I just read a book written by a cheater. Is that strong language? It is mild compared to the atrocity this doofus pulled on an unsuspecting public. I can accept, although I think it is cheap and unattractive, pornography written by English house wives. I can tolerate mediocre fantasy romance trash written by American housewives. I can bypass unimaginative zombie, living dead, outer-space, alien, super-human spy novels written by men who never learned the difference between “then” and “than” and “your” and “you’re”.
But what this guy did was so unprofessional I cannot let it go without at least a cogent rant. I’m not going to tell you the title of the book or the name of the nincompoop who wrote it, because I don’t want you to go near it. But I will tell you something about it.
The book concerns a FAC (Forward Air Controller) in Vietnam. I started reading it and found it to be interesting and factual. The guy did get his facts straight but his hero is run-of-the-mill flat and dull. Now, it is difficult to write fiction about a war, especially a war as controversial as the one which occurred in Vietnam, and not get some excitement going. But I am 3/4ths of the way through the book before anything the least bit insomnia-producing takes place. However, I stuck with it because I am intimately familiar with the Vietnam war.
Then this so called author committed the worst unpardonable sin I have seen in the written word in seventy years of reading. After a short chapter the book just stops. And it stops in the middle of one of the few action scenes in the whole thing. I mean there is no denouement, no conclusion, no ending. It just STOPS.
The writer’s ploy is as obvious as flies on horse dung. It is a sucker’s play. We are supposed to buy part II and part III to see what happens to the protagonist. This is the biggest “bait and switch” fraud that I have ever encountered in literature. Now, I want you to be aware of this because if you wish to be a successful writer, never, ever, even contemplate pulling such a trick. Your book must have a BEGINNING, a MIDDLE, and an END. It seems so simple, I hardly believe I have to tell you this because you are a professional and real writers already know at least the basics of acceptable novel writing. Do not ever cheat your readers. You will regret it.
johnbeckmanbooks 