Dear Paul,

Please accept my humble apology for not openly supporting you on the cyber-board---yet. I feel a much better place for me to address the foregoing comment is here, in the reader comments to the stories that have given rise to so much recent tummult.

You have been a prolific contributor to several sites. That alone is a commendable achievement. I laud your dedication. Your willingness to weave tales for the (supposed) reading pleasure of others without asking for any personal reward is noble in of itself, and requires no justification. I sincerely hope you enjoy creating bits of fantasy as much as I enjoy reading them, and will continue to contribute new material as willingly as you have in the past.

I believe that I would likely write the same tales differently than you would, and that is part of the beauty of Crystal's site, as no single writer could have sufficient talent to satisfy a seemingly voracious appetite that feeds on Crystal's postings. In the course of events, each author must appreciate that he is bound to offend some readers, either by content, or by word usage, or even by misuse of grammar. Tough!

It is the harshest criticism that offers the greatest praise. The opposite of love, isn't hate. It's ambivalence. We are all human and subject to fault. Read the critics comments carefully. They care! If they didn't, they wouldn't bother to comment. Consider their lack of ability to employ subtlety.  If they were one tenth the creative writer you are, they'd spend their idle hours creating elegant prose to inspire you to greater talent instead of demeaning your efforts.

Flattery? No! The tone of some comments made are certainly not flattering, but the absence of respect conveys the mentality of the criticisers. I must call them that, for they are certainly not critics. I reserve the term 'critic' for those who are willing to   judge merit of a particular work, without emotion and without attacking the creator.  Many works that required thousands of hours to generate that are posted here on the site receive little or token praise from the same readers. They seem eager to find fault, but slow to find praise. However, that isn't necessarily true, either. They may lack the talent to effectively chastise. As authors, we must try to understand that hindsight is always 100%, and foresight is a rare commodity. Few brickbats suggested an alternative approach, and the most demeaning offered the least.

If I may quote Socrates: "A wise man is he who surrounds himself with those wiser than himself."

I implore you to continue to inspire others with literally talent to express themselves. Who knows? From acorns, grow mighty oaks. Our meager efforts to provide entertainment may somehow encourage a truly magnifiscent author to a greater level of creativity. If for no other reason, then: to cringe at our foolhearty attempts and respond with elequent prosaic masterpieces.

In the meantime, pay heed to your wounds, my friend, and persevere. The badge of honor for a valiant chevalier is the scars he bears, not the shadows of ignonimity.

P.S. Please forgive any spelling errors. I didn't proof the text of this comment, either. So there!

Sincerely,

Virginia Kane                

This is a horrible story.  Before I read it, I was prepared to like it.  I read Paul's earlier HuggleBugs story, and was expecting something in the same vein.  But this!  Ick!  There's no ramatic build-up, no character development, and a totaly gratuitous rape.  And the rape, it had no after-effects on the victim except a child.  There's no reality here.  The first part of the trilogy embedded here has equally bad storytelling and an equally morally-bankrupt premise.  I've always thought of Paul as a competent writer, even though I didn't care much for a lot of his subject matter.  This, though, undercuts that impression badly.  Paul, you produce a lot of stories.  Please, slow down and do them right.  Think the plots through, execute the writing so the result is readable, and afterwards proof your work.  Please!  I want to like your writing, but things like this make it oh so hard.