Writing « Robin Writes

It happened again. A bad review. At least this guy gave me two stars, and not just one, and it didn’t show up on Amazon. Yet. And my book – REDUCED – does average over four stars.

But is the title of “THIS IS NOT A FIVE-STAR BOOK!” really necessary? And, um, yeah – I said it was over four stars, after all, not five. I skimmed it – and have NOT gone back to read more – but in essence he griped and complained about almost everything. Whatever, dude.

So, instead of reading the review, refuting it, stewing over it, I did the next best thing: I looked up HIS books. He has four, all published on Kindle in the last year. His print versions were done with Random’s SP division and were released from 2010 until 2012. He has ONE review on GR, and TWO on AZ. Three reviews on four books. Wow. He’s on a roll. And most of the things he complained about in REDUCED were present in HIS books too. Wow. Projection much?

His covers make my eyes hurt, and his books aren’t selling.

Guess I just got “lucky,” since I don’t know the guy at all, but it sure sounds like he’s lashing out at authors whose books sell, and I got picked to take the brunt. Or maybe he read the first edition, which, I’ll admit, included some rookie errors, like justifying the right margin. But he didn’t like the story either. Odd, two of HIS books are a similar story. [shrug]

My point is that, while I won’t jump a reviewer publicly, I will do what anyone often does and that’s find something to make me feel better. A professional would NEVER write a review like this in the first place. A pro would either be vague and speak in generalities or simply not leave a review. A pro might message an author in private, if he thought he could help.

Of course it still irritates me – but now that I “know” this author, I see why he did what he did. Good luck to him in his future endeavors…

A lot of people think that preppers are crazy. Nuts. Over the edge. Some probably are, just like the population in general. But most of us are pretty normal. Whatever that is.

Reasons to prep:

Zombies

Apocalyptic event

Economic collapse

Riots/crime

Emergency/disaster

Let’s take a look at these: zombies? Um, yeah, these are the crazy people if you go by a strict definition of “zombie.” You know, like in the movies. If you base your definition on “stupid sheeple,” you might be on to something…

Apocalyptic event: this could be almost anything that causes chaos, like a giant asteroid that doesn’t immediately kill us all, or the Rapture, if you believe in that sort of thing and if you do, you probably don’t think that YOU are going be left behind, so…

Economic collapse: certainly more like that the first two scenarios. Look at Greece. And other countries where SHTF, economically speaking. Yeah. Good possibility.

Riots/crime: these things go hand-in-hand with all the reasons, ‘cause, you know. People need stuff. People want stuff. Some people HAVE stuff.

Emergency/disaster: here we go. THIS is why a lot of preppers prep.

Big ones, little ones, doesn’t matter. Sometimes you’re going to need an extra stash or supply of something.

For example, last week a water main broke in our yard. We had a little notice – geyser shooting up three feet in the side yard – and we knew it would last at least several hours or so. We filled up buckets for the animals to drink, to water plants, to flush the toilet. Pulled out a case of bottled water for drinking and cooking, stuck a few in the freezer, and we were good to go.

Sure, with no bottled water we could have still survived, but even if I hadn’t used a few of those, I still had – at hand, which means I could quickly find them – clean gallon jugs to fill. Just in case. Likewise, if a power line goes down or I forget to pay the electric bill or, more likely, I can’t afford to pay the damn bill, we’ll still be okay. Tons of firewood, a propane grill, a gas stove that can be lit with matches since the electric starter will be out.

It’s the little things that count. No mad dash anywhere, no panic with the water off for a few hours. Or the electric, if it came to that. No worries about cooking dinner that evening, either. Of course, no good excuse to go to a restaurant either, like many of my neighbors.

It’s a good trade-off. A lot less stressful to be ready for… whatever. Like Nana used to say, get ready for the worst, then you can forget about it. Until it happens.