I can totally relate - and it held me back for years. Because it wasn't just people I knew but
anyone. The idea that I would ever have the nerve to send my writing to an agent or publisher was ridiculous. I didn't just not submit because of this, I didn't
write. Because if you don't have anything written then you never have to send it off to anyone... (I'm an idiot and if I could go back in time and meet my past self thirty years ago I'd slap me so hard my current self would still have the same bruise I was inflicting.)
Anyway, the Internet changed things for me. I started reading fanfic online and then tried writing some and putting it up. Working on the theory that
a) people online aren't real in the same sense as people I know.
b) If people laughed me to scorn I could vanish and change my online name and never be that idiot who thought she could write ever again.
In fact they didn't laugh. I eventually got involved in an online crit group for the fandom I was writing in, and then hooked up with a couple of beta readers for more intense critique. So I learned not only to share my work and deal with comments and reviews, but also deal with more detailed critique. This was good experience for when I started writing for publication.
I'll be honest, having that buffer zone of the Internet still helps. All the publishers I've worked with are based in the US. I'm in the UK. So everything has been done via email and a few things sent in the post. I've never even spoken to them on the phone. Which is good, because I hate the phone. So just like when I first started out with the fanfic, there's an unreal quality about them. I know they are real. They pay me money. I follow them on Facebook and Twitter and know what their dogs and cats look like. But in the end, they are still "internet people".
I'm getting better. My work colleagues know about my writing and there's a bit of banter goes on. I can talk to people at writer's groups and conventions.
As for family, ha ha ha - no. My dad has a print copy of my first book - which I gave him only after extracting a promise he won't read it. They're all welcome to buy them of course.
And I suppose read them - as long as they don't ever tell me they have done so or ask me anything about them. I don't mind talking in general terms about publishing and writing, just not the specifics about my books, please!
I don't think that's just because I write erotic romance. I think it would be the same if I wrote cozy mysteries or how to books about training budgerigars. It's just the way I am.