Michael J. Bowler

The Writings of Michael J. Bowler

Do Characters Write Themselves?

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Fictional Characters

I know, that sounds like the plot of a Stephen King novel, right? Novelist stalked by his murderous main character who springs to life from the pages of his latest book! Oh wait, that was a Stephen King novel. Ha! However far-fetched that and other stories of a similar ilk may be, I’m here to attest to the essential reality of this peculiar notion, and to answer my own question with a resounding “Yes!”

Am I crazy? Perhaps. But hear me out first and then I’d love to get comments from fellow authors on this subject. And readers, too, since we write for you, after all. I’ve just spent the past year and a half living with the fictional characters in my massive, 721,440 word Children of the Knight trilogy, after having spent twenty years on and off (due to that pesky thorn in the side called work) developing the series. The first volume, Children of the Knight, is available from Amazon and the other usual suspects. Part II, Running Through a Dark Place, comes out in May or June, with the finale, And the Children Shall Lead, slated for fall. This story is one long book broken into three parts to make it less daunting (and less expensive to publish and buy – Ha!), so to say I’ve lived with these characters 24/7 is an understatement. And yes, as difficult as it may be for people to comprehend, those characters lived and breathed and directed their own dialogue and their own actions. I, as the author, merely wrote what they wanted me to write.

I know, crazy. Except it’s true. As the author, I very much created the plot and laid out the storyline and decided who my characters would be, both main and supporting. I knew how the trilogy would end before I even finished the first part. Did I know every single scene ahead of time? Of course not, though I did have an outline of the entire epic to work from. But here’s the rub – once I selected my characters and got to know those characters and then set them loose within my chosen plot, well, they just took over.

This series has a huge cast of characters to juggle. Most are teens or children, but there are also many adults of varying ages and from different walks of life. The teens are all unique, each with his or her own back-story and life experience. Thus, they don’t talk or act the same. I really hate any YA literature these days wherein the children (especially middle school age kids) talk and act like adults. It’s not only preposterous, but it perpetuates the notion that kids can think like adults, and that idiotic notion has slipped big-time into our so-called justice system, resulting in some states putting children as young as seven into adult court if those children commit a crime. Kids can mimic adults, yes, but they do not have the fully formed brains and rational thinking capacity of adults, and an author needs to keep that biological fact in mind when writing. But I digress. Sorry.

Anyway, once I got to know my characters, I pretty much let them run the show. I’d be at the gym on a treadmill or using the elliptical machine, and thinking of the next scene or scenes I was going to write when I got home. I’d picture in my mind what had to happen in the scene and which characters would be involved, then simply let it play out. And damn if it didn’t unspool in my mind like a movie! Not ever did I consciously compose a single line of dialogue. The kids talked and responded as they would have had the situation been real life, and all I had to do was either write it down at the gym or keep playing the scene back in my mind until I got home and then transcribe it. But the bottom line is, I let them tell me what they wanted to say. That’s not to suggest I didn’t change up some of the phrasing later on, but the essentials of what they said remained intact.

Readers ask how I came up with Lance’s little catch phrase, “Damn straight,” and I don’t have an answer. Or Reyna saying she couldn’t take orders from a boy younger and prettier than her, and then reusing that line to jibe Lance from time to time thereafter. Or Lance calling six-year-old Chris “little man” and everyone else gradually following suit. Or why Jenny tells Arthur, “That’s the great failure of our society–too many adults who want to act like children and too many who expect children to act like adults.” The list is endless and the only answer I can give is that those characters wanted to say those things that way at that moment, and so I let them.

Even while sitting at the computer, I’d type out a scene and let characters have their way with each other and respond to the circumstances in which they found themselves, then I’d go back later to reread what I had written and wonder where it all came from. Often, these scenes played out perfectly, the dialogue completely organic and exactly how Lance or Reyna or Arthur or Jack or Mark or Esteban or Jenny or Chris would have responded. It was definitely Stephen King-esque. Then, after concluding each book, I’d go back to revise, and more often than not laugh or feel choked up with emotion at what a character said or did, knowing that I’d written the scene, but never quite understanding how it came off so seamlessly, or why I couldn’t even remember actually composing it. Okay, I’m weird, but I’ve known that forever. Maybe that’s why I’m a writer. Ha!

What I also found interesting was what happened when I tried to get a character to do or say something he or she clearly didn’t want to do (in other words, would not do in real life.) Those scenes felt empty and wrong, though I didn’t always understand why at first. In Children of the Knight, there’s a scene I can’t describe because it would be a spoiler, but my main character, Lance, kept telling me he wanted to do something in the scene, and I kept resisting. In the first few drafts I fought to have it my way because I worried how readers might react to the scene. But Lance is nothing if not determined. Growing up on the streets had made him so. He kept insisting I let him do what he wanted, so I finally relented. The scene now feels very natural, real, and quite touching, and thus far no readers or reviewers have objected. See – the character always knows best.

In saying all of this, I don’t always see this same attention to character continuity and reality in books I read, even from bestselling authors. A character in these books will suddenly act out or make a decision completely counter to who he or she is, apparently to further the plot, and those anomalous behaviors always jump off the page at me and pull me right out of the story. At that point, the author has partially lost my allegiance. In most books, the plot, or storyline, if you prefer, must dictate the flow and pacing, but it should never force a character to act counter to himself or herself for the sake of a plot twist, or more commonly, a plot contrivance. Characters are supposed to evolve and change over time, depending on what events befall them, but those changes should be gradual and come across as organic and believable or the reality of the human being is lost. That’s my whole point. I could give specific examples from bestselling books, but I don’t want to dis a fellow author or the book editor, though it seems to me a good editor should have pointed out such an egregious faux pas to the writer and politely insist it be corrected. Oh well, the books are hits so what do I know, right?

If you’re a new writer you may be asking yourself, how do I get to know my characters? Well, how do we get to know anyone – by listening. Many writers start with Fan Fiction on the Internet, writing stories using characters they already know from some TV show or other. As a teen I often did that myself, though there was no Internet to post them on back in the day. Ha! But I knew those characters from watching them and, more importantly, listening to how they talked and interacted with others. The same principle holds true for characters of your own creation.

Of course, it’s important to have at least a basic outline for each of your characters, but you don’t need to know every aspect of his or her life up to the point of your story unless those aspects are relevant to your story. As with all of us, our past experiences – good and bad – inform our choices in the present and often dictate how we respond to certain people, events, or locations. Those are the details you need to think out ahead of time because they will determine how your character interacts with others in your book. Once you have these back stories in your head, including the level of education a character may or may not have had, then their manner of speech, as well as what they say or don’t say, becomes clearer to you with each passing scene. Run scenes in your head as I do, put your characters in place, and then just listen to how they talk, and note how they react to the given situation. Yeah, I guess writing is sort of like having a multiple personality disorder, but in a controlled way. You can’t allow yourself to become Stephen King’s alter ego in his book and have your main character possess you. But if you did, would that be called “method writing?” But I digress again. In any case, “method writing” is not recommended if your main character is a serial killer. Ha! But always listen to your characters, and more importantly, learn from them.

I personally spend an inordinate amount of time revising my books, especially the really long ones, because I want that character consistency and plot continuity that I’ve relished in books I love. I want everything I set up to pay off satisfactorily for the reader, even if that pay off comes in the second or third book, and the worst comment I feel I could ever receive would be that one of my characters acted in a way I never set up (or should I say, the character never set up.) Thankfully, I’ve not gotten such a comment yet, and hopefully never will. While readers might not be conscious of characters bending to suit the plot, it’s my gut feeling that the books they cherish don’t do this. We can get so caught up in plot that we overlook character inconsistencies, but when all the dots are connected and all the strands woven together seamlessly, a story will live in our hearts forever.

This quote from one reviewer on Goodreads helped solidify in my mind all the time I spend making sure each character runs his own show: “The very large supporting cast is quite uniquely developed. Everyone is developed uniquely to suit their role within the novel, without throwing in irrelevant details to bog down the reader. Also, their dialogue and dialects stay consistent throughout. Bowler never trips up on who speaks which way. It made it quite easy to differentiate between characters.” That’s such a fantastic validation, and encourages me to keep taking my time in getting the characters right.

So, any comments out there? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to weigh in, especially you writers out there. Some of you write ten books a year. Wish I could do that, but I’m too detail oriented and OCD when it comes to this issue of character and story continuity. I know I’ll never win any writing awards for poetic descriptions or flowery prose, but at least I strive to make my characters live and breathe and be at all times 100% real to the reader. To that end, I trust my characters to know themselves. I don’t argue with them any more. Lance taught me that. I let them be, and they don’t let me down.

Children of the Knight-best quality alt

 

First Person Narrator or Third – Which Works Better?

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Sir Lance, who is the main character in my Children of the Knight series, wanted the entire story to be from his point of view. But was that possible? As the author telling his story, I had to make the best decision for my readers, and that’s always an interesting decision for writers to make –  which will work better, first person narrator or third? My answer to that is: depends on the story. For personal stories like romances or reflections back to childhood or struggles with a deeply emotional personal dilemma, I always prefer first person because of the intimacy factor. You, the reader, feel part of the person’s heart and soul and it’s easier for the writer to share the emotions the situation requires, especially feelings of love and longing or even wistfulness and nostalgia.

Having said that, I don’t like first person narration in horror, action, adventure, or even mystery books for this main reason: you. the reader, know right up front that no matter what danger may befall the main character, he or she won’t die. That eliminates such an important layer of suspense that it can practically derail what would normally be a good story.

Case in point: The Hunger Games Trilogy. Gee, Katniss is the narrator and it’s in the first person voice. You think maybe she might survive the games? I wonder . . . That choice by the author nearly ruined those books for me because the story was much bigger than Katniss alone and when we the readers only saw what she saw, that was limiting. The movie version was able to open up the entire world and let us see into areas – like how the games were run – that Katniss (and by extension us) never could see or experience. Plus, especially with the first book, there’s no suspense in the game because you know she can’t die. In my opinion as a reader, that was a poor choice by the author.

Children of the Knight is written in the third person because there are so many characters and locations that a single narrator could not have covered everything in any way that wouldn’t have seemed forced and idiotic. In addition, characters dying can be traumatic and very emotional for readers and I want that option in my books so readers can rightly fear for the life of a beloved main character. That, to me, is what makes a book great, when the author shocks the readers with something completely unexpected. Sure, it can happen in first person narrated stories, but never to the narrator, at least nothing shockingly fatal.

Another disadvantage to first person is that it’s hard to hide anything about your narrator from the reader since we’re constantly inside that person’s head. I find it intriguing to learn bits and pieces about characters as a story progresses, and that includes the main character. To service the story, you may not want the reader to know until a certain point that your main character loves someone else or is plotting something against someone, but if you’re inside the character’s mind the whole time it’s tough to hide anything like that from the reader.

Since I’m not likely to write a memoir or romance that’s simply a romance and not a story with a romantic element, I’m not likely to use first person narration in any projects I currently have lined up. That’s not to say I might not dip into it in the future, but it all depends on how best to serve the story and make it work for the reader.

Cover Art: How Important is It to a Book?

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ImageSir Lance says I should talk about cover art (mostly because he’s featured on the cover of my book. LOL) But he does know me too well, and one of my favorite aspects of books is the cover art, and I don’t think I’m alone amongst avid readers in that regard. This is one of my primary reasons for not buying a standard black and white e-book reader – the covers look horrible. Oh I know, I sound like one of the high school kids I used to teach when they had to watch a black and white movie, but in the case of book covers, I’m sorry, it’s true. Those e-readers just don’t cut it.

I have often bought books I never end up reading because I love the cover art so much. I’ll just set the book out on the shelf, cover facing out, and admire the artistry of the cover the way others admire paintings. Okay, I’m weird. But I love book covers! Firstly, a cover can make or break a book because it’s the first thing that catches, or doesn’t catch, the eye of a potential reader. I’ve seen book covers that are absolutely terrible, but the book turns out to be great. I’m different from most likely readers, however, because I might explore a book further, especially if the description peaks my interest. Most people, though, gravitate to “cool” covers.

A cover artist I recently discovered is Zachary Sexton, an Australian who creates some amazing gothic imagery, dark and somewhat out there, but stunningly rendered. I bought a book featuring his cover art (and I might actually read it, though it isn’t really my type of book), but I bought the book solely on the basis of his incredible cover (as I said before, I’m weird that way. Ha!) I checked his website, and his paintings, like this particular cover, look like photographs, lush and detailed, and often quite edgy. Some of it was too edgy for me (ha!), but if I ever have a book I think he’d be right for, I’d hire him in a second. My point is, his cover for that book I bought drew me to a book I otherwise wouldn’t have considered buying, and ideally that’s what cover art should do.

I designed the covers of my first two books myself because they were self-published and I didn’t want a “stock” cover. Those are absolutely egregious! Knowing the importance of cover art, I tried to put significant elements of my stories right there on the covers, some of which wouldn’t make any real sense until after the book was read but might hopefully make potential readers curious enough to at least read the back blurb.

For Children of the Knight, I had created my own “spec” cover art in case I ended up self-publishing, but when Harmony Ink Press bought the manuscript for publication I stressed a little over what they might put on my cover. I needn’t have worried. An amazing cover artist named Reese Dante was assigned to my book and she was fantastic to work with. I wholeheartedly recommend her to any of you authors out there looking for a free-lance cover artist. She asked for my ideas and shared with me her own. When she needed a boy for the front cover, I convinced her to use the one I had already found for my spec because he so perfectly fit my main character. She even used the same sword I had (which I own) in essentially the same position, and created a whole new background that was striking and original and eye-catching. Even the title font she used was perfect. I’ve already seen comments on Goodreads and other sites that people love her finished cover. I couldn’t agree more. If it weren’t already my own book I’d have bought it for the cover alone. Ha!

Since the book involves King Arthur in modern-day Los Angeles recruiting street kids and gang members for a new Round Table of knights to take on the adult society that rejected them, the sword represents Excalibur. The boy is my main character, Lance, a homeless teen skater who becomes Arthur’s First Knight. There’s gang graffiti on the wall behind Lance and Arthur’s “A” symbol spray-painted over it. All of these elements are intriguing and are explained as the story unfolds. Even the boy’s position, with his feet pulled up and arms wrapped around them protectively, indicates the nature of Lance’s character as the story begins – wary, a loner, detached from others, anxious, and closed off emotionally from others.

Every element is perfect and just looking at the cover completely sets the stage for what is to come within the storyline, and that, to me, is what a great book cover should do. It should catch the eye and intrigue the mind and, hopefully, inspire the potential reader to take a leap of faith and dive into the book with interest and expectation. The worst thing a book cover can do is set up expectations not realized within the story or not even relate to the story at all. I’ve seen this happen on occasion and it irks me to no end.

So any of you potential authors out there, never neglect cover art in the process, especially if you are self-publishing. If you have to, take pictures of your own and use Photoshop or pay a friend to meld the pictures together as you want. Or hire Reese Dante – you won’t be disappointed! Steer clear of stock covers on these self-publishing sites unless the photo truly represents your story in a visual way. Remember, a book cover is the doorway to your story. If the door is unappealing, people won’t even open it, and all the hard work you put into crafting your story will be for naught.Image

Self-Publishing versus Traditional – Which is Better for You?

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My Book CoversSelf-publishing or traditional publisher – which is better for you? That’s a question I’ve been asked and have asked myself, and since I’ve done both Sir Lance insisted that I share my experiences. My first two books, A Boy and His Dragon and A Matter of Time, were self-published, but by different companies. My latest book, Children of the Knight, which stars Sir Lance, himself, was picked up and released by a “real” publisher, Harmony Ink Press.

With A Boy and His Dragon, which I had initially written years ago and which failed to interest a “real” publisher, I decided to go with Amazon’s Createspace to finally release it in 2011. Createspace is relatively inexpensive to use, especially if, like me, you can create your own cover art. That in itself can run you some money unless you take all the photos yourself, but if you do and own those photos, programs like Photoshop make creating the cover fun and easy. If not, there are tons of stock photos sites you can go to for images. Createspace will give you the template for your cover that will fit your eventual book size (if you want a paperback release.) Obviously, eBooks are much simpler to format. Again, Createspace makes that process rather painless.

My main problem with formatting Dragon was Microsoft Word, which always seems to have a mind of its own (and the mind of a psychopath, at that. Ha!) Createspace gave me a template to download for my book size that would double-side the pages, etc, and all I had to do was cut and paste my Word document into that template. Except, it didn’t work. Word would change fonts and font sizes all through the entire book and I eventually had to copy-paste the manuscript one chapter at a time and check over each chapter for Word changes that I didn’t want. Very annoying and time consuming. However, once I had it right the finished product looked beautiful and very professional. Being an Amazon company, the book was made available in Kindle format, but not Nook (if that is of concern to anyone.) The paperback version is available on the Barnes and Noble website, however.

I decided for A Matter of Time (which I wanted released by April of 2012 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s sinking) to go with a “package deal” from Outskirts press, which I’d read about and which seemed good for a number of reasons. As I was working a lot and didn’t have as much available free time, this option fit my schedule because they pretty much did everything for me. I designed my own cover and uploaded it, but they formatted the book and got everything set and converted it to epub and mobi formats and prepared the paperback from the bottom up.

I didn’t notice at the time, however, that, I suppose as a way to compress the number of pages, they removed all my transitions and ran those paragraphs together, which some readers complained about because it made the flow of the story confusing, especially if the scene shifted from one time period to another. I recommend to every writer, no matter how you publish, to put several non-letters or characters (like ***) in between important transitions – don’t just leave extra space. Otherwise, you might find yours all run together, too. Overall, however, the finished product looked good. What wasn’t good were their marketing services (which cost extra, of course.) I wouldn’t recommend any of these because you’d likely get more results doing all the marketing yourself and you can save money in the process.

My newest book, Children of the Knight, was released by a real YA publisher, Harmony Ink Press, and the pre-publication process was an amazingly positive and joyful experience. These people were fantastic and creative and incredibly helpful all along the way, from the executive director to the art department to the cover artist to the editors and I can’t say enough good things about the company or the people who produced the book. I happened to find them through another writer on Goodreads. I read his book and thought it outstanding. I reviewed the book and then he and I got to chatting on Goodreads about his experience with Harmony Ink. He said they were amazing to work with so I checked out their requirements for YA submissions and my manuscript seemed to fit those requirements, so I submitted it. While my book was clearly different from what Harmony Ink normally published, they decided to take a chance on it anyway, for which I am grateful.

You can make more money self-publishing because all the royalties come back to you since there is no “publisher” that needs to make its money back. In that regard, Createspace is the cheapest way to go for you as an author as you lay out the least amount of money up front. The value of a real publisher, at least in the case of Harmony Ink, is not only did I not spend any of my own money but they actually paid me an advance! Sure, I get no royalties until the amount of the advance has been exceeded, but it’s still cool to know that someone thinks your work is good enough to pay you money (which means they have confidence it will earn them money.) Again, the people at Harmony Ink were so amazing and affirming I may be spoiled to find other publishers aren’t like them. Still, there are some smaller publishing houses like this one that will read books not submitted by an agent, so I recommend checking them out.

So here’s the bottom line, even with Harmony Ink: most of the promotion is up to you. A real publisher like Harmony Ink has more access to media outlets and can have your name on a list of “new books,” but I’ve found that unless your book is noted for being controversial or you’re an author readers or other authors already know, yours is just another title for review sites to ignore. And your book is considered a failure if the publisher cannot generate any interest in your book pre-publication. E-book copies or even galleys, are made available to reviewers three-four weeks prior to publication so there can be reviews right on “opening day.” But, of course, a publisher cannot force any site to review your book. It’s strictly up to the reviewers who populate those sites. However, and this is key, the pre-release buzz from those reviewers snapping up the offered e-books will likely determine if the publisher will  promote your book at all once it’s released, or just dump it out there and move on to the next book, and author.

Despite Harmony Ink having a long list of review sites that, as a rule, love their books and generally post a large number of reviews right when the books comes out or shortly thereafter, Children of the Knight generated no such interest. I think I got maybe three reviews from those sites shortly after the book debuted. Obviously, my story didn’t interest them enough to even give the book a chance. As I said, it’s different and I guess among reviewers who are set in their ways, “different” isn’t good. Oddly enough, the storyline involves kids who are “different,” whom society disdains and who are not given a chance to prove themselves worthy, and here we have reviewers not giving the book, or its author, a chance, either. Life imitates art. Very ironic.

So, on all three of these books, it’s been me generating most of the reviews and pushing the books on Facebook, Twitter, by email and on Goodreads. Goodreads, which put me onto Harmony Ink, is a great place to interact with other authors and most of us are willing to let our brains be picked for insights or experience. However, even offering free books in exchange for a fair review might generate no interest whatsoever.

There are subgroups for virtually every genre and subgenre out there, and you can promote your work there, but I haven’t seen tangible results yet from Goodreads. I’ve gotten a tiny handful of people interested in my books, even the last one, despite my targeting the “right” groups that should embrace the story. Also, a lot of people may add your book to their “wants to read” shelf, but never actually buy it. As I said, offering free copies in exchange for reviews could be a good way to get reviews, and here’s hoping you have better luck in that arena than I. Subgroups who love everything Harmony Ink publishes haven’t been too responsive to reading my book, even when I offered it for free. Having said that, the reviews it has gotten have all been excellent, mostly four and five stars. But again, I had to do all the legwork to get those reviews and you might have to, also.

There are Virtual Book Tours available from various online companies and they can help you with blog stops and interviews and even reviews, and I’ve done a few of these for Children of the Knight. I haven’t yet seen tangible results from those efforts, either, but time will tell. Let’s face it, I just suck at self-promotion. Get good at that and you’ll be the next Stephen King.

Well, that’s it. My publishing journey so far. If you’d prefer a “real” publisher and don’t mind smaller royalties, see if your specific book meets the submission requirements for small publishing houses that don’t expect you to pay anything. If you want complete control and all the returns, I’d say go with Createspace and avoid the vanity publishers – they may cost you more than you’ll ever get back.

Should 14-year-olds Have the Right to Vote?

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Children of the Knight Mid Res CoverIn the United States today a citizen must be 18 years old to vote in any federal, state or local elections. How many of you out there believe, as I do, that the voting age should be lowered to fourteen? A crazy idea? Let’s explore it, shall we?

The cons are easiest to start with since most adults would instantly say them: Fourteen-year-olds aren’t mature enough. Heard that one before? Fourteen year olds aren’t smart enough. Fourteen year olds aren’t educated enough. Fourteen year olds are just kids and they don’t have any life experience to go by. How about this one – if we let them vote, they’ll get to sit on juries. Then what’s next – they drop out of school and join the work force? That would cheapen the adult workers because non-union kids would work for less and take jobs away from adults! And if they can vote, they’ll want to drive cars and join the military. That would undermine the entire social fabric because we’d have a bunch of immature kids on equal footing with mature and capable adults. Are these arguments sound? Do they seem reasonable to you? Is it idiotic to allow fourteen-year-old kids to “be” adults and participate fully in the adult decision-making world? Maybe. Maybe not.

How many of you out there are aware that in 45 out of 50 states, juveniles as young as fourteen, sometimes thirteen, are already considered legal adults? You didn’t know this? Oh, maybe that’s because the adult voters in those states decided that juveniles are adults in only one way – when they get in trouble with the law. In every other way, hell no, they’re just immature kids who don’t know anything! But when it comes to crime, to life in the streets, to gangs and their overreaching influence, to resisting peer pressure – suddenly and magically they become adults. But only for that moment when they made the bad choice. Oddly enough, when they do something good or positive for society, they’re still just punk-ass kids who know nothing and should be seen but not heard, and sometimes not even seen unless they’re good-looking or get good grades.

Make sense to you? How many of you out there truly believe that thirteen or fourteen-year-olds can be an adult today to get caught up in a crime, but not be an adult tomorrow to sit on the jury to hear that crime, or to vote on the very laws that “adultified” them in the first place?

I have spent my entire life working with kids, particularly teenagers. And they’re not adults. Not yet, even though many states like to pretend they are when they get in trouble. Kids don’t have the experience to process feelings like we do, and they can’t reason things out as well. It’s not built in yet. This country wants to pretend children are adults so we can put them in prison when they screw up because we are too lazy and caught up in ourselves to give them a second chance, or a third, or even a fourth. Kids screw up. That’s been the case throughout all of human history, and when they do, those kids need adults to help them become better so they don’t keep screwing up. They don’t need adults who just want to toss them into prison, out of sight and out of mind.

Too many adults in this country want kids to be magically grown up so they don’t have to parent them and role model for them and set good examples for them, but the bottom line is children are children and need to be allowed to be children. Children can’t, and never will, think and feel like adults because they aren’t adults. Not yet. And the adult society in this country has a throw-away mentality. If the kid screws up, throw him away. We’ll just get another. That’s like the farmer who leaves the barn unlocked and his horse escapes and tramples his crops. Farmer’s solution? Shoot the horse and just buy another. After all, it was the horse’s fault right, for trampling the crops?

So we return to my original question – should fourteen-year-olds be allowed to vote and by extension sit on juries to hear the cases against them? I say yes. If, in our collective idiocy, we are going to pretend they’re adults for doing something wrong, then they sure as hell can be adults to do something right! Or are we, as country, simply afraid of our young people? We seem to be incarcerating a vast number these days, so the answer would appear to be yes. But are we even more afraid of giving them the power to decide laws, to elect presidents and representatives, to pass or reject propositions that would seek to criminalize them just for being kids?

I say if fourteen-year-olds are adult enough to commit a crime then they are more than adult enough to vote! Who’s with me? C’mon, people, let’s start a revolution. . . a children’s crusade for equal rights. . .

Sir Lance says, “I’m fourteen-years-old. I can go to prison, but I can’t drive a car. Crazy, huh?”

Look Inside The Book – Children of the Knight

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