Cilantro is Evil

Crime fiction deals with some dangerous—and violent—situations. How does your personal belief about guns affect your writing about guns?

I am not a fan of guns. I’ve only touched a real gun once, at a shooting range as part of a Citizen’s Police Academy. (Don’t mess with me—I put all five in the inner circle!).

But I’m not a fan of a lot of things: switchblades, ricin, nuclear weapons, child abuse, nunchuks, garrotes, poison, cilantro, cheese, aggressive drivers, ebola, bad ballet, good ballet, blowhards, cannibalism, back-stabbing, double-dealing, two-timing, UNC basketball, soccer shootouts, Iran, the DMV, poor punctuation, snow, earthquakes, baggage fees, illegal narcotics, rush hour, 4 a.m. telephone calls, rude people, liars, neckties, torn ligaments, bigots, and ingrown toenails.

Yet…I write about a lot of that stuff. And about other things many people would find objectionable. Why? Because it’s all part of the human condition, for good and for bad (okay, mostly for bad).

I’m not romanticizing these things, or making them seem cool or attractive or fashionable. But sometimes you have to write about stuff you don’t like—really icky, evil stuff—because unfortunately, there’s evil stuff in the world.

Sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring that reality is doing a disservice to our readers.

Besides, it would be pretty boring if I only wrote about unicorns, cotton candy, and rainbows. Trust me, I’ve tried.

 

(This entry is “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds.)