When the reader knows you too well, part one

Back in late December, my daughter and I were chatting when she dropped a pocket nuke on me.

"So, I'm finally going to read your series, Dad."

It's incredible how just a few words can send your mind racing—mentally flipping through the plot points and scenes from six separate books—analyzing whether they’re kid friendly.

Now, when I say "kid friendly," I don’t mean suitable for actual kids or teens. My daughter is in her thirties. No, I mean “kid of mine friendly”—and I knew there were parts in those books that were definitely not that.

I had a minor panic attack. It was weirdly mixed with pride that she wanted to read them. Yeah... it was weird.

A Little Context:

When I completed my six-book horror series and had them published—starting with the first on my 60th birthday, and wrapping up with the final one on my daughter’s 30th—I wrote a personal inscription in each and gave them to my kids. The gesture was more symbolic than anything; whether they read them or not was entirely up to them.

My daughter, more than my son, has always been the reader. I remember her clutching books as a baby and never really growing out of that phase. She did slow down during the later, more demanding years of high school, then college, then job hunting, marriage, and eventually raising a child of her own... you know, all that life stuff that takes over during your twenties.

Still, she’d occasionally pick up a book here and there. And I guess, somewhere along the line late last year, she decided, dammit! she was going to tackle her backlog of unread books.

Her plan? Read one book from her shelf, then one of mine. Rinse and repeat. A kid after my own heart. I’ve never been able to read a single author back to back, book after book.

But there was another wrinkle: she doesn’t read horror. Never has.

So how would a non-horror-reading daughter react to her father’s twisted tales about terrible people doing horrible things?

I was about to find out.

Right now, I was the one feeling the horror.

What About You?

Have you ever shared your creative work with family or close friends?

Did it make you proud, nervous—or a little bit of both?

I'd love to hear your story in the comments. Let's talk about what happens when our personal lives meet our creative ones.

Coming soon: When the reader knows you too well, part two

Image by Sandra from Pixabay

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay