Rant by Proxy! There appears no bounds to bigotry and differentiation by hate.

A daughter of a friend of mine attends a college for the deaf and I’m re-posting this Public Service Announcement she made.  Warning:  There is mild cursing compared to some things flying around these days but it is well written and thought out.  Enjoy!
I need to talk….

(note: this doesn’t necessarily apply to you if you’re deaf…..)

Many Deaf people really do not understand personal boundaries. This is something I only learned while being a student here at NTID. Stop asking me why I am dating someone not in the deaf bubble. I don’t appreciate the constant prying and asking why I’m not with someone fluent in ASL…

I thought that by choosing NTID over Gallaudet, I’d be done of with this issue.

Simply because deaf culture exists, doesn’t mean we Deaf people are a monolithic entity. This goes for both hearies and deafies. But I am addressing my fellow Deafies right now. If someone can speak clearly and with a hearing aid or cochlear implant, that gives you no right to look down at them for the personal choices they made for themselves. Key word: Personal fucking choices. Same with the near-mute Deafies who choose to only rely on ASL and a little oral speaking (like me). Don’t judge those people either, or any one person in the middle of the spectrum or anywhere in it.

Deaf culture needs to work on encouraging empathy, discouraging point blank judgements of others and gossip, and learn to work as a team despite each one of us being different.

Mini-Rant yet mostly reflection.

Many of you are familiar with my reviewing practices.  I rarely do negative and if I sense it going that way I change lanes giving it the review of silence.  There are two works I finished reading yesterday and when I went to post something about them this morning I found that one of them had tons (in this reality 100+ = tons) of reviews putting it in a really undeserved  bask of glory.  The story was underdeveloped to the point where the read would likely need to start smacking a tin cup against the bars to escape from the protagonist’s brain.  This one I gave a 3(?) because I still believe it is worthy to reward someone who has taken a leap and written.  I limited my posting to Amazon US and Good Reads.

The second work I went to review I found I could not in good conscience give it any buzz.  At the steep cost of $.99 for an estimated 20 pages this…thing was full of grammatical eff-ups, the science fiction was developed in a substance induced coma with no anchor to get the reader grounded and it never developed.  It is being marketed as a series and I’ve noticed this author has ‘started’ a couple of series.  I’m not sure which shell the pea is under leading me to another action.  I’ve removed all other unread-works by this author from my collection due to the idiocy that I view my time as valuable.  If any of these were physical books I would return them but ‘returning’ eBooks is…theft so I will not be doing that.

What is the common thread?  The second work had almost a hundred reviews painting a much rosier picture of the situation and it had over 400 ratings.  These tools are supposed to be helping consumers spend their money, disposable or not, where their interests may be satisfied.  The first work also had a severely distorted picture painted by numbers and ratings though it had more substance for basis.

The common thread that I wish to point out is that getting a bunch of questionable reviews to boost your sales is a dead-end and a betrayal of any potential fan base that might have taken you seriously.  My advice is don’t do it.

I haven’t reached a level of sales or froth worthy of putting my advice on a pedestal.  At this rate if it happens it might likely be postmortem.  As an author I’m looking for fans to share my written visions and peers to find something they liked about what I’ve done.  I would much rather endure some bashing than know that I’ve misled readers to turn a buck.

Summing up.  Normally there would be a review of a read here but I felt this would be more appropriate for today.  Not to worry, I literally have hundreds remaining in my ‘To Be Read’ pile and am moving along.

I’m also going to try something a bit new here.

(Cue Entry Music!!!)  ‘A POLL’

I’m leaving it open for a week.  We’ll see if the number of responses merit a future blog posting.  Feel invited to share this as it is likely the only way to get semi-objective in our world views.  (Now that is pompous)

Grab something anchored in bedrock, Rant is Imminent!

I don’t often reel in shock at my layers of naivete being ripped away but when I do hold on to your butts.  As  a not so well spread Science Fiction author I did something some of you younger smarty-pants probably would have done first thing.  I Googled “Science Fiction Review Blogs” and in the top three results I almost turned off the computer for today.

The first two were just plain snobbery as they only will review products of the big six publishers.  Let me make a point here.  Science Fiction is about new ideas and creating stimulating thoughts regarding the future.  SF signal went so far on the submission policy as to state no Selfies or “Vanity Press”.  Now to them, maybe add subtitle publishing house lackey.  That’s all well and good.  We all have our standards and they speak volumes about us.

I hope you are still clinching because here comes the really awesome nugget.

Third hit was the “Kirkus Reviews”.  If you have the opportunity go check out their submissions blather.  You too can have your work reviewed for $475.  Now you just read me give SF signal hell for using the term Vanity Press.  This Kirkus nonsense makes me wonder how much it would cost to have a dedicated applause machine.

Found this little jewel being advertised for just $16.  Let’s see, that would save my delicate ego $459 and the expense of sending those jackasses one of my print books.  Just check out the button on the upper left.  All you really need eh?

Back to the reason for my search.

I was looking for some way to list my blog…the one you are reading…in an unoffensive SF-Fantasy Book reviewing venue.  Earth shattering announcement is I’m still looking.

Thanks for enduring my therapy session and feel free to help me out by spreading word of mouth.

I review mainly speculative fiction (unpaid-LOL) , write Science Fiction Novels (not paid much) and work a day job.

If that sounds like someone you can relate to then we’re good.

Carry On!

Book Review…Nah, mainly rant!

Editing, Proofreading and producing something that doesn’t make you cringe defensively every time someone mentions they’ve read it!

What’s up people?  This is the second time in a month that I’ve gotten to a point in a read where I’m sucked in by the story then I get a two by four over the head because someone(author) won’t put the effort in to make sure their work has at least one edit pass.

As a self-pub I am like all the Indies and Self-pubs out there when I state that we are fighting against a stigma.  The stigma put shortly:  Anything other than big five published work will be substandard and not as valuable.

If you(author) are broke and can not afford an editor or proofreader then at the very least you should have time.  Get a week or two of distance after the writing then begin a deep read-rewrite.  Everything that was screwed up in the work I got suckered into reading could have been fixed in a patient pass as I just mentioned.  It takes discipline.

Those of you who follow, or at least pay attention to what I do will remember that my policy is to decide whether I will finish reading a work before the fifty percent mark.  If I pass that then I will finish and write a review.  My goal is to always write positive reviews.

Sometimes our goals are unreachable and we have to move on.

The author seems to have taken down the book to rework it so I will only post this on my blog and Goodreads.  Great.  Sharing Pleasures, an erotic novella was on my ‘to-be-read’ pile since 24NOV12.  I made it to seventy percent pulled in by the heat of the story.  At that point the cumulative effect of the poor editing caught up and I felt a sense of betrayal.

That’s it.  That is where I am calling it.  Next!

Here’s what I call kick-ass customer service.

This is living a Wil Wheaton quote demonstrated. “Don’t be a dick.” Good job Dayton!

The Fog of Ward.

Generally speaking, I’m pretty laid-back when it comes to interacting with the hard-working men and women of our service industry. Customer service reps, restaurant servers, repair technicians, whatever…I try not to be the dick so many other people seem to relish in being when it comes to lording over these folks. Most of the time, they’re working their asses off to make my life easier in one fashion or another, and they deserve to be treated with–at the very least–the basic courtesy and civility due any other bipedal humanoid creature wandering this planet. It takes an extraordinary set of circumstances for me to become “that guy,” and even when it’s warranted, more often than not I feel bad for having to take things that far.

On the other hand, whenever someone goes out of their way to do something extra for me? I take great delight in singing their praises…

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Doing What has to be Done.

Having waited several months for Smashwords and Amazon to work things out I was fed up.  Sam Gilmour, an author friend of mine, laid out how he had navigated the same problem and I ran with it.  Now my work is in both places and I am no longer passing on 50% of the market for distributor loyalty.  I’ll keep everyone up on how this goes.