Authors on the Boards

[JoeZhang]

Coming late to the party, let me just say that most authors have pretty thick skins so people don't need to walk on ice around us.

It seems to me, as an external observer with a over-inflated sense of self-importance, that some readers are much, much more thin-skinned than any author. They want to be able to dish out criticism, no matter how petty, irrelevant, or just idiotic, but God forbid the author actually talk back: the whining will be endless.

You are an academic it comes with the job!

 

[iguana_tonante]

I am also Italian, so make it double and serve it hot.

 

[Mary Ann]

You always do.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I once met a semi-famous author (well in certain sci-fi circles) at a party, we'd both had a few and I told him that I thought his last book was not very good and he turned to me and said "I suspect that's because you are a c**t". I thought about it and told him he could be right and then offered to get him another drink.

Brilliant!

 

[Greg Cox]

Speaking of criticism, nothing will ever top the review TV ZONE magazine gave my Q books years ago: "quite possibly the worst books ever written in any age, language, or genre."

I'm perversely proud of that one!

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Leaving aside the fact that it's spectacularly wrong, that's quite amusing. Substitute 'album' for book and it's like something from Spinal Tap.

 

[Greg Cox]

^I know. I'm tempted to put it on my webpage, but I suspect my agent wouldn't approve!

 

[Lonemagpie]

TV Zone's reviewers were, by the last few years of it, the most vindictive grudge bearers, rather than professional critics... I remember them slagging off one of mine - and also others that weren't mine but that I was reviewing for Dreamwatch and the like - saying "this happens, and that's in it, which is shit," etc, and I was like, "WTF? None of this stuff is even in the fucking book! That scene they've quoted to slag doesn't even fucking exist!" Some of them used to just make stuff up to justify having a go at people they had personal issues with...

I mean, yeah, say "I hated this, it's crap" but at least get your facts straight...

 

[Captaindemotion]

^I used to browse it in Easons or WH Smiths (never once bought it) and they did seem to have an axe sitting waiting to use on tv and movie tie-in novels.

 

[rahullak]

I find it awesome that the authors are here on the boards, interacting with us normal folk.

It's also worth pointing out that some authors may find criticism centering around the same point to be tiresome and they just leave the boards. DRGIII comes to mind.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Some of us also have to run away for a bit at deadline time, or we'd never get anything finished...

 

[Thestral]

1) For us past and present NY types, "fuck" is just the equivalent of "the" or "and." It's white noise. Spend enough time in Manhattan or parts of Brooklyn, and it's easy to forget that the f-word is actually an issue elsewhere in the fucking world. (This has caused some awkward moments when visiting friends and family; I try to remember to turn off my NYC vocabulary, but sometimes I slip up.)

2) And, yeah, that's just how Dave talks in real life. That's how we were talking in the bar at Shore Leave a few weeks ago. It's no big deal, and nothing personal.

Thank you for explaining this. See, I wasn't wrong about it being a cultural thing. Or regional. The general prevailing culture in a particular geographical region.

Actually, that was explained you you more than once, so while it's good that Greg confirmed it wasn't new information.

You'll also find this, by the way, in parts of Philadelphia and New Jersey.

 

[Greg Cox]

Some of us also have to run away for a bit at deadline time, or we'd never get anything finished...

Yeah, I'm probably going to have to cut back soon, just because I've got some tight deadlines coming up . . ..

 

[Timewalker]

1) For us past and present NY types, "fuck" is just the equivalent of "the" or "and." It's white noise. Spend enough time in Manhattan or parts of Brooklyn, and it's easy to forget that the f-word is actually an issue elsewhere in the fucking world. (This has caused some awkward moments when visiting friends and family; I try to remember to turn off my NYC vocabulary, but sometimes I slip up.)

2) And, yeah, that's just how Dave talks in real life. That's how we were talking in the bar at Shore Leave a few weeks ago. It's no big deal, and nothing personal.

Thank you for explaining this. See, I wasn't wrong about it being a cultural thing. Or regional. The general prevailing culture in a particular geographical region.

Actually, that was explained you you more than once, so while it's good that Greg confirmed it wasn't new information.

You'll also find this, by the way, in parts of Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Actually, I must have missed it among all the vitriol directed toward me concerning my age, general character traits, how I must do most of my shopping online because I'm such a horrible person, etc. and so forth.

Greg Cox posted a reasonable, courteous explanation, for which I said "thank you." Nothing more need be said.

 

[Rosalind]

I am sorry to hear that you deny yourself excellent novels because the man dares to talk back to someone who treated him like shit for no reason.

I deny myself his books because he's been rude not only to me, but to other people on this forum. And while the latter thread's title was definitely uncalled-for, that doesn't excuse the over-the-top nastiness that was said to me, weeks ago in a different thread. And I certainly didn't treat him like "shit."

nightwind1, Bonz has spelt it very clearly previously in this thread this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated, so you've earned yourself a trolling warning. Comments to PM.

 

[JD]

That way of thinking is not entirely foreign to me actually; I threw out all my Orson Scott Card books when I learned what sort of person he is. Mostly because I wouldn't get much out of reading them anymore anyway (I'd just keep looking for evidence of his agendas, thus breaking the suspension of disbelief, and if I feel like studying an author rather than his works there are more interesting subjects to chose from), would be ashamed of placing them on my shelves and am angry I gave him any money to build his soap box with.

I haven't thrown out any of his books, but once I heard about some of his viewpoints that he's mentioned I've sworn off ever buying any of his stuff. Same goes Roman Polanski, after I found out what he did. That stuff honestly tends to have a bigger effect on my buying habits than if the person is just an ass.

 

[Thestral]

It's really unfortunate about Card too, because aside from Ender's Game being a classic, I really love Speaker For the Dead. Xenocide and Children of the Mind get a bit... weird... but Speaker is my favorite.

 

[T'Bonz]

1) For us past and present NY types, "fuck" is just the equivalent of "the" or "and." It's white noise. Spend enough time in Manhattan or parts of Brooklyn, and it's easy to forget that the f-word is actually an issue elsewhere in the fucking world. (This has caused some awkward moments when visiting friends and family; I try to remember to turn off my NYC vocabulary, but sometimes I slip up.)

It's not just a NY thing. I don't even hear the world when people say it.

 

[PPatters]

It's not just a NY thing. I don't even hear the world when people say it.

Yeah, I'm from Michigan and live in Missouri, but I was at work the other day talking to one of the professors I work with and let "fuck" out so casually several times that it took me a minute to think back and apologize, explaining that I didn't even realize I'd said it at first.

 

[Christopher]

I've been reconnecting with my extended family in the past couple of years, and I find it interesting that when visiting them (at least the older ones), I generally don't hear any profanity used at all, in contrast to my experience when visiting my author colleagues. I guess that would explain my own tendency to avoid it -- it's how I was raised. Although my sister went to college in NYC and lived there for years, so she picked up the "accent," so to speak.