Blogflog: the power of positive thinking

[dwg.livejournal.com]

URL: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/01/positive-thoughts.html

This isn't a blogflog per se, as more of a PSA - for people who either aren't in America, or have absolutely no frelling clue as to what the middle part of LKH's latest post is about - this news article sheds light on the situation.

As for the rest, ye gods - even *I* can't decipher it, and I've spent the last two days slogging through my very own Badfic Odyssey. Really, it's a sorry state of affairs when even with a broken brain, I can't even apply Insane Troll Logic to the LKH blog.

All I can get out of it is, "Fire bad, tree pretty." "Weather bad, book to NY."

Something to get off my chest...and hello.

[maiafay.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm relatively new here, and also an author/artist. I write as a hobby, but do have one eye on the publishing world. And while I do my art professionally, right now I'm only freelance and therefore, must endure retail hell until I get my crap together.

To be honest, I HAD joined only to see how bad the bashing was here. I realize I would have been pounced on, promptly shredded, and spat out if I had said what I intended to say to everyone.  Had I not read her blog for myself, I might have braved it.

However,  at that time, (which was only weeks ago.) I still held her in my mental list of authors I usually buy books from, regardless of subject and so forth. That was...until I read that rant, and realized that I had struggled through her last four or so books just to finish them. I never used to before, and then realized--(with growing horror.) that I have skipped her two newest books without so much as a 'twitch' from my ID (you know, that whining monster that everyone has inside that only wants wants wants wants?) So, instead of defending LKH like I had planned: I was blind-sided by the awful truth that I had denied myself ever since "Incubus Dreams."

Her books are lousy now. Her books are boring, repetitive, badly written, and the characters are stale...uninteresting.

I originally had this complaint as an answer to another post, but I got so long-winded and pissy, I decided to just post this as another disgruntled "Fan Rant."

( More on my epiphany )

Modliness: What's allowed, what's not, in regards to snarking on appearances

[pith]

I'll say this first, to be crystal clear: no one's in trouble. I'm not going to drag anyone out into the alley and go Jack Bauer ballistic on them. (Although, as an aside, Kiefer Sutherland could play an excellent Edward.) I am tweaking the FAQ and this will be covered in there, but I'm posting this so it's open knowledge.

A while ago, things got… questionable when we were discussing LKH's appearance, and I asked the community to focus their snark on her writing and her behaviour. Sure, a comment on her oh-my-Goth make-up is sure to come up every once in a while, but things like weight are irrelevant to her writing ability or lack thereof. I can see the issue coming up briefly in a post about Mary Sueism, perhaps, but it should never be the focus. I know I certainly don't have "the perfect figure" and I'm sure my take on fashion isn't for everyone, and that's the case for a lot of us here. All-praise to the Internet, which makes looks unimportant and focuses on substance—or so the dowdy ones like me hope =)

Translation? Snark about her blogs, her books, her interviews. Snark about her "work" and her "vision" and her behaviour at signings. Leave appearances out of it, please. Otherwise, we're just going to degenerate to a junior high mentality of "OMG, she's so fat/skinny/ugly/plain/whatever". It's not exactly like lkh_lashouts is renowned for credibility and class, but we don't have to be petty either.

That extends to Jon and Darla too. (Trinity is off limits almost entirely, because that's only fair.) I know the snark writes itself, but… we have to have some sort of standards. So unless it's relevant to a blog entry or something legitimately snarkable, leave personal appearance out of it. It's too subjective and, like I said above, it almost always ends in pettiness. I'm not going to be a tyrant about it. Like I've said, a comment here or there about Laurell's make-up or Jon's hair isn't a big deal. However, entire posts and threads dedicated to nothing but someone's looks are not snark.

I look at it in terms of the Golden Rule: do unto others as you'd have done to you. Do I expect my published work to be criticised, in both positive and negative terms? Yes. I think that's a fair thing to expect when you get a novel published. Would I, as a novelist, expect people to be bitching about the type of shoes I wear? No. Whether I wear sandals or stilettos or nothing at all has no bearing on my talent (or lack thereof).