I ran into a weird issue with some people that have read my fiction.
I have a vampire novel that is full of some pretty horrible things. Basically, the vampires are predators in every sense of the word; not just hunting people for food but using them and throwing them away for their own amusement. Also one of the victims is a girl that had been picked up off the streets. She was horribly neglected by her parents, abused a little bit too, and basically ran away looking for an escape but ended up under the thumb of one of these horrible predators. I allowed about ten or so people read it and everyone said they really enjoyed it. I wasn't even thinking about pursuing publication until my beta's told me I should, so I know it's a good story.
The problem is that two of them got kind of weird after reading it - a buddy and his wife. When it came time to pick up my manuscript again I got a whole series of excuses about having left it at home, or "I gave it to the wife to give to you", etc. She told me to meet her outside her place of work to pick it up one day, then just left me hanging but when I called later she had a ton of apologies and excuses. The first few times it happened I figured it was bad luck or bad timing but it kept going on for about a month or two and eventually I clued in that I was being jerked around. They seemed to be doing everything they possibly could to avoid giving my manuscript and their notes back without telling me why. When they began avoiding my phone calls I just wrote them off and moved on.
A couple months later he contacts me again and we went for lunch. We're hanging out and having a good time until I ask about my manuscript and he shuts down. I get a bunch of excuses again, then he goes back to avoiding me for another couple months before the cycle repeats. We hang out and have a good time, then I mention my writing and get the cold shoulder. It's obvious he still wanted to be buddies but the subject of my book appeared to be off limits.
My first guess was that they either didn't like it or had lost it the manuscript so I sent him an e-mail saying it's not a problem either way - not everybody has to like my writing, or if the manuscript got misplaced or mangled it's no big deal. I didn't want something dumb like that to get in the way of us being friends. I got no response; he goes back into avoidance mode and I haven't heard from him since.
So I don't know what to make of that, other than I may have weirded them out. He reads all kinds of terrifying and awful fiction but because it was something written by someone he knows, I think he may have jumped to a bunch of strange conclusions. Like writing a novel that has a killer in it means I have a latent desire to murder people or because I have a character that was an abused child then I must have been an abused child. The people that know me well understand the book is fiction and I even let someone who's never met me before read it to get the completely unbiased opinion and they loved it too, without getting weirded out. I think my buddy took some things he knows about me, plus some things he thinks he knows, and combined it with the ideas in my book to arrive at a whole bunch of outrageous conclusions that are making him and his wife feel awkward.
Basically I think he put two and two together, and got seven. Of course I can't ask him what's up because he was avoiding the subject like the plague and since I was persistent about it, he began avoiding me entirely. In my wordy and roundabout way, I was just wondering if anyone else had had anything similar happen to them; if anything you've written has weirded anyone out like that.
I have a vampire novel that is full of some pretty horrible things. Basically, the vampires are predators in every sense of the word; not just hunting people for food but using them and throwing them away for their own amusement. Also one of the victims is a girl that had been picked up off the streets. She was horribly neglected by her parents, abused a little bit too, and basically ran away looking for an escape but ended up under the thumb of one of these horrible predators. I allowed about ten or so people read it and everyone said they really enjoyed it. I wasn't even thinking about pursuing publication until my beta's told me I should, so I know it's a good story.
The problem is that two of them got kind of weird after reading it - a buddy and his wife. When it came time to pick up my manuscript again I got a whole series of excuses about having left it at home, or "I gave it to the wife to give to you", etc. She told me to meet her outside her place of work to pick it up one day, then just left me hanging but when I called later she had a ton of apologies and excuses. The first few times it happened I figured it was bad luck or bad timing but it kept going on for about a month or two and eventually I clued in that I was being jerked around. They seemed to be doing everything they possibly could to avoid giving my manuscript and their notes back without telling me why. When they began avoiding my phone calls I just wrote them off and moved on.
A couple months later he contacts me again and we went for lunch. We're hanging out and having a good time until I ask about my manuscript and he shuts down. I get a bunch of excuses again, then he goes back to avoiding me for another couple months before the cycle repeats. We hang out and have a good time, then I mention my writing and get the cold shoulder. It's obvious he still wanted to be buddies but the subject of my book appeared to be off limits.
My first guess was that they either didn't like it or had lost it the manuscript so I sent him an e-mail saying it's not a problem either way - not everybody has to like my writing, or if the manuscript got misplaced or mangled it's no big deal. I didn't want something dumb like that to get in the way of us being friends. I got no response; he goes back into avoidance mode and I haven't heard from him since.
So I don't know what to make of that, other than I may have weirded them out. He reads all kinds of terrifying and awful fiction but because it was something written by someone he knows, I think he may have jumped to a bunch of strange conclusions. Like writing a novel that has a killer in it means I have a latent desire to murder people or because I have a character that was an abused child then I must have been an abused child. The people that know me well understand the book is fiction and I even let someone who's never met me before read it to get the completely unbiased opinion and they loved it too, without getting weirded out. I think my buddy took some things he knows about me, plus some things he thinks he knows, and combined it with the ideas in my book to arrive at a whole bunch of outrageous conclusions that are making him and his wife feel awkward.
Basically I think he put two and two together, and got seven. Of course I can't ask him what's up because he was avoiding the subject like the plague and since I was persistent about it, he began avoiding me entirely. In my wordy and roundabout way, I was just wondering if anyone else had had anything similar happen to them; if anything you've written has weirded anyone out like that.
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