...well maybe not THE end, but my goal setting for my 2013 resolutions are now running out of months in which to be completed in. Of course, the goals I'm referring to are my writing goals - my education, career, and personal goals are doing quite well so that's a plus, and really, a pretty awesome win if you think about it. Before NaNoWriMo 2013, my intention was to having finished my first full draft of Knightsbridge, and have revised Parish to see if Freakhouse really did have a releasable sequel or not. Neither of these things have taken place, and I have only one month left before November! 

On the plus side, I think I know what my NaNo will be for this year. I've been toying with some ideas but I'm going to take one off of my shelf of ideas, wipe the dust off of it, and see if it has any of the potential I thought it did several years ago when it first came to me. I'm pretty much going for it because I know all of my key milestones so that's a plus. Freakhouse was the first project I started without having a solid ending in mind, and while it was an interesting experience exploring Dotan's world (and having him give me the silent treatment in all of his frustration), I'm still hesitant to NaNo by the seat of my pants. On the other hand, the thing that I swore I would never do again - write in first person - might be on the table again for this year. That is, if I still feel like this is the novel to write by the time I hit the midnight countdown. And who knows, I might try to do another CampNaNoWriMo this year (and cross my fingers that it goes over better than the last one). 

...and for something completely different: I just realized that as we reach the end of 2013, Curious Endeavourances will be officially one year old in the new year! We'll have read 12 full novels (at least, because I think we're going to be NaNo focused this November, yet we had a month with 2 novels so really it all evens out), and will hopefully keep going for a second season for another 12! Our little membership on GoodReads has grown, and the feedback we've received (for the majority of our posts) has been very positive and empowering. If we don't do it as a video special at the end of the year, I will personally write a "Best Of Curious Endeavourances" post or even do my own video because I believe that we've had some really great moments and some really great viewer interaction. 

And don't forget that we actually have another live hangout scheduled for tonight. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I posted my reviews all over the place, on this blog, on the Curious blog, and GoodReads. If you've read it, join the discussion through twitter, youtube, or the GoodReads group page. If you haven't, give it a watch anyways (if you don't mind the spoilers) and then give the novel a read. I highly recommend it, personally, and I think from talking to the others that they do too. 

After this session, it's back to one of my picks - don't worry, this time it's a good one! Lexicon was a FirstReads win for me, I went in without very high expectations and really enjoyed the fast-paced action and clever development. Sex, foul language, and a secret school where it isn't magic, it's the pure power of linguistic knowledge - a great combination for English majors like us Curious girls! So it is my first non-blind pick, but I will go back to blind picks for the most part afterwards - I just really needed someone else to read this book because I had so much I wanted to talk about after reading it; hopefully I feel as strongly about it on my second read; or maybe the suspense will be lost; who knows? 

...that was a frightening amount of semi-colons all in a row...

Thank goodness for good books! This month's Curious Endeavourance is like a breath of fresh air! While it wasn't a novel that I kept thinking "This is brilliant" as I read each word, the moment I had reached the final period I felt like my whole being had just been rebooted. I was in a strange emotional state, wanting to cry because it beautiful, because it was sad, and because it was over, and yet overcome with a sense of joy, a sense of "I can take this world on!", a sense of purpose, and as I discovered throughout the rest of my day, inspiration. Apparently this was the book I needed to read at this very point in time.  Despite my clear emotional connection (See? That which provokes emotion = art!), I had a long debate with myself (and others) as to whether or not I was going to give it 4 or 5 stars. You see, I reserve my 5 stars for books that I can't wait to read again, and I didn't, and still do not yet, feel the necessity to read this again very soon. Yet, thinking on other books that I've enjoyed and given 4's to, I know that The Ocean at the End of the Lane has stuck to me stronger than that. Like the book burrowed its own little worm through my finger-tips and into my heart as I flipped the pages. I finally concluded that it deserved the 5 stars, because even though I don't particularly feel the need to jump right back into its pages, I feel comfort in knowing that it will be there on my bookshelf, just in case I'm ever in need of it again one day, like my own personal shelf-dwelling Hempstocks that I can come crying to when the world stops making sense. This book I recommend, especially on bad day when the evils of your world seem as real to you as fleas, hunger birds, and parents you couldn't possibly trust again... It's not a happy ending, but at least you know that it's okay to not feel grown-up on the inside, at least for today.

While the actions taken by the book club do not reflect my personal opinions or decisions I would have made, I respect the decisions made by my companions and support their actions for the sake of their health, safety, and peace of mind. I have asked to be omitted from any further address of the issue, and I have every intention of continuing my contribution to Curious Endeavourances with the same honesty of my personal reading experiences with every text we encounter, as I would appreciate any reader of my own work to do as well. 

Have I dropped off the face of the Earth? Pretty much. No puppy in this house because life just got crazy again. So much so that I haven't even touched Knightsbridge and I'm barely keeping up with book club.

But I needed to take a couple of minutes just to vent about book club. We admittedly had a tough session last time, and unfortunately we got personally striking hate mail out of it as well as pointedly low ratings for each of our works. As a writer, I understand that anything negative said about a work is heartbreaking and hard to not take personally, but as a paying customer purchasing a product, I believe that I have the right to warn other potential customers about my personal experience with the product. Some people are loyal to their brands and one person's poor experience won't (nor should) have any impact on those people. On the other hand, if you are selling a product to any paying member of the general public, there is an expectation that the customer will be satisfied with the product, and when he/she is not, what use is there in the company harassing the customer? 
Did you find the product satisfactory? "No." 
What were your concerns with the product? "*insert lengthy list here.*
What could company do to remedy these concerns or make your experience more pleasant? "*insert lengthy list here*". 
Would you recommend this product/company? "Not this product, but I'm willing to see how the other models fair before saying "no" entirely"

****insert angry messages targeting our organization, our medium of communication, our personal blogs, our education, and randomly assigning 1 star ratings to our novels without commentary or justification**** 

"On second thought, I'd like to change my answer... I understand feeling upset about our point-by-point assessments, which we interpreted as justifying our rating of the product since knowing "why" is so much more helpful than just a number, but claiming us to be unprofessional for a free medium that, by company's own words, does not receive much interaction from the general public, then what exactly is the threat, especially when you have self-proclaimed hundreds of fans and followers?"

Apparently author attacks are a very common thing in online book clubs and marketing sites. Authors tag-team their friends into slandering anything that isn't flattering. And I do understand that reviewers can be cruel. In the author blogs and forums I have been reading lately, many authors deal with the cruelty of low reviewers who tag-team against an author with clearly no evidence of having read the work. This is my issue. Clearly we read the work since we discussed it point-by-point. Unjustified? Unjustified because we had too many specific issues with it? Or unjustified since it was aired as a public video? I said the same basic details in my written review which did not get reported or flagged, and yet on the video where we have the freedom to pull out exact pages and references to where we took issue, this was crossing the line. 


This is an unprofessional medium for book reviews! 
How is a spoken-word review less becoming than a written one? If anything, more people will read the blurb on the actual book site than random people stumbling onto the video, plus, yes, the videos are 2 hours long, not because we want to slam down books, but because we believe that any book chosen for book club, for better or worse, deserves the same care and attention to detail as any other, thus every book club session is 2 hours on average. A little long? Sure. So now we've even lessened the audience-ship since who is going to invest in a 2 hour long vlog? And as for the video medium being "high-school", tell that to the actual professionals who mass thousands of followers for doing the exact same thing we do. Just type in "book review" and you will get scores upon scores of individuals and groups doing the same thing. 

Why air it if you're only going to embarrass and degrade authors?
I prefer to pick my monthly reads blind, which means that I take a recommendation from someone else, or find a cover that looks interesting to me, and tell the book club that this is my pick without having ever read it before. I look forward to finding hidden treasures and exploring uncharted territory. Unfortunately, in doing this you don't always find those diamonds in the rough... sometimes it's just the rough. But we've set out to read the book, our viewers and followers (who don't always leave public comments but who let us know when they've enjoyed our insight/entertainment) deserve to see how it plays out. We don't always have the same opinion on the books - a couple months ago, we had completely opposing views to the books - so we go though it for the first time, all together, on the live feed. We won't love every book, we won't even like every book, and no selling author should hold that expectation. Add on top of that a book filled with typos and grammatical errors with narrative inconsistency, we won't love it, and if you have hundreds of people who can get over that in a book and still love it, great, but if I pay for your book, I don't care how established you are, I'm holding you to the same standard that I would any other author, and if I don't feel like that standard has been met, is it really me who is embarrassing you? You might get 1000 "likes" for every one of me, but if you are in the business to sell, those unsatisfied mes are going to crop up. You'll have to face it one day. At least you got our money out it. It wasn't spontaneous slandering, it was explaining exactly what it is I got for my money.

On a more positive note, I thought I would share one of the articles that I stumbled upon. As both a writer and a reviewer, I found it encouraging to know that this is a common problem. http://www.becomeasuccessfulauthor.com/2012/01/attack-of-the-author-bad-review-reaction/ It was well written with helpful commentary that by other book club reviewers that made our issue seem less personal. It's a product. Yes, you poured your heart into it, but someone also once poured their heart into that crap can-opener you hate or the clothes you only use for painting in. As a famous author once expressed, you can linger on the negative people, or you can focus on your supporters. Was I in the negative category? Without a doubt and I have no regrets about that; I feel strongly about my opinions. But why does your world have to stop because of it? Shouldn't your world be bigger than that? Shouldn't you be, too?

ETA:
The novel reviews have since been taken off of my book and my fellow book clubbers. I was willing to accept the judgement but am thankful that you have since changed your mind about your retaliation. Rest assured, we will not be using your work again in the future. Best of luck to you and your supporters.