Not Stephen King, yet

One reason why I write about children and teenagers is that only they have a claim on tragedy. What happens during those times determines where they go in the "afterlife." As an atheist, of course I'm referring to adulthood. (Which also implies that your dead after 25. No, your just living outside your warranty.)
 
Stephen King I'm not: this novel has taken five years to write. Getting it to where I would publish it will likely take more than another year. I love what I'm doing, but, being well into middle age, I feel like I'm forty years late doing it. It took electro-convulsive therapy to get me to correct the biggest mistake of my life.

Do I blame other people too much? There's a good case I give them just the right amount of blame. I know what mistakes I made and what I failed to do. I know what my reasons were. I know which adults failed at their responsibilities to me when I had every socially recognized right to trust them. I know when I was looking for help, no adult ever came through. Not parents, teachers or counselors. It was like in The Karate Kid, except Mr. Miyagi either never came back from fishing and The Kid paints his arm off. Or he gave instructions that guaranteed The Kid would be TKO'd in the first round-- by an eight-year old. 

I realize it's not in fashion to blame others for your life, but there's also a such thing as blaming yourself too much. Nobody becomes successful without the aid and cooperation of somebody else. People who doubt that forget that "networking" is a given for success. That also implies that one source of failure is due to others either not helping, or royally screwing you.


Most of us agree that children aren't responsible morally, but we hardly ever make the connection of what happens when the children betrayed and failed most by adults become adults themselves. If children aren't responsible, can adults ever truly be responsible?

That's real, but it's not in fashion to point this out, so I know I haven't gained any readers today. I don't really have many to lose.