I know I probably come across as a Debbie Downer. Or, actually, I don’t know. Sybil tells me (every so often, that I’m being too much of a Mary Sue and that I’m butt-kissing. And then she tells me I can’t have X book because the author just died and I probably will hate it and even she isn’t mean enough to post an F or DNF review of author who newly died’s book.) Apparently I’m equal parts Glinda, and Elphaba. (And yes I am disappointed in myself for not remember if L. Frank Baum had given the Wicked Witch a name.) And for what it’s worth, I don’t think I brown nose – I simply try to remain upbeat on my “public face” and be happy and celebrate achievements. If you look carefully, I actually do very little promotion.

I’d like to be able to say that we all realize there are different levels of importance, and gravitas. The tragedies of say, the Holocaust, or slavery, are much greater than a fatal car accident you see on the local news. To drive the point home, it’s a lot worse than your computer dying. Or even, you spilling something on your new book. I get that. We all get that.

At the same time… the little things are, and can be bothersome. One of the things that pisses me off the most are the unsympathetic people. Not even the eternal optimists… just those that belittle your woes and feelings. It makes me livid. I want to break, crush, and kill things.

Let me give you an example. I might say… “I got a really nasty paper cut today, and think it’s infected. Ouch. Whine!” And personal acquaintance will say “yeah, well, at least you don’t have to deal with road side bombs in Iraq.”

Um, no shit. Fuck you. I realize a paper cut in no way compares to dealing with IEDs. I know I can’t even comprehend what it would be like to have to live like that. But you know what? I still bled, and possibly have an infection. Of course it gets worse, but it could also get better.

I have mixed feelings about saying this… but – or because – it seems on blog land you always have to be happy. And nice. And pleasant. Always. And what we do is whine and bitch and moan to our friends in private. Through emails, instant messages, direct messages, chat rooms, and the like. Ok, fine. But you know, that’s not realistic. Because, admit it – you do that. Or have bitch fests over text messages, the phone, in person. You have to, or you’ll explode. It’s unnaturally to be able to take everything in stride, rationalize it and be hunky dory.

Not that we’re always nice – I realize this. Really. I’m not trying to create a shit storm. (And God help me if I do.) What I’m really saying, I guess… is respect each other. Listen to what the other person is saying. Step into his or her shoes. I feel like this is my blessing, and my curse. I think too much. I do my best to see everything from both sides. (Although I also freely admit to being quite irrational. Every so often I hate everyone who is more successful and younger than I am. It’s nothing personal – just a principle thing.)

Don’t dismiss or disallow someone’s feelings. Unless I’m doing that to you. I’m always right. [Did my very sorry attempt at levity work?]

And/but sometimes… yes. It is, what it is. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t get mired in the nitty gritty. But at the same time, yes, it is what it is. Maybe some little thing is wrong, and a person will stand to the death and fight over that tiny detail. I can respect that. [Not just because I'm like that. I like to think I'm pretty easy going - but things can set me off. I generally don't like confrontation, but I will argue something into the ground if I believe in it. I might even use caps lock, expletives, or excessive punctuation.]

And that’s something we need to understand as well. Some authors freak out or hate typos in their printed books. You could say “well that’s only one or two misspelled word out of thousands.” But guess what – very likely other readers notice it. Sure, it doesn’t make the reader gasp, and throw the book across the room, while they fling an arm up and faint backwards, shrieking “I cannot believe this travesty has seen the light of day!” But it still registers. So, to explain. If I see a typo, I’m not going to go ape shit. I’m not going to throw the book out the window, and I’m not going to write down every page with a typo in my review. But I will see it. That’s all.

That probably failed miserably as an example, and I’ll likely regret it.

Let me summarize, or try to explain my point. Be respectful. Allow people to disagree, as long as it’s rational. Personal attacks, or stalkerish behavior is always unnecessary and excessive. But let people have opinions that differ from yours. Don’t belittle them for that, or condescend. (Because chances are that snarky, subtle insult you couldn’t resist inserting has been picked up by someone. And that someone is smarter than you are. Really – there’s always someone smarter out there.) Don’t be an ass.

Be Sensitive.

For When You Care Enough to Only Obsess Over The Best…

TGTBTU is a reader blog.  We are for readers by readers and everything I do – event, news or feature wise – is for readers just like us. 

TGTBTU is very author friendly or at least I think we are.  If you are an author that doesn’t like to see honest opinions, thinks there should be no such thing as bad reviews, think Average (a.k.a. a “C” grade) is a bad thing or only want sunshine blown up your arse, then this isn’t a good blog for you to hang at. 

So I can’t decide:

Is Deborah Macgillivray, stupid or clueless?  Or is it just me who thinks it is seriously stoopid and nervy for her to show up on a reader blog?  At this point do you think an endorsement from her helps an author or hurts them?  Is it like a cover quote you just ignore, or would you put the book down?  Honestly, I feel bad for Kathryne Kennedy.  

Until told otherwise I am gonna play Pollyanna and believe she doesn’t know that Mac is no reader’s friend, at least not to one who thinks she/he can like or dislike whatever the fuck he/she want.

I think Deborah should add this to her retaliation list: only ‘highly recommend‘ books you really don’t want people to buy.  Sort of like another way to harm the bitches that dare to speak against her work.

I like Dorchester and I happen enjoy a hella lot of their books, but it would be nice to see her dropped. It should be a rule: stalk a reader, lose a contract.  Of course I also think there is no excuse for an author to have reviews removed because it is bad or a low grade.  When I hear an author does it, I don’t buy them again much less endorse their work. For anyone playing the home game, I DO NOT Recommend paying for anything written by Deborah Magcillivray due to her long-term abuse of the Amazon rating system, due to her abuse of her status as a reviewer on Amazon, and due to her harassment of readers who dislike her books.

Maybe that is just me…

It was only a matter of time before Godwin’s Law was updated. For those of you not use to flame wars and/or internet stupidity, Godwin’s Law:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

god this brings a tear to my eye… oh yes it is a single tear…

If you are not playing the home game. Holly Lisle said something stupid, jane dared to blog her opinion about it, linking to Holly‘s own post, holly had kittens, jane posted regarding a demand for sorry’s, hugs and air kisses, which ended with holly doing one of the worst things in online netiquette.

The comments on holly’s post are golden and filled with wisdom. My personal fave being from pugh7755, who seems to really love bloggers which is shown in his comment

…The more comments they receive the happier they are. A sad excuse for a life really. They are the Al Qaeda of the blog world.

Although Diana Peterfreund’s comment does run a very close second. I guess she wouldn’t blink an eye if someone fell on her land and said something like… ‘wow – you have a dangerous situation here and I was hurt by it. I wonder what a lawyer would say.’

Hmmm well I guess Holly beats pugh because she links to herself, her own words and thoughts and then has no issue with blaming jane for how bookstores (not sellers because she never ever addressed people just the ‘stores’, we won’t even get into how she thinks bricks sell books) misunderstood her post. She says in her comments

These two somehow managed to, and have managed to piss off a number of other booksellers and a whole bunch of potential readers toward me for no reason at all.

So I guess that means not only does holly hate chain bookstores, she thinks booksellers are too stupid to read and form an opinion but can only be spoon fed info from jane.

Oh who knows which is the best comment… they are all comic gold. No worries you can make up your own mind. Really! I do wonder though, when the fuck did jane get all powerful and why the fuck didn’t anyone tell me? I feel so out of the loop. I wonder if this has shown up on fandom wank yet.

<— well not me *g*

8. The editors find out what is said about them on the loops and they track it down. Brenda Chin said directly to the whole room – if you are an idiot on the loops or are difficult to work with and she knows about it – she won’t buy your book.

whole post here

I assume number eight is talking about the witch hunt from a while back… I still think it is stupid to ‘bash’ your publisher and such. It would be like me coming here and saying COMPANY X I work for blah blah blah. Then going huh, what? when I get fired.

And of course this is just a blogger saying what Brenda Chin said and not quoting (I think) but ‘an idiot on the loops’ is a touch subjective isn’t it? It reads like you better not be saying anything fucking bad about me or I will get you my pretty and your lil dog too!

If you haven’t read the review, how fucking big is your rock? I would STILL love to hear how that is a bash of the author, editor or publisher but since it isn’t I don’t see that happening any time soon. That is NOT a personal attack on the author. If anything it is a complement that she was able to get a publisher to publish what the reader found to be a shitty book.

Since I don’t believe in being coy unless a man and sex are involved I will spell out what I found.

review for Finders Keepers reviewed by J. Wallace “Voracious Reader” (Tennessee)

Captain Trilby Elliot has parked her rattletrap ship on an uninhabited planet to make repairs when an enemy ‘Sko ship hurtles into the forest nearby. Istead of salvaging useful parts from the crash, she salvages a Z’fharian man, Rhis Vanur, who turns out to be both very useful and very inconvenient. Rhis is useful in that he can help her repair her ship. Rhis is inconvenient in that he insists she change her schedule to return him to his squadron a.s.a.p, which Trilby is not about to do, not when she has a badly needed commission waiting for her at Port Rumor. However, there’s more to Rhis than Trilby knows, and between the two of them they manage to get involved in a huge political scandal involving Trilby’s sleazy former boyfriend, the ‘Sko, and Rhis’s secret identity. And before everything blows up in their faces, they manage to get involved with each other, which complicates matters greatly.Trilby and Rhis are well-rounded characters of the type you don’t consistently encounter in futuristic romances, or any romances, for that matter. They don’t fall fully into romance stereotypes, being more reminiscent of inhabitants of the novels of Anne McCaffrey or Tanya Huff.

More specifically, Trilby is tough, capable and independent and doesn’t need Rhis any more than she needs another hole in her spaceship. This makes it all that much more convincing when she begins to fall in love with him, plus her character doesn’t morph from Space Amazon.com to Space Bimbo once S-E-X enters the picture. Rhis isn’t a foil for Trilby, as they are alike in many ways, which allows them to respect and understand one another. I have few complaints with Trilby and only a minor one with Rhis — he’s such a hard and rather cold man that I wasn’t entirely convinced when he lost his head over Trilby.

The plot is pure, rollicking space opera, with suspense, computer programming, backstabbing, space battles and galaxy-wide threats galore. The secondary characters are neither too few nor too many, and the author doesn’t write any of them in such a way that you can tell she intends you to be intrigued and “demand” the next book. The worldbuilding is satisfactory, if focused on spaceships and technology instead of exotic climes and sexy alien men with psychic powers, but this novel is refreshingly stand-alone. Sometimes you just want to read a good space adventure instead of get trapped in a family saga.

We don’t get to know much about “the enemy,” the ‘Sko, but how much did you get to know the giant insects in the movie Starship Troopers? You didn’t care about the bugs; you just wanted the good guys to shoot bug heads until green goo flew everywhere. Finders Keepers is that kind of good time, without the tragic loss of the most interesting female character prior to the end of the work. A recommended read.

ETA: Has been re-released from Bantam Spectra — track it down!

review for Finders Keepers reviewed by Jody Wallace, Editor, SFROnline

“Captain Trilby Elliot has parked her rattletrap ship on an uninhabited planet to make repairs when an enemy ‘Sko ship hurtles in the forest nearby. But instead of salvaging useful parts from the crash, she salvages a Z’fharian man, Rhis Vanur, who turns out to be both very useful and very inconvenient in his own special way…Trilby and Rhis are well-rounded characters of the type you don’t consistently encounter in futuristic romances, or any romances, for that matter. They do not fall fully into romance stereotypes, being more reminiscent of inhabitants of the novels of, say, Anne McCaffrey or Tanya Huff. They dwell neither in angst-land nor cutesy comedy land, and for me characters I can like and understand will make or break a novel.

More specifically, Trilby is tough, capable and independent, which I just adore in a female protagonist, and doesn’t need Rhis any more than she needs another hole in her spaceship. This makes it all that much more convincing when she begins to fall in love with him…

The plot is pure, rollicking space opera, with suspense, computer programming, backstabbing, space battles and galaxy-wide threats galore… I recommend Finders Keepers… take it to bed with you and stay up late flipping pages.”

–Jody Wallace, Editor, SFROnline

drum roll please…

Ms. Wallace is active in RWA, serves as webmaster for her local RWA chapter as well as secretary, conducts training sessions for contest judges, and advises at Speculative Romance Online, which she edited for four years. In connection with the newsletter’s annual Zircon contest, she captained a speculative romance anthology due out from Zumaya Publishing in 2006.What does that mean?

A. Jody Wallace is J Wallace
B. Someone who really hates Jody Wallace is fucking with her.
C. Someone ripped a review off from a site thinking no one would ever know

It wouldn’t be the first time a review got posted at amazon by someone who didn’t first write the review.

The lesson to be learned here? If you are going to post on the internet make sure your ducks are in a row. Cuz this isn’t vegas and nothing stays secret for long. If you have something to lose, watch your back or stay off the net.

The review didn’t BASH the author as a person. I have no idea where Jody’s Wallace’s name first came from. The fact that she doesn’t list herself as an author or her website at amazon or her reviews on her website means that to me she wasn’t shouting out they were one and the same. And the fact that people kept repeating it WITHOUT facts to back it up or the desire to care if they were even right is a scary fucking thing.

I have nothing to hide. I have never in my 13 years on the internet posted under a sock or as anything other than redwyne/sybil. So I am not scared of being outed myself, I forget who came to the wonderful conclusion on Alison’s blog. If I want to say a book/author/reader/person sucks I will do it as me or I won’t do it.

This shit happened in philedom… over fucking fanfic. One author pissed in someone’s cheerios and they in turn ended up speaking to their boss. I remember wondering how anyone could be so fucking insane and petty.

This is a review. THEY ARE WORDS. Sticks and stones lovey. Even if that review called an author a stupid cunt that would be no reason to hunt someone down, out an alias or screw with someone way of life. Being called names is something you should get the fuck over in grade school. Two wrongs do not make a right and don’t bother with the crap that you were just trying to help a poor stupid newbie.

Call it what you want, wrap it up in shiny happy colors, but this shit stinks. If you had a hand in the witch hunt you should be fucking ashamed of yourself. And if you posted an authors name with no care to if you had your facts straight, you should remember what they say about glass houses and be more careful.

I don’t want to know who deep throat was. Good god what a wonderful support group the romance writers association has to go into its convention with. You can give knives away with ‘RWA 2006′ on them as keepsakes.

I am gonna go finish (reading) my book… stick a fork in me I am done.

In Stop Smoking Crack
anon said

No there’s nothing from Wallace on the Harlequin boards. That was a different scandal. This started from her RWA “friends”.A little cross referencing is a beautiful thang.

Look at the list of members here.

Then here.

And finally here.

Then look at the names of the commenters to labreque’s blog.

See a few names in common?

For extra credit go to the authors web pages & look at their photos.

I don’t really know how all these tie together or why anon would tie them together unless she googled the commenter’s names. And I am too lazy to read the authors sites to piece together their common org’s. So just going off the links given…

Rhonda Nelson

Julie Leto

Kimberly Raye

Alison Kent

Jaci Burton

Debra Webb

Kristen Painter

Evanne Lorraine

Jenna Bayley
***if I recall correctly, this is the chick who pissed off the same crowd at eharl, maybe she has sucked it up since then and is now playing nice… maybe cuz she sold a book

Since I recall her being told she would never eat lunch in this town again maybe it wasn’t her, I really should go look…

must suck to be a wannabewriter and watching things you say with people for fear you could piss them off and they try to wreck your career

Published Members:

Nicole Byrd (Cheryl Zach and Michelle Place)
Kendra Clark
Robyn DeHart
Anna DeStefano
Haley Elizabeth Garwood
Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor
Janice Lynn
Kate Lyon
Beth Pattillo
Ramona Richards
Dianna Love Snell
Annie Solomon
Marie-Nicole Ryan (Mary Varble)
Debra Webb*****ding ding ding have a winner!
Jody Wallace w/a Ellie Marvel
Phyllis Bourne Williams

GRW

* Anna Adams
* Bridget Anderson
* Peggy Anderson
* Leanne Banks
* Beverly Barton
* Stephanie Bond
* Beverly Brandt (aka Jacey Ford)
* Adrianne Byrd
* Sandra Chastain
* Lynn Collum
* Jacquelyn Cook
* Betty Cothran
* Jan Dale
* Jacquie D’Alessandro
* Desiree Day
* Anna DeStefano
* Lyn Ellis (aka Virginia Ellis)
* Wendy Etherington
* Virginia Farmer
* Jane Forgey (aka Beverly Rae)
* Carla Fredd
* Bonnie Gardner
* Debby Giusti
* Seressia Glass
* Susan Goggins (aka Susan Hardy and Susan MacLand)
* Dorie Graham
* Jenni Grizzle (aka Jennifer St. Giles)
* Carmen Green
* Shannon Harper
* Shirley Harrison
* Karen Hawkins
* Patti Callahan Henry
* Rita Herron
* Joan Hicks
* Cynthia Homberger (aka Cindy Miles)
* Linda Hughes
* Nicole Jordan
* Sherrilyn Kenyon (aka Kinley MacGregor)
* Karen Kendall
* Martha Kirkland
* Nancy Knight
* Jennifer LaBrecque****ding ding ding we have a winner
* Amy Lanz (aka Amy Frazier)
* Jackie Manning
* Deborah Matthews
* Janice Maynard
* Carolyn McSparren
* Tanya Michaels
* Betsy Morgan
* Celeste O. Norfleet
* Mae Nunn
* Elsa Nystrom
* Carol Card Otten (aka C. J. Card and Tena Carlyle)
* Jacqueline Pennington
* Barbara Pierce
* Berta Platas
* Sari Robins
* Sherry Schlereth (aka Sherry Taylor)
* Gloria Dale Skinner
* Haywood Smith
* Jerry Lynn Smith
* Dianna Love Snell
* Donna Sterling
* Lynda Stone
* Pat Van Wie (aka Patricia Lewin)
* Wendy Wax
* Debra Webb****ding ding ding we have a winner
* Ann Howard White
* Karen White
* Pat Worley

Southern Magic
MEET OUR PUBLISHED AUTHORS
Bonnie Gardner – Website
Linda Howard
Martha Krieger aka Allison Knight – Website
Deborah Matthews – Website
Kristen Robinette
Sherry Sands
Lyn Stone – Website
Gayle Wilson – Website
Kelley St. John – Website
Sherrilyn Kenyon – Website
Rhonda Nelson – Website***ding ding ding we have a winner
Kate Lyons – Website
Debra Webb – Website***ding ding ding we have a winner
Lynn Collum – Website
Carolynn Carey – Website
Giselle Carmichael – Website
Kathleen Long – Website
Paula Graves – Website
Jennifer Echols – Website

Soooo that must mean…Sybil has too much time on her hands and really should go finish Bound before sasha goes after her with a big stick. Or maybe edit a review or five I have half done. Or something…

Really I have no clue what it means, you could guess Webb is deepthroat, maybe do a google search or twenty. Honestly don’t know if that is what anon meant or what axe she has to grind with these people.

Me? I like Alison Kent’s books and think she is a swell person. Leto’s book Making Waves was grand, the story in the baseball book not so much but more on that later. One I agree with in theory the other I couldn’t disagree with more but I would buy their books again in a second.

I liked The Player and something I read by Webb but their comments need to be bleached from my head before I can read them again. Raye is one of those authors I have SHIT loads of books from but never read. I still read MJD but did think about making these 7 or so books leave the house for the ubs.

Jaci is one of those people who I think butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Really, I want to like her books because she just seems so fucking nice. So her being a don’t say anything if you don’t have something nice to say person doesn’t shock me.

The rest I have already forgotten… there are some readers a few so so so fangirlie… a couple of writerwannabes who really should watch their mouths in the company they keep and there could be more authors but I am lazy and only did the ones I knew of or had nifty links I could click.

So what have we learned today? Other than I can cut and paste like no ones business, really have to learn to use my time better and can click on a link with the best of them? Oh and anon has put a shitload of thought into this?

nothing really… well other than I amuse easy but we knew that long ago… oh and I didn’t bother with looking at the pictures cuz I was sure that was just added in the comments as a dig and really I could careless how authors look or don’t look.

Or pass it around so I can see things too! Share people!

hee

sorry… anywho the great and powerful fi posted about this so I had to go read the shit. And I have to agree with fi, which is odd cuz I tend to agree with Alison Kent’s posts.

Oh Look Amazon… again
The review is dumb. But it is an AMAZON review, which are more often than NOT dumb. So whatever.

Does it trash a book, author or publisher? I don’t see it.

If an editor would take that as a dig or trash of said editor, I would say editor needs a thicker skin and new job. Maybe I am not reading enough into the review but I think the line in question is:

“Some may rush out and buy it, and any author who can convince her publisher to run with this deserves the income.”

ok AND?

Sounds more like an author getting her knickers in a twist over a writer (psuedowriterwannabe) doing a bad amazon review because I can’t for the life of me figure out why it deserved attention. Uh so here is more attention…

I do have to say I agree with alison in theory but this review doesn’t trash any editor or publisher. And really the comments just make authors look silly, cliquish and petty.

Could just be me…