Another #ThursdayThoughts Post on Friday (power failure)

(EDIT: an hours-long power outage left this author in a pinch, so #ThursdayThoughts is now a FridayThoughts)

Since I plan to be extremely busy this weekend, I thought Today would be as good a day as any to Wrap Up the Week.

And, it was a surprisingly eventful one, indeed.

First, I'd like to share a few bits of awful news on the personal home front.

My daughter witnessed her first deadly car crash the other day, and I am very worried about her frame of mind right now.

Ma and I sat down with her last night to let her vent, share her feelings, and ask a lot of questions, which I hope helped her some.

I think what made it worse was that when she finally arrived at work, one of her co-workers was weeping on her cell phone, and as it turned out, it had been a family friend who had died in that same crash.

Second, a rash of vandalism and theft have occurred in our neighborhood.

Several weeks ago, my vehicle and my son's (both parked in the driveway and locked -- his with an alarm -- were broken into, and with everything of value taken.

He lost a very precious memento of his late grandfather's whom he'd never had the chance to meet since my father died prior to my getting married and having my son.

As for me, they didn't bother to properly close the driver's side door and burned out the bulb in the overhead lamp.

Then last night, four separate SUVs had all four tires stolen, one of them being the house directly across from ours, and why I found a red brick lying on our front lawn when I awakened this morning.

The thieves didn't bother to use any bricks to keep the SUV propped up, though, which is like getting punched in the gut AFTER being slapped across the face.

This used to be a charming cookie-cutter subdivision with a lot of Thurston Howell III and Lovely types living here, but now, sadly, it has become a bit of a dumping ground for White Trash who found it easier to move into this area after the housing market crash.

A bad element which I had foreshadowed about ten years ago and has managed to come to fruition today.

As always, I have to ask what good it is to have a Car Alarm installed when it does absolutely nothing to deter theft?

It is, however, fascinating entertainment for any 2-year-old who gets their hands on the car keys, and an annoying reminder of its existence any time the wind blows.

Useless bit of technology otherwise.

Amused Opinion Department

I am only mildly sorry if this offends anyone, and I haven't been able to find the time (or courage) to dig right in with this one and just show all of the tasteless, awful Cover Art I've encountered over the past few years.

However...

After having viewed two in particular this week, it has compelled me to bring up the issue in this post.

It is difficult to gauge just what the author had in mind or what they were thinking to approve of such Cover Art.

I am beginning to suspect that 1) they either know the Model personally, or 2)  they truly believe the Model(s) are delightful to the eye.

In either case, I cannot disagree more and find their eye for beauty/taste questionable.

Ages ago, the one objection I had to Romance Novel cover art was the introduction of floral and bucolic depictions after the feminazi's had cried foul over too much Fabio.

And, surprisingly, I had to agree UP TO A POINT about there being too much Fabio on the covers of almost every Romance Novel that hit the market back in the 1990s.

When the flower/cottage covers inundated the market, I felt it was a step in an even worse direction and couldn't get into any of the stories as a result.

Unless, of course, those same novels ALSO sneaked an Inside Cover peak at the delectable goodies in store for a curious reader like me.

That, I could abide by.

So, to see a resurgence in muscle, flowing hair, and kissable lips on the covers of today's Romance Novels is a delight to the senses and most welcome to my mind.

NOT the odd decision of too personal cover art in which the author tries to save a few bucks by hiring her sister-in-law or young cousin to pose for the cover of her story.

Or the all-too-confident BBB woman using herself as the cover model to sell her stories.

It would seem we've come full-circle in the CRAZY department involving Cover Art for Romance Novels.

We've ended up partaking in a cringe-fest mess of disastrous Cover Art No's just begging to be criticized.

I wouldn't want to find myself at the center of, much less discover a favorite author taking part in, this type of what-were-you-thinking.

To my mind, there are only two areas of our craft where it pays to be extravagant with the dollar bills: a trusty proofreader and an even more trustworthy Cover Artist.

Wouldn't it be Wonderful if, for the simple sake of erring on the side of caution, we could go back to the era of old-fashioned Cover Art and leave it at that?

The Beau Monde

TRASHING another AMAZON REVIEWER 

Also this week, I had the sad misfortune of coming across another outlandish review for a novel I recently finished but haven't yet reviewed.

The story takes place in Medieval England, mind you.

quoting Wikipedia

... the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century.

And, to further cement the time period in your mind

Medieval French

Now that you've been properly taken back in time, I'd like for you to read the following Negative Review left by another clueless Amazon Customer about this Middle Ages Romance.

Perpetuates Mysogynistic (sic) Ideas.


The entire review is one, big IDIOT sign as far as I'm concerned.

I will guarantee the reviewer is in College now or recently graduated from University and has taken at least one Gender Studies course in that time.

A few weeks ago, my participation in the MFRWauthor 52-Week Blog Challenge brought up the question of Lessons Learned in my own writing.

I only wish I had read this idiotic review before having to submit my response to that week's challenge question, because I would have used it as a prime example of why I DON'T insert opinion and PSA in my writing.

Anyone who is too stupid to be able to enjoy FICTION for what it is or understand its intended purpose has no business reading fiction.

I'm getting sick and tired of having to harp on this agonizing topic, but it never ceases to crop up almost daily in my reading routine, so there is too much fodder for the rant mill.

It is my sincere hope that ONE DAY, sooner or later, the modern-minded reader with do one of two things: shut the hell up and keep her snob opinions to herself or get on board with the program and just read the damn book for its enjoyment and not to seek out and destroy everything ERA PERFECT that, in her narrow-minded viewpoint, is wrong with it by today's jaded and brainwashed standards.

FINALLY

I'm back to working on my 3rd novel involving Inigo and Lindsey.

I've scrapped the first 3 editions and started on a 4th, which I like but will no-doubt be changing up AGAIN after a time.

More importantly, though...

I am no longer agonizing over or concerning myself with show vs tell.

I quit that particular topic after an entire year of reading the works of others in the same and similar genres and finding absolutely NOTHING different about my own style vs theirs.

It was stupid of me to let it go on for as long as I had, but it has never been different that I will lose myself completely to the remarks and get lost in a deep, dark hole of despair for however long it takes to crawl out and move forward again.

Also, as much as I'd like to participate in things like 5-Line Fridays and Teaser Tuesdays and WIP Wednesdays, I rarely do because I never know which part of my writing to select or what I should include to be effective marketing for the book.

We all know I suck at self-marketing (self anything, really) and after just agreeing with myself to walk away from the s v t debacle, I am in no mood to step foot in another line of fire issue any time soon.

So, if I feel like it, I'll submit something here on whatever day I choose, and hopefully someone out there might just read it and tell me what they think.

Highly doubtful in that regard, but whatever.