Josh’s Comments (group member since Jun 17, 2010)

Josh’s comments from the Q&A with Josh Lanyon group.

Antonella wrote: "Are you following the Roald Dahl discussion? What do you think?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202..."

I know it's not a popular view, but I agree with Rushdie.

I strive to be a kind and sensitive person. I believe children have to be taught to be empathetic and considerate. No one should be judged, let alone targeted, for anything to do with their appearance or race or sex or age.

But there's a difference between targeting and NOTICING.

For one thing, pretending that someone isn't of a certain size or has different beliefs or a different anything doesn't erase the differences. I believe it quietly reinforces the idea that we pretend we don't notice these things because anything different is bad, lesser, somehow embarrassing for that different person.

TV commercials which tout how we should embrace the idea that beauty comes in all shapes and colors, are great, but the message becomes mixed when we insist everyone try to develop a cultural blindness wherein we don't notice how anyone is different.

And also there's great hypocrisy out there. We are choosing what we deem others should notice or not notice. How often have the words "middle-aged white man" come out of my mouth? Or even "Karen." Yet I'm highly offended at the middle-aged-white-woman-shouldn't...

Shouldn't everything from wear sparkling eye shadow to write books about anything besides middle-aged-white-women.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Different people have different ideas.

All I know is if the lesson of history is that people don't really change.

Lillian wrote: "Teal wrote: "Another set of freebies from BookFunnel — this one runs through Feb. 26.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/febmmfre..."

I’m trying restrict the number of books I grab from th..."

It's hard to believe that there was once a time when we all combed over the giveaways looking for a great deal on something new to read! :-D

Now I don't even bother to look.

I guess that's what you call "spoiled for choice."

**MURDER TAKES THE HIGH ROAD** Part of Audible's Always a Deal - Now through February 28th. ( North America only) https://adbl.co/3EnzWci #LGBTQ #audiobookmysteries #MMaudio

Antonella wrote: "There is no Frigate like a Book by Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poor..."

That's nice! It reminds me of a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, which for the life of me, I can't remember the title of...

My question is did anyone decide to jump down the rabbit hole of Maura Murray's disappearance?

Karen wrote: "What's disturbing to me about Jay Bell's Tweet is the "entitlement" assumption, which seems arrogant, as well as lacking in empathy. ..."

It probably could have been phrased a little more gently.

mwana wrote: "Karen wrote: "Antonella wrote: "...Just underneath in the search results I found this article from 2021, which I couldn't read because I had already exceeded the number of articles can read for fre..."

It is an interesting topic.

As is the complicated idea of "protecting" people from certain ideas and beliefs through censorship.

SamSpayedPI wrote: "Karen wrote: ".The results of around a dozen psychological studies, published between 2018 and 2021, are remarkably consistent, and they differ from conventional wisdom: they find that trigger warn..."

Speaking as a former teacher, a classroom is a different world. As a child moves through the educational universe, the classrooms and the worlds expand.

We expect, rightfully, I think, that teachers will act as guardians and gatekeepers, but even then teachers are humans with their own ideas of what is age-level appropriate.

Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "I like trigger warnings because I don’t want to read about child abuse. I once reviewed a romance book which depicted the sexual abuse one character experienced as a child. I have no idea why the a..."

There are all kinds of things I won't read, but because I tend to glance over reviews, I don't feel the need to be "warned." Some of my dislikes are admittedly silly--I dislike children in books, period--some some aren't--torture, rape, incest, the obvious ones.

But I'm also the kind of reader who will read the end of a book if I decide I don't like the direction it's going.

I don't use trigger warnings as an author, but I also don't tend to write about the things that frequently trigger survivors of emotional or physical abuse.

It's a complex creative choice.

Jordan wrote: "WOW. I mean, I used to not understand trigger warnings because I didn't want spoilers and I'll read a wide variety of things. But then I got over myself and now I understand the need for warnings. ..."

I can see both sides of the argument.

Averin wrote: "I too thought Hero could be a spinoff. Apologies, but the format of two first person narrators gives away who the MCs/love interests will be."

Oh yes. For sure. In this case, I was glad of it though as I hoped it would steer readers from getting too attached to the idea of Harp.

Averin wrote: "Stupid Kindle autocorrect. I meant Harp."

Freudian slip?

Marge wrote: "Antonella wrote: "Blog post by K.J. Charles:

What do you do when your book is too long? (Would you stand up and walk out on me?)

https://kjcharleswriter.com/2023/02/0......"

Thank you so much, Marge!

Yes, writing too long is never going to be one of my creative sins. I've had to force myself to write past what I consider to be a story's natural ending after years of complaints from readers that I was short-changing them emotionally.

And I probably was. ;-)

Karen wrote: "Josh wrote: "... 5 - Going through old family photos with my dad. He wants someone to know who all these people are, and so I volunteered. It's fascinating."

So happy to hear you're doing this. My..."

Two years ago I bought my dad one of those "Storyworth" gifts for Father's Day, with the idea that it would be a way of preserving some of those stories and photos and family history for everyone. The problem is his priority continues to be writing letters of political outrage to the newspapers. :-D

Once an activist, always an activist. But as much as I agree with the politics, I'd love him to take the time to help me preserve some of these memories.

Jordan wrote: "Congrats! That's fantastic!"

It was the shortest thing on my roster, so that's part of my success story. ;-D

It's good thing I've got vacation coming up next week. I find myself going through another high anxiety period. I mean, not that it's unreasonable, given the almost daily mass shootings, the crazy-ass GOP doing their damnedest to return us to the 1950s, a never-ending list of problems with the house (squirrels in the attic?!), and family health issues.

On and on.

It's amazing I'm managing to get anything done.

Antonella wrote: "Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "‘fat, grass-fed fools’ I like this phrase. I must look for an occasion to use it!"

I wouldn't insult someone using the word ''fat'', righteous indignation notwith..."

There is a kind of fat that isn't about body weight.

Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "Josh wrote: "Antonella wrote: "In France there is a wide protest against the government's plans of raising retirement age.

Lovely actions were taken by the French energy unio, they called them Ro..."

LOL. Some of them tend to look more bovine than others.

Karen wrote: "Josh wrote: "I constantly forget to post here! :-D
went live the night of February 9th... FOR THE RECORD: THIS BOOK IS OUT THREE MONTHS EARLY."

Imagine a heart..."

<3 <3 <3

Karen wrote: "Josh wrote: "Averin wrote: "That’s interesting, Josh. I didn’t have a problem with Harp getting bumped off but he was definitely intriguing."

Did you think at any point he was going to be the roma..."

I'm always conscious of that when writing historical. What a long, long road.