What if they held a blog-war and nobody came?

First -- because it deserves to be first, and not buried beneath the rubble of rant I'm planning -- Eva Gale gets 4 Stars from The Romance Studio for 101 Degrees Fahrenheit!

A quote:

"This is one erotic connection that creates a hot, dynamite, sensual read, packed inside this page-turner."

That's my girl. :)

On to things less important in the larger scheme.

See Jenny Crusie discuss readers who turn their dissatisfaction with a book into a personal attack.

See Jenny further defend the rights of authors to respond to personal attacks.

This, in particular, resonates for me:

"So you handle it by looking at the whatever the attack was and telling yourself, 'Deep breath, she’s her and obviously miserable or she wouldn’t be wasting her time spreading bile, and you’re you and you’re happy. Let it go. You win.' And then one day, you don’t let it go. Because it’s not okay. You cannot insult me (or in this case, my friend) and feel betrayed when I respond; you can not take the low road and then be outraged when I come down to join you, you cannot call me names and then say, 'Not fair!' when I tell people that you called me names."

See many readers and authors support Jenny in her cry of "Foul!"

"...'mean girls' … i.e. women who specialize in relational aggression count on the silence of those they attack. They need it to thrive, like e.coli on an agar gel (lab nerds will get that). So if the Y’s who attack others (and her letter was an attack, not a criticism) don’t like getting ‘outed’ they shouldn't write letters that won’t humiliate them if they are published. No complicit silence for mean girls (and mean boys although male social aggression is usually in a different form). You don’t get a carte blanche to attack people just because you aren’t famous and they are. They are allowed to fight back."

From the same commenter:

"In addition, I don’t think Y 'messed up.' I think she attacked … why should you expect privacy in an attack? If you are that certain you are right you shouldn’t care if your letter was printed. Unless you know you were being a flaming twit and don’t want ‘others’ to know you feel free to express your opinion as a personal attack on someone. If she had wrote 'I think your book did a disservice to quilters and did not represent us fairly. Since others will read your books please consider the fact you may be damaging the reputation of our community.' That would make it an opinion and a criticism. There is a big difference between 'I disagree with you' and 'you suck, Yankee.'

(The above is a point I've tried to make a few times with a few different folks and failed, miserably. I chalk it up to my own inability to communicate effectively, because it SURELY couldn't be that although the concept is simple and straightforward -- it's okay to tell me you don't like my shoes, it's not okay to say 'you're an ugly ho-bag with no taste' -- these folks choose not to comprehend it because it runs contrary to their personal agendas.)

See some -- including a few of The Usual Suspects -- turn out to say, yet again, that authors have no business voicing opinions about others' opinions of their work.

"I see Crusie’s post as a warning. Beware all readers who attempt to make criticisms of an author. If you aren’t as clever as us, it will go badly for you."

(And yet again, the apparently conscious decision to conflate "criticism" with "personal attack." It boggles the mind, doesn't it?)

See Jenny be Jenny, much to the amusement and delight of her fans.

"I think trying to explain my position again or clarify some of the things you misinterpreted would be fruitless since our disagreement is based on that fundamental difference and that is not misinterpreted. I understand that you feel the post reveals a lot of unflattering things about me; they’re all true."

And then see the crazies crawl out of the woodwork in full force. Jenny says:

"In other news, this discussion is now being discussed elsewhere as an anti-Christian rant:

'Supporters of the Famous Author whose blog it is, took gleeful flight into really vicious anti-Christian 'comments.' Just, boom – let’s trash Christians. Let’s do it in an unlimited and really ugly way . . . . I do wonder how great the distance is between the virulent anti-Christian ranting on blogs such as the one I mention, and the rounding up of Christians for labor camps? Just wondering when the hate gets its legs under it and starts killing people. I mean, it looks to me as if some of the readers/commenters on that blog wouldn’t mind at all setting fire to a church full of Christians – well, white Christians. Wouldn’t want to be racist.'

Jenny again: "I did a search for 'Christian' of both Argh posts and the comments. Nothing. Then I did one for 'God,' and after adjusting for swearing, there were a couple of references to 'god-fearing,' playing off my comment. So I thought you all should know I’ve brought you down with me.

For the record, I’m Lutheran.

Isn’t it fun being a published writer?"

Go here to see some folks be appalled by a reader/reviewer calling an author a few truly vicious names in a review (and in later comments on the author's blog).

See said reviewer strongly suggest that the author shut up and write. Because THAT's new and original.

See some wonder how things have degenerated to this point in a community supposedly built upon that most positive and uplifting of genres: Romance.

See me roll my eyes. (But not at you, Jordan. You ask the right questions.)

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, right? And it's all downhill from here, because too many people -- readers AND authors -- are quick to jump on the bandwagon of "online readers/bloggers/reviewers are entitled to air their opinions, no matter how vile and intentionally hurtful those opinions might be, without repercussion or the kind of public confrontation that would, in the real world, tend to make them think twice about tone and intent." In other words? The normal rules of civilized social discourse no longer apply, ladies. That thing flapping against your back? It's not a cape, it's a target.

So here we are.

Lie down with dogs? Get up with fleas.

SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue