An Accidental Blog

Many great things are discovered by accident. One of the tastiest is the sandwich, and one of the most useful is penicillin. I doubt that anyone will judge Kayenta Publishing’s project to promote reading for young men in the same light as the Reuben or antibiotics, but it did happen by accident.

All aspiring writers nervously await feedback from beta readers, usually family and friends. My wife had just finished reading an early draft of Serf and had that look on her face of someone who had just received an unwanted birthday present.

"That's nice," she said. "The ending was good."

Disappointment aside, I had to understand why her reaction was lukewarm when compared to the excitement of my sons, Jack, age 14, and Matt, age 12. "How did you like Cornelius? Was he an appealing main character?"

"Yes, I liked him."

Still no progress. "Come on, tell me what you really think."

She fidgeted and then gave me what I was looking for. "I don't know. Something's missing." After a thoughtful moment, she continued. "You know what it is? There’s no love interest."

"Huh?" Why would there be a love interest? I thought.

"You need some girl Climbers," she continued.

"Uh, there are no girls in this book. Except the angels. It's not that kind of book." I had just written a book that metaphorically described the violence, selfishness and loveless nature of Hell, and my wife is looking for teen romance. "I don't understand."

"Look at Hunger Games and Twilight. And Harry Potter. They all have love interests."

The conversation was very confusing, as if we were speaking a different language. She had looked upon the Mona Lisa thinking it should be a landscape. A horrible metaphor, I know, but you get the point.

I reached for my rip cord; it was time to parachute out of this conversation, but she beat me to it. "But it's nice. I liked it."

It had never occurred to me to include a romantic element in the Climber books. Now, like most men, I appreciate romance in a limited, brutish way, and I've read and enjoyed the occasional novel with a romantic theme, such as Memoirs of a Geisha, but romance in a book about aliens and Hell? Really?

It didn't take me long to realize that I had, by accident and because of my genetic makeup, written a book that would appeal mostly to boys. At first, panic blossomed in my chest; had I doomed my book by limiting the audience? But then I reminded myself that roughly half the population on planet Earth -- 3.6 billion -- are male. While this might prevent me from reaching the coveted 4 billion sales plateau, I could live with it.

Over time, I have grown aggressive in the defense of the idea that the publishing world could use more books for boys, books that appealed to those things that they love: creatures, fighting, aliens, scatological humor, maps, slapstick and NO romance. Actually, in a manly way (clears throat and hammers chest with fist), the Climber Series is about love. Not eros, but phileo or perhaps storge. Loves as important as romantic love to a full and prosperous life.

The revelation that emerged from our conversation consisted of far more than a rehash of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. I harken back to a book that I think so highly of that I keep a stack of them in my office to hand out to new parents of baby boys: The War Against Boys, by Christina Hoff Sommers. In her book, I first read the appalling statistic that Forbes updates in a 2012 article:

“On a national scale, public universities had the most even division between male and female students, with a male-female ratio of 43.6–56.4. While that difference is substantial, it still is smaller than private not-for-profit institutions (42.5-57.5) or all private schools (40.7-59.3).”

I am the father a wonderful new female college student, so I embrace the success of women on college campuses everywhere. But, as Hoff Sommers reports, the current K-12 educational system so alienates the male mind and naturally energetic and competitive male temperament, that when given freedom, more and more men are saying no to higher education.

So, I am on a bit of a crusade (another subject boys like) to promote reading material that young men enjoy. Reading correlates very well with academic success, and perhaps this blog will light that fire in the hearts of some young men as described in Surprised by Books. My sons universally were enthusiastic about a character in my books called The Reeve, and so he has been retained as the figurehead of a blog full of aliens, snakes, maps, fighting and weapons.

The Reeve is in.