“Don’t Be a Victim!”
This is, at least indirectly, a follow-up to my post from a week or so back about trusting your gut.
I’m a pretty strong supporter of the idea of self-defense. I enrolled my daughter in karate years ago. (This is how I ended up taking it as well.) She eventually dropped out, but I hope she retained at least some of the basics: things like a willingness to be loud, fight back, and raise a fuss.
I love working with the kids in class, teaching them to throw punches while at the same time yelling things like, “No! You’re not my Dad! Stranger!” I love when can show someone that even though I might be physically stronger, there are some pretty straightforward things they can do to put me on the ground.
But I have a problem with … let’s call it a certain philosophy about self-defense, one best summed up by the phrase, “Don’t be a victim!” The assumption being that if you follow all of this training, then you’ll be safe … and as a direct corollary, if you’re assaulted, then it’s because you didn’t remember your training. I.e., it’s your own fault.
How often have we seen and heard that phrase? Don’t be a victim! Like it’s all about the victim’s choice. “Gosh, I’m bored and there’s nothing good on TV. Guess I’ll go get myself assaulted.” Why the hell do we so rarely see, “Don’t be a rapist!” or “Don’t be a batterer!”
There are certainly things you can do to affect your chances of being victimized. A stranger is more likely to target someone whose body language projects nervousness and insecurity than someone who projects confidence. Learning to trust your gut, like my daughter did in the previous post, can help you avoid or escape a bad situation. Physically working with someone else, learning what it’s like to take a hit, to punch and kick and throw, can cut down on that moment of paralysis when and if something happens. All of these are good things.
Yet the majority of rapes are committed, not by strangers, but by friends and family members. (73% of rapes against women, according to one 2005 study.) Another study finds that more than half of all violent crime occurs between non-strangers. Self-defense programs often do a great job talking about strangers; how many prepare you to fight off a boyfriend, a relative, or a coworker? (Some do, and that’s great … but it’s nowhere near as common, in my experience.)
Even the best self-defense techniques aren’t perfect. After working with countless rape survivors, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no guaranteed way to be safe. I’ve been told many times in Sanchin-Ryu that no matter how good you are, you’re going to get hit. There is no perfect defense. Likewise, as long as there are individuals determined to commit rape and assault, there is no way to guarantee you won’t be a victim.
The other problem is that the “Don’t be a victim!” approach tends to put most or all of the responsibility on the potential victims. We’ll send girls to learn self-defense, and voila, we’ve solved rape and domestic violence! As opposed to emphasizing things like bystander intervention, or just addressing the myths and assumptions that teach people (primarily men) that it’s okay to commit these crimes in the first place. It came up a lot when I was working at MSU. I’d talk to groups about rapes on campus, and the first — sometimes the only — suggestion would be for self-defense training for girls.
Does anyone else see a problem with making women responsible for fixing crimes committed primarily by men?
There’s got to be more. Even something as simple as trusting your gut has to go further. It can’t just be about a girl turning back because a stopped car looks wrong. It has to be about the guy at a party who sees a couple and notices that the girl looks uncomfortable. It’s about that guy trusting his own gut and actually stepping in to ask if everything’s all right. It’s about everyone at World Fantasy Con who saw the famed “creeper” harassing women but did nothing, ignoring their own gut feelings, because they assumed someone else would intervene.
I wouldn’t be continuing my study of karate if I didn’t believe in the things I’m learning and teaching there. But self-defense can’t be the only solution. Nor can we allow it to shift the responsibility from the perpetrators onto the victims.
Mishell
February 13, 2012 @ 10:43 am
The trouble with shifting responsibility to the perpetrators is that the perpetrators don’t give a crap. Teaching people to defend themselves from or avoid dangerous situations is far more likely to reduce rape frequency in the short term than urging callous misogynists to shift their paradigms.
I am all for an eventual paradigm shift in society, but in the meantime, I really wish that people would stop pretending that teaching women to defend themselves or avoid dangerous situations is somehow harmful to the cause. I would much rather go through a day unraped than make some point, however theoretically valid, about my inalienable right to dance naked in a biker bar without consequences.
We have to accept that there are bad people in this world, and we have to learn how they think and not put ourselves in the position to be their victims. Identity thieves, rapists, muggers, car thieves, abusers, swindlers, murderers. All of them. They don’t pay attention to PSAs. They want what they want, and our job as active participants in our own safety is to make sure they continue to fail. The minute we turn this into a women’s rights issue, the minute we separate rape out as having some kind of different basis from other crimes, it turns into a lot of ideastic speechifying that doesn’t help anyone who lives in the current world.
Crime, in general, is about people who want what they want, right or wrong or others’ feelings be damned. What about that mentality makes people think that targeting it will be successful?
Jeri Lynn
February 13, 2012 @ 10:48 am
When I was in college, we had pr
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 10:49 am
Let’s stop wasting all this time and money on drunk driving awareness, because they don’t give a crap. That money should be better spent teaching people to stay off the roads after dark.
Let’s stop worrying about prosecuting murders and other violent crimes, because the criminals don’t give a crap. Better to teach people how to avoid bullets and add a fourth deadbolt to their door.
Let’s put an end to anti-bullying programs that teach kids to intervene when they see someone being bullied, because the bully doesn’t give a crap. Better to teach the little kids to just suck it up when they get the shit beat out of them every day by someone twice their size.
And I’m curious, since the majority of rapes are committed by friends and family members (not bikers in biker bars), what exactly are the dangerous situations you recommend people avoid in order to keep themselves from getting raped?
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 10:54 am
Looks like your comment got cut off there, Jeri.
Jeri Lynn
February 13, 2012 @ 11:09 am
Gah. Typing on a phone…
We had problems with a flasher. The school’s response was to firmly encourage women on campus to get an escort home after dark. That worked ok if you weren’t on campus regularly after dark. I was on campus until at least 9:30 every night. And at least part of that time I worked early morning custodial. I got very tired of trying to find someone who didn’t consider my escort request to be a bother or campus police who would only escort to edge of campus. I finally gave up on the whole escort thing because it made me feel like a problem child to my friends as well as a victim waiting to happen. As if was my fault for not going to the trouble to be safe (one of the last escorts asked why I couldn’t just change me schedule around. I smacked him.) Whenever people in charge found out I was walking alone, I would get lectured, but no one made suggestions that me less of a problem.
I’m grateful there was never a problem and that I never ran into the creep. At the same time, part of me wanted to meet him so I could give him a right kick in the shins for making things so difficult…
Kameron Hurley
February 13, 2012 @ 11:10 am
Here is a great example of how awareness and education changed behavior among men to the prevent sexual assault of women: http://is.gd/XwXda6
We need more stuff like this.
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 11:15 am
Thank you – just used that link on Google+. I had seen the story before, but didn’t have the article handy.
Mishell
February 13, 2012 @ 11:24 am
I never said anything in my post about stopping the effort to raise awareness about rape. I said specifically that I am all in favor of an eventual paradigm shift in society. But that will take time, and I don’t have time to sit around and wait for it. I have already been raped once (a date rape that yes, I could have prevented if I’d known what I know now and had not let a person I knew to be troubled drive me somewhere in his car). The rape was not my fault, it was the fault of the man who raped me. But it happened, I have no problem admitting that I ignored every red flag in the book, and having someone to blame doesn’t make it any less traumatic.
Please, men and women both, protect yourselves. Exercise as much caution as you’re comfortable with; don’t ruin your lives over it. If your efforts at prevention are making you feel paranoid and miserable, then ease up. But don’t give up on self-protection because someone bullies you into thinking you are somehow “enabling” criminals by doing so.
One thing I learned from my experience is that I will never, ever again back down when I know I am in the right. This is one of those cases. Self-defense (both preventive and in-the-moment) is not the answer to rape on a societal level, but it can save many individuals from trauma, and I will never stop encouraging people to educate themselves in these matters.
Kai
February 13, 2012 @ 11:24 am
I agree whole heartedly that there needs to be more education to the general population to intervene and question situations where they may not be welcome. For example one of the suggestions in a self defence course I’ve taken was actually to shout about a fire, versus yelling help because more people are willing step out of their comfort zone for a burn versus an attack. It makes me a little sad.
Kai
February 13, 2012 @ 11:28 am
That article is excellent! I love how the focus was shifted and how it proved that education can make an impact.
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 11:31 am
Mishell – again, I think you’re responding to something that nobody’s saying.
Nobody’s suggesting we give up on self-protection or self-defense.
But given my experiences trying to talk to people who are utterly convinced that they are Right, I’m not sure this is a discussion worth continuing…
Mishell
February 13, 2012 @ 11:38 am
I am responding to this, which was linked to me two days ago, as much as to your post.
http://feminally.tumblr.com/post/168208983/sexual-assault-prevention-tips-guaranteed-to-work
This filled me with so much rage I can’t even begin to explain it. As if my rapist had never heard that forcing sex on an unwilling partner (even your girlfriend) was wrong. As if he wasn’t a wretched excuse for a human being, he just needed someone to explain the rules, ’cause he totally didn’t KNOW. Oops, his bad!
I thought I would air my views here because in the past you had been very understanding to those who disagreed with you, especially if they had personal experiences to back up their views.
I think I’ll exercise some of my hard-earned lessons about how to avoid trauma at this point, though, and just simply exit the discussion. I am not emotionally distanced enough from the subject of rape to debate about it, I’m realizing. Thanks for allowing me to speak my mind, even if I didn’t do it well, and even if I can’t make you see my POV.
Paula
February 13, 2012 @ 11:41 am
It seems you missed the point of Jim’s post. He didn’t say that teaching people to defend themselves doesn’t work or is in some way harmful to the cause, but that there is an error in judgement by defining the work against rape as being limited to this.
Criminal action is not such an evil vs good dynamic. Most crimes are committed by people that are average, not necessarily bad or evil, but just is. Men, almost exclusively, are the perpetrators of rape. Yet very few actions are taken to teach men about rape or its aftermath. In many cases rape has even been used as a titillating entertainment tool targeted at men. Rape is belittled, normalized, and sometimes even celebrated in our society. Stating that prevention of rape falls exclusively on the women’s shoulders is part of the blame the victim culture we live in.
“We have to accept that there are bad people in this world, and we have to learn how they think and not put ourselves in the position to be their victims.”
Right, because boys will be boys. We can’t stop them from doing something they want to do.
Since a woman doesn’t want to get raped, it is up to her to make sure a rape can never occur. I see the solution, we should stay far away from men. Where do you want to create the woman-only space that would do this? And for mothers, are they only able to bring their girl children or are little boys not yet ‘bad people’?
“The minute we turn this into a women’s rights issue, the minute we separate rape out as having some kind of different basis from other crimes, it turns into a lot of ideastic speechifying that doesn’t help anyone who lives in the current world.”
What you just said there DOES define rape as different from other crimes. Jim pointed out wonderful examples of DETERRENCE that go above and beyond simply prosecuting and criminalizing behavior.
We already treat RAPE as different than other crimes, but not because we are trying to do something that isn’t already being done, but because society has decided to blame the victim not the perpetrator.
There are many reasons why a rape is committed, and none of them fall on the victim’s shoulders. Your above reasoning falls into that trap. There is nothing wrong with knowing self-defense. I wish our society embraced teaching women ( and men) how to defend themselves against people who want to hurt them. But when it comes to rape, the best way to keep rape from being so prevalent is to bring men into the fold. That’s not going to eliminate rape completely, but it will be a deterrent for more ‘average joes’ to be the good guy. Especially when at the moment some of them really don’t understand that they are being the bad guy.
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 11:46 am
I think I understand a little better where you’re coming from, thank you.
Please do whatever you need to take care of yourself, okay?
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 11:47 am
Paula – given Mishell’s most recent comment, I’d appreciate it if we stopped this thread. Thanks.
Joe Selby
February 13, 2012 @ 11:55 am
I know it’s not your point, but as you lead into your point with the topic, I felt it acceptable to respond.
“Don’t be a victim!” The assumption being that if you follow all of this training, then you’ll be safe … and as a direct corollary, if you’re assaulted, then it’s because you didn’t remember your training. I.e., it’s your own fault.
There’s more to defending oneself than having the skill to do so. One must also have the courage and will to do so, which is a wholly psychological component. You may see blame-shifting in the phrase “don’t be a victim,” but the purpose is not to shift blame. It is to shift the person’s attitude from one of victimization to one that can affect a different outcome. For all the training one receives, if one freezes when the moment happens for real, outside of a training environment, then it hasn’t amounted to much. This kind of phrasing can engender confidence and the will to act, which is both powerful and necessary.
Teresa
February 13, 2012 @ 12:15 pm
Thank you. You’re awesome, and your daughter is lucky to grow up with a father who is so aware of media messages and the harm it can do.
Ananda
February 13, 2012 @ 12:18 pm
I think “don’t be a victim” is inherent in the healthy human psyche—hell, the healthy animal psyche. Either we are assuming women are defective human animals when we push this on them or we are admitting that society has conditioned them to be victims by default, which is not addressed with drilling “don’t be a victim” into them.
The “don’t be a victim” push not only stigmatizes being a victim as a failure, it also forces victims of violent crimes to adopt non-blaming language when describing their experiences in order to avoid seeming like unworthy failures. One survives natural disasters, one is both a survivor of and a victim of a rape. But this anti-victim bullcrap frames it so that the fact that someone perpetrated this crime deliberately—victimizing the survivor of the assault—must be removed from the equation.
Therefore at the end of the day, rape becomes framed as an inevitability to be survived, perpetrated by mysterious forces that the neither the victim nor the perpetrator could control. It’s ultimately an anti-feminist strut of the present power structure. By rejecting this “don’t be a victim” theme and turning around to “don’t be a perpetrator”, the blame and the responsibility is shifted back onto the one with the power, the one choosing to commit the crime.
Remember also that this “don’t be a victim” also bleeds onto children who are victims/survivors of assault and abuse. By reframing the events as “don’t be a perpetrator” that also places the responsibility back on adults who commit these crimes. This kind of contextualizing and use of words doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Further, “don’t be a victim” is an insult to those who don’t survive. Framing everything in terms of what one should do or should have done or how hard someone should have tried means the dead have failed and lost and are dishonoured not by the perpetrator but by their own lack of action.
Finally, “don’t be a perpetrator” can engender just as much strength and rage that “don’t be a victim”, if not more. Putting the perpetrator in the hot seat means the evil of what they are doing is absolute. They are breaking a fundamental piece of the social contract between decent human beings and in doing so they have lost the right to be viewed as anything but the enemy. What is more powerful in a moment of panic? License to ruin one’s would-be rapist/murderer at all costs or a prodding that one should try hard so that one isn’t branded a failure?
Denise
February 13, 2012 @ 12:26 pm
THANK YOU! I had a nice car (Charger) which I later learned was prized by gang members for its looks and speed. I pulled up to work one day and noticed an older teenager stop and stand in the path I needed to take to get to my work building. I thought it was weird and so refused to get out of my car for several minutes until he had resumed walking and went out of sight then I hurried inside. A day or two later I was running late, jumped out of the car and headed inside juggling purse and some bags, he was hiding behind a dumpster and we fought for about ten feet until someone inside the bldg heard me screaming and came outside, he grabbed the car keys out of my hand and took off in the car leaving me bloody on the ground. Three days later he raped a woman in the same neighbor hood. Peoples first response to me has frequently been suggestions to go to self defense lessons, to carry a gun, to carry mace, or similar. The thing is, there was no time for anything before he was on me and had my elbows pinned behind me. I “get” that most people don’t know what to say so they give suggestions, but yes, it does feel very much like they are saying well if you had self-defense classes, or carried mace, then it wouldn’t have happened to you!
Vanades
February 13, 2012 @ 12:46 pm
When I was a kid my dad used to play-wrestle with me and would only let me go when I began to really fight back, including kicking, biting and scratching. I’m not sure what his goal was with this, maybe he was just horsing around, but even today when someone tries to physically grab me I fight back. In some ways it’s instinctual. So far this has served me well, even though I’m aware that fighting back might make a situation worse.
I also took some self-defense classes when I was a teenager and I still remeber the very first think the teacher said to us: “If you want to defend yourself, you have to be prepared to kill.” Harsh but effective.
I’ve had similar debates like this with men before. While I hate the name, I support the idea and concept behind the Slutwalks. I want to live in a world when some men don’t assume things just because of the way I’m dressed or not dressed or act and instead ask verbally for consent. Make sure that advances are welcome. And if they have to assume something, assume that No! actually means No!
I want to live in a world where I can meet men (customers, co-workers, potential friends or romantic interests) and don’t have to run through a checklist first on the general suspicion that he might be a potential rapist. I usually don’t, but even so the niggeling thought is in the back of my mind: ‘Should I invite him in? Wouldn’t it be better to meet in a public place? What if…?’
I think that we should teach our girls how to say “No!” and when to draw the line and say “This behaviour of yours is not acceptable!”. And we should teach our boys to ask and not assume. To stop thinking of women as their property.
Christopher
February 13, 2012 @ 1:29 pm
I’m not sure who you got the idea that if a woman fails to defend herself she’s in the wrong. At least that’s what I came away with.
I’ve been in martial arts for many years and have taught women specifically about defense. Part of that training is that there is always the possibility they’ll face a situation they can’t defend from.
It’s simple. If someone says, ‘No’ then any action by another person towards them is wrong. That’s it. If a woman tells a man ‘no’, or ‘stop’ and he doesn’t she’s justified in inflicting every ounce of damage she needs to to protect herself.
Stephen A. Watkins
February 13, 2012 @ 2:23 pm
This is a pretty powerful statement, I think.
I am reminded of an exercise we performed in a class on Organizational Theory and Design in my undergrad. We broke into groups, and each group had to reach a consensus of assigning blame for a murder in rank order for a number of characters given the facts of a certain fictive story. (i.e. which character was most responsible, 2nd most responsible, and so on, with 5 or 6 characters in all.)
I won’t belabor the whole story, but I was shocked, sickened, and disgusted when a majority of the groups ranked the victim (a woman, in the story) as first or second in culpability for her own murder. I loudly and vocally objected to my own group’s assignment of the victim to the #2 responsibility slot, right behind the actual murderer.
This was the professor’s first time in his years of teaching with a class where the majority had put the victim in the first or second spot. This was back around the year 2000/2001-ish this class took place. I can see now how this culture of “victim-blaming” contributed to that bizarre and sickening classroom exercise.
Jim C. Hines
February 13, 2012 @ 2:38 pm
I’m familiar with the exercise, actually. We did that one during crisis counselor training back in the nineties. Thankfully, I think our results were a little less depressing than your class…
Stephen A. Watkins
February 13, 2012 @ 2:48 pm
I still can’t wrap my head around the logic of those who put the victim in the #1 slot. Assigning her to the #2 slot was anathema enough to me, but at least I could follow the argument/logic that my teammates were trying to use, even if their logic was fundamentally and very seriously flawed. But #1? I just cannot comprehend it.
On the other hand, for us the exercise was meant to demonstrate the problems of groupthink in an organizational context, and I realized later that the idea of assigning the blame to the victim probably originated with one or two very vocal classmembers, and the idea spread from group to group as members of each group overheard each other discussing the question. Part of me hopes that the majority of my classmates were shamed by the experience, if not by my words at the time.
Zola
February 13, 2012 @ 7:22 pm
I remember telling my daughter “If anyone ever gets too grabby, don’t hesitate to use that roundhouse left of yours to good effect–and I will NOT punish you if you get suspended over it, in fact, I’ll make damn sure he is also punished.”
At the time, a lot of the young adolescent males thought it was “fun” to grab at a girl in the hall. Ironically, the one time it happened to my daughter, she clocked him, and immediately discovered a teacher had observed the whole incident. He told the boy that if he ever saw something like that again, there was going to be serious trouble, and told my daughter “Good for you. He deserved that.”
I was so proud that she defended herself immediately, and I think that young man learned that he shouldn’t be grabbing girl’s bodies, even as a “joke”. If more girls weren’t afraid to defend themselves, perhaps the boys would be educated a little bit quicker.
I feel it’s really important to let our daughters know that in appropriate circumstances, it’s okay to be violent. We don’t like to put it that way–we want to say it’s “never” okay to be violent. But that’s not the way things are, in my opinion, and until they change, we need to explicitly tell our girls it’s okay.
Shannon
February 13, 2012 @ 8:18 pm
I’ve always found it interesting that calling a man a dick is an entirely different level of insult than calling a woman a c**t. I’d be willing to bet that you twitched at the second one and not at the first one. I even hesitated to post this, because that word is so offensive. The underlying assumption seems to be that it’s OK to reduce a man to his genitals, because hey, that’s all men think with, right? That attitude is unfair to men, but it’s also what allows a certain type of man to think no doesn’t mean no. Society tells him it’s OK to be a dick.
Or maybe I should spend less time psycho-analyzing swearing. 🙂
sara g
February 13, 2012 @ 10:59 pm
Whoa! Did anyone read the comments on that article? There was a whole array of alarming stuff there.
Jim C. Hines
February 14, 2012 @ 7:31 am
Shannon,
As a general guideline (given my readership), I try to keep the blog and comments around PG-13 or so.
I think I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think dick is the equivalent term here.
-Jim
Jim C. Hines
February 14, 2012 @ 7:32 am
The comments section of this sort of post, especially if comments are unmoderated, often tend to devolve into amazing levels of sexist and hateful fail. I’m deliberately not reading ’em.
Nichole
February 14, 2012 @ 9:40 am
I went to bootcamp in 1989. I was 17 and one of 7 females in a recruit company of 45. As part of the military’s effort to prevent sexual assault (still a work in progress – the statistics will only depress you) we had to watch a video and take a class.
The video was a date/rape scenario presented by the Chief Corpsman. Afterwards he asked everyone who thought the sexual encounter was consensual to raise their hands. Most of the men did so. Then he asked who thought it was rape. All of the women and about six of the men raised hands.
The Chief then explained the concept of “date-rape” to about 32 men who’d never really thought about it before. He convinced a few, and laid down the law to the others.
I don’t really remember the discussion or video, honestly. What I remember clearly was the shocking realization that I should never let any of those 32 men into my apartment. Ever.
The responsibility for a violent crime lies squarely with the person who commits the crime. Always. In California, our laws reflect this. But as a courtroom bailiff I’ve seen jury trials go sideways on the DA because the defense attorney convinced the jury… well, why go into it? Let’s just say male privilege is very much a part of our culture.
It’s wrong. It’s backwards, and it’s contrary to our laws. But it’s as real as that girl crying on the witness stand because the defense attorney just asked if she was a prostitute.
So while I agree that blaming the victim only perpetuates the problem, I also strongly advocate taking precautions. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive. Protect yourself, anyway you can.
Shannon
February 14, 2012 @ 9:35 pm
But that’s my point. One word is much more offensive than the other. All the equivalent insults I can think of for men would be rated PG, PG-13 at worst. All the equivalent insults for women would be R. It’s an interesting double standard, whatever the reason behind it.
Jim C. Hines
February 14, 2012 @ 10:25 pm
Shannon,
Dick is not the equivalent term to c**t. C**k is a much more equivalent term, and I’d rate it worse than PG-13. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make now.
Nichole
February 15, 2012 @ 7:11 am
… and Liz Trotta is an idiot who can kiss my shiny brass Coast Guard Achievement Medal (both of them).
Shannon
February 15, 2012 @ 9:48 pm
Badly. I’m making it badly. Oh wait, you said what’s my point, not how am I making it. 🙂
It was just intended to be another example of the way male privilege (to steal another commenter’s phrase) permeates our society, even our language. It’s OK to be a dick (not great, but not horrible), but it’s absolutely horribly wrong to be…well. I think of the insults on a spectrum. While there is an overlap in the middle, it seems like the insults to women tend to be seen as nastier than the insults to men. I’m not trying to argue that the words should be OK. If anything, I’d rather see the male insults shift more towards the unacceptable.
Also, I apologize for offending. It was never my intent. I realize there’s a famous road paved with good intentions, and that I did a good job of being offensive without intending it, but I truly did not mean to. I am sorry. Too much time reading the Bloggess? (That last is a joke, by the way, not an actual attempt to shift blame. Text being notoriously lacking in con-text.)
Jim C. Hines
February 15, 2012 @ 10:25 pm
No worries, I’m not offended. The censoring is me awkwardly trying to maintain a PG-13ish blog … less for my own delicate sensibilities and more due to the fact that my books tend to attract a younger readership.
I’ve never really given much thought to disallowing or filtering out language before. It’s awkward … I need to stop and figure that out a little better.
Malanka Sveta
February 24, 2012 @ 1:30 am
I’ll be honest. I read fantasy and sci-fi voraciously and I had never heard of you before tonight. I think you are quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
Jim C. Hines
February 24, 2012 @ 8:01 am
Thank you 🙂