Getting On With The Show

I know my last Romancing The Blog column addressed online behavior and flame wars - but it appears nobody actually read it. This is not a shock to me as by nature I have an inferiority complex and feel that I'm a rather horrid writer. Yeah, yeah - Wendy's suffering from Middle Child Persecution Syndrome again. Watch her curl up in the fetal position and start sucking her thumb.

The recent brouhaha (and no I'm not linking to it - why bother?) revolves around a rather opinionated reader blogger (love ya hon!) and a small e-publisher who took umbrage with the fact that said blogger ragged on their crappy CGI cover art.

This has since led to a new blog (again not linking to it - just cause I'm a bitch like that) that calls all of those who like to snark to the mat.

Now, I'm all for calling someone to the mat. Hey, it needs to be done occasionally - and none of us should be immune from persecution. That said, there is the difference between stating an opinion and being a raving asshole. You can say, "Wendy is just plain wrong about this." You cannot say, "Wendy is a megalomaniac bitch" Although delusional that I am, I think I'd like being called that.

So once again I'm going to offer some common sense advice (like I did in the column that nobody read) which in turn will continue to go ignored. Oh well.

First - We're talking about fiction here folks. Fiction. This is not war, genocide, world hunger, AIDS, cancer, or the multitude of other horrible things that go on in our world every day. It's fiction. It's entertainment. They're novels for cripes sake. Honestly I deal with this stuff for a living, it pays the rent and feeds me, and I don't take it that seriously - so why are you?

Second - Romance cover art has to be picked on. If it's not a law it should be. Frankly it's probably one of the top reasons why the genre has never gotten any respect and if we don't make fun of it that leaves all the assholes who sniff haughtily at our "questionable" reading choices to do it for us. And honestly, we're a hell of a lot funnier.

Third - There are more important things to worry about. Just watch the June episode of Real Sports With Bryant Gumble if you don't believe me. The current administration's environmental policies are enough to make your head spin. Oops - there I go showing my Liberal Softie Underpants again.

Fourth - Why aren't we bitching about spammers? I'm seriously getting up to 5 e-mails a day from various assholes pretending to be Paypal so that I'll click on their stupid link that takes me to some off-shore website so I can blithely "verify" my credit card/bank account information for them. On top of that, I have all the asshole spammers who are trying to pass themselves off as every bank and credit union in the nation. I like to think there is a special place in Hell for these people.

Fifth - Have I mentioned how absurd all this nonsense is? Completely totally absurd. I think of bloggers I "know" online who are living with real problems and heartache right now (you know who you are). There is real tragedy in the world. Real problems. And instead we're allowing trolls to get to us and dust up a bunch of drama that none of us needs or wants. I'm not suggesting we wallow in Real Life Misery - but lordy let's talk about fun shit! No more drama!

But there I go talking common sense again. My mother always told me that talking common sense to people who obviously don't have any is not only a waste of time, but just causes a major headache. Or leads to alcoholism. Either way, a waste of time and a nasty habit altogether.

I guess this post makes me part of the problem since I'm giving space to it (hey, but I didn't link!). I think there is still a little tiny piece of me that thinks if I shake hard enough that people will stop being jack-asses. Poor, poor delusional Wendy. Someday I'll get professional help for that.