All the same, now she seems like a completely different person. It’s like once she became published she no longer needed to debate because she was right. If it is a youth thing then I do hope she will grow out of it. If not, someone much harsher and bigger than us will knock her off her self-impossed pedestal.

Thing is most people don’t remember her as a reader and her name is different as an author so all they know are the words she is using now and clearly she is not making friends OR sales.

CindyS

I suppose the question is whether you’d be willing to do that.

No, I’m not.

I think as a consumer I was more put off by her words. First off, I’m not her friend, so, no, I don’t want to take the time to understand all her personal baggage. Don’t have time for that. I’m not even a fan but a potential buyer. I just think that as Bev mentioned, she raised some eyebrows by stating the things that she did that I as a reader and consumer would find off-putting. There are thousands of other books out there to read and other authors out there wanting to sell me their books without being insulting.
Appreciate your defending her but I’m sure this whole thing won’t hurt her book sales, so no worries.

Hey, I’ve seen a lot of things said online that border on insulting but could be called either way and I usually tend to give the benefit of a doubt or simply ignore them if possible. Can you honestly say that some of the above quoted comments are simply acceptable “debating”? Or even good sense for an author to spout to potential readers? ‘Cause they sure raised my eyebrows.

She has a decidedly different perspective and outlook, and you have to look through her eyes to understand what she’s trying to say.

Oh I can see it. I understand ego and thinking you are better than the rest of the world *G*. But when you are trying to make your living off that same world, you prolly don’t want them to know you think their asses are stupid.

And can you really call it debate when there is no room for movement or seeing that the other person idea’s might be right… or just as right as your own? Sometimes there is more than one answer to a question.

But hey whatever is clever…

It seems to me that sometimes when she is frustrated or upset she tends to be sarcastic, which doesn’t always come across on a text-based platform well, e.g. “big words”. She sometimes can be like a dog with a bone, especially with an issue she cares passionately for. Sometimes you might have to bash her head with a bone to get your message across. Either way she usually gives as good as she gets, which is a plus in my books.

She has a decidedly different perspective and outlook, and you have to look through her eyes to understand what she’s trying to say. I suppose the question is whether you’d be willing to do that. She’s not bad, really. I believe during those times on the mailing list (I can’t remember what it’s called now — it’s the one AAR set up for readers) I irritated her as much as she irritated me, but I do have a soft spot for her because whenever she issued her statements, however provoking these might be, she was usually happy to have her statements questioned. She loves (well, she did at the time) debates and she will change her stance or back down if you managed to put your points across well. In my books that is a plus. Hence my willingness to defend her here.

IMO, she’s a non-conformist who pretty much marches to her own drum, which is a rarity, I think, in the online romance community where peer pressure tends to dominate our world. Our egos might haven’t get on well (whenever we correct each other’s statements or factoids (especially about history), we hate it enough to argue ’til we can either admit defeat by not responding any more or agreeing she/I was right — it’s an ego thing!), but generally I like her (I admit there have been times when I called her every name under the sun). She can be difficult and, you know, “Aargh! *headdesk* Aaaargh!” She can be a real geek with weird social skills, but she’s a hedgehog. Hence my soft spot for her.

FWIW, anyway.

CIndyS

Oye.

Who exactly does she think is reading her books?

Oh, and Keishon, the link to Jane’s article isn’t coded correctly or something because it took me to a blank page on your blog, which sort of made me blink for a second or two.

As I read the first comment posted at Dear Author, all I could think was that this author needs to learn the concept of brevity. Comments that long fall off track, and often end up embarrassing the commenter.