Please don't defend me in public.

I blame myself for this one.

I have literally been waiting for a year for a written bad review for "Lovers and Beloveds." Yesterday it finally touched down. It was polite, to the point, impersonal, and largely based on a dislike of my writing style. I thanked the reviewer for taking the time to both finish a book she didn't like and also to write out the review; there's nothing worse than someone giving your book two stars and not telling you why.

Stupidly I linked to it on Twitter and let the review comment feed onto my FB page. I noted that I wasn't upset--because honestly, I'm not. Really. When you get a bad review there's always that initial rush of dizzying fight-or-flight adrenaline, but it fades quickly. I'm fine. I wasn't pointing to it because it was a bad review, I was pointing to it because it was the FIRST bad review, the one I've said repeatedly was lurking out there like the Nemesis asteroid or Bruce the Shark, and here it finally was!

But.

People apparently took it upon themselves to defend me, which was unnecessary. She didn't attack me. I don't know what they said because the OP deleted them (and will keep deleting them with 100% of my support). I have apologized to the OP, deleted both pointers, and am horrifically embarrassed. Lesson learned.

I will reiterate this again (and again): PLEASE don't defend me either here or elsewhere. I can deal with it. It embarrasses me when you go off on people, especially people who didn't attack me personally in what they've said about my work. I love you for caring that much, but seriously, it does me more harm than good. I keep forgetting that I have a fan base that will do that in places other than here.

If you have to say something about a negative review or comment, just send it to me personally. Don't post it. Please. Just--don't.

That said, this one was my fault.

Posted on 09/16/2011 - 7:27pm