Pouring salt on the wound

I'm usually that person who walks into a room smiling. If I have a personal issue, I'm not one to cry about it to my co-workers or friends. Perhaps it's that quality that makes me a determined writer. Perhaps I'm out to prove to the world that I am a capable of transporting a reader to another time and place. It is my love for the genre that gets me up at 3:00 am to spend time with my characters.

Furthermore, when I get emails from readers telling me how much they loved my books, I get that little tingle of accomplishment. In fact, just yesterday I received this comment from a reader "I am a big fan of character development, and this book has some of the most well developed characters that I have even seen"

But there will always be "those" people who just didn't care for my characters and ideas.

OK...I admit it, I could get a 100 emails telling me how great my work is, but it's that one horrid reader who uses a handful of "ugly" words that kicks you so hard, she steals a little of that determination. She makes you think, hmmm...maybe I do suck.

Unfortunately, this reader didn't send me the email. She posted her opinion on Amazon. Dang!

I'll give you the play by play of what a review like this does to a writer, or at least what it did to me...

"This book was awful." ...Oh my. Gasp. Swallow. Blink

"The heroine was annoying, changing her mind at the drop of a hat - I thought I would scream if I read "Mercy Mary!" one more time." ...hmmm...i suppose I could have made the heroine say mother-fucker, but that really wouldn't fit into the time period. [snort] As for changing her mind, isn't that what we are supposed to do to build the conflict? She likes the hero, but knows she can't have him so she slips up from time to time. I guess I could have made the heroine a girl who goes after what she wants but then she would be shallow and viewed as a whore. hmmm...still thinking about this one

"The plot thin and unbelievable,"...Really? Thin? Shaking head. I could go into the many layers of twists and in this book, but it would make this post rather long. And, yes, I'm defending myself on this one. Maybe it's because I spent months of my life researching and writing this book, pouring my soul into developing it, only to have this dagger thrust into the very heart of me and then twisted. (OK... that last bit was overly dramatic, but I'm reading Shakespeare right now. LOL)

"I kept trying to finish it, but it was just too dumb." ...Wow! Dumb? Really? Dumb? Tell me what you really think. And there was the salt on the wound.

The last thing I recall thinking after I read this review was...well, I guess it wasn't too dumb since it was nominated for a RITA. At which point I clicked "NO" the review was not helpful (because really that's all I can do) then I stuck my tongue out at the computer screen and went in search of chocolate. :)