“Gatekeeping” is typically a claim made by authors who resent being urged to hire professional editors, designers, and graphic artists to produce quality books. They view the reading public’s expectation of and demand for quality as prohibitive and unreasonable because they publish their books for themselves and want to acquire fame and fortune from those books.

I understand it. I used to be one of them.

However, there’s another kind of gatekeeping, and an entire branch of service has formed around it: sensivity reading.

Sensitivity reading stems from the conviction that authors are not able to and should not write characters if they don’t have the lived experience of those communities from which those characters are derived. To do so assumes adherence to pejorative stereotypes and incites outcries of cultural appropriation. The offended typically apply this to white authors writing Black characters.

I disagree.

In an age of political correctness, gender ideology, and heightened sensitivity to slights perceived and real, it’s easy to take offense and ascribe insult where none is intended. JP Sears illustrates this delightfully in his YouTube post here: “How to Get Offended.” (I also think no one has the right to not be offended. To live without being offended is not a reasonable expectation. One cannot go through life without giving offense or taking offense at something every so often.)

However, I offer examples as to why the false dictum that one must have lived experience in order to write a well-rounded, compelling character is, quite simply, wrong. For instance, no one alive has lived experience from the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. By the sensitivity reader’s claim, that means no one is able to write an authentic character from such a time period because that author hasn’t lived it. Historical fiction is a popular genre, so this alone debunks that concept.

I believe an author can and should write what he or she imagines and should also conduct the research necessary for versimilitude.

Tony Hillerman did that with his Navajo series. The protagonist is Joe Leaphorn, a tribal police chief. He lived in the time the stories take place (the 1970s), and he did the research necessary to deliver verisimilitude to readers. The series is popular, and I’ve not seen folks protesting against him or his books for cultural appropriation.

Of course, sometimes research isn’t feasible. A science fiction author who writes about blue-skinned, four-armed, reptilian aliens from some faraway planet in the universe cannot have that lived experience. Nor can an author who writes classic fantasy starring elves, dwarves, orcs, and other mythological creatures.

I posted on this topic in LinkedIn. The responses were gratifying:

Zafar Ahmed Ansari commented: “I agree. As per sensitivity reading I will never be able to write outside my culture. It will definitely be limiting. I think we should let the reader be the judge of that. If it feels off or unreal the reader will take care of it.”

And Lindsey Russell quipped: “Totally agree – what ‘life experience’ of murdering dozens of people did Agatha Christie have?”

So, how many people did Agatha Christie murder or how many murders did she solve to enable her to write stories about Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot? My guess is none, yet she’s been an all-time best-selling author for nearly a century.

In a recent argument on an FB community, I pointed out the fallacy of lived experience being required to write fiction by using similar examples and was accused of drama. I don’t think I was being dramatic, but I do think the person who disagreed so strongly with me was being dogmatic and a gatekeeper. So, let me repeat this: Write what you can imagine and do the necessary research for verisimilitude. So, no, the author doesn’t need that lived experience, although sometimes research does involve—and is enhanced by—lived experience.

If we may only write from lived experience, then our stories would be limited and the scope of our stories small.

Spring in southwestern Ohio is notoriously wet and the weather unpredictable. Last week, we got three inches of rain last week. Monday morning, I woke up to snow.

My poor magnolia!

With nearly 10 inches of rainfall thus far this year, my yard and pastures are … boggy. The barnyard is downright soupy. The packed dirt floor of my barn squishes underfoot.

In short, it’s wet out here. Really wet.

This is the season during which I discover whether my Muck books have spring a leak. Slogging through a shin-deep slurry of mud and manure quickly reveals the integrity (or lack of) of my boots rubberized construction. Trudging back to the house after feeding the livestock, I repeat to myself, “It’s just mud. It’s just mud.” After shedding my outer garments, I’ll strip off my brown-stained socks and find clean socks, because it’s not “just mud.”

I can’t lie to myself that convincingly.

Flooding and rushing water filled the scenery on the drive to Logan, Ohio for the 10th annual Spring Craft Show. Proceeds from the craft show benefit the Kalklosch Scholarship given to Logan School District students. Southeastern Ohio has a reputation as being underserved in education with poor literacy and poverty depressing the economy in the Appalachian foothills. The craft show was held at the Hocking Hills Retreat Center, itself an interesting building with metal and fabric construction reputed to be able to withstand hurricanes due to its ability to flex in high winds.

Not that we get many hurricanes in Ohio, but we do get high winds and tornadoes. I can’t see the building withstanding a direct hit from a tornado. From what I’ve seen, an encounter with a tornado leaves nothing intact.

I was not the only author participating at this event, although I dare say that I was the only author who traveled to far to participate as a vendor. The season’s unpredictable weather dumped more rain on us, rain which we blamed for low attendance at the event. The organizer, Jim Kalklosch, circulated among the vendors to gather feedback and admitted that this year’s event had lower than normal attendance. He suggested returning for the Fall Craft Show which is typically blessed by better weather and much greater attendance.

I’ll consider it. After all, the organizer can’t control the weather.

That said, my next event will be a return to the Beech Grove First Friday Art Walk on Main on May 2. This event takes place outdoors on Main Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues in Beech Grove, a southwestern suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. I’ll have copies of The Bounty: Jones and The Bounty: Gerlaugh, FOCUS, Champion of the Twin Moons, Double Cut, and Single Stroke as well as the usual assortment of original paintings to sell.

Let’s hope for good weather. Since vendors are not permitted canopies or tents, inclement weather means I won’t be there. Books and paintings don’t hold up well in the rain.

Keep an eye out for Light of the Twin Moons, the sixth and final book of the Twin Moons Saga to be published this summer.