I more than understand that the things that I write are not for everyone. I tend to deal with harsh subject matter in a pretty straight-forward way that not everyone is comfortable. I get that. But know this about me, I enjoy writing what I do (not that I get some kind of perverse pleasure out of pain and suffering, but the exploring of dark emotional places that few dare to tread gives me a certain strength that allows me to confront the shit in my own life).

Now, not everything I write is spot on. Sometimes I go to weird far off places just to see what's there and I take people for the ride with me. Most of my stories are thought out and well planned, where others I just go where the muse takes me and jot down as much as I can as fast as I can. Sometimes stories are practice runs for other story ideas because sometimes I will notice a theme, or a concept and I know where it evolved from or to.

A Christmas Reprieve is such a story. It predates No Greater Love and Finding Jenny, but there are elements in both those stories that got toyed with in this story. But unlike those two stories, ACR was not particularly planned out detail by detail, it was never meant to be "A" material. I'm not saying it isn't a good story, just not as good as it probably could be. Even I notice areas that are lacking. The secondary characters are not fleshed out like they should be so readers are wondering about character motivation (something that is one of my strong suits). I fail to mention that the parents are older like in their mid 50s and that would probably help explain there mores. I didn't mention the dad being ex-military or from the school of thought that fighting is what separates the men from the women. I probably should've mentioned that the dad beat the crap out of his son because he wanted his son to stand up and fight back like a man.

But, as I said, this was never designed to be an A+ effort story. Primarily because of the length I wanted to keep it at. I was actually going to make this a one post story, but wanted stopping points for areas where I wanted comments and feed back and thus, the purpose of this post.

I don't mind criticism, in fact it is quite helpful when done the correct way. But telling me the story sucks or that you would have done it differently really doesn't help and sometimes is down right rude. Telling me you aren't going to read the rest of this story or anything else I write is asinine and counter productive. If I write a story and you say, hey Katie, I would like to know more about why the dad did what he did, or I think there is too much description and that gets in the way of the dialog, I can use that. Telling me the entire plot is off and that a character should've done this or done that, doesn't help, because then we are writing a completely different story, perhaps one you should write yourself.

Now I'm not going to throw a hissy fit and say I'm going to pull my stories off the site or that I'm never going to write another story because I won't give people that satisfaction. I write what I write, if you want to help me, give me constructive criticism. Offer me suggestions on where to improve and then let me decide if I want to incorporate those suggestions. And if you are going to bash me, don't do it as guest reader. Please give me the opportunity to put you on my ignore list.

I write what I write for me and I share because I enjoy the praises (and sometimes ire) of others. If you want me to write what you want, I am sure I can come up with a good wage scale and you can pay me.