I'm thinking a lot about cussing.

In my books, specifically.

There's a fair bit of it, I admit. I tend not to cuss much in real life, only when things have really gone awry. But for the protagonist in a mystery novel, things are always going horribly awry. There are dead bodies all over the place for one thing. Surely that warrants an expletive or two, no?

It feels, I think, organic to the character and the situation. But she's a woman and so am I, and after listening to stories from my fellow female authors, methinks that may, in fact, matter.

I know one best-selling author, a woman, who was told to remove a one-night stand her female character had from a book. I know more than one author - all women - who have been told to take out naughty words.

Are readers that puritanical? Or are editors just that paranoid? Why do I never hear male authors discuss this? Do they just not or is there really a double-standard?

I don't know. I really don't.