So, I got a really funny comment on my blog over the weekend...

[Jon Loomis]

Here it is, unedited:

Read your book Mating Season, first book I have read by you and the last, I don't think you shouldput your politics in your books by bashing Pres. Brush and his Cabinet which shows your liberal views which we can do without.

Where to begin?

[B.R.Stateham]

Ah . . . . idiots have much in common with crab grass. No matter how much you weed, the sonsabitches always pop up again. On the other hand, they do may the day more interesting (after your blood pressure calms down).

[Donna Carrick]

This is true, B.R. I've given up weeding, decided instead to try "overlooking" - ha ha!

[Jack Getze]

Probably not a member of your audience, Jon.

[Jon Loomis]

I'm guessing not so much, Jack. It almost reads like a spoof--"President Brush" is a fine touch.

[Donna Carrick]

Maybe he hadn't heard! After all, the inaugeration was "low key" --- hahahaha

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, nice! A compliment.
Read your book and liked it a lot. Loved the "victimizing" of TV evangelists, realtors, and developers. God knows the world would be better without them.

[John McFetridge]

Nice one.

I haven't read Mating Season yet but I'm looking forward to it even more now. High Season was also full of liberal tripe; people caring what happens to others and not judging them on every aspect of their personal lives.

Do these people realize how un-American their views are?

[Donna Carrick]

So unAmerican, kind of like refusing to cry when the latest American Idol Wannabe sings a song for the troops "over there". Kind of like refusing to cry perpetually, come to think of it. Judging by the popular shows on TV, unless one is pretty much always in tears, one has no heart at all! Let the weeping begin...

[Pepper Smith]

Ah, belongs to the 'no opinions are valid unless they agree with mine' club, does he?

One of the things we strive for as writers is to elicit some sort of response from our readers. It appears you have succeeded.

[Jude Hardin]

I try not to be too heavy-handed with political views in my own work. Nobody wants to be preached at (even the choir), and I figure there's no point in alienating half my potential reading audience.

[Jon Loomis]

I guess the question is what's "too heavy-handed." Nearly all of the political stuff in Mating Season is in the form of paintings done by my protagonist's friend Kotowski, who's a gay atheist socialist surrealist former Navy SEAL, with pretty strong political views--so he paints Bush and Cheney in the ninth circle of Dante's hell, and so on. There's no preaching, as such--it all goes to character. The problem is that some people don't want to see any opinion in a book--or anywhere else--that doesn't confirm their beliefs, even if that opinion is held/expressed by a fictional character. Do I care about alienating such people? Not really, no.

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Did you say a gay atheist socialist surrealist former Navy SEAL?

I'm definitely going to read it.