I'm a pretty easy-going gal. Honest. If you're ever pausing with your mouse pointer over a 1-star rating for one of my books and wondering if I'll burst into tears and/or rampage after you with a machete for it, relax. Go ahead and click. Seriously.

First, I know that my books aren't perfect. I work hard on them to make sure they're as good as I can get them, and then I put them out there. But I never labour under the delusion that I've written the first faultless book in the world.

Second, I know that my books aren't for everyone. That means they could be absolutely awesome masterpieces, and some folks still wouldn't like them at all. Some of them are downright weird in style, with odd perspective jumps and writing rules lying smashed on the ground all over the place.

On rare occasions, I will wander off and snark about a review I've received. Some people tell me this is absolutely inexcusable. Meh. I don't snark when someone didn't like my book. Dear God, I'd be drowning in snarkiness! I do snark, though, if someone comments that I obviously have not graduated grade school, or high school, or never taken a writing class. I also snark if someone complains about the horrible (ahem! Australian!!) spelling, and "who can't spell 'ass' for crying out loud?" Australians, that's who. Pbbbbbbbt. But that's it, really. If you state that the characters are cardboard cutouts and the basic premise is ridiculous and you hated the PI so much you wanted to stab him - no worries.

What it comes down to is this: feel free to leave a negative review. But try not to leave a dumb review. Be aware that by writing a review, YOU'RE putting YOUR work out in the public eye too. And if I think you've done an impressively bad job, I might just say so. Publicly. If you don't like that concept, think back to what you're doing. If it's good for the goose, maybe it's good for the gander, too. Hrmm?

Let me just clarify something here. I bet there's someone reading this and picturing me turning into an authorly maelstrom of self-righteous rage and castigating people about the spelling mistakes in their reviews. Hell no! No matter what you write in a review, it's highly unlikely you'll ever hear from me unless you first specifically contact me. I'm all for readers having a place where they can share reviews without author intervention. However, if you happen to inhabit the same reaches of the internet that I do, and see me comment about an irritating review received 'over on Goodreads'... that's when I'm likely to be both unsympathetic and supremely unapologetic about any possible angst you may suffer.