Dear Ms. Young,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to our post of November 22, 2012. We understand that it can sometimes be hurtful to get negative feedback on your work, even years after the fact. We're not unsympathetic to your feelings.
To answer your questions:
Uncle Walter and I are both college educated. Uncle Walter is highly successful in his professional field. I am a stay-at-home-mom to our two children, but have also worked in professional fields. Both of us enjoy reading entertaining, well written books. Thank you for your interest!
We accept donations because we actually own each and every one of the books that are featured on our sites. That means, Ms. Young, that your vitriolic message has been sent to your paying customers. I just want to make sure you're aware of that. Especially since we own more than just one of your books. We have actually never accepted a monetary donation toward the blogs, though we have accepted numerous donations of books, and we have, in turn, made numerous donations. Our personal library is currently hovering somewhere around 12,000 books.
While we don't read each and every one of the books we feature (that would be incredibly time consuming, and this is more a hobby for us), we own them, we read many of them, and we skim them to see if they're something we'd like to read. The blogs were born out of my personal reading choices, which would sometimes involve hilariously bad writing.
Uncle Walter is a successful, published author (though not in the romance genre). Writing is more a hobby for him. I have edited several published books from several authors. None of which has any real bearing on whether or not we're able to tell good writing from bad (we are), but there you are.
I believe that answers the majority of your possibly genuine questions.
Our blogs serve two core purposes: to entertain (and our following certainly confirms to us that it is nothing if not that), and to illustrate how NOT to write. While your featured "sin" is not nearly as egregious as some, I stand by our assertion that "Tension ripped her insides to shreds" is poorly written. While being overly dramatic and exaggerated, it is also somehow completely vague in its description. You can argue that's just our opinion, but I'd respond back that our opinion is kind of the only one that matters to us. If it's not your opinion, then our opinion shouldn't matter to you.
The nature of a review of any sort (which is, ultimately, what being featured on our blog is) can be hurtful to an author. It's your baby. You ostensibly worked hard on it (though with some authors, that's definitely arguable). People should like it and love it and treat it with respect! But, as the saying goes, you can't please everyone. There will always be people who don't care for your creation. It's the nature of being a writer. Which is why the advice of every successful author is: do NOT respond to negative reviews.
But here's the thing: it was never about you. We didn't know you. All we knew about you was that a couple of years ago we found a pretty poorly written line in one of your books. It was done, gone, and despite having other works written by you, you weren't on our radar. Now we know that you cannot handle criticism. That when faced with criticism, you cannot respond in a professional manner. That your writing style doesn't improve with your personal correspondence.
And now, Ms. Young, you ARE on our radar. Taking a moment to skim through another of your books has led me to some other badly written passages. Not just a single line that was kind of funny, but a passage containing things such as "the triangle that guarded her innocence." Those fierce, protective triangles! So... thanks! We have more quotes!
If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Wife
(With approval and input by Uncle Walter)
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