When is it going too far?

Okay, here it is in a nutshell. If you read my books, you generally notice my prologue is a tad bit gruesome for the customary romance. That's why mine is a hybrid. I like to blend the two. I usually go 'balls to the wall' with the prologue, making it as realistically gross as possible, and then ease up the rest of the book.

I know some people don't like the nature of it all. I have a group of test subjects (AKA my friends) that I bounce the prologue off of often. When Tammy (proofer extraordinaire) calls me and is freaking out about a scene, it then gets tossed to my next two guinea pigs. Sarah and Holly. I don't often talk about my other girls, but today i'm going to for a change.

Prime example is the book Fire Burns Hot. Tammy calls freaking out that its beyond gross and she can't go any further. (Yeah, read my previous blog about me pushing her out of her comfort zone) What do I do? Panic? Cry? Curl into a ball and rock back and forth on my office floor?
Nope.
I send it to the back up team. Sarah and Holly get an email usually titled HELP!  I'm sure they cringe,knowing what's coming. I paste the whole damn thing in there and send it off.
Here's the general conversation:

Tammy: You went too far.
Me: You don't say. On what this time?
Tammy: Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface while her skin went taunt around her mouth.
Me: Hmmmmmm. Really? Because I thought I could have been worse.
Tammy: OMG!
Me: We've had this discussion before, didn't we?
Tammy: You need a second opinion. WAY too far this time.
Me: Okay.

I bang out an email begging for help from the other two ladies in my life.

Me: Guys, Tammy said I went too far. Did I?
Sarah: I read that and literally laughed. Here's my favorite part. 'Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface'. It's gross but so you. I love it.
Holly: Too far? No, not really.

If you knew my friends, you'd understand how funny this all is. Tammy is probably the wildest person I know. The girl makes me blush. But toss in some crispy skin and she's ready to break up with me. (I actually get money from her husband to make her nuts. Its pretty lucrative)

Sarah won't read my books in the dark. Yet Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface makes her laugh. I swear the woman is my sister from another uterus.

Holly is damn hysterical. Sometimes I want to gross her out just to see if it's possible. Even pregnant she has stronger stomach than I do. I swear she wants to chant 'more guts! more gore! Come on you sissy girl, kill them better than that! What are you? A man?'

Thank you ladies for bearing with me through it all and being an awesome set of women. I love you all and appreciate how you tolerate my craziness.

Needless to say, I apologize in advance if body soup or Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface freaks any of you readers out. I'd like to say I was going to tone it down, but let's be honest.

I just won't. I do promise if you make it past the prologue, it does get less gross and then into the romance and personal aspect of the book.

I swear!

Much love and Mayhem,
Morgan