniature Mysteries) and Ada Madison (The Professor Sophie Knowles Mysteries).  Check out her Web Site to read the first chapter of The Square Root of Murder , her newest release.

Not only is Camille one of the most prolific authors I know, she's also the funniest physicist I've ever met.  Okay, she's the only physicist I've ever met, but she is a hoot! Check out her post on S*X and find out for yourself.

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Mine is not the generation of free-flowing dialogue about S*X. My mother's idea of S*X education was to warn me: "Stay away from boys!"

 

Though profanity in two languages was part of my vocabulary from my early years, I never heard the word "S*X," or any associated with it, like "PREG****" spoken aloud in my home or neighborhood.

 

I remember a lot of winks, especially at wedding receptions, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive from church. The old ladies would say, "I'll bet they're around the corner (wink)." The response: "I wouldn't be surprised if she's already (wink)."

 

For a good part of my life, I associated this prudish reluctance to use the S word with the climate of the nineteen forties and fifties and my immigrant, Catholic neighborhood.

 

But much later, in the late nineteen nineties, I found the same attitude in a WASPy young woman who was my editor at the time. I remember meeting the blond Ms. JK in her Sixth Avenue, New York City building. She swept into her office, all bright and energetic, wearing the professional version of a little black dress.

 

Here we are, talking about my fourth book.

 

"You know, about Gloria and Matt," she begins.

 

I nod. My protagonist in the Periodic Table Mysteries, Gloria Lamerino, meets homicide detective Matt Gennaro while doing her amateur sleuth thing, helping the cops in science-related cases.

 

"They're attracted to each other, right?" JK adds, hooking a chunk of hair over her ear.

 

I nod again. In the first book, Gloria gets "twinges" when Matt's around; in the second book, they hug briefly; in the third book, they neck. Really, only their necks.

 

(Hey, I wasn't writing romance. And my very first book was a nonfiction treatise on nuclear waste management, so not a lot of opportunity for S*Xual exploration there.)

 

"They're adults, right?" JK says.

 

"Right," I say.

 

"And they're free. I mean, no commitments, right?"

 

"Right."

 

"Then don't you think . . . ?" she asks.

 

I gulp. "You want me to . . .?"

 

"Yes."

 

"I should . . .?"

 

"Move them forward," she says.

 

"So they should . . .?" I ask.

 

"Yes, definitely, they should."

 

"Okay," I say.

 

And thus in book four, Gloria and Matt move forward to S*X. Behind closed doors, of course.

 

It's now 10 books later, and in my latest, The Square Root of Murder, there's more moving forward, and now and then the word sex is spelled out.

 

(OMG, did I really just write that word?)

 

I need lessons from my gracious host, Cindy Sample, who does better with the S word in her debut than I've done in 14 books.

 

Now that you've been duly warned about the PG-13 nature of my first books, if you still want a copy of my latest release, make a comment here, and I'll draw a name on Friday, July 22.