Something Wicked, This Way Comes

Halloween’s just around the corner. All this month you can download a passel of some of the creepiest and scariest thriller novels around. And they’re free. But only this month. Check it out, right here.

And something NOT wicked, this way comes, times two:

First, what’s in a word?

Well, let me tell you.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a Cambridge University professor sent me a short email, all of one sentence long, that said my writing turned her off. Imagine that. My writing? Yep, true story. I was crushed, I tell you! But why (you ask or this story will be over before it starts)?

Because, said she, I was disrespectful of Cassie Webber, the 11-year-old child kidnapped in The Amendment Killer, my latest political and legal thriller, launching this November 1, now less than one month away. I was so excited at this approaching milestone. And then came this shattering missive, as powerful as it was brief (something I’ve never been able to master, brevity).

And how was I disrespectful of my very own heroine (you ask or this story will still be over before it starts, c’mon you gotta help me out here)?

Because, on occasion, I refer to Cassie (and me too for that matter) as a diabetic. Rather than as a person with diabetes. Her point: It’s rude, wrong, and plainly politically incorrect to define a person by his or her medical condition.

My counter-point: Authors are trained that less is more, more is less, and my one word, “diabetic,” trumps four, “a person with diabetes.”

She wasn’t buying it for a minute, no matter how hard I pleaded my case, no matter how I argued that I couldn’t love Cassie more if she were my own child, my own creation. 🙂 Hmm, maybe I was being a little insensitive, but certainly innocently so.

This professor and I almost never spoke because my first instinct, bolstered by . . . The Wife, was to delete this aggressive email and be done with it. I’ve more important things to do, right? After all, you can please some of the people some of the time. But you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Right?

But those who know me know I can’t back away from a fight or a challenge. That’s how I became a writer in the first place. But that’s another story for another time. If you’re interested, you can read about that right here. I had to write back, defend myself, have the last word. Right?

The result: This wonderful college professor and I have now become intercontinental digital pen pals and she and her family and friends have formed a book club to read and discuss The Amendment Killer “amongst” themselves. Because The Wife and I previously committed 50% of the proceeds of The Amendment Killer to diabetes research and education when the novel was just a twinkle in my eye, they’ve all promised to buy their own copies of the novel rather than sharing. And to form their own independent drive to raise money for . . . people with diabetes. How incredible is that!

They’ve also promised to each write and post reviews of The Amendment Killer. Oh, oh. Just when I was starting to believe all those five star reviews I’ve been receiving.

Which brings me to my second something NOT wicked, comes this way.

I’ve been basking in all those generous reviews people have been posting, a bunch of which I shared in my last newsletter. But then a very special one was featured in the current issue of Best Thrillers Magazine and who to share it with if not my writing community? So, here goes, just this one more (well, for now anyway 🙂 ):

 

Happy reading and writing everyone!

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