I respectfully disagree.

I'm sorry, my comment was too oblique -- when I said you were overreaching, I was not suggesting that you are overstating the incidence of child abuse.

I only meant you cannot validly claim that there is more such abuse than I imagine there is -- for the simple reason that you don't know how much abuse I imagine there is.

(Not very good English, but I trust you see the clarification I'm trying to make.)

-oss

I doubt very much that it's straightforward to rewire a modern elevator (i.e., it may be computerized) from inside the shaft so that when the button out in the hall is pressed, (i) the car is not summoned and (ii) the door opens anyway. But I admit I don't know.

-oss

I didn't get Crisscross out to check (someone else has it right now), but if I remember right, the Dormentalist temple was a renovated building, but the elevator and such was old. Most likely the old ones are simpler than the newer ones.

I didn't get Crisscross out to check (someone else has it right now), but if I remember right, the Dormentalist temple was a renovated building, but the elevator and such was old. Most likely the old ones are simpler than the newer ones.

Really!? Cool, I didn't remember that -- I think it's a good point, and makes the situation much more plausible.

(Okay, how about this: How was Jack's sister so readily able to wire up that plastic explosive she found in Jack's apartment!? Competence must run in the family. Then there's dad, parting a guy's hair with a bullet fired from a 40-year old rifle from 300 yds. away. Quite a family! )

-oss

I'm sorry, my comment was too oblique -- when I said you were overreaching, I was not suggesting that you are overstating the incidence of child abuse.

I only meant you cannot validly claim that there is more such abuse than I imagine there is -- for the simple reason that you don't know how much abuse I imagine there is.

(Not very good English, but I trust you see the clarification I'm trying to make.)

-oss

I think child abuse is just the easiest way to quickly get all of the readers to hate the character. Does anyone not hat a pedophile? If you say he's a pedophile, suddenly anything your hero does to him will be welcomed and defensible.

I'm sorry, my comment was too oblique -- when I said you were overreaching, I was not suggesting that you are overstating the incidence of child abuse.

I only meant you cannot validly claim that there is more such abuse than I imagine there is -- for the simple reason that you don't know how much abuse I imagine there is.

(Not very good English, but I trust you see the clarification I'm trying to make.)

-oss

I am very careful about how I word my written responses. I said, "The crime happens far more frequently than you might imagine." I used the conditional "might" precisely because I have no clue what you imagine or what you don't.

I am very careful about how I word my written responses.

Oh Yeah?

So finding it frequently in fiction is simple a real representation of life today.

Oh Yeah?

And typos happen.

You may as well call it Goldilocks (or Gialocks if you like) and the Three Bearers.

Guess you were getting the 3 bears mixed up with the gift-bearing 3 Magi.

And typos happen.


Guess you were getting the 3 bears mixed up with the gift-bearing 3 Magi.

No, bearers as in bearers of bad news...you know like a f@#$*^g harbinger???

And where the F*&K did the Magi come from?

I am very careful about how I word my written responses. I said, "The crime happens far more frequently than you might imagine." I used the conditional "might" precisely because I have no clue what you imagine or what you don't.

I missed the open-endedness of the conditional, I'm sorry.

Really, though, I think this is too sensitive a topic to pursue. I was really much more interested, as a writer, in talking about story mechanics, not about the much more profund, murky, painful issue of child abuse.

Bestest,
Ossssss...
(Homage to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070622/)

I missed the open-endedness of the conditional, I'm sorry.

Really, though, I think this is too sensitive a topic to pursue. I was really much more interested, as a writer, in talking about story mechanics, not about the much more profund, murky, painful issue of child abuse.

Bestest,
Ossssss...
(Homage to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070622/)

Don't apologize. It was pretty clear what you were saying and I happen to agree with you. Some people just have a tendency to over dramatize everything.

In addition to the pedophile card being played far too frequently (more so in film/TV than lit), have you noticed a major influx of gay/lesbian characters in fiction over the past three or four years? It seems like every book I pick up lately has to have at least one token gay in the supporting cast. I realize the PC push for acceptance of this lifestyle choice, but come on...this is getting out of hand. I wonder if this is coming from the Publishing houses and Editors, or just a mass hysteria running through the writer's guild.

You know, there are a lot of heroin addicts in the world too, but I don't want to start seeing one in every book I read....OOPS, too late. Just read Brian Keene's The Rising, which had a heroin addict as a main character. Damn! I thought I was on to something there...