A sale, and unexpected responses to saying you write fantasy

I’m happy to say that I’ve sold a twisted little flash piece of mine called “Mr. Fluffy” to the wonderfully named Untied Shoelaces of the Mind.

And on a non-pimpage note, I’ve now encountered the following situation enough that I’m curious to know if any of my fellow fantasy writers have as well:

I’ll be in a conversation with a non-writer and/or non-speculative fiction reader who finds out I’m a writer and asks, “What kind of stories do you write?” The “science fiction” and “horror” parts of my answer usually go over as expected, but saying “fantasy” often earns me awkward silence and a strange, questioning look. So, even though I’ve never written anything with an elf in it, I elaborate with, “Elves, magic, Lord of the Rings, that sort of thing.” The person then laughs in relief and says, “Oh, when you said fantasy, I thought you meant like sexual fantasies.”

Erm, no, I did not. At least not unless one of my characters has a sexual fantasy relevant to the plot.