Brenda Novak's Online Auction
Most of the romance writing community knows about
Brenda Novak's awesome online auction. Brenda's son suffers from diabetes, and a few years ago she decided to hold an auction to help raise money to fight the disease. Well, that little nugget of an idea has turned into one huge fund raising machine.
Coming from a family with a history of diabetes, I'm a huge supporters of this cause, and I encourage everyone to go out and bid! There are fabulous prizes, from signed books by bestselling authors like Stephenie Meyers and James Patterson, to amazing weekend getaways and even a night at Nora Robert's Inn!
One prize I'd recommend is being a character in the next Farrah Rochon book! You can also bid on an entire autographed set of my books, and a gift card to Barnes & Noble's.
Go forth and bid for this great cause!
You don't like my book? I'm suing!!!
Let me start this off by saying that I've never been overly fond of this extremely litigious society we live in. I can't help but roll my eyes when I see something that could have been quelled with a simple "I'm sorry" land in court because someone thought they were treated unfairly. But this, my friends, truly takes the cake, and it comes with a warning: Reviewers beware!
In Russia, an author actually sued and won a case against a book reviewer for giving his book an unfavorable review. You don't believe me? Read it for yourself:
Crazy Russian writer who needs to get a backbone. Or a life. Or both. FYI...that's not the title of the story, just my personal opinion. And speaking of personal opinions, that's what reviews are. It's someone's personal opinion. You can't sue someone for expressing their opinion, can you? Well, I guess you can in Russia.
Don't get me wrong, I understand how the author feels. Even though the majority of reviews I've received for my books have been good--some great, as a matter of fact--I've had a couple of bad ones--some
really bad ones. It is not a nice feeling. But did I ever think to file a lawsuit? Absolutely not! I may have called the reviewer a dimwit and wished incurable athlete's foot on her and all her descendants, but a lawsuit? Seriously, how bad could the review have been? (I believe there's a link, but it's in Russian).
Just for the record, even if I wish feet fungus on a reviewer and call them a bad name, it's just my initial reaction. It only takes me a couple of minutes to remember that it is this person's opinion, something they have every right to have. For the most part, I'm just overjoyed that someone took the time to read my book at all. Maybe this author needs some perspective, as well.
Thanks to
Barbara Colley for sharing this completely over-the-top story with me. It'll have me shaking my head all day.
A Ring Tone Says a Thousand Words
It's the eight day of the month again, which means I'm blogging over at the
Readers' Rooms. Join me today as I discuss the fascinating subject of...wait for it...ring tones! Yes, ring tones. I've discovered that those ten second snippets of song can be a window into a person's life.
I reveal some of the surprising ring tones I have on my own cell phone and what they say about me, and hope that you all will share what rings when someone calls your phone. Give us a little insight into what it says about you.
Hop on over to the Readers' Rooms to see why
A Ring Tone Says a Thousand Words.
An Academic Look at Romance
Last week, there was a conference held at Princeton University which centered around romance novels. It featured a number of academics and romance novelists (fyi...many romance novelists happen to be academics. I think the average person on the street would be blown away by the number of genre writers who hold Ph.D.'s).
How I wish I could have been there for what I'm sure was an intelligent, insightful look at the genre. Thankfully, a blogger from the
The Huffington Post wrote a great article about the event. It's great to see the romance genre taken seriously.
Enjoy.
