Only if they're not wrapped in rocks, bombs, or flying fists.

It's been said many times over that authors and writers must develop a thick skin in order to survive. The reason being that what we write has a lot of us--our soul--locked inside.

To explain, many of us use personal happenings in our novels, shorts stories and blogs. Sometimes those events are announced in our stories and at other times they remain hidden because they're either too painful or too personal to reveal as truth. A good part of us is left inside each novel.

Therefore, a vicious attack by a critic or a reader hurts deeply. Unless it's an attack by a group of twinkies who tried to hunt me down for killing the main demon in one of my horror novels. They claimed Zak was the only decent one in the whole story. Because I killed him they wanted me to suffer. But getting back to sensibility, personal attacks hurt, and the bitterness lacing them really isn't a necessary ingredient to make a point.

Some people are cruel enough to want to intentionally hit authors/writers with the lowest form of criticism out of a jealous and childish need to feel superior. "This person is published and I'm so much better." That might be true , but does saying something truly hurtful get you published any faster? If at all?

In my creative writing classes if your criticism was intentionally cruel to another student, you were out! And the whole class knew it. Constructive criticism was the only kind welcomed. Plus it's the only kind that helps in the learning process for both students.

Since I've had both good and bad criticism--including some nut ball letters--I know what criticism means. So if you criticize another author, please do it kindly enough that both of you will gain from the experience.

Enough said.