A Perpetual Puppet Show

Punch and Judy | World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts

Do you ever get the impression we’re living in a freakin’ puppet show?

There are all these stock characters who come onto our screens, into our homes, every night and every day. The names change, but it’s the same prattling puppet every time, the same stock character. Including:

The chest-thumping activist “peaceful protest” warrior

The Climate Scientist who wants you to live with 13th century technology

The so-called Journalist who never tells the truth

The grinning politician who has totally sold out to Red China

The Health and Wellness expert who’s as crazy as a bedbug and thinks your kids need sex-change operations

The Teacher who knows your kids need sex-change operations!

I’m sure you can think of many more. They populate our media, like figures in the world’s longest-running horror show. It’s hard to continue thinking of them as real people. Then you watch The View and it occurs to you: they’re not.

Cheer up. All we’ve got to do is tear down, reform, and rebuild our politics, our schools, and our media… and we’re home free.

‘Murdering Fantasy’ (2016)

Aleve® Headache Pain (Naproxen Sodium) Tablets | Aleve®

You might need this while you read the book.

I know a lot of people who say they never read fantasy. Not much fun for a fantasy writer to hear. The most common reason given is that fantasy isn’t worth reading.

Where did they get that idea?

Murdering Fantasy

Well, boys ‘n’ girls, if you’re gonna fill your fantasy novels with cliche characters whose every word and action is 100% predictable… and then go one step farther by naming these characters after popular headache remedies… then I guess that’s what they mean by not worth reading.

Ah, the Invincible Female Warrior! The Crusty But Benign Wizard! The Know-It-All Elf with pointy ears!

I wouldn’t read it, either.