Thursday, September 3, 2015

I Got a Case of the Crits

Who are these people that go on Amazon and point out a small error that I made? Yes, I put Faslane on the wrong side of Britain. I wrote about ranks that don't even exist in the Royal Navy. I made a reference to a Mig-27 Flanker when everyone knows a Mig-27 is a Sukhoi. I did kind of slip into British naval usage for the USN having Yanks say 'Here comes USS New Jersey) rather than, 'Here comes the USS New Jersey'.

And of course the typos. Those make me want to gouge my eyes out.

This review is just brutal. This guy took his time, thought things out, probably had his wife read it over. He really wanted to trash my book.

My editor (PBUH), who deserves a raise and should bill me for the psycho-therapy she'll require for knowing me, had to hold me and tell me how pretty I am just to make me forget how slutty the review made me feel.

Here's the thing, I really don't care about the mistakes. Flanker/Sukhoi, whatever. 95% of the names, dates, places are right. Focus on those. I try to write good stories, not perfect stories.

Of course, there's this guy. What the hell, man? I'm not in the NRA and as I noted in WW1990's intro, in 1992 I voted for Clinton. The reviewer found my swarms of armed Alaskans battling Soviet paratroopers off putting an far-fetched. What, he's never heard of Lexington-Concord? And if it weren't for armed Americans like them we'd all be speaking....well, whatever.

A reviewer on Goodreads once said of Israel Strikes that I have a world view but am not obnoxious about it. By which I think he means, yes the Israelis are obviously the good guys in Israel Strikes but I don't preach. I have a world view, it seeps into my writing. As I tell my students, my politics will become obvious after a while, but I never bash people over the head.

World War 1990 is apolitical. My politics didn't put the reader off of WW1990. His politics did.

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