Pain killers, Reviews & Madonna

I had minor emergency surgery on Tuesday afternoon. I’m okay, sore but okay, and I learned a valuable lesson – I cannot write while on pain killers. I already knew I couldn’t drive. Or walk well. Or do much of anything without basic assistance. I’ve got a very low tolerance for drugs. If it says may cause drowsiness on the label I cancel all plans for the next 72 hours. But I figured, I’m sedentary on the laptop, I should be able to handle writing. Um, nope, not so much. My brain becomes a fog of unusable thought streams. I’ll forever be amazed at how such literary giants as Hemingway, Joyce and Faulkner managed to create masterpieces while perpetually intoxicated.

Here it is Friday and I’ve spent the bulk of the week being completely useless. I still hurt but I had to come back to the nine-to-five because well that’s where they hide the glorious paycheck. I’m popping Tylenol instead of the stuff that actually works, and I am trying to play catch up.

I discovered that my nemesis struck yet again – Souls hasn’t exactly been blowing up the book scene but it has been well received by everyone that has noticed it with one exception. And that exception has been virulent in her dislike. The review was posted during release week in mid-April and links to this not-so-brilliant review have been tweeted regularly since. In fact, any time a positive review hits the twitter-verse regarding Souls, a companion tweet goes out for that sole negative review. That reviewer really wants the world to know that she did not like my book. She got me again while I was recovering. <smh>

Reviews, good and bad, are a natural and necessary part of publishing. The good ones make you feel great. The bad ones obviously don’t and I’ve been told that the bad ones are what validate you as a writer. I really don’t have a problem with this review because in all actuality it wasn’t that bad a review. Her complaints weren’t about my writing, per se, it was about things that happened during the editorial process. She doesn’t know that and neither will anyone that reads my book or her review, but I know that. I don’t necessarily feel validated by the review but hey if that’s what it takes to be able to say “I’ve arrived!” then guess what:  I HAVE ARRIVED – BITCHES! 

I probably didn’t need to add ‘bitches’ to the end of that but I was really IN the moment.

I refer to this reviewer as my nemesis only because she seems so hell-bent on screaming her negative opinion not only at every opportunity but specifically any time someone offers a differing, nay positive, opinion. It has begun to feel almost as though she was personally offended by Souls and wants it destroyed for all eternity which does not jive with the nature of her review. Two followers of hers have asked her about it and she’s claimed that her auto-tweeter is doing it. But can you set an auto-tweeter to respond to the positive tweets of rival bloggers? Regardless I’ve decided on a philosophical approach, she has a great many followers and she’s getting my book’s name out there even if it is tagged negatively each time. And here’s hoping “the” Material Girl had it right and there is no such thing as bad publicity.