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I've done kajukenbo or kung fu for the last three years. And I love thrillers! Therefore, Haywire looked like it was right up my alley. It stars Gina Carano, a real MMA star.

Ha! All the best parts were in the trailer. (In fact, I think there were parts in the trailer that weren't in the movie). Let me count the problems with the movie:

- When the main character is on the run, she somehow manages to get her hair cut from past her shoulders to a stylish angled bob. Yeah, that would be top of mind for me when everyone wants me dead. The color doesn't change, so it's not like she's trying to throw her pursuers off track. Later, she shows up in cornrows. Cornrows I don't think she has enough hair for. And who braided it?

- Speaking of changing colors, when the the MC is being chased down city streets, running through restaurants and stores and vaulting over fences, she continues to wear a white hat. So much for being an expert. The first thing you should do when someone is tailing you is to change your appearance. Ditching the hat would have been a great first step.

- The character played by Tatum Channing is a bit of a rookie. He nearly screws things up and has ideas no one agrees with. Yet at the end of this section of the movie, the MC is kissing him and undoing his belt. Why? It seems beneath her to have sex with him. The reason is revealed near the end, when he dies. Gives her the opportunity for a flashback scene and a moment of sadness.

- The character played by Ewan Macgregor is shown putting a gun in the back of his pants. Then he fights the MC on the beach. A fight, it is clear, that won't end until one of them is dead. Yet he never pulls his gun. Isn't that guy familiar with Chekov? "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired."

- They re-dubbed the actress's voice, so it sounds different from take to take.

- If you don't trust someone, would you let them have full access to your stuff while you took a shower?

- There's a plot point involving a brooch being planted in a dead man's hand to cast the blame for the murder. It was like something out of Agatha Christie. A brooch! In his hand! With no signs of a struggle or threads caught in brooch to explain how he supposedly managed to yank it off his killer.

- The high-tech spies use - wait for it - Blackberries! How much did they pay for product placement?

This is definitely the last Steven Soderbergh movie I see. Contagion also sucked, but for different reasons.

Publishers Weekly says, “Is it time for a Miss Manners intervention? These days it’s tricky to keep up with the name-calling surrounding citizen reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, and Twitter.

In the biggest recent dustup, over a one-star January 13 Goodreads review of Kiera Cass’s The Selection – a YA novel about a lottery that allowed 35 teenage girls to compete, a la The Bachelor, for a handsome prince – the war of words got heated enough that one commenter referred to a citizen reviewer as “that bitch.”

What no one in the article addresses - and I’m not feeling up to putting it out there in the comments - is interacting with readers who love your books. I don’t think that’s a bad idea at all.

For example, a year ago, this review popped up on Amazon for Shock Point.

Middle grade teachers, don't miss this book! It grabs you from the first few sentences and doesn't let up until the very end. It is very believable and real. I would put this in the hands of any middle school reader (reluctant or not) and then let it work its magic. Even better, create a buzz by showing it to your students and giving them a preview of the plot. Warning: be sure to have a blank tablet nearby because you will need to start a sign-out to avoid a classroom cage match situation. When the reader finishes and asks you for another book like this (trust me, they will) give them 'Girl, Stolen', also by April Henry. Again, you'll be glad you did.

The guy signed his real name and said what state he came from. A little googling turned up an email address. I sent him a thank you note. He sent me a nice note back.

And this coming March, I’m going to visit his school. I’m super excited, and it never would have happened if I hadn’t reached out.

Sure, it might not always be a good idea. I see my books reviewed on blogs, Good Reads, Amazon, etc. Only sometimes do I respond to a positive review. But usually I think it’s worth it or at worst, neutral.

Read the whole PW article here.

Lara Zielin's latest YA, The Implosion of Aggie Winchester, got a bad review in Kirkus. (A not unusual occurrence.)

What is unusual is that a friend turned the review into a black metal song and then a video for that song:



Read more about here.

As an author, if you see a bad review of your book, or you go to Amazon and watch your star rating start to slide, and it's easy to panic - or even get angry.

But if you're going to do something, think twice. It sounds like Sara Gruen was worried about her Amazon ratings on her new book, Ape House. According to one Amazon reviewer, she reached out to all her Facebook friends, and wrote this:

"Dearest Beloveds, I am being slaughtered on Amazon. If you have read APE HOUSE already and actually feel this way, could you please post a positive review and help me bury some of the horrific ones? Many merci beaucoups."

I think that's a bad idea because a) it makes people who haven't read the book feel it might be bad and b) a lot of people who are your "friends" on Facebook aren't really your friends at all. In this case, the recipient posted Gruen's request on Amazon for everyone to see.

The request, the reaction, and the reaction to the reaction.

So authors, if you are going to ask people (hopefully people who have read it) to make positive comments about your book, make sure to do a better job of keeping it on the QT. Or, better yet, let the book speak for itself.

Of course, this isn't the first time an author should have thought twice before reacting. When Alice Hoffman got a mixed review in the Boston Globe, Salon reports, "She came out swinging, calling reviewer Roberta Silman "a moron," quickly moving on to "idiot," then expanding her repertoire to dis the newspaper and the city of Boston itself. But the real jaw-dropper in Hoffman's two dozen plus tweets on the subject was her suggestion that "If you want to tell Roberta Silman off, her phone is [Silman's phone number and email address]. Tell her what u think of snarky critics."

Read about other famous author reactions here, including shooting the critic's book, spitting on them, and more.

Amidst the whirl of celebrations for the release of Pearl Verses the World, and some wonderful feedback in the form of reviews and emails and nice comments from lots of sources, I have to confess that the book got a bad review.I’m not naming the publication or reviewer (though will say the review is not, to my knowledge, online), because obviously I don’t want to send you off to read something

I have to admit I was bummed. I received the first review of my book in the mail Friday. It was in an envelope from my publisher and arrived without warning so I opened. Our state chapter SCBWI leader, Esther, has always told us not to read reviews. But I had no idea what was in the envelope.

Part of the review was unkind--it said my "verse often falters annoyingly," which annoyed me to no end. But I was prepared to receive a less than favorable review because everyone doesn't like rhyming books and they are often held to a higher standard.

The part of the review that was just plain inaccurate, however, is the part that sent me to depression. "Bright colorful illustrations portray Shante's energy and determination to save her family tradition, but, of course, these seem to be miracle peas that don't need soaking overnight." DUH! These are FRESH peas, explained in the accompanying recipe, but even if they were dried peas, this is a misconception about soaking peas overnight.

So after about only an hour and one Dairy Queen ice cream cone, I figured out how to turn this lemon-filled review into lemonade. I'll keep you posted.

If you want to buy my book and judge for yourself, check it out on Amazon.com or contact your local bookseller. 


Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas 

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