I guess I'd been warned. Oh well.And I am going to really try to control myself and not cuss in this post.
I was recently accused of being a bad father because of some of the content elements in my books actually inflict harm on my kids and other people's children, too.
Wow. There's just not a lot you can say about that to try enlightening the opposition, so I guess I'll shut up.
And, on the same lines, this brings me to my recent separation from a popular MySpace-like site where readers compare the length of their booklists and try to post coherent reviews. Lots of librarians on that site, I guess.
One person had apparently received an Advance Copy of in the path of falling objects. The person posted a review (with spoilers -- and anyone who can't review a book without spoiling the plot turns is a complete moron), and, very nicely said that the book was "magnificently written." I like that.
But the person went on to give the book a fairly low rating, explaining the rating because terrible things happen to completely innocent people in the novel. Not the perfect, wrapped in vanilla-scented satin bows ending.
Welcome to Earth, cybertard.
[Is "cybertard" a cussword? I just made it up, so I don't think it actually counts as one.]
Maybe the reviewer didn't actually live through things like some kids have been going through for the past eight years -- or like what I went through as a very young kid when my older brother -- with whom I'd shared a bedroom every night of my life -- was fighting in Vietnam -- and some nights, when they'd play particularly gruesome footage on the evening news, I'd hear my mom crying, but she'd still manage to come in and tuck me in and kiss my forehead as though that in itself would prevent a seven-year-old boy from dreaming about his brother burning to death in some jungle for a lie, because I would be safe -- she'd say -- and America was helping the rest of the world fight against evil.
Evil, like dads who write about things that kids aren't supposed to know exist.
So they can sleep peacefully.
I'm a bad daddy.
