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@mischievous-thwapling, I can see why it would be frustrating/annoying to have your story misinterpreted like this, but in a sense, that’s a big part of the fun of being a writer who actually has readers. Once your story is out there in the world, it’s not entirely yours anymore–suddenly you’re sharing it with loads of people you’ve never met, who may have completely different backgrounds and points of view than you do…

This happened to me recently with my latest book, when an early reader saw it as the story of a guy faithfully pursuing a hardened, abandoned woman. (It actually was a romance, BTW.) I could see that interpretation made sense, but I meant it to be (among other things) the story of a discouraged and overall lame guy finding courage and new purpose in his determination to protect this woman.  In a way, she’s supposed to be his shining ideal, rather than the other way around.

So has anybody else had readers come up with new, unexpected interpretations of your stories? Or just read them completely (infuriatingly? hilariously?) wrong? @lonathecat? @josiah? @the-fledgling-artist?