A Wild Blog Post Appears…(and getting political again)

Wow. It’s been a VERY long time since I posted anything here.

There’s about a million and one reasons for that. Not least of all because this blog never got all that much traffic, so, I’ve mostly put my keyboard clacking to other pursuits.

I started a Patreon, and it’s hard enough sometimes giving those paying supporters a monthly newsletter in addition to my bi-weekly chapters. I’ve gone back into the workforce—part time—to contribute a bit of cash to the household, because my writing career certainly hasn’t contributed much! I love writing and sharing it with the world. Zee’s journey is on a pause while I explore a new series Paladins of Power (out in eBook and paperback now, and in 8 days on audiobook! CHECK IT OUT). I have every intention of continuing to write and publish. If you’re reading this, thank you!

What really brings me here today is this blog post recently got quoted back to me in a Royal Road review. I’m touched that something I wrote caused a reader to dig deeper into me. I’m flattered.

***Update after getting into Book 2***

We very quickly moved away from Young Adult friendly territory and I'm glad the ages were what they are.

The continuation of the story from Book 1 is well done, however, we get a lot of "current day" politics injected into the story. It's not subtle and, based on additional reading on Justin's website, it's not intended to be. I'm not interested in having an author's political opinion slapping me in the face this aggressively.

I consider this a very unfortunate situation as I am enjoying the story, but, in keeping with Justin's wishes as laid out on his website (see link in his bio):
"I’ll gladly take that one-star review. If you don’t enjoy what I have to say, then live long and prosper, and there’s the door."
"And seriously, I don’t care if any of that offends a reader. You’re free not to support me."

Now, I'm not a dick and don't plan on leaving a 1 star review so no need to play the martyr, but there's no need to be so abrasive with your politics either. If you don't mind Justin's politics, then I think you'll enjoy this book as I think the actual writing is fine, but Ayn Rand could give him lessons is subtle political messaging.

I also recommend that Justin update the summary with something to the effect of "LGBT+ themes" as that will better reflect the content of Book 2.

I am dropping my original review by 1 star. The reason for this is for the drastic shift in theme and content.

(bold emphasis added by me)

The reviewer might not have called out exactly what they’re reacting too, but it’s very clear to me based on the big addition that I made to my cast of heroes in Paladins of Power Book Two and the chapter on which they updated their review.

Get ready to clutch your pearls.

I added a trans man to my team of heroes. /gasp

Maybe it’s just the fact that Paladins hasn’t had a lot of eyes on it, and book 2 has had even fewer, but I’ve actually been very pleased that there have only been 2 negative reactions to this addition—so far.

And since this book will eventually go out beyond Royal Road and to Audible and Amazon where I’m sure it’ll trigger some more regressive snowflakes, I wanted to make some of my own beliefs perfectly clear.

Firstly, the existence of LGBTQ people in the world isn’t political. By extension, their inclusion in any of my work isn’t inherently political either. For me, including characters that don’t often get highlighted in this genre is a moral choice that I make as a cis-het-white dude that’s still trying to be and do better.

Secondly, not that I set out to write a YA book (there was cursing and talk of sex in PoP:Book One, I’ll note), but there is nothing about this trans character’s story that is not “friendly” for a YA reader. Not unless you count his existence as offensive. There’s nothing explicit or graphic in the text that, if the character was cis, I think anyone would object to. Seriously, fuck that point of the review.

Do I aggressively slap the reader in the face with it? Again, I don’t think so. His trans-ness isn’t coded or veiled in metaphor, but neither could be said for his cis counterparts. His identity is stated in plain text, but this character’s story takes up less than 20% of the narrative and his trans-ness is only a small portion of that story.

Don’t get me wrong, my progressive/liberal politics are all over my books. It’s true. Even if I could help injecting my political and moral beliefs into my work with copious editing, I don’t want to.

Could I be more subtle about it? Yeah, probably. But then media illiterate fascists might think that I don’t detest them.

Could I be more artful about it? Yeah, probably. That’s fair. I like to think I’m getting better with every word I write.

At the end of the day, this isn’t worth doing if I can’t write what I want. I’m not trying to be a martyr about it, but I’m also entirely okay with getting a 1-star (or in this case a 3.5 star) review because I’ve made someone uncomfy with my words.

Anyways, go about your business. If you came here wondering if I’ve got any regrets. I do, but they aren’t about this.