Guest author Christine Stovell: Recurring Writemares

Christine Stovell jokes that her journey to publication has taken her from chocolate to Choc Lit. Winning a tin of chocolate in a national essay competition at primary school inspired her to become a writer but losing her dad to cancer made her realise that if she was ever going to get a novel published she had to put her writing first.  Her first novel, Turning the Tide, published by independent publisher Choc Lit, is a Kindle bestseller in the UK.  Her second Choc Lit novel, Move Over Darling is an October 2012 release.



Hello again!  Thank you, Liane, for inviting me back and to all of you for allowing me to be your guest at Novel Spaces.  October 31st, Liane reminded me.  Halloween. But rather than talk about the supernatural, I’m inviting you to share some of your worst ‘writemares’, the fears that keep you awake at four in the morning. Or maybe you’ve conquered your night ‘write terrors’ and can share the secret.  As a small thank you for having me back I’m giving away a copy of my second novel, Move Over Darling, which came out this month and is published by Choc Lit.  All you have to do is leave a comment and I’ll pick a name at random next Wednesday, 7 November. To set the ball rolling, here are few writerly worries that scare me when they go bump in the night.

The Ghostly Whisper

‘Hey Chris,’ the Inner Critic whispers, shaking me awake, ‘that novel you’re writing?  It’s rubbish – I’d stop now if I was you because you really don’t want anyone else to read it.  Delete it now before anyone sees!’ To think I thought that, having overcome the dreaded Second Book Syndrome, writing Novel 3 would somehow be easy, but I’m back in the same scary dark place looking for a glimmer of light.

The Ghastly Apparition 
Absolutely the best bit about writing for me is when a reader tells me they’ve enjoyed one of my novels. It’s not about my ego, it’s the sheer joy of connecting with another person.  The not-so-great bit is having someone tell me how much they hate my work.  One particularly well-crafted dissection of my first novel left me tearful and trembling… although I had to smile at the person who added a comment to the effect, ‘I agree.  This is a terrible book,’ or similar.  (I can’t quite face going back to check!).  That’s fine, I hope the dissatisfied readers find something more to their taste, but, just as experience has taught me I’m easily spooked by scary movies and should avoid them, I’ve now discovered the same probably applies to scary reviews.

The Dead End
Uh-oh! These characters are going nowhere! I’ve forced them into a situation because I thought it would make life easier for me and now they’re dying of boredom and I may not be able to resuscitate them. This one’s a problem of my own making – usually because I don’t know my characters well enough so I’m moving them around like bits of plastic and that’s how they’ve started behaving. Having to retrace my footsteps can leave me in a cold sweat, but sometimes the only way to make progress is to go back.

The Unknown
With my second novel, I’ve had to leave the safe, familiar comfort of my desk to venture out to promote my book. I’ve experienced live radio for the first time, as a guest on Roy Noble’s Show on BBC Wales, I’ve been interviewed for local press and I’ve written an article making the case for romance in a national magazine. Believe me, I’m flattered to be asked and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to talk about what I do – but it has caused me a few sleepless nights fretting about all of these events in advance.

The One About Being Naked in Public

Two weeks ago, Move Over Darling did something extraordinary, racing up the Amazon co.uk charts and settling – for a heady moment – at #2 in the Movers and Shakers chart and at #3 in Women Writers & Fiction. I was very tickled to see my title with its bright cover and Doris Day references resting between two editions of Fifty Shade of Grey. Then I remembered the old saying about the higher you climb the pole, the more of your backside you reveal! I felt better, mind you, when a friend observed that she couldn’t help feeling that E. L. James had shown a lot more of her backside than I had writing FSOG!

Well, that’s my top five writemares, although there are many more, but what about you? Do writing worries keep you awake? The first name out the hat gets a copy of Move Over Darling, so you can put on the light and read instead.

Review vs. Peer Review

I recently decided to reverse my longstanding prohibition against reviewing works by writers I know. Do not expect me to rush out and review everything I've read by everyone I know; it's not that sort of decision. In fact, it's more of a maturation brought on in part by changes in how I view my work and my relationship to it, in part by reading Ernest Hemingway's Movable Feast, and in part by a feature of the MFA program in which I'm enrolled that I really hate.

What I hate is peer review as practiced in workshops, writing classes, and writers' groups. Having students who are at about the same level as writers evaluate each other's work makes little sense; by definition none is has the skills necessary to objectively and effectively assess what's been written by any of the others. Francine Prose, award winning novelist, critic, and essayist, summed up her disdain for workshops by imagining a group of student writers telling Kafka they really don't 'get' the man waking up as a bug. (She has said the writers' workshop scenes in her novel Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award, are made up entirely of quotes from workshops she's endured over the years.) Prose, by the way, advocates learning to write through in-depth, nuts-and-blots study of the classics; she says "there are reasons they have remained great through hundreds of years."

I have taken part in professional workshops. Pro workshops eschew peer review (though I have heard it is practiced in some settings). We read each others work, yes; these included stories written in the space of hours during the workshop as well as mss written and distributed to the other attendees prior to the retreat. We made notes on what struck us, but rather than share our comments we listened as editors such as Gardner Dozois and Kris Rusch analyzed what did and did not work in each piece. (This usually resulted in reexamining what we were thinking when we'd made our own notes.) We sometimes did this with published pieces by writers at the top of their game as well.
We did make choices about and remark on others' work in one workshop on short stories. Prior to the workshop we had each sent in eight to ten short stories that had never sold with all identifying information removed. The folks running the workshop provided us with copies of everything, our own slush pile of 200 mss from which we were to select enough to fill a themed anthology of 90,000 to 100,000 words total. We were to do this in addition to the classes and writing assignments of the workshop, then present our anthology along with our reasons for selecting each story. The purpose of this exercise was to drive home the fact buy/no buy decisions often have little to do with the quality of an individual story and much to do with what the editor needs for her specific project.

As a writer of media-tie-in fiction and in-universe 'nonfiction' related to role-playing and strategy games I usually have to devote part of any conversation with fellow writers to explaining what exactly it is I do. With the exception of other writers working for the same franchise, almost no one I know has read anything I've written and probably never will. They just take my word for it that I'm a writer. As a result somewhere along the line I stopped caring what others thought of my work. Stories I got paid for were good, stories that didn't sell were still good just not what the editor was looking for, and what my good friend the romance writer who falls asleep during any explanation of RPGs thought about any of them didn't really matter. My sense of worth is no longer linked to what folks say about my work. (Considering how tightly those two were once bonded, that's huge.) When my ego was vulnerable to reviews, I saw protecting the egos of my colleagues as part of my job. Now, not so much.
(Meljean Brooks' Diary of a Writer isn't exactly germane at this point, but it's a lot of fun.)

Reading Hemingway's Moveable Feast, his essays on the lives of the American ex-pat writers' and artists' community of Paris in the 1920s, I discovered two things. One was that the more intellectually honest spent a good deal of time reading and discussing honestly works by members of the community while those less secure refused to comment favorably on works by anyone who hadn't already said nice things about theirs and delighted in pointing out what they considered flaws in everyone else's work. The second was that writers serious about their craft listened to what writers they respected said about their works and incorporated the insights in future efforts.
Peer review by fellow professionals is not the same as peer review by fellow students. I don't know why this is such a breakthrough in my thinking; I've long known it was an essential step in evaluating medical or scientific theories. Why not in writing? While my ego is not tied to what people think of my work, the critique and advice of a fellow craftsman could be very useful in my development and growth as a writer. And if I'd appreciate the input of others, should I not provide that same courtesy? So, while you should not expect a spate of reviews or a Killiany ranking system anytime soon, folks will start to see something that hasn't been there before: my honest opinions on the works of others.

Cyberbullying & the ugly side of book reviews - Part 2

In Part 1 of this article I described my first experience of the cyber-bullying phenomenon and the development of a specialized form of cyber-bullying, the reviewer gang-bang. In Part 2 I will explore some of the abuses experienced by authors with whom I am acquainted, as well as author practices that help to exacerbate the growing hostility between some readers/reviewers and authors.

• There are readers/reviewers who write 'reviews' of books they have obviously not read. The one-star review with the succinct "This book is trash" comment is typical of this group. These 'reviewers' tend to hide behind nicknames and profiles set to 'private'. Some of them post dozens, in one case, hundreds of reviews like this overnight, targeting specific authors. In the latter case, the reviews were taken down by the host, only to be reposted again and again by the 'reviewer'.
• Some make personal attacks on authors, publicly or via inbox messages and e-mail, referencing their private lives, their jobs and family members. These are the "I know where your children go to school" posse. (I'm not kidding.)
• Some of them are so persistent and well-known they have acquired nicknames among authors.
• Some attack on behalf of authors they like, attempting to reduce the appeal of authors they perceive as competitors.
• Some are out and out psychos, just tearing into certain authors for imagined transgressions. I was sceptical about the existence of this group but judging from some first-hand accounts, the crazies do exist and are not figments of authors' outsized imaginations.

No author deserves this kind of attention, and those who have experienced it are understandably upset. Authors, however, are not entirely blameless as a group. Some engage in practices that anger readers/reviewers and must shoulder at least some of the blame for the growing hostility toward them.

How do authors upset readers/reviewers? We're not referring here to the gang-banging reviewers who decide, for example, that they hate romance novels, think romance novelists deserve to die, and randomly trash books by these authors, but  ordinary folk who use the reviews to help them make informed buying choices. These people are just a tad upset by the rampant manipulation of the review tool by authors and the people they induce to help them accomplish this. 

I was a reader long before I was a published author, and the manipulation of reviews by authors and their enablers is a pet peeve of mine. I have become adept at spotting reviews that are less than genuine. Many users of review sites are. I know readers who no longer read reviews because they are so disgusted with it all. I'm tempted to join their ranks.

I'm not trying to commit some form of authorial hara-kiri here. I'm writing about this because the practice angers readers and some readers are not content to grumble; they fight back, and boy, do they fight dirty. I know one author who caused a fire-storm on account of his false reviews, dirty spamming tricks and outright lies about his books. The readers, reviewers, bloggers and discussion groups hit back so hard the author had to take down his books from the online stores and delete his websites.

There are many who believe the state of affairs regarding book reviews and cyber-bullying has gone too far and the sites need to be nuked and started over from scratch. Less extreme methods just might help to control the worst of the ugliness:

• The depredations of gang-banging reviewers and certified psychos can be curtailed if review site owners create and enforce strict terms of service and terms of use. 
• Authors can reduce the hostility all around by exercising restraint and ignoring negative feedback, as well as ceasing to manipulate their ratings by underhanded means.

I'm not holding my breath either way.

—Liane Spicer

Cyberbullying & the ugly side of book reviews - Part 1

The craziness quotient on the Internet, and on book review sites in particular, is getting out of hand. 

Back in early 2006 I discovered a popular blog written by a literary agent, and for almost half a year I was addicted to its mix of snark, practical advice, humour and cameraderie. It wasn't long, however, before I discovered a disquieting underside to the blog. I'd never heard of cyberbullying then, but it was there that I first saw the phenomenon at work.

Some of the fans on the site were rabid in their attacks on anyone who challenged or dared to disagree with anything their idol, the literary agent, wrote. In her defence, the agent handled herself admirably even under dire provocation, and the time or two that she snapped it was both entertaining and understandable. It was some of her hardcore followers who were the problem.

The agent seemed particularly antagonistic to vanity presses and at one point she called for what amounted to a cyber attack against those she listed as the worst offenders. I think she herself must have been taken aback by what ensued: her loyal hordes ran off baying to do her bidding and bombard search engines with targeted blog posts and comments about the companies and personnel, linking back, I assume (I'm not too clear on the actual mechanics of cyber warfare), to the websites under scrutiny. 

If the exercise was meant to be an experiment in social engineering, it was successful beyond belief. Soon, the gleeful reports from the faithful started coming in: the articles, with their guided accusations, allegations and agreed-upon subject headings, soared to the top of the search rankings with an efficiency that had to be seen to be believed as page after page of the items posted by the bloggers pushed the normal results for the targeted presses further and further down the search rankings.

I was horrified. The agent had said that these presses preyed on clueless aspiring authors, but I wondered how much research her followers actually did for themselves before going on the attack. It seemed to me that they took the agent's evaluation of these companies and individuals at face value and ran with that. The 
entities may or may not have deserved the take-down, but that was not the main issue. What I found profoundly disturbing was that a mob blindly followed the instructions of someone they revered to inflict harm on other people without a second thought. History is soaked with the blood of those who were victims of blind obeisance such as this.

Fast forward to 2012 and the problem of cyberbullying on book review sites and blogs. A year or so ago a self-published writer made the rookie mistake of publicly taking a blog reviewer to task for a less than stellar review. News of the ensuing kerfuffle whizzed around the Internet and the writer was roundly castigated by hundreds of commenters on the blog. The frenzy snowballed as she kept popping up in the comment trail practically begging for more abuse, even descending to the use of profane language at times. 

That writer learned a hard lesson (at least, one hopes she did) about taking reviewers to task for their opinions of her work. Did it stop there? No. The truly disturbing part is what came after: many of those commenters sought out her book on Amazon and bombarded it with egregious, one-star reviews. The book may or may not have merited the reviews, but many of the reviewers never read it, and said as much. It was nothing short of a lynching, a gang-bang, a malicious and hysterical attack by a mob bent on destroying a writer because of her error in judgement on a blog. 

I've since learned that the reviewer gang-bang has become common on Amazon, Goodreads and other book sites. There are authors who live in terror of being targeted, and there are authors who have been targeted in the manner described, whose personal lives have been mined and disrupted, and who have been victims of death wishes, and even death threats. 

There are readers and reviewers who do and say stupid things. There are authors who do the same. While I support readers' rights to find a book - any book - not to their taste and rate it however they desire, forming gangs to 'take down' authors against whom they hold some grudge, or even random authors, is despicable and cowardly. 

There's another side to this. There are authors who don't play fair on the review sites and whose manipulation of the ratings may be contributing to the hostility of many readers/reviewers. In Part 2 we'll take a look at some of the abuses being perpetrated by authors.


I have a brand new Facebook page! All 'likes' appreciated. :) —Liane Spicer

Can't Authors and Reviewers Just Get Along?

It’s quite possible that you’ve missed the entire brouhaha ricocheting through the internet these past couple of weeks among blogger/reviewers and authors.  If so, good for you but, since I’m going to add my little two cents, you might want to get a taste of what has been going on here and here.  Don’t forget to come back once you’ve scrolled through as much as you can take.

Okay, now you’re more or less up to speed on the opinions and perspectives of the various parties, you’ll have realized that the discussion has become a bit heated.  Creatives and critics have always had differences.  (Read about a famous one here).  It comes with the territory.  A writer, painter, composer, whatever, comes up with a marvelous idea and works hard to make it real.  They think their creation is the greatest thing since sliced bread but, when they put it before the public, somebody begs to differ.  That was okay back in the day when expressing an opinion required sitting down and writing a letter to the editor.  Only the very passionate would bother.

Nowadays, though, we have the internet where opinions on either side can flame through the online community in just hours, pulling hundreds of partisans into the fray.  Given all that, and given the fact that I’ve just released a book and have learned a few things about the experience of being reviewed I’d thought I’d share how things went with me and even offer some advice about how you might want to approach reviewers if a release is in your near future.

While Jessamine was still in the editing stage I started going through the Net looking for blogs that reviewed books with plots similar to Jessamine.  Jessamine is set on a Caribbean island and is told from the point of view of two very different women from two very different eras.  I considered it literary women’s historical fiction so I looked for reviewers who liked books in any one of those genres.  I avoided bloggers/reviewers who concentrated solely on YA, urban fiction, science fiction, etc.  Basically I Googled ‘women fiction reviews’ and also reviews of books I thought were similar to mine.  I came up with a list of about fifty or so reviewers.

Every time I found a reviewer who looked likely I spent time on their blog.  Most reviewers have a Review Policy tab at the top of their page (some put it under their Contact information) and I made sure to read what they’d written carefully.  If they were closed to submissions or if they didn’t review indie authors, they didn’t go on my list (unless I was really, really impressed by the blog and found the reviewer’s opinion on books very similar to mine and hoped against hope they’d take a chance on Jessamine).  If some reviewers have a form on their site they like authors to use or require the inclusion of very specific information, I made a note on my list.

Reviewers, like agents and editors, appreciate knowing that the people contacting them took the time to find out their name so, if that was available on their About Me page or in their profile, I wrote it down.

Then I drafted a short email, very similar in tone and content to the kind of query I’d have sent to an agent or editor.  The email gave a brief summary of the plot, the page count, information on where and when the book would be published and a few details about my own publishing history.  What I didn’t do was attach the manuscript.  Instead, I asked them to contact me if they would be interested in receiving a PDF copy of the manuscript to review.

About half never replied at all.

Of the half that got back to me, a handful responded to say that they were backed up and wouldn’t be able to get to Jessamine by my publication date.  Fair enough.  The rest said they’d be delighted and would I please send the manuscript.  To date, of the ones who said they’d do a review, only slightly more than half have followed through and actually done reviews on their blogs and/or at Goodreads or Amazon.  Why did those bloggers/reviewers ask for a copy of the manuscript and not do the promised review?  I haven’t a clue but I don’t suspect malice – maybe they’ve had a medical or other emergency, maybe they wanted to do it but just haven’t found the time, maybe they started reading it and found it wasn’t quite their cup of tea.  There are probably as many reasons as there are reviewers and I’m not going to lose sleep over it.  Since I sent the manuscript electronically, it’s not as if I lost out on the postage or am out of pocket in any way and, who knows, maybe they’ll do it at some point in the future. 

So what would I advise?  A few things.

1.  Choose bloggers/reviewers wisely.  Research them so you’re not sending historical fiction to someone who mostly reads urban fiction or a thriller to someone who doesn’t often read outside the romance genre.

2.  Take the time to learn the blogger’s name and try to personalize your email, insofar as you can.  Treat a review request as professionally as you would an agent query.

3.  Cast as wide a net as possible.  Most writers send out dozens of queries before they land an agent and you should expect to do the same for reviewers.  Remember, it’s unlikely that everyone you send a review request to will do one, so the more people you ask, the better.

4.  Don’t hound them.  I have not contacted any of those who received a copy of Jessamine but never posted a review.  Maybe they’ll get to it, maybe they won’t but, right now, I’m concentrating on finishing up the edits to my next novel.

5.  Thank the reviewers who followed-through, even when they didn’t love your book or gave you less stars than you think you deserve.  If you’ve got a back-list, consider rewarding reviewers of your latest book with a copy of a past release.  If you’re offering a novel or novella free for a short time, make sure to send an email about it to everybody who has ever reviewed you.  It’s a nice way of saying thanks and maybe you’ll get another review out of it.

6.  Never, ever get into a debate on the merits of your work with a reviewer.  If someone didn’t like your book, never mind, move on.  Even if their review was scathingly over the top, even if you felt personally attacked, move on.  Readers may not notice when you take the high road, but they will certainly notice when you don’t.  Pour all your bile and vitriol into the characterization of the villain in your next book, see if there’s anything at all you can learn from the negative review, and MOVE ON.

Phony Book Reviews

I had a recent conversation with a new author who said a friend posted a phony 5-star review of their book, without even reading it, and the author wasn't sure if they should ask the friend to remove it.

It is true that SOME readers check out reviews to get an idea as to whether or not to buy a certain book. They check the rating, from 1 to 5-stars, considering what others have to say before making a buying decision. Authors need reviews to help them sell books, and we hope that most of the reviews, if not all of them will be favorable (which is rare) - though it is true that you can't please everyone. Realistically, a fair share of the reviews will be less than 5-stars.

What happens when an author has tens or hundreds of reviews that are all 5-stars? Sometimes books are reviewed by paid reviewers, or by author friends and family, or by people who didn't actually read the book but they like the author so they write a positive review as a favor. What that does is set the tone for the book being a very good read, and then when the buyer reads it, they might find that for them it was nothing like all of the rave reviews. The reader might get so frustrated in feeling duped that even if they thought it deserved 3-stars, they could end up giving it 1-star, with a commentary about how they can't figure out what all of the 5-star reviews were about (which isn't right but it does happen - obviously reviews are subjective).

Some write reviews by only paraphrasing the back cover copy, others are generic and complimentary of the author, but give few actual details about the plot, their favorite characters and why they like them, or they don't take time to quote a line from the book, or tell how the book made them feel.

There are some reviewers (solo reviewers, not those who have a group of readers working for them) who read 3+ books a day - these are the speed-readers who review for a living. Some reviewers aren't paid but they request several book copies. Reviews are very important though most authors are noticing that readers aren't posting reviews as often as they did before ebooks, so they are being more creative in finding ways to get reviews, some offering book giveaways with the only stipulation being that the reader posts a review, though most don't.

I don't think fake reviews help anyone, the author or the prospective reader. Having one review or one-hundred, it's better to have honest and real feedback as opposed to false impressions, right? We'd at least know that 2 people out of 10 shared honestly that they didn't particularly enjoy our work, rather than having 10 out of 10 5-star reviews yet knowing two of them were fake.

What's your opinion on fake reviews? Have you noticed more or fewer reviews of your books overall? Have you noticed a title lately where you thought to yourself that the reviews were probably fake?

Write on!

Spotlight on the Caribbean Adventure Series

A few weeks ago, Shauna Roberts introduced a new concept at Novel Spaces - the bragging post. I am the second one to take advantage of this. At the time that I signed up, it seemed like a great idea to do it on February 29, an unusual date, one that stands out. As usual, I anticipated that things would happen faster than they actually did and so, right now I can only brag about events to come, but exciting events nonetheless.

Chee Chee goes to West Africa
When I moved to Ghana, many people asked me if I would take my Caribbean Adventure Series to Africa. The series tracks the adventures of three children and a monkey (Chee Chee) who travel through time. I decided not to pursue that route, however, I have successfully explored publishing a West African edition of the series. The publisher and I are still hammering out the details, however, the new books should be off the press in a few months.

New Children's Series
I am often asked how Chee Chee and Mark, the main protagonist in the Caribbean Adventure Series met. So, I wrote five stories. The first few feature Chee Chee and his brothers and the last two describe when Chee Chee and Mark met. The first story can be viewed on YouTube and in a few weeks will be available in print form. I worked once again with my illustrator Ann-Cathrine Loo and she did an amazing job on creating images that younger children will love. We are now working on creating books for the rest of the series. Separately, there is a completely different children series underway.

Words from my fans
Of all of the things that I can boast about, the one that gives me the greatest joy is some feedback that I received from a group of children in Connecticut. A lady visited St. Kitts and picked up my first book, Adventure at Brimstone Hill, at the airport. She read that to her daughter's class at school and then purchased and read the second and third books in the series. I received this email a few weeks ago.

"We finally had the time to read your third book to the class, and they LOVED it! I split the reading up to two days, and they kept asking when I was coming back to finish it. : ) ... They were all captivated by it, I didn't lose one of them during each of the two readings. : )"

I am corresponding with the children, they asked me some questions about the book and the series. I responded and asked them a few questions in return. They are excited about learning about the Caribbean and about writing ... this is why I write!

What does Your Writing Say about You?

I had a big debate a few years ago with a fellow who apparently believed that writers only express their real life viewpoints in their fiction. We were particularly arguing over whether a particular writer was “racist” because of a racist character in his story. As a writer of horror fiction who often features less than savory characters in my stories, I find this kind of thinking really disturbing. I wonder what conclusions readers are drawing about me because of the views and actions of specific characters in my fiction.

It has already happened to me twice. Back in the early 1990s I wrote a piece called “Turnabout is Fair Play” in which the “monsters” could only possess human females. It had to do with my idea of the hormone responses of the creatures. The possessed females were then very vicious. The first magazine I sent the story to promptly rejected it for being sexist. I revised it to make half the nasty characters male and it sold immediately to the next magazine I sent it to.

Why did I write a story with only female “bad guys” in the first place? I did it on purpose because by that time I’d sold about 20 short stories, and every single one had featured primarily male bad guys. I’d had only one female bad guy at all in any of these stories and she was a vampire. In a fun kind of way, I felt I’d been unfair to the male side of the species and wanted to spread around the evil. Even the title, “Turnabout is Fair Play,” suggested my intent, but my desire to be a bit more fair backfired. And it bothered me a lot because to this day there is at least one person out there who thinks I’m a sexist.

The second time it happened, I’d sent a kid’s story entitled “The Great Cookie Caper” to a magazine. In the story, someone is stealing the cookies mom is making and at one point mom laughingly teases her son about it being him because he’s getting a little “fat.” The “fat” was a mistake. I got a mini lecture in the editor’s response letter about being more considerate of larger sized individuals. Both of these incidents involved “editors,” not just your general reader.

This kind of misunderstanding is one reason I’ve never had a realistically portrayed human character utter a racist comment against another human group. It’s not very realistic because racist people really exist, but I don’t want my own personal feelings to be misjudged on the basis of what one of my characters might say. And I’m reminded of some criticism I’ve heard of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for being racist because of certain words used in dialogue in the book.

The Mark Twain situation brings up the issue of “tone.” I’ve heard people say that one writer’s use of racist characters is OK because the writer’s “tone” clearly indicates that he or she is not racist in their personal feelings. Wow! That really opens up a can of worms for me. I have a feeling that Huckleberry Finn is actually an anti-racist story, and it’s because of the tone I sense in the work. But I don’t consider myself sensitive enough to judge a writer’s racism, or other “ism,” purely from “tone.” Consider satire. A satirical story might feature characters who show exactly the opposite feelings from those the writer actually holds. But, 1) is everyone going to know the story is satire, and 2) what if a writer gets called on their story for being negative in some way and then promptly claims, “Oh, I was being satirical.” Do you know the difference? I don’t feel like I’m always going to make the correct judgment in such cases.

Personally, I try not to judge a “writer’s” character or personality from the fictional characters they put on the page. Now, I may not read a story that expresses certain types of thoughts or actions. For example, I generally don’t enjoy a story that features major characters who are overtly racist, but I don’t go from there to assuming that the writer feels the same way as the characters.

I used racism for most of my illustrations in this piece because I think folks understand the issue. However, humans are an opinionated group and the same issue can apply in multiple situations. Imagine a writer’s liberal character making negative comments about conservatives, or an atheist character making snide remarks about religious believers, or a bully character saying something insulting to a physically challenged character. The potential for misunderstandings is rampant.

I don’t imagine there is any way to avoid occasional misunderstandings of this type. I’ve probably made the same mistake myself. How about you? Do you make judgments about writers from their fictional characters? Are there times when it seems correct to do so? How do you know? And what does your writing say about you?

The Help and the Writer

As I mentioned in comments to Lynn's last post, the controversy surrounding "The Help" novel (which showed up on most people's radar only after the movie deal because, let's face it, only about 1% of the movie-going public even noticed there was a book) had gotten me thinking about race and writing and who's allowed to write what. Again. Long time members may recall this was a hot topic with me two years ago. Wrote four or five essays on variations of the theme. Today I might change, or at least rephrase, some of what I said then. You grow, you learn. Two of the better pieces from that series are: Writing True and Who You Are.

Lex Atreus, AKA my wife Valerie at age 24 (there's a Hellenic pun in there), the physical model for my most popular series character. Keep kicking myself I gave her to a media franchise. (Yes, that's her H&K P7, and, yes, she can & will use it. I'll tell you the Metro story one day.)


I had written a couple of thousand words on the topic of culture and race and the rights and responsibilities of the writer. Had a few links, which you'll find as a postscript at the bottom of this post. What you won't find is the 2000 words. Not because I was suddenly struck with common sense -- I've proven immune to that malady far too long to succumb this late in life -- but because the world conspired to convince me one more essay on the topic wasn't really needed. Not here.

For one thing, racism as it's practiced in the USofA is a peculiarly American institution, and the discussion would be irrelevant to many if not most of our members and readers.

More importantly, no way on earth I could legitimately follow Lynn's excellent essay and add anything meaningful to the conversation.

Third, Arielle Loren hit most of the notes I was going for in 2k words in less than thirty ten days ago when she wrote: "Stockett is a white woman, she can only write fantasies of black women’s truth. She owes us nothing. She’s a writer, and she can write as she sees fit." (She went on to discuss the futility of wasting energy on criticism that would be better invested in empowerment in her article 10 Black Women Making Moves in Film over at Clutch.) (That same article also led to me becoming a fan of Issa Rae's The Mis-Adventures of an Awkward Black Girl. Except for the cursing, of course, I am a fossilized prude after all.)

And finally, my spirit was lifted by a story that illustrates my take on the artist, her craft, and her obligation to herself and her world on NPR's All Things Considered. There's a new album that's taking country music fans and radio stations by, well, surprise: Reggae Goes Country. As one artist explained it to NPR, in Jamaica music is divided into "local" and "foreign" -- meaning they don't differentiate between rock, blues, folk, or country. The underlying assumption of Jamaican musicians is that all foreign music is white, no matter what color the artist, and that all music, regardless of origin, is legitimate grist for the the musician/singer/songwriter's mill. (I've been hunting cuts from that album -- a phrase that certainly dates me -- and highly recommend Tessanne Chin singing "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue?," Busy Signal's "The Gambler," Freddy McGregor's "King of the Road," and a group called L.U.S.T. having a lot of fun with "Flowers on the Wall." Gonna have to buy the album. Or 8-track. Or tape. Or whatever it is these kids put music on today.)

Going back to the third conspirator, I'm going to disagree with Ms. Loren on one point. She says that as a writer, Kathryn Stockett doesn't owe us anything (yes, I know she meant people of color when she said 'us,' I'm wittingly spreading the umbrella; bear with me). It is my fundamental tenet that we as writers, whether writing humor or horror or romance or mystery or fantasy or any genre or any nongenre, owe ourselves and our readers our best. It's our obligation to wield our craft to the best of our ability, to write honestly and with integrity the stories that are within us. This is our authenticity. Even though we know going in that often we're going to fail ourselves or the story we're trying to tell, because getting to where we want to be in our craft is a trial and error process. And it's a given that every piece we write will in some way fail at least one of our readers. But we're going to keep writing, keep telling stories, because we have no choice.
And, frankly, because we love it.


[As promised, a postscript of links cited in my now vaporized treatise:
Samuel R. Delaney's article on racism in science fiction written in 1998 resonates today as it did thirteen years ago.
Mary Ann Mohanraj's guest articles on John Scalzi's blog 18 months ago: Part One and
Part Two. Pretty strong medicine. While I disagree with the philosophies expressed in a couple of the sites she links to, I think her words are 99 & 44/100s% pure wisdom.]

Guest author Dayton Ward: Reviews: You Can't Win

Dayton Ward is a science fiction author primarily known for his Star Trek novels and short stories. He published stories in each of the first three Strange New Worlds anthologies, making him the first author to render himself ineligible under the rules of that series. As such, future authors who achieved the same feat were said to have earned a "Wardy." You can find him at home on his hilarious blog, A Pimple on the Ass of the Internet. Be warned, though: you'll be spending a lot of time there.

Of course I read reviews of my work. Every writer does.

Okay, ninety percent of writers read reviews of their stuff, and the other ten percent lie about it, all right? Anyway, with few exceptions, reviews of my writing have run the gamut from praising my stories as the greatest gift to the printed word all the way down to being so bad that it’s not fit to serve as birdcage liner.

That’s right: The hyperbole is free whenever I guest blog.

When it comes to reading reviews, I pride myself on not getting too excited one way or another. I’m not saying I don’t have reactions to them. Who doesn’t want that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you find out someone loved your book? Is there anything more satisfying than learning how you connected with a reader on some emotional level? Yes, it’s great to read glowing praise for something you’ve written. The trick is not to buy into the hype; to not let it distract you from continuing to work at improving your writing with the next project.

Besides, let’s not forget about those unfavorable reviews, right? Some of those make me laugh, while others cause me to grit my teeth so hard I get a headache. There are those “reviews” where I know…I just know…that the person didn’t actually read the book before rendering their verdict. On the other hand, there are those reviews which, while being very critical, do so in a manner that gives me food for thought. Such reviews make me realize that, yes, I could have done this or that better, and I set a goal to do just that with the next story.

Beyond that? I really don’t care about reviews. I tend to think that getting worked up about reviews—good or bad—is not at all a smart idea. For one thing, it can take time away from what you really should be doing, which is more writing. Also, becoming too invested in reviews can get you into trouble, particularly if you find yourself getting wrapped around the axle when someone decides they don’t like something you’ve written.

In recent months, there’s been more than one flap created by a writer taking none too kindly to negative reviews of their work, and doing so in a very public and—thanks to the internet—very long-lasting manner. In one infamous case which occurred just a couple of months ago, a writer took a reviewer to task on the reviewer’s own blog. The situation devolved from ill-advised to utter stupidity with but a modicum of keystrokes on the writer’s part. As I read the drama unfold, my mouth may have hung open in shock long enough that I’m reasonably certain fly eggs started hatching behind my molars.

As I commented after slogging through that particular slice of idiocy, “Reviews are the Kobayashi Maru for writers.”

I apologize to those of you who aren’t Trekkies and who likely don’t get the joke. In Star Trek, Kobayashi Maru refers to a training scenario inflicted upon cadets at Starfleet Academy. During this simulation, cadets acting as the captain of a starship are faced with trying to rescue the Kobayashi Maru, a crippled ship drifting in space behind enemy lines. The setup is a ruse, and as the cadet begins to make decisions and put his crew into action, the computer overseeing the simulation continuously modifies the scenario. Everything the cadet tries is countered, to the point where he and his hypothetical vessel face destruction at the hands of enemy ships. There is no way to win; there is no correct resolution. The simulation is a test of character, gauging the cadet’s reaction when faced with certain, unavoidable death.

For writers, I believe that reviews are a test of character, and responding to them is almost always a no-win scenario.

In the case of the writer who went ballistic on the reviewer’s blog, I Googled their name and the book being reviewed, and learned that people were talking about this incident everywhere, and not in a good way so far as the writer was concerned. In fact, the writer continued the fight for nearly two months after the original review was posted, with any semblance of professionalism and just plain good manners having been flushed weeks earlier. By the time a grudging, half-hearted apology full of excuses and justifications was finally issued, the writer and the incident had already become prime examples of what not to do when confronting a reviewer.

(Yes, I know I’m not providing the writer’s name or the book in question. To be honest, despite my initial reaction of “Serves you right, moron,” I actually feel sorry for the person…to a point.)

When it comes to fights like this, it’s like walking into an arena where you’re already outnumbered and hobbled, with the whole bloody universe watching you from the stands and cheering on the lions. Even if you “win” one of these shouting matches, what damage are you doing to your reputation and your career? In the current climate of social media, the immediacy of interaction between writer and readers can only magnify this problem. One ill-considered remark aimed at your readership can haunt you for months or years. An all-out jihad against a reviewer? Yeah, get ready for the backlash that’s coming your way, and be prepared to be the subject of many smarmy blog postings, most of them better-written than this one.

With respect to others reading what you write, the old adage about never being able to please everyone cannot be more truthful. Some reviewers will take absolute delight in pointing out the typos and grammar mistakes you missed even after proofing your manuscript six times. There are those who simply won’t like your writing style, or they’ll take issue with the subject matter. Others, doubtless believing they’re able to divine your political or ideological bent as they read your stories about zombies, vampires, Klingons or whatever, will believe you’re pushing some real-world agenda to which they take great exception. Heck, I’ve been called a wing nut coming at you from the left and the right, from different readers reviewing the same book.

Bottom line? Some way, somehow, you’re going to rub some reader the wrong way, and sometimes they’re going to make note of their displeasure in a public venue, be it their blog, some message board or the review space on Amazon.com. So long as they’re not saying anything that actually falls under the heading of libel, there’s really little to nothing you’ll ever be able to do about it. Attempting to right such perceived wrongs is only asking for more trouble than any supposed victory will ever be worth. It’s far better to cultivate a reputation as a writer who can take the heat, who welcomes a diversity of constructive opinions regarding their work, and who can shrug off the other stuff, even if the occasional review does make you grit your teeth until your head explodes.

In fact, you should buy writers like that a drink when you run into them at their next convention appearance, because more than likely they’re fun people to hang out with.

I’ll be at the Shore Leave convention in Baltimore in July.

Just sayin’.

—Dayton Ward

The Author/Reviewer Relationship

At one time book reviews could only be found in newspapers and a few magazines, but the Internet has provided a platform for avid readers to share their opinions on books with the world. Online reviews have become key promotional tools for authors, but, unfortunately, some writers have heaped much embarrassment on their heads by lashing out after unfavorable reviews.

I cringe every time I read a story about “Authors Acting Badly.” Don’t get me wrong, I understand their pain. Reading harsh words about your work is not easy, but it comes with the territory. Making it in this business requires a layer of really thick skin.

Some authors refrain from responding to reviews all together, but personally, I don’t see the harm. If my book is reviewed on a blog that allows for comments, I usually drop in and thank the reviewer for taking the time out to read and review my book. Yes, even if the review is a bit unflattering. The Author/Reviewer relationship doesn’t have to be contentious; it just has to be civil.

What are your thoughts? Should authors just ignore reviews, or do you think it’s okay for a writer to engage in discussions about their books?

The power of a critic: writing lessons from ... my mother?

When I was about seven or eight years old, there was a kids’ radio program that aired every Saturday morning, featuring local children. I was invited to participate. The first week I said a simple nursery rhyme:

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, where have you been?
I’ve been to London to visit the queen.
Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, what did you there?
I frightened the little mouse under the chair.

When I returned home all excited, my mother demanded, “What foolish poem is that? You’re too old for that. Do something better.”

The next Saturday, I read a story. It was a bible story from an anthology with excruciating details of the plagues and Moses and the Isrealites escape from Egypt. The story was so long that we ran out of airtime. When I returned home, my mother again criticized me.

“What long epistle was that?” she said in her usual derogatory tone. “You can do better.”

The next week I cited a poem The Waterfall, that got a different reaction from Mother. It went like this:

Pretty is the waterfall
As pretty as can be
It showers like the rain that falls
On the deep blue sea

I love to see the water fall
It’s a wonderful sight to see
It looks like water coming from a wall
And it’s just as nice as the sea

The rumbling sound that it makes
Sounds like a rumbling jet
And who made it made no mistake
So don’t you dare forget!

My success with eliciting a compliment from my mother this time had nothing to do with length or complexity of the poem. In fact it was quite simplistic. But it was a poem I composed. My mother was pleased. Finally I got it right.

Sometimes I thought that my mother only criticized me, and nothing I did was good enough for her. Once while in 6th grade I represented my school in an area wide general knowledge quiz. Our school came in second place, which I thought was great as we advanced to the national competition, but my mother expressed her disappointment. When we competed in the national competition, our school won. Only then did she express pride in me. She hugged me and lifted me up placing me on the cabinet, not a small feat for she is only 4 ft 10 in.

Now I realize what Mother was trying to do. She wanted me to excel. She knew I had more potential than I realized and she accepted only excellence from me. In doing so she brought out the best in me. She also taught me one important lesson: to accept criticism and learn from it.

I find myself copycatting my mother a lot these days with my seven year old. And of course she complains that I am never happy with what she does. One thing I notice though is that she tries even harder and asks, “Mommy, are you happy at me now?”

Like my mother, I am realizing potential in my daughter that she doesn’t even see in herself. I’m also trying to teach her to accept constructive criticism and learn from it.

KeVin recently blogged about lessons he learned from his uncle, an author. My mother is not a writer, but the life lessons learned from her have become quite useful in my new career as a novelist, especially the ability to accept criticism. From my first readers who said to me, “you are too longwinded” to the editor who slashed chunks of story I thought were so essential, to the reviewers who find my characters or story less than stellar. I have learned to accept the critique and improve my writing.

These are just some of the lessons I learned from my mother, that have shaped my writing and my life. I know you must have someone in your life whose life lessons you use in your writing, your career, or your life in general. Tell us about it.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, LOVE OR HATE

Ever since writing my first accepted piece of writing some years back -- a short story for which I received $50--I have had to deal with "constructive criticism." This is often in the form of rejection letters, but can also come through editors of material that has been sold but still needs to be "polished" to their standards. Reading groups, friends, and acquaintances can critique your work as well, and may tell you things you don't want to hear.

Once upon a time, I found it tough to swallow criticism of my work, constructive or not, believing that any negative review of work was ultimately an attack on the writer and not the project, per se. Moreover, most writers are pretty stubborn when it comes to anything less than favorable of their writings, believing them by and large to be works of art that needs little if any revision.

Of course, now that I am a bit more seasoned with many books and short stories to my credit, I have a much greater understanding and appreciation of constructive criticism and actually seek out rather than run from.

Indeed, I credit the many critical reviews and constructive critiques of my works that I have received over the years as playing a big role in my development as a writer. If you only take to heart even one or two points driven home by an editor, another writer, or anyone else who can offer objective constructive criticism, it can go a long ways in improving your craft.

Sometimes I have gone back to look at constructive criticism I received for earlier works to help keep me on the straight and narrow in shaping current projects. I recognize today that in most instances, the editor or reviewer is not out to make your life miserable or be mean for the sake of it, but genuinely want to help you to become the best you can be as a writer.

Once you accept constructive criticism in this light, it can always work to your advantage, no matter how cutting it may appear at times.

Also, a writer is never too big or successful to be immune to constructive criticism. We have all read books by established, bestselling writers that could be improved upon, but may not have been given the same scrutiny by editors because of the writer's stature. This ultimately hurts such writers and the quality of their books if not told what they should be, constructively speaking.

What are your thoughts on constructive criticism or tough reviews of your writing? Do you take in the manner intended? Or find difficult to accept if it goes against the grain of your own lofty opinion of the work?