I have my e-mail on the site, in case a literary agent wants to contact me. Instead, I received an anonymous e-mail, through this site, critical of my writing. They want me to change everything. Granted, these are both rough drafts and not the finished product. My thinking has been that I might take a few suggestions from readers.
Now, I had a problem when I posted some early chapters on Facebook. A former co-work told me not to post anymore of it, because “nobody wanted to read about arrogant radio people” and “geeky references to music and comics.”
This anonymous e-mail really hacked me off. The email address was a Yahoo account with the name LibertyWarrior. I should have known this person was going to be a pain.
Now, if you are an inspiring writer like me, you probably have watched videos by Jenna Moreci & Abbie Emmons. They frequently talk about tropes and cliches. They talk about both good tropes and bad tropes. They also point out there are people who will defend the bad tropes and cliches to the bitter end.
Now let me add another device or theme to be discussed: talking points.
The person who posted this comment wants me to totally overhaul my story to add “talking points” to my novel, so my novel would appeal to “a better class of readers.” Note: the writer of this email DID NOT use the phrase “talking points” but that is what they are.
First off, and not to offend anyone, the writer of this comment started off with, “Greetings and may God bless you and your family.” Now, I should preface this by saying that I was raised and still attend the Church of Christ, but I have found that you should always be suspicious of people who start post or e-mail like this, because usually they either want you to invest in Bitcoin, receive money from a Nigerian prince, or subscribe to their OnlyFans page. I tend to think this might have been sent by some sort of spambot or a troll from another country.
The person said they had read the first chapter and said that Mykel should not be a college professor and work for N-P-R. I should change him to be a nationally syndicated talk radio host. According to the writer of these e-mails, “People don’t like N-P-R. Normal people prefer to listen to talk radio. Mykel would be more likable if he is a talk radio host.”
First off, I feel N-P-R is the one of the gold standards of broadcasting and nobody has a right to argue with me over this because I have a Bachelor of Science in Mass Media. I got my start in radio working at the N-P-R affiliate in Springfield, Missouri (K-S-M-U).
I also would like to teach broadcast history or a media class at a college or university, as Mykel does.
Let me also say this, from the experience of having worked at a talk radio station (against my will) for 25 years, talk radio show hosts are some of the most unlikable people you will ever meet. I’m not kidding they are hard to deal with and all they talk about is the same garbage they talk about on their radio shows. Since I haven’t enjoyed being around some of the talk radio hosts I have been forced to work with, I can’t imagine the sheer torture of being forced to be around Sean Hannity, Dan Bongino, Joe Pags, Jimmy Failla, or Buck Sexton & Clay Travis. It would be a hellish nightmare, to say the least.
Lastly, on this subject, “normal people” don’t listen to talk radio. They are all crazy as the proverbial outhouse rat.
The next suggestion this person made was, “Clint should survive and come home where he is spit on by hippies.” This has long been a “talking point” with the talk radio crowd and, when our radio station had a telethon for Honor Flight of the Ozarks, some of the veterans mentioned being spat on. However, this suggestion is not going to be used for one main reason: it defeats the purpose of the plot. Clint’s nephew contacts Mykel because he wanted to know about Clint and Mykel’s exploits as Batman and Robin in Springville, since he has been called the ‘Springville’s Batman.’ If Clint is still living he would have probably already told Dustin about this, so there would be no reason to contact Mykel.
The person also suggested that “Mykel could have Clint on his national radio show and raise awareness of the situation of the veterans of the Vietnam War. This would be a great idea for a story.” It would be good idea for a story, but it is not anything unusual. Even before the boom of talk radio in the 90s, talk radio has been championing the cause of Vietnam vets. As I mentioned, the radio station cluster I work for has been raising money for Honor Flight of the Ozarks for the past four years.
The next suggestion was the beginning of my irritation with this person. “The idea that white kids were friends with black kids in the Sixties is unrealistic. I think you are just putting black people in this story to be woke. Most people would rather read a story about white people only.”
This person lost any credibility with this paragraph (especially when they used the word “woke”). First of all, Clint played on the basketball team with Slick. This was also after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights act. I wanted to address this even if it upsets some people, because I think it is an important part of American history.
Speaking of not being aware of American history, another comment from this writer was, “Another bit of woke stupidity is the introduction of an Iranian girlfriend for the geek character. It is absurd to have this character have a girlfriend. They usually don’t have friends, much less a girlfriend, but then you make her from Iran, one of Americas’ enemies.”
Obviously, this person doesn’t realize that at the time this novel takes place Iran was an ally of the United States. The Shah of Iran was frequently a guest at the White House, until he was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic Revolution. From that point on, Iran was not on good terms with the U-S-A. Also, the Shah encouraged women to obtain a college education abroad, whereas after the Islamic Revolution, women were forbidden to attend college, especially in America.
The author of this e-mail did make a complaint that I have heard several times. I may change or alter this in the story. He criticized my use of ALL CAPS for the DJ banter on the radio. This has been a complaint with several readers of my sample chapters, however when I explain it to most people they understand why I am writing it that way. I’m trying to approximate the high energy, brassy, in-your-face sound of Top 40 radio in the 1960’s. I wanted to pay tribute to the great Top-40 radio personalities of that era, such as Wolfman Jack, the Real Don Steele, Dan Ingram, Cousin Brucie Morrow, and Casey Kasem.
Also, “I don’t like the deejay character Mykel works for at his first job. He seems to have big ego. He also mistreeted the lady from the John Birch Society when she came to the radio station. He should not have treated a guest at the radio station they way he did.” Lovable Lance is what I wanted to be as a program director. He does not cave anybody, much less the Birch Society.
Another complaint of the author was the way the kids partied in the dorm. “I can’t believe these kids just drink and eat pizza. Kids in the Sixties took a lot of drugs.” Says who? I know many people who grew up in the 60s who didn’t take drugs. Remember this novel takes place in Southwest Missouri. Drugs did become a major epidemic here until the late 90s, when people learned to make meth at home. When I was in college in the late 80s, you know what we did? Eat pizza and get drunk. I also have, as part of my research, a collection of ads from Katz, Cranks, and Brown Derby for the accurate price of booze in Springfield, Missouri, in 1966, because among college kids, that was the drug of choice.
One thing stuck out to me as I read this: the author of this e-mail has a very low opinion of women. “These girls are too happy and cheerful to be college girls. I understand girls, who attend college are impossible to get along with.” I hate to break it to the author of this e-mail, but I got along better with the girls I attended Missouri State University (then known as S-M-S-U) with than the girls I attended Lebanon High School with. This fallacy has been spread by many of the popular talk radio show hosts over the years. Let me also point out that these talk radio guys all flunked out of college (I can tell from working with talk radio people, who don’t have college degrees, they have an insane hatred of anyone with a college education).
The worst suggestion this person made was this, “I don’t like the cutesy, happy ending involving the college girlfriend becoming a successful businesswoman after working in the television industry. Most women who were in the entertainment industry in the Sixties committed suicide or died by drug and alcohol misadventure. You should kill off the character of Sherry the same way. Mykel should say that he was better off without her and say that if she had been a good girl she would have married Chip and stayed in Knob Noster rather that attending college. Besides nobody like women who are successful. Look at Hilary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Nobody likes them.”
This really made me mad! First off, Sherry is based on a college friend whose friendship was very special to me in college. Yes, she is, like Sherry, in the entertainment industry (however she didn’t event hand sanitizer). I could go into more detail about the Sherry character, but I’m just going to point out where this e-mail’s author came up with this dumb ass idea. You can blame this “kill off Sherry” suggestion from a guy whose last name rhymes with “DUMP.” Don’t worry, it’s not who you are thinking of.
It’s a fictional character played by Tom Hanks. I believe the e-mail’s author is part of that weird, little group of people, who are obsessed with the 1994 film Forrest Gump, and in particular have a psychotic hatred for the character of Jenny.
It think this nonsense began with either Rush Limbaugh or Paul Harvey reviewing this movie and saying that Jenny deserved to die at the end. So now, you can find on YouTube and all over social media these nitwits who come up with all of these “theories” on what killed Jenny. I’ve also read some post from these people who believe “God saved Lt. Dan’s life.” This is probably why the email’s writer wants Clint to come home from Vietnam. I think these people are reading too much into this movie.
I decided I would send an email back and ask this person for permission to put the email on the website to address their concerns. Guess what? The emails bounced back. The only response I got was from MAILER-DAEMON.
My theory is this was either:
- A former Lebanon High School classmate too cowardly to give their real name.
- A former co-worker to cowardly to give their real name.
- A troll from a foreign country (It seemed like the author did not speak English).
- This was written with A-I by a spambot.
The point is that while unlike tropes and clichés, forcing talking points into a novel, that is almost finished or, at least plotted out, wouldn’t work and would make my novel really depressing.
WIP: DYNAMIC DUO OF THE OZARKS 