get out of sex free card

get out of sex free card

By day two [of our honeymoon], 
I would have given anything for a 
Get Out of Sex Free card, but
my husband wasn’t passing them out.

(Marla Taviano, From Blushing Bride to Wedded Wife, 2006)

Yep. Actual quote from page 16 of an actual book. That I actually wrote. 

Let’s try this again, 2023-style.

*

thanks but no thanks 

“sex time!” her new husband said
for the umpteenth time since she’d

lost her virginity two days before
in their king-size honeymoon bed

she loved him of course but she was 
exhausted and very very (very) sore

so without looking up, she pulled her
I Only Have Sex When I Feel Like It

card out of her pocket, flashed it,
and happily went back to her book

*

I won’t be spending the rest of my life trying to give myself a do-over for aaaallll the words I wrote when I believed deeply in complementarianism and submission to my husband’s authority and being a good Christian girl/woman/wife/mom. It would literally take the actual rest of my life.

But I’m going to spend a decent chunk of time on it, because it has been really healing.

If you have some words you’d like to repurpose/redeem/reclaim (they don’t have to be in a published book, and I hope for your sweet sake that they ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT), I’ve got the perfect workshop for you: Upcycling Words That No Longer Fit. Hosted by my friend Cara Meredith and me on Thursday, Feb 16 at 8:00pm ET. It’s going to be cathartic and fun. JOIN US! (click on the link to sign up!)

As always, I’d also love to invite you to join my WRITING COMMUNITY (the paid side of this free newsletter). Today we’re talking BOOK SALES.

QUESTION: Is anyone here today who actually READ From Blushing Bride to Wedded Wife? (I'm so sorry.)