50 Shaes of Grey author E.L. James (real name: Erika Mitchell, nee Leonard) got more than she bargained for when she opened herself up to questions from her fans on Twitter, taking questions with the Twitter hashtag #AskELJames.
It all started with this tweet from E.L. James’ 50 Shades UK publisher, Random House, which said “Mon 29 Jun at 6pm UK time, @E_L_James will be doing a live chat with @TwitterBooks. Use #AskELJames to ask a question.”
We’re not sure what sort of questions E.L. James was expecting on Twitter, but we think that she and her publisher should have been expecting what happened (but clearly weren’t or this would never have been an event).
Below are some of our favourites – but you can see them all on Twitter here.
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- #AskELJames Did you know that Pixar told a better love story in the first 15 minutes of the movie “Up” than you did in all 4 of your books?
- #AskELJames What’s your favourite shade out of the 50? Is there a chance that more shades will be added?
- #AskELJames How does it feel to have actually written a worse love story than Twilight? That is real skill
- #AskELJames Which do you hate more 1) Consent 2) The English language 3) strong Independent women 4) All of the above
- #AskELJames you do realize that if Grey wasn’t a billionaire, the 50 Shades trilogy would be one hell of a Law & Order episode?
- #AskELJames Is there a safe word which will stop you from writing anymore of this bollocks?
- #AskELJames Do all these negative tweets sent to you seem abusive to you? I think it’s romantic enough to be turned into a novel!
- #AskELJames after the success of “Grey,” have you considered re-telling the story from the perspective of someone who can write
However, some of the questions which took E.L. James to task took on a more serious tone, such as:
- #AskELJames what’s it like telling millions of women it’s okay to be in an abusive relationship as long as he’s rich.
- #AskELJames Do you know how heartbreaking it is to see all the girls my age dreaming of such an unhealthy relationship?
James did not respond to any of the serious questions, and apparently as often as not responded to the others by blocking the person who tweeted the question.
Which leads to pretty much our two favourite Tweets in the entire #AskELJames debacle:
And
The EL James PR team right about now. #AskELJames pic.twitter.com/bZ3jyIdPUG
— Deb Bailey (@DebBC) June 29, 2015
By the way, if you couldn’t bring yourself to see the movie at the theatre, but must see it, you can watch it in the privacy of your own home by buying Fifty Shades of Grey on Amazon here.
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