Finished my history and the first chapter of "Deadlands".

The main character is Jill who has a lot in common with Jilli-Voice-Reason, but is not her. (For one thing, Jill is a dedicated Bicyclist.) Whether she continues to have a lot in common with Jilli will depend on Jilli's permission, though other fiction has been based upon her.

I'm looking for Beta readers if anyone is interested. Profile addy is good.

The best reviews money can buy [link]

That's unsurprising and depressing.

An author sends her fans to hound a bad reviewer: [link]

That Emily Giffin thing is outrageous. I hope some of that got back to her agent and/or her editor, because bad word of mouth like that goes a lot farther more quickly these days.

If I caught S. even making a comment on a review of mine, I would freak. You don't do that, and you don't encourage people you know to do it, ever.

The thing is, she's successful. She doesn't "need" to play games like that.(Not that anyone "needs" to, from a public-square standpoint, of course. But, you know, John Krasinski has not been in a film of anything of mine. Mostly, he is too pale to feature in my published work.) IoN, writing again for the first real day in weeks, and though it reads okay here, I feel like the world will be able to tell I'm a spinstery cripple sitting in my veal pen making shit up. My self-loathing, let me show you it.

And the reason she's successful is not because she never had one or two one-star or otherwise negative reviews. It amazes me that someone with her experience in the business is so naive. Or simply so stupid.

I suspect neurosis, and possibly narcissism rather than stupidity. (I use these in the popular sense and not as medical diagnoses.) I'm not saying she may not be stupid as well, but this I would put to other types of mental problem.

Most writers are probably a little bit of both. But most people who've achieved her level of success have a little bit more self-control.