Hey, remember when I first started blogging? One of my first blog posts was about Obama ordering the NSA into domestic spying because he wanted to steal my porn.
From there, I quickly wised-up and headed for the much safer topics of religion and sexuality.
So, I began my blogging career by actively seeking out the kinds of topics I could expect violent retaliation for writing about.
That’s not an overstatement, either.
I have had my life threatened for things I’ve written about on my blog.
So, slowly, steadily, I pulled away. I let fear hold me back and I hid from things I used to champion. By the time I decided I was going to make a go of being an actual writer, I abandoned anything more controversial than bad career advice.
Want a piece of bad career advice?
Hide your beliefs from your readers.
Here’s a pretty simple truth: I believe in things. I believe in things with enough fervor I might border on a zealot. I don’t hide it. It comes out in my fiction. If my beliefs are enough of a reason for you to hate me, you’re going to hate my books, too.
It’s that simple.
There’s another, more important reason to express these thoughts, too. We live in a curated world of moral blacks-and-whites. Its bad for us and the only way we’ll change that is if we all stop trying to pretend we agree about everything and start talking about why we disagree.
No more hiding.
So, that’s where I am now. I’m remembering that I was voted “Most Opinionated” in high school and wearing that as a badge of honor. If someone doesn’t like it…
Well, I now live in a state where I’m 20 times more likely to be killed by a deer than homicide.
Basically, I shouldn’t let my fear hold me back anymore. And I won’t.