My new email client!.. and other family dilemmas

[Guest guest]

I have been having a few technical problems with my eudora 4.0, so I

went to eudora.com and downloaded an upgraded version (5.1). It's

free but I have to look at a few (reasonably discreet) adverts.

What really surprised me is that this mail client has a swear-word

warning! When I emailed someone about an abusive poster on another

list who has been tormenting me for months, saying: " Isn't X a

bastard!? " and tried to click " send " , a message came up warning me

that this was the sort of language which would get my keyboard's mouth

washed out with soap and would I please refrain!!!

It saddens me to report that little has changed between us and Azariah

since our talk. The only plus is that he has stopped raiding the

house for free supplies, but he still comes in without ringing the

bell, and he still basically treats us, his parents, as bottom of the

food chain and not much better than dirt.

Plus ca change plus ca reste la meme chose or something? (I forget my

French).

Also how would YOU have reacted to this? My DD3 Avigayil called me

from Israel today telling me all excitedly that a letter she had

written to a Readers-Digest-style periodical brought out by my Israeli

publishers, had been accepted for publication. I congratulated her.

Then she told me what the letter was about. It was basically saying

that she thinks my publishers publish far too many crime thrillers and

they should go back to the good old days of cosy family sagas, and

avoid all the murder and mayhem which doesn't belong in good Jewish

literature in her opinion.

Avigayil then asked me if I minded if her name appeared, or should it

remain anonymous. (!!!!) I said I thought it might look a bit odd if

a letter from my daughter appeared in a journal published by my

publishers slagging off the very genre I write! Even though I have

been asked to change my genre for my next book, I certainly haven't

committed myself never to write crime again!

I found the whole episode disloyal, TBH. I spoke to Tavya (my wise

counsel!) about it afterwards, and she said that Avigayil never meant

it as an attack on *me* personally, just that she doesn't like crime

fiction, and since she only reads Jewish fiction, there hasn't been

much alternative for her. The Jewish market is so small, there is not

much room for variation in genres, and fiction tends to emerge in

batches, ie all Holocaust novels, all cosy sagas or, as recently, all

crime fiction.

Tavya agreed it was a thoughtless and foolish thing for my daughter

to have written about, but that I shouldn't make too much of it.

What do you think?

Ruthie