The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself

I’ve been book reviewing for one year and seven months now.  Comparatively I haven’t been around for very long in the blogging world, but I have been around long enough.  What’s ‘long enough’?  Well, I’ve been blogging long enough to have trolls try to start flame wars and authors attack me for having an opinion and expressing said opinion.  I’ve learned to deal with it because, hey, most authors and commenters are awesome people.  I was also blessed with a thick skin as well as an iron-clad commenting policy that I’ve always followed.

Compared to the experiences of some book bloggers I’ve had it pretty good.  Some book reviewers have faced far worse than I have, others have faced far less.  For the most part I’ve put up with it and have not called out authors publicly because I didn’t think their behaviour constituted public humiliation.

Until now.

Continue reading →

The Ugly Side of Book Blogging: A Particularly Bad Example

What a coincidence it was that today I posted a discussion post about the ugly side of book blogging!  You see, today I got a generic email from an author named Robin Wyatt Dunn.  As per my usual policy, I sent links to my review policy (where it states that I am closed to reviews) and to “How to Alienate Book Reviewers“, in which I rant eloquently about generic emails.

Now, usually I don’t care how such authors reply to this.  Usually they don’t reply at all.  However, Robin Wyatt Dunn replied like this:

“Here for my answer to your answer: http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/whats-a-cheap-quick-and-painless-way-to-kill-yourself.189242754/”

Yes, I’ve saved the email from said author for future reference.  Screenshots can be provided.

And yes, I was just told by an author to kill myself.  Isn’t book blogging just wonderful?

[As a side note to anyone who might think about retaliating: Don’t.  The best thing you can do is ignore this type of behaviour and the person behind it.  The only reason I’m going public with this is to draw attention to this type of sick, immature behaviour.]

Discussion: The Ugly Side of Book Blogging

A lot of my readers here are book bloggers as well and as we know, book blogging isn’t all roses and sunshine.  There are disputes with authors, jealousy within the community, pressure to write good reviews for publishers, etc.  But overall, in my personal experience, I’d say that authors are the best and worst part of book blogging.

I have met some absolutely incredible people through my book blog that I never would have otherwise.  You guys know who you are.  At the same time, I have been subjected to nasty comments, author meltdowns (only in private emails so far) and generic emails by authors who think they’re entitled to a review without remembering basic courtesy.  So yes, authors are the reason why I’m doing this and the reason why sometimes I feel like saying “screw it!” and not accepting review requests at all.  (It’s very tempting at the moment, believe me.)

My question for my fellow bloggers is this: what’s the worst part of book blogging?  What about the best part?  Did you ever have an incident so nasty you almost considered giving up book blogging?

Water by Terra Harmony

Water by Terra Harmony(Cover picture courtesy of Terra Harmony’s site.)

Elemental powers in the palm of her hand…and it won’t be enough to save her.

When Kaitlyn Alder is involuntarily introduced to a life of magic, she becomes part of an organization hell-bent on saving the Earth. Just as her new-found life holds promises of purpose, romance, and friendship, the organization divides and a rogue member holds Kaitlyn hostage. Now one of the most terrifying men the human race has to offer stands between her and Earth’s survival.

Water is a contemporary eco-fantasy, the first of a four book series.  This novel contains adult language and sexual situations (some non-consensual).

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Water is an interesting book, for lack of a better word.  It has some interesting magical scenarios and some good characters but it also made me slightly uncomfortable, which I suppose was Terra Harmony’s intention.  If some of the scenes here hadn’t made me uncomfortable I suppose I should be in therapy right now.

Part of what I loved about Water is the whole mythos surrounding Gaias (women who control the elements).  Kaitlyn accidentally found out she was a Gaia like many before her.  She can control all of the elements, but unlike so many heroines actually has to train long and hard before she can even begin to master some of the most basic tasks.  Her relationship with Micah complicates things slightly in her training and I like how when he does terrible things to her in the name of ‘training’ she gets mad at him and stays mad.  No Insta-Forgiveness here, thank goodness.  Later on, when we learn some of the horrifying implications of being a Gaia and what has happened to past Gaias a lot of what happens to Kaitlyn makes sense.

Obviously, I liked Kaitlyn as a character.  She’s a heroine who, when she gets mad, stays mad at someone.  Of course she’s capable of forgiveness, but some of the things that happen to her (the greenhouse incident comes to mind) aren’t easily forgiven.  She isn’t a kick-butt heroine all of the time, but nor is she a damsel in distress.  Her actions once she’s kidnapped prove that despite the psychological, physical and sexual torture she’s put through.  I don’t want to go into much detail because of spoilers, but Terra Harmony put in a trigger warning for a reason when it comes to the last half of the book.

The only thing I didn’t really like was Shawn as the villain.  On the surface he seemed like he had some motivation, but when you peel back the thin layers he’s not what I would consider a memorable villain.  Maybe later on he gains far more motivation for wanting to get rid of Kaitlyn, but at the moment he definitely seems like your stereotypical mad villain.  I’m picky with my villains, so that’s a comparatively minor complaint when you consider all of the good things Water has to offer.

The plot slowly becomes fast-paced after Kaitlyn discovers she is a Gaia and I’m so glad that Terra Harmony knew something about pacing.  The tension slowly ratchets up as it builds up to the climax and even the ending doesn’t bring total relief.  What a cliffhanger to leave readers with!  Despite my misgivings about Shawn, Water was an overall great read that has some really good things going for it.  I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Air.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

The Best and Worst of July 2013

Well, July was actually a pretty good month for me.  I got some serious reviewing in, writing 7 reviews in one day and 5 in another (and spacing the rest out like I normally do).  I also did some serious reading and have begun requesting more from NetGalley which I really shouldn’t considering my author backlog.  Ah, the wonders of procrastination!

Overall monthly views are down from last July (3,937 compared to 4,350 last July), but that doesn’t really concern me at this point.  It may be that WordPress changed the way they’re counting statistics or it could be that people weren’t visiting my site as much.  It’s not a big deal considering that I began the month with 413 followers and ended with 462!  Followers are more important than views to me, so getting almost 50 views in one month is quite an accomplishment.  It seems that the more followers I already have, the more I attract.

But enough rambling.  Let’s take a look at the 5 best articles of July 2013:

1.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal

2.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

3.  How to Write a Review Request

4.  My Least Favourite Book Tropes

5.  The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

For once, there are four newcomers to the top 5 list, three of which were published just in July.  My Game of Thrones article is frankly, no surprise.  I published it at the beginning of the month and am still averaging 15 views per day on it.  It’s particularly SEO friendly and clicky so it’s spread around through social media more than my rants usually do.  Similarily, How to Write a Review Request and My Least Favourite Book Tropes were articles/rants that were easily shared and promoted discussion.  And of course, The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome continues its streak at the top.  As for The White Queen, well, The White Princess just released and there’s quite a bit of buzz surrounding the series at the moment.

So what articles were the worst 5 this month?

1.  The Journey by John Heldt

2.  The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

3.  There Comes a Prophet by David Litwack

4.  Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey

5.  Look What Just Arrived! (#3)

Again, no real surprises here.  They’re all either self published books, old books or old articles.  It’s a shame that so many good books end up on my bottom 5 list in terms of hits, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re still good books.  It would just be nice for the authors to have a little more publicity, especially in the case of indies.

So that was how my July went: a blur of books and work (ah, tourist season).  How was yours?  Are you reading anything interesting?