I can smell summer, my favorite time of year.
It’s just a couple of weeks away.
Chlorine. Heat. Sunburns. Sunscreen. Flip flops. Lazy mornings.
It’s right there.
I can almost grab it.
And the next Noah is close, too…
So close, I’ll give you the first couple of lines.
“Have you seen my mommy?”
The voice floated over my head and I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, hoping it would go away.
Wait. That’s not very much!
That’s right. It’s not.
Stay tuned..
Man, I am SO tired of getting this guy’s mail…
Don’t you hate it when the post office can’t seem to get anything right and they keep delivering the wrong stuff to your mailbox? Drives me INSANE.
I mean, look at this. LOOK AT THIS. Look at what was in my mailbox today:
Do I LOOK like Jeffrey Allen? DO I?
What?
I do?
Oh, crap.
That’s right.
Maybe I’ll/he’ll have a better explanation over here…
In a lot of the forums I frequent to stay updated on the publishing world, I see writers worrying about customer reviews. Typically, these are inexperienced folks who take every word written about their book personally.
It sort of makes me laugh.
Not because I’m totally evil and like to laugh at other people’s insecurities, but because honestly – if you are worried because Bob in Des Moines gave your book a one star review and said some mean things, you probably shouldn’t be writing books.
Now, I’m not saying some reviews aren’t unfair. I took some old goat to task on here several months ago because he blatantly made up crap about my book that irritated me. He made his review personal. It wasn’t about the book – it was about me.
But, the fact is, I expect people to not like my books. That’s their right. I don’t like every book I read. No one does. That would be…odd. You don’t get to ask people to review your book and then expect the MOST STELLAR REVIEWS EVER. Be glad that people take a few moments to review your work at all. Be glad that they read your book.
A sampling of things said on Amazon about THREAD OF HOPE:
“Other implausable relationships “blossom” in a page or two, and the story drags on in this fashion to the point I abandoned it.”
“…he really was quite the jerk…” (She means Joe Tyler, not me. I think.)
“So, really only one flaw in the book, unfortunately the flaw is ‘all characters.’”
Well, that was FUN, wasn’t it?
No, not really. It’s never fun to read something negative about your work. But that’s part of the deal. You put your work out there. People pay you for it. They get to say whatever they want about it. You get to spend their money on anything you’d like.
So stop worrying over Bob in Des Moines, okay? Let it go. Have a little chuckle and stick a few pins in your voodoo doll if you think it’s necessary.
But are you really gonna whine about some guy you don’t know voicing an opinion that they have every right to voice, even if that person is as dumb as an armadillo? THAT’s what you’re going to whine about rather than write another book?
Stop whining and write.
Some of you know I also write cozy mysteries under the name Jeffrey Allen. STAY AT HOME DEAD came out earlier this year. The second book in the series comes out in September. It’s called POPPED OFF. It’s hilarious and silly and has a midget in it. Seriously.
Wanna see the cover?
Go here.
Well, not technically. We still have like six more weeks to go. But it’s crunch time, which means things need to be graded, parent emails need to be responded to, final exams must be created, student anxiety must be quelled and assorted other teacherly tasks must be completed.
And that also means the blog gets ignored.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
But you’re in luck. Because even though I haven’t written anything new, I did take time out to do a quick interview with the totally awesome Kristi Belcamino. It’s over at her blog. Go read it to learn new and fascinating things about me. And while you’re there – check out her photography and her writings. Fantastically cool stuff. It makes this blog look drab and boring. Maybe I need some new curtains…
Oh, and for those that are curious: yeah, I’m about 2/3 of the way done with the new Noah book….excerpts coming soon.
