Hurts so Bad

The appreciation of any art form is highly subjective. Whether it’s novel writing, film making, music, sculpting, painting, or singing, everyone has a different opinion. To borrow a cliché, “One person’s junk is another’s treasure.” As a writer, I painfully understand that not all of my readers will be big fans. In fact, some will absolutely hate everything about my novels. There has never been a writer who has escaped the harsh words of critics. Not one.

I truly appreciate constructive criticism. In fact, I gain more from negative feedback than I do from kudos. I can’t really grow as a writer by reading 5-Star reviews. But when a reader points out a flaw in the plot, a technical fault, or a continuity issue, I can learn from that criticism and improve my writing.

The one thing that puzzles me more than anything is why a critic chooses to be downright malicious. Some of the reader reviews I’ve read for both They Never Die Quietly and Resuscitation just tear my heart out. When an author spends thousands of hours writing a novel, designing a plot, crafting sub-plots, creating interesting characters, and going through a comprehensive editorial process, why would anyone derive pleasure from slamming the author in a brutal way?

If my writing sucks to a particular reader, it sucks. But there are hundreds of ways to convey the same criticism without resorting to personal attacks or mean-spirited comments. Referring to They Never Die Quietly, one reader said, “This has to be one of the worst books I have ever read. It is filled with cliches. The writing is sophomoric at best. The dialogue between the killer and his mother is unoriginal and predictable. The plot is extremely predictable. Overall, the writing is terrible. It is what one would expect from a freshman who is taking his first creative writing class.” Hey Mr. Reviewer, don’t walk on eggshells. Tell me what you really think.

If there is any truth to the adage, “Misery loves company,” then I’m in a really good group because William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Stephen King, and even J.K. Rowling have gotten their share of crappy reviews. Guess I’ll spend less time licking my wounds and more time writing.

Scary Books

I don’t scare easily. In fact, if you’ve read either of my two serial-killer novels,They Never Die Quietly or Resuscitation, it’s pretty obvious that I’m no wimp. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I think I’m pretty good at creating larger-than-life villains. That said, there is one book that goes all the way back to a 1977 publication date, and this novel still makes me shudder. I’m talking about The Shining by Stephen King.

King’s ability to make Jack Torrance so real and so utterly frightening is a skill few authors possess. In this novel, King took an average guy, placed him in extraordinary circumstances, and slowly and methodically turned him from loving husband and devoted father to an unimaginable monster. Reading this book, you suspect right from the opening chapter that something isn’t quite right with Jack. However, I don’t believe that many readers could predict the extent of Jack’s madness.

Of course, when the book was made into a movie, and they cast Jack Nicholson to play Jack Torrance, his performance made the book even more terrifying. As far as I’m concerned, The Shining wins the prize for one of the scariest books ever written. What is the scariest book you’ve ever read?

Getting Published

Early in my writing career—about 20 years ago—I didn’t quite understand the difference between writing as an art and writing as a business. After penning four novels, and accumulating the most impressive file of rejection letters (almost as thick as a NY telephone directory), it finally dawned on me. In order for a first-time novelist to break through the fortress built around the commercial publishing world, an unpublished author has to come up with a different angle: something truly unique. Whether an original plot idea, vivid, lifelike characters, or prose that reads like poetry, the wannabes need an idea to grab a publisher’s attention.

For my first novel, They Never Die Quietly, the hook was the villain. As a religious fanatic with a perverse sense of right and wrong, I created a man whose twisted interpretation of his spiritual beliefs gave him a license to commit the most unimaginable acts of depravity with the unconditional endorsement of his God. This, of course, made it possible for me to create a monster whose evil had no boundaries.

Faced with writing another novel to keep the momentum going, and of course to continue advancing my writing career, I decided to make the next book the second in a series, and to make it another serial killer novel. But I faced a quandary: I had already created a villain so evil and so unmerciful that he pushed the limits of the reader’s imagination. How could I top that?

After kicking a few possibilities around, an idea hit me. Do we all have a price tag on our heads? Are any of us truly incorruptible? If we longed for something so desperately, could we be tempted to abandon all of our principles and moral values to get what we wanted? Whether fame, fortune, beautiful women, or global recognition, what might we do to fulfill a secret desire?  What might it take for a man with integrity, strong moral values, and a career focused on helping people, to step into a dark world from which he could never return?

Resuscitation, my second novel, explores these questions and illustrates how one honorable man struggles with a choice between good and evil.