From a recent ex-reader: "I have read many of your books and enjoyed the greatly but you have stepped over the line of propriety with pornographic nature of  the book " Kildar ".  I enjoyed the premis of  the book but was turned off by your sexual fantasies.  You have lost a reader."

And in the same triage of email I had three saying 'Ghost/Kildar Rock!' Which means (and it's indicated by sales as well) that it's my most popular series. Since I write mostly to tell the story and entertain, that means I'm somewhat committed to the characters and story. I've had a huge number of these 'you're a pervert' emails. (Many I'll add much more insulting than this one.)

Generally I just say 'your mileage may vary.' 'WTF ever, dude.' The assumption that I'm playing out some fantasy life flies in the face of books like Princess of Wands, for example. Or is my 'fantasy' to be a buxom blonde female who fights demons through the power of God? (Queen John? Lord God forefend.) To be a damned near virginal space marine who gets married and is totally faithful? (Vorpal Blade series.) To be a husband and father who loves his wife and kids and sees them snatched away one by one and for the next umpteen years remains faithful to his dead wife? (Posleen series.) To be a sword swinging (in both meanings of the term) bachelor? (Dragons).

Which? Choose. I, frankly, don't know where the stories come from. There are times, and Ghost was one of them, when they seem to be an external force, like a giant wall of water pressing against the dam of my psyche and saying 'Write me or else.' I didn't want to write Ghost or Kildar. (Choosers and Unto the Breach rather more so.) I had to to get any sleep. Maybe I shouldn't have published them. Then the two or three readers for every 'You no longer have a reader' giving kudos would not have had that entertainment. That moment of lost in time that is the only gift I truly can give to the world. The only damned reason to put in the hours and the backaches and the chillblains and...

Fuck it.

So normally I boil it down (even with the 'I'm a long term reader but...' emails) to... What the fuck ever, dude. Your mileage may vary.

John