The Other Side of the Coin--Why Sometimes I Wonder Why I Write

On Tuesday I shared a letter where my Women of Ivy Manor series had a deep impact on one of my readers, "B." Today I'm giving you the flip side.

Amazon has an “interesting” feature where readers can post reviews. One reader posted a review for each book in my series. Here are a few quotes from this flipside reader's reviews of each book:

“CHLOE: Lastly, there is not much religious/spiritual content in this book. That's fine, the story is not lacking because of it. The problem is that it is sold as being a "Christian" book, and God is only vaguely mentioned about 4 times….Despite its shortcomings, I am looking forward to the other books in the series, to see what happens to the other generations of Chloe's family….

BETTE: Once again, Lyn Cote did a wonderful job of illustrating the historical aspects of the story. She has a distinct talent for "transporting" her readers to another time and place. Just as with the first novel in this series, I don't feel that this book is necessarily a "Christian" novel, as it is often touted as being. However, I do think this book had more references to God than the last one did . . . .

LEIGH: Yes, I am still looking forward to the final book in the series. Even though I have complained about "Leigh" being poorly-written, something still keeps me drawn to these books: the great historical detail, and complicated plotlines.

CARLY: I recommend this book only if you love American history, and are willing to put up with a lot of cheesy writing... or if you got suckered into this series just like I did, and want to see it through to the end.”

You notice that she bought all four books, read them intently and wrote reviews of each.

AND THE QUESTION IS—WHY??? Why buy and read all 4 of Lyn Cote’s “cheesy” novels?

My final question today is what do you think was really bothering her? And why did she get so riled up about my books?

A Reader Gives Her Opinion--Not April Fool!

Hi --Watch yourselves today! It's the day of--Look on your head--a spider! Don't fall for that--or any other prank.

Yesterday I read a very good comment on a blog titled Callapidder Days, a "mom" website and blog by Katrina. Here's the link

http://callapidderdays.com/2010/03/the-book-i-didnt-like.html#comments

The Katrina, leader of Callapidderdays, launched a discussion about reading a book which had no likeable characters and wishing she hadn't. As an author, I am always sensitive to this. If my reader doesn't care about my lead characters, they won't buy my next book or check it out at the library. I can make many mistakes and be forgiven, but NOT THAT ONE.

Then another blogger Lisa commented:

"Things that irritate me in a novel (a few among several):
*Too much perfection. The heroine is perfectly dressed, perfectly beautiful and falls in love with a perfectly handsome guy. Bleh.

*Gratuitous, unnecessary language, violence and s*x. With only a very few exceptions, I maintain that including such elements only shows the laziness of the author. True talent can tell the story without resorting to crudeness. That’s my opinion, anyway.

*Characters without any depth, kind of what you’re saying here. A flat, cardboard characterization is very difficult to sympathize with or identify with.

*Easy, generic, everything-is-roses faith that lacks realism and depth. I like redemptive, Christian fiction. I do not like caricatures of Christianity.

Guess you could say I’ve got an opinion! Great food for thought!"

I agreed completely with Lisa's points and then visited her blog http://lisaspence.com/

And found it interesting also. So this was not an April Fool prank. There is a blog titled Callapidder Days--really!- DO YOU HAVE ANY PET PEEVES ABOUT NOVELS YOU'D LIKE TO VOICE????--Lyn