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OUCH! SUNBURN!by Donna J. Shepherd A Wings of Faith Children's Book Author: Donna J. Shepherd Illustrations: Kevin Scott Collier ISBN: 1-933090-60-X ISBN 13: 9781933090603 Scroll down to see a video! From the Publisher: Donna J. Shepherd’s snappy rhymes along with the 15 colorful and fun illustrations by Kevin Scott Collier help children see the need to protect their skin in

If you have not yet seen This Astonishing Post you MUST go read it now. No time? Okay, I'll paraphrase it for you. The link takes you to BigAl's blog where he gave 2 stars to a self-published book he'd been asked to review, and then the author comments several times with angry diatribes, and comments that make it clear she has not understood what the reviewer was saying, before finally signing off with a pair of F*** Off!s. I encourage you to read BigAl's review when you have a chance because I think it's a fair and honest review of the book.

He called the story "compelling and interesting."

He also said "the spelling and grammar errors, which come so quickly that, especially in the first several chapters, it’s difficult to get into the book without being jarred back to reality as you attempt unraveling what the author meant."

Ouch, right? But a fair warning. He makes it clear that if you can get past these, you will find a compelling story, and he did in fact read the whole book, however, the difficulty he had reading it was one of the factors that lead to his low rating.

The author (who I will not name, nor will I post any of her writing samples for ridicule) took offense to the review and apparently misunderstood, or refused to believe that the reviewer was not talking about mere formatting problems within the ebook.

She made repeated negative references to the reviewers character and integrity, as well as his and many other commenters' intelligence.

In response, many commenters apparently went to amazon and rated her book, which previously had 4 and 5 star ratings, with one star.

It was quite simply, mortifying.

And it made me think. My first reaction was one of how can she be so angry? He said her story was good, just the writing wasn't up to par. But then I tried to put myself in her shoes. This was a book she'd put up for sale, as an example of her talent. And I remembered how the first few times I got a critique from one of my crit partners, I could only see the negatives -- the things that didn't work, the should've-been-obvious mistakes, the seemingly insurmountable amount of revision I was going to have to do even though I'd already worked so hard on it.

And then I felt kind of bad for the author.

She had a fairly natural reaction to a negative review, but rather than taking the time to process it, find the good, find the things she didn't agree with and let them go, she took it straight to the internet and sabotaged her reputation, and potentially her book sales and career by lashing out.

So today, I just want to remind us all (including myself!) to STOP, and BREATHE, and THINK before lashing out at those we have asked to help us. Remember that any crit or review is just one person's opinion, but also that there is almost always something worthwhile in a negative critique or review. You can't please everyone at once, but you can always improve.

And those of you going the self-publishing route, I think this author's experience is proof that you must be extra vigilent since you won't automatically have the eyes of a professional editor or copyeditor before your book goes out into the world.

Don't let defensiveness, pride, or hurt feelings keep you from making your book the best it can be!

It was one of those days that sort of punched me in the snotbox and only occasionally let me up for air.

I'm talking about today. Tuesday. June 23rd. 2009.

Yes. Tuesday.

It's the hottest day of the year today. I woke up this morning and knew it was going to be sticky and gross. Minnesota. Land of 10,000 lakes and some of the most humid weather ever. Regardless, I work up ready to face the day with earnest, even if it was a day at work filled with meetings.

NOTE: I'm not a fan of meetings.

I did my usual walk from the parking lot to the building where my team meets once a week. Stupid move, but I sort of like to get away from the people on the shuttle bus who complain about work and it's really nice to spend some quality time with my iPod (Robotron 2.0).

By the time I got to the building about a half mile away, I was DRIPPING with sweat. Nice. Way to start the day.

From there, I had trouble staying awake in the meeting. Don't know if I'm still reeling from my crazy weekend of filming, but my eyes were heavy as all get-out. I made it though, got into my 2nd meeting and was just itching to get some work done.

So...when it was over, I walked back...through the heat and humdity.

Here's the thing, folks. I sort of don't mind that it's crazy-hot. I mean, we spend all winter (all 7 months of it) complaining that it's so stinking cold, that when it's hot, we complain about that. So, even though I might go "OH GOOD LORD" when I walk outside, I'm really thinking: At least it's not 7 feet of snow. I can do this.

I got through the rest of the day mostly unscathed. Sure, I thought another meeting of mine was happening an hour before it was actually scheduled. And yeah, I sort of punted when it came time to talk about stuff in the big-important-meeting-at-the-end-of-the-day, but I got through it.

God. I just realized how much my work life sounds like a Dilbert comic strip. Ugh. Need to do something about that.

One of the other reasons I'm not a big fan of Tuesdays is because we have manadatory drills for the fire department that I work at in my spare time. Tonight was no exception. On the way to drill, driving in one of the fire trucks, I was just minding my own business. The window was down, the conversation light and WHAM!!!

Something from outside, flew into the window and smacked me in the face. I hollered out and grabbed at my check and felt something thick and fuzzy. I didn't get a look, but I fired it out the window. It seriously was like someone wound up and punched me right in the gob. It stung like you don't want to know...

That's when it hit me . I GOT STUNG.

Now, I'm 36 years old (for another 4 months, anyway) and I've NEVER been stung by a bee before. And I'm a boy. I've done all kinds of dumb things. I've thrown rocks at beehives, I've stuck sticks into hornet's nests, you name it. Never have I been stung by anything. Until now.

I was like a kid. I told everyone in the department. "I got stung." "Seriously. Right in my face. Stung."

Even a fire chief who also serves in the Navy and was back for a week from Iraq got to hear about it.

"Mr. Troupe! It's been a long time. Good to see you."
"Good to see you, Greg. I got stung by a bee."
"Oh."

But even so, I can't bag on this Tuesday TOO much. Why is that you might ask? Well, two things, but I'm only going to talk about one.

FutureSand got picked by the judges to appear in the 'Best of 2009' show on Thursday night!!! Yes!!! Only 20 minutes before the bee stung me in my face, I got the news from Jason. We're in the top 15 (out of 90-something!) and we'll see how we do against some heavy hitters!!!

So, while Tuesdays generally suck. This one? Not so bad.

y mostly

Some people are getting up in arms about the imaginary Sweet Valley High girls and their dress size.

Me, I find this story at Philly Magazine about real life moms taking their real life 9 year olds to get bikini waxes a lot more alarming.

(Thanks to Carlie W. who told me about the Philly Magazine story, she saw it in a beauty blog.)

Yesterday I ran a workshop at the Corrigin Creative Arts Centre, with the focus being on writing from life experience. It was a smallish group – five participants (plus myself of course) which made for a special day, with lots of sharing of participants’ writing endeavours and their life experiences. As well as me doing lots of talking about myself and the writing life, I lead the ladies through

I’m leading such a busy life at present – and loving it. Busy isn’t always a bad thing, even when it means some juggling of tasks. It is Literacy and Numeracy Week this week, and as part of this special week I was invited to visit Kondinin Primary School yesterday. Kondinin is about half an hour drive from home, and with some beautiful Spring weather happening it was a pleasant trip. The