I thought Rice's early books weren't bad, but she's definitely one of those writers that fame and adulation affected badly.

Thanks... A little too much inner-city fiction lately, but still like the thought of GWW as my crew and taking her pretentious ass down. But it's not really Rice that cured me of thinking if a lot of people like something there must be something in it as Dan Brown. God, that junk is awful. Especially the dialogue that is written as if he spent ten years in a cave far removed from human speech, which I notice because I'm good at it. And the completely not-sexy love scenes. He should be my little lap dog, bringing soda and cannoli, but I'm still a broke newbie.

I thought Rice's early books weren't bad, but she's definitely one of those writers that fame and adulation affected badly.

I don't think I know of a worse case than Rice of believing her own press. And FWIW, honestly, I fell asleep trying to read "Interview". She did one character that I could get into at all, one character that she seemed to me to be writing with genuine passion and echoes, and that was Claudia, the child vampire. And of course, Claudia was based on her own child who'd died. But everything else of hers, put me to sleep.

She even writes boring porn. If that's not a criminal offence, it SHOULD be.

COP: I'm gonna have to cite you.

WRITER: What for? All my works are cited, all my song lyrics are paid for and I got two orgasms here. His and hers.

COP: Do you think I'm stupid or something?

WRITER: No, Mister Literature Cop. I definitely do not.

COP: Well, even I know it takes more than huffing and puffing to be hot. I'm writing you a ticket for Felony Lack of Sexy.
WRITER: My mother liked it.

COP: Tell it to the judge, man

WRITER: My mother liked it.

COP: Tell it to the judge, man

erika, will you marry m - oh, wait. You already did.

For which I am profoundly grateful.

we ought to reaffirm our commitment while I'm there.

that was Claudia, the child vampire

She does write some interesting children -- there were kids in The Witching Hour and the two subsequent books about the Mayfairs who were some of the most fascinating and well-drawn characters in the book. I haven't read Rice since then, though, and the one time I tried to read her porn erotica (one of the Sleeping Beauty books, I guess? I misremember), it was awful with a capital Aw.

Well, my life was getting dull anyway.

Allyson, I was one of the anonymous posters on your LJ. I did not identify myself because I wanted to state my opinions without prejudice. I'm not angry about your relationship with the various powers that be, I'm not jealous, I'm not a--what was it--"no-life-having nutjob." I simply believe that--possibly completely unknowingly--you have a tendency to a bit of "I have access and you don't" attitude.

Seeing the reactions here to those anonymous posts has been very interesting. Say as you will, my opinions are my own, your reactions are your own, no offense where none is offered.

FWIW, I don't think I called anyone a no-life having nutjob, unless I did and can't remember. Doesn't sound like me.

I do think that the tone of most of the entries was angry at me. A sort of a, "I just can't stand you" tone. Which is part of what I found fascinating.

I'm not sure if you were expecting an argument out of it, but I had thought it was you when you mentioned things that were being said in GWW in my LJ, and it hasn't changed the way I think of you or post with you.

ETA: What has changed is how to quote your posts in my chapter, which is right now credited to Anonymous, and I'm not sure if you'd like that changed. Let me know.

I don't think I called anyone a no-life having nutjob

Nope. That was me, and as it happens, going by the two posts I saw in your (editing for proper pronouns, which seem to have left me for a young telephone repairman: "your" meaning "Allyson's") journal? That's how they read to me.

Connie, as a veteran of the receiving end of the "how dare you have more than I do/enjoy your life more than I do/not feel guilty about it" school of 1970's style envy - usually by people who wanted something I had, were desperate for a piece of something they had no idea how to get, and were unwilling to admit their own motivations - I'm reserving my short-temperedness on the subject. It's one reason - since I don't do polls - that I disallow all anonymous posting in my own journal. The no-life and no-name types who shat all over Ayelet Waldman in my journal brought back too many memories of the "how dare you" brigade. I no longer have the faintest tolerance for it.

OTOH, I don't know if yours was either of the two I saw in Allyson's journal. (Two, not four; at least, at the time.) But I'd tend to doubt it, since I thought the two I read were rancid, week-old envy green.