Google, Easter and Not-Much-Ado About Anything

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google Google, Easter and Not Much Ado About Anything

 

ACCORDING TO THE PUNDITS in the 24 hour news cycle and people addicted to Twitter, there was a major confrontation between the infidels of Google and the entire Christian faith a couple of days ago. The cause of the supposed furor apparently was a maelstrom of frenzied Christians up in arms over Google’s decision to honor Ceasar Chavez rather than Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

In the opinion of this Christ follower the whole thing is Not-Much-Ado about anything.

Yes it was Easter, the day a huge segment of the world’s population collectively sets aside to remember the greatest event in human history. And yes, Google did choose to honor the semi-iconic figure of a revered labor leader.

Let there be no doubt that it was a conscious human choice on the part of Google to avoid Easter for the 13th year in a row. In fact Forbes Magazine reports that the doodle that appears on Google’s home page every day is one of the few decisions not made by algorithms:

“The Doodles are the company’s face; they are the first thing users see when they navigate to the page. Heck, for some users they are the reason to navigate to the page. And Google lets, well, people make the decision what will appear based on, gasp! Subjective reasoning.

But was Google’s decision a reason to get all up in arms? Let me say first, I am leery of the way the media presented the whole brouhaha. For most of us who woke up this past Sunday morning and headed to church, our minds weren’t on Google or what those offended by its choice of doodles were tweeting. Frankly, Google was the last thing on my mind.

In fact, I knew nothing of the supposed uprising in Christendom until that night when I noticed a comment from Facebook friend on his timeline. I was so in the dark about the goings on at Google that I had to do some research before posting a reply. From there, here is how our brief conversation went:

  • Friend – Any wonder why I no longer adhere to any religious faith? I’m so tired of the crazy and the hypocrisy.
  • Me – What Google does or does not do on this day or any other is of no concern to me. They, like a certain chicken joint, have every right to do with their business what they wish. Just so you know, not all who call themselves followers of Christ are the knee jerks these folks apparently are.
  • Friend – I understand that Tim. It’s just disappointing to see the “persecution complex” that seems to thrive in so many people of faith. They perceive injury in things that have zero effect on them personally. In fact, through their reactions, they marginalize themselves even more.
  • Me – And trust me, it was great thinkers of faith who warned of that very thing. C.S. Lewis and Carl F.H. Henry to name a couple. This is the reason my faith is not in a persuasion, sect, or religion but in a Person.

Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post, not exactly the first place I go for unbiased news, managed to get this one right when he wrote:

“The truth is that it didn’t matter to 99.9999999999999999999 percent of Christianity’s 2.2 billion adherents … It really does a disservice to people around the world — including many Christians — who suffer at the hands of actual persecutors.”

Now I say this is Not-Much-Ad about anything because all these words mean little on both sides. Some people of faith, angered by Google, immediately tweeted they were switching to Bing. Now there’s a great show of identification with the Resurrected Christ, switching from a web site that honored the birth day of a labor leader to one with a picture of a bunch of eggs.

And to good ole’ Jason over at HuffPo, I’ll take your concern for those persecuted for their faith more seriously when you start putting pressure on John Kerry and the Whitehouse to force Iran’s hand on the 8 year imprisonment of pastor Saeed Abedini.

To my Facebook friend, I stand as a force of one to say that you are right about how people of faith marginalize themselves over things that really mean nothing. We need only quote the words of the One we say we trust in to accomplish being marginalized …

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.”

As for me, if I am going to be marginalized, let it be for choosing Christ not because I chose Bing over Google!

C.S. Lewis and the ‘Stuff’ We Say

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lewis 011 C.S. Lewis and the Stuff We SayIn C.S. Lewis’s last interview, he was asked what he would tell a young writer about developing a style. His response was worthy of the last public words of the man who gave the world the simple yet profound Mere Christianity and the magical Chronicles of Narnia.

Lewis’ formula was this:

  1. Know exactly what you want to say.
  2. Be sure you say exactly that.

The man known to those closest to him simply as Jack went on to expand on that by saying:

“The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the reader will most certainly go into it.”

Seven years earlier, in the summer before I was born, Lewis penned a now famous reply to an American school girl seeking advice on writing. That advice along with other snippets of wisdom appeared in Letters to Children in 1956. Would that every adult wanting to communicate with other adults heed this advice:

  • Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
  • Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
  • Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
  • In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please, will you do my job for me.”
  • Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

When I took on freelance writing in a serious way I chose, Simply Communicate as my moniker and the tagline, “You create – we simply communicate.” In the four years or so since then I have written about everything from an in-depth consideration of the Genesis account of creation to articles on how to create Search Engine Optimized content for the web to news articles about everything that tends to make my blood boil. Oh, and did I mention I’m still plugging away at convincing some deluded acquisition’s editor that I know how to tell a story?

This writing journey and life as a whole has proven Lewis’ formula should be strictly heeded. Most breakdowns in communication come from two sources:

  1. Not knowing what I really want to say.
  2. Even when I do know what I want to say failing to say exactly that.

One of the values in writing stuff down is being able to look at the stuff coming out of my mouth a little more objectively. Did someone claiming to be a writer just use a word as weak as “stuff” to describe his words? Sure, I could have chosen something far more eloquent to attempt to convince you of my literary prowess. But to do so would have been about as genuine as most of what you hear coming out of Washington and sadly too many pulpits.

If you aren’t taking time to think though what you are saying to others the odds are, what they are hearing is just stuff. Can you think of a time when you got yourself in a bind with a person you cared about because you spoke before really having anything to say? How about knowing you didn’t know what you wanted to say but plunging on ahead and saying something anyway?

Tell me … how did that work out for you?

 

 

 

January Justice by Athol Dickson

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JJ Virtual Tour 021813 January Justice by Athol Dickson

First there was Phillip Marlowe, then there was Lew Archer,and now there is Malcolm Cutter. January Justice is some non stop thrill ride with a detective for today. I am now a devoted fan. It is rare to read a detective story that keeps you on edge, has twists and turns that are unexpected and, ultimately, leads to an exciting finish. Bravo Athol Dickson. – Amazon Review

To say anything about January Justice by Athol Dickson requires an immediate disclaimer. For almost a year now I have been Dickson’s publicist meaning anything I say might raise suspicions that I speak well of his writing for self-serving reasons. As a result I have effectively disqualified myself as a reliable reviewer of his work, at least to those who do now know me well.

With that in mind, let me instead offer a few snippets from the reviews of lest biased readers:


As usual, author Athol Dickson did not disappoint with January Justice. The style is a bit of a departure from his other works, and while many authors couldn’t make that work, Athol did … This is a suspense novel. Unlike other novels I have read recently, January Justice has great tension in it. The tension carries to the end with little frustration, because the twists and turns make sense and flow within the story line … It has been a LONG time since I’ve found an author whose work doesn’t frustrate me on one level or another. If anything frustrates me at all about this author, it’s that I have to wait to read the next novel! – Claudette

Along the way, the characters became living people – with quirks just odd enough to make them memorable but not so over-the-top as to make them unreal. And the plot? Twists and turns and surprises abound. I still have a crush on Malcolm and a craving for Simon’s tomato soup. Well done, Athol! – Cathy

A tough guy with a soft side, Malcolm Cutter reminds me a bit of Lee Child’s Reacher in that Cutter seems to find trouble and then root out the bad in the name of good. Further, in this novel Cutter gets himself in dire situations but does not seem to mind, maybe partly because he’s still reeling over the death of his love and partly because he is trying to decide himself the point of living. Dickson’s plot is deep and tangled, yet plenty interesting enough to keep the pages turning. The settings of Southern California and Guatemala, with just a bit of West Texas thrown in, keep the cast moving around interesting places. I like to read tough-guy suspense novels and this one keeps up with the best of them. – MB

I first met the author on the book shelves of Barnes and Noble as I was intrigued by the cover art and first paragraph of River Rising. My next encounter with Athol was during a phone interview in which I clumsily forgot about time zones differences and woke him up at 6:00 AM. Since then I have read and reviewed every word he has ever published, interviewed him numerous times, become his publicist and spent several hours a week in phone conversations, and finally had the privilege to meet in person as he and I and our wives met for dinner here in Florida.

And now here I am, working to get the word out to the world about a totally different kind of novel from this man I have come to know so well. This is a classic murder mystery that would make Raymond Chandler proud. There’s a dashing yet damaged leading man with the haunting memory of the love of his life leaping to her death, nefarious elements of crime out to get him as well, an eclectic pair of side-kicks to watch his back, a mysterious woman he can’t quite figure out, and a drive to make things right whatever that may cost.

January Justice is the beginning of a new journey in his writing but the Athol Dickson I know best is still the master of profound suspense. If you want to call me biased, then guilty as charged.

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AD Headshot JPG January Justice by Athol DicksonA master of profound suspense. Athol Dickson’s mystery, suspense, and literary novels have won three Christy Awards and an Audie Award. Suspense fans who enjoyed Athol’s They Shall See God will love his latest novel, January Justice, the first installment in a new mystery series called The Malcolm Cutter Memoirs. The second and third novels in the series, Free Fall in February, and A March Murder, are coming in 2013. Critics have favorably compared Athol’s work to such diverse authors as Octavia Butler (Publisher’s Weekly), Hermann Hesse (The New York Journal of Books) and Flannery O’Connor (The New York Times). Athol lives with his wife in southern California.

Can I Quote you on That?

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It’s no secret that I love quotes. Smart ones, profound ones, prophetic ones, even funny and stupid ones. Here are just a few of my favorites that I have shared in blog posts, on Facebook, and elsewhere.

If you see one you like just hover your mouse over it, right click, and save the image. They said it not me, and besides most of them are dead so I don’t think you’re going to be sued or anything. Enjoy.

By the way, how about sharing some of your favorite quote with the rest of us.

Reticular Activating Systems and your Blog

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Four Essential Facts about Good Blog Content

image thumb1 Reticular Activating Systems and your Blog

Thursday Freebie: No strings attached help for those trying to communicate through social media and the web. Be sure and share this link with all your friends.

So now that you’ve gotten over being impressed that I could manage to use such big words, here are four simple facts about good blog content. All of these can be applied to anything you write about. Whether it’s a blog post about the the latest theories concerning the “God Particle” or 3 Tips for Quick Sunday Dinners, they still apply.

1. Everyone Views Content through Selective Attention

A term from neuroscience is “reticular activating system.” RAS has to do with the concept of selective attention, meaning we naturally gravitate toward information or ideas that we are invested in. This is illustrated by what happens amidst the den of jumbled conversations in a crowded room. For some time you process nothing from the conversation outside your immediate sphere until someone mentions your name or something that is meaningful to you. Suddenly, that conversation has our brain’s interest and thus ours.

Think of the internet like a giant network of muddled conversations. Your task is to write about topics and use keywords that raise the RAS factor for visitors. Adults, in particular, are much more interested in content that addresses an immediate problem or need. If you want your social media content to be heard amidst the jumble of competing content, target a specific audience. The more relevant your content is to that group of people, the greater attention it will receive.

2. You Can’t Say it Too Many Ways

Few people assimilate content in only one way. Multiple studies consistently show that people learn best when a variety of methods are used to present the same information. Some people are more visual than auditory. Other are better reached through written information they can analyze.

Regardless of individual differences, all people embrace information best when it is presented on multiples levels. This is why great content is more than text. It is a combination of written (visual) and aural (auditory). Your content will get more attention if you offer people multiple formats by which they can consume it.

3. Everyone is Emotional

No matter what some men may tell you, it isn’t just women who employ their emotions in making decisions. Everyone does to one degree or other. People respond more strongly to content that has some degree of narrative. Emotion doesn’t mean there is no need for logical presentation that follows some sequence of ideas.

Logic without narrative is one dimensional and seldom motivates anyone to invest themselves in what you have to say. People remember and are more likely to share narratives better than a series of facts.

4. People Don’t Have to Know You to Trust Your Content

Social decision-making is a reality more than ever. People do this is by asking questions of their social group. Review sites like Yelp.com (and other review sites) taps into the wisdom of the crowds, to help visitors make better decisions about where to eat and where to shop. In fact, a study by Jupiter Research shows that at least 50% of people consult a blog before making a purchase.

That means people are increasingly making major decisions based on the wisdom of people they have never met and don’t really know. This has major implications for the power of a well written blog. It doesn’t matter what you blog about, all good writing calls for a decision of some kind.

Death to Ego Propaganda

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The kind of writer person I intend to be.

helping hand Death to Ego PropagandaI recently announced that Simply Communicate is now representing author Athol Dickson as he begins a new chapter in his writing career. As Athol re-releases a number of his CBA fiction titles under his own imprint I will be handling all marketing and representation for him.

Rather than bore you with the mind-boggling details of what it will take to make all this happen, allow me to offer a glimpse of this part of the winding road called my writing journey. From the time I picked up River Rising at a local book store, I knew Athol Dickson had something different to offer. If you care to take the time at the end of this article you can journey with me through all my reviews of his novels and my interviews with him.

I seldom share with writer’s I interview that I also have publication aspirations. After all, they don’t grant interviews to learn about me. They have a book to promote for goodness sakes. But somewhere along the way after an interview with Athol a couple of years ago, he asked me about myself. Give any writer that kind of opening and a story is bound to flood out.

Athol offered to read a couple of chapters as long as he put it, “I wouldn’t mind the harsh truth whatever that may be.” A few nights later I sat in my living room at 2 AM, laptop before me, as I decided Athol Dickson had no soul. He had given me the truth and I preferred the propaganda of my own ego.

Thankfully, reason won out and I allowed the wounds of a brother’s honesty drive me to rewrite the first chapter and email it back just as sunlight banished the night. A couple of days later Athol Dickson responded with the following words …

 

Bravo Tim! This is MUCH MUCH better. Also … the way you made these revisions shows you have a professional’s ability to take editorial direction properly, making significant changes where warranted, but remaining in charge as the man whose name will be on the cover by not changing those aspects you believe in … It reads like an entirely different story, quiet compelling with a natural flow that’s richly imagined.

Now for the fun part; do the same things to the rest of the manuscript.

 

So am I published yet? Not in fiction at least. Am I further down this road headed in the right direction? Yes, and to some extent because of fellow writers like Athol Dickson, Mike Dellosso, Nicole Petrino-Salter, Bradinlyn Collins, and others. They exhibit the best in what I hope to be: serious about their craft, unafraid to bleed on paper as they entertain and inspire, and determined to offer encouragement to fellow pilgrims.

Who can you point to as an encourager in your life and pursuits? Who are you taking the time to momentarily put aside your dreams and help pursue theirs?

Seems like the greatest Author ever had a lot to say about selfish pursuits and focusing on others.

My journey with Athol Dickson

They Shall See God – River Rising – The Cure 
Winter Haven – Lost Mission – The Opposite of Art

An Interview with Athol Dickson … – Architect of Great fiction – Podcast

Facebook Timeline: Help for the Holdouts

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image thumb9 Facebook Timeline: Help for the HoldoutsThursday Freebie: No strings attached help for those trying to communicate through social media and the web. No strings attached means just that; why put in all the work required into learning without sharing that knowledge with others? Check back every Thursday for more tidbits. Be sure and share this link with all your friends.

___________________________________________________________

So you’re the one that said, “I’m not taking any more changes from Facebook” and along came Facebook Timeline. This probably arose from some misguided idea that you can take advantage of something on the Internet that is free and never see it change. Of course, Facebook is going to make “big announcements” about “major changes” about as often as the media declares a new front runner in the Republican primaries. It’s called marketing and staying in the spotlight.

My advice is to make peace with the changes and take advantage of them. Here are some quick tips for using the new Facebook Timeline.

1. Play “Hide and not seek”

Be prepared to click “Hide from Timeline” a lot. Sure that photo of you at the party was funny at the time but you wish your friends hadn’t posted it to your timeline at 5 AM. To hide a post on your timeline, hover your cursor over the top right corner of the Timeline post. If you have had a Facebook account for very long it would be wise to spend an hour going back over your virtual past chronicled in the Timeline. A quicker way to handle this is to pull up your Facebook “Activity Log”. From there you can hide or remove posts on your profile much more efficiently and in less time.

2. Smile – That’s a Really BIG picture!

Photos now take center stage with the Facebook Timeline. You should choose a “primary photo” that has a high resolution and looks good when displayed at the top of your Timelines. Small photos are going to appear grainy and not so flattering.

3. Beware of those Geotags

If a friend geotags your album “Summer Vacation,” the world isn’t going to just see that great picture you took of your get away cabin. Now they will know exactly where that cabin is on Google Maps. If you don’t want people knowing this information you have two options: untag yourself from every geotagged photo in your photo albums or ask friends to manually remove geotags from every photo you’re in. It’s a pain in the neck but it is what it is. My advice – don’t advertise where you go on vacations on Facebook unless you want everyone in the world to know about it.

4. Be Cautions about 3rd Party Apps for the Timeline

There are now a number of very cool apps for Timeline. But as you should have already learned with other apps, be very cautious. Some 3rd party apps will tell people where you eat out all the time, what music you listen to, what movies you watch, etc… Using my MOG app to let people know I just listened to Jim Croce just tells them how old I am. Revealing where and when you eat out is a prefect invitation for someone to help themselves to your household goods.

Manage your apps by clicking on “Account Settings” in the very top right pull-down menu on your profile. When you click “Apps,” you’ll be presented with a list of all the apps that have access to your Timeline. Remove those you don’t want. Even with those you want you should click on “App activity privacy” and set who can and can’t see content posted by that app.

5. Get a Different Point of View

This is a very nice option on Timeline. Click the gears icon on the far right of your Facebook Timeline and you can see what anyone you choose sees when they view your Timeline. Click on the “View As” option. When you do this you see how the public, a group, or a specific person sees your profile. This will help you decide if your settings are like you want them.

6. Make Sure you Have Things Sorted Right

There are two basic options for the order in which your friends status updates appear: Recent stories first or Highlighted Stories first. If you don’t know this already that second option allows Facebook to decide which stories appear first based on your past activities. If you have over 500 friends, this is generally the best option to choose.

Got all that? Just remember, as soon as you feel comfortable with Timeline Facebook will probably introduce another latest and greatest. That’s bad for users but at least it gives me something to write about and even make a nominal living from.

The F-Pattern: Why People Don’t Read Web Sites

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image thumb5 The F Pattern: Why People Don’t Read Web Sites

Thursday Freebie: No strings attached help for those trying to communicate through social media and the web. No strings attached means just that; why put in all the work required into learning without sharing that knowledge with others? Check back every Thursday for more tidbits.

How do people read on the web? – They Don’t.

That’s right; people don’t so much read on the web as scan.

Enter the F-Pattern

Jakob Nielsen’s usability guides have become the gold standard for easy to read web pages. Eye tracking studies carried out by Nielsen demonstrate that visitors to a web site read content in what follows an F-shaped pattern. That means visitors to a site generally read from the upper left of the web page, and then skip to fix points further down the page and read to the left again.

The following graphic is an actual clinical study in which web reader’s eye movements were studies in depth. Red and yellows indicate where the readers’ eyes focused. Blues indicate where readers’ eyes spent little time.

image thumb6 The F Pattern: Why People Don’t Read Web Sites

Principles that are evident from this pattern of reading include:

  • The first two paragraphs are most important on a web page. Most web visitors will read the first two paragraphs fairly closely before falling into scan mode. Therefore it is essential those few lines contain the most important information you want your visitors to know.
  • Scanners don’t read a web page word by word; they extract what appear to be important paragraphs, sentences, and phrases.
  • Sub headings, lists, and bullet points take advantage of the F-Pattern and alert a visitor’s eyes to places in the text where they need to focus.
  • Carefully placed and limited use of titles, bolds, and italicized text are essential in communicating to scanners.

The Inverted Pyramid

Print journalists have long employed what is called the inverted pyramid format. A news article always begins with a catchy headline and an attention grabbing summary first paragraph. From there, a news article follows an inverted pyramid with the most important information at the top working down to the least important information at the bottom.

When considering your web page or blog design, always remember the pattern of most important to least important information. The obvious question you will have is, “what is most important in this web content?” Here again, we look back to print journalists to help determine what is most important in our web content.

Long before the Internet, print journalists came up with what they called the Eight News Values. These values help determine how important information is. Here are the six most important.

  • News Value of Proximity – The physical or emotional closeness of information to your audience. Information that can be made personal by the reader is highly important.
  • News Value of Currency – Information that is a hot topic of conversation to the kind of people who generally read (or scan).
  • News Value of Timeliness – information that is needed now but will not be as powerful later.
  • News Value of Conflict – not necessarily controversial but rather information that readers are likely to be emotionally invested in.
  • News Value of Impact – information that is likely to affect a large group of readers.
  • News Value of Human Interest – typically considered soft news or feature-style stories.

There are no hard rules as to what is important in the content you want to place on your web site but these serve as a good starting point. One thing is certain, visitors to your site do not read your content, no matter how good it is, like they would a magazine or book. Understanding how they scan information is the starting point to presenting content they are sure to remember.

Happy Birthday Soldier

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image thumb9 Happy Birthday Soldierimage thumb10 Happy Birthday Soldierimage thumb11 Happy Birthday Soldier

December 30, 1977 brought Tim and Judy George a belated and most valued present. We named him Joshua Adam George. We didn’t know his name would be prophetic but it was. The Joshua of the Bible was, among other things, one of the  spies who took part in a recon mission in hostile territories occupied by some of the most warlike people the earth has ever known. Who would have known our Joshua would grow up to become a Forward Observer, a soldier trained to collect, analyze and pass along battlefield information?

image thumb12 Happy Birthday Soldier

In the Pictures: Josh and his wife Rebekah; Josh resigning in Afghanistan last July

Like Joshua of old, our son has not shied away from his given duty but rather embraced it. Just a few months ago he made the commitment to continue his over ten years of service to our country as a career soldier. Happy Birthday Sgt 1st Class Joshua Adam George! 10th Mt. Division 3rd Army Task Force Chosin, Hammer Company.

image thumb13 Happy Birthday Soldier

In the Pictures: Josh and the two greatest grandchildren in the world, Faith and Ethan; James David Wells and Josh at his 9 yr old birthday party. Note Josh in his camos. Years later these two found themselves at another kind of Army party – the real one. James David served as a Blackhawk pilot is now in the Army Reserves.

Good Company with Bad Reviews

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Over the last 5 years I have read and reviewed several hundred great, not so great, and not quite ready for prime time works of fiction and non-fiction. Over the coming weeks I plan on recapping the best of the best for 2011.

image thumb8 Good Company with Bad ReviewsFor now, take a look at the following 1 star Amazon reviews and see if you can guess what novels the reviewers are talking about. I’ve included a bit of a clue with each review. No peaking or Googling until you’ve given it your best shot. The first person that names all four in one comment is winning a really great book that I bet someone really hated.

The author probably pulled for the Tide long before Bear Bryant showed up on the scene:

Looking for a sappy, clichéd, novel to read? One predictable as most young-adult books and more degrading than harlequin romances? Well, ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________ is your book. _______________ merely portrays a terrible, biased, southern society that seemingly places its main goal on ruining everyone else’s life. (The) female characters are flat, simple-minded women. Thank God ___________________ only wrote this book; surely (the) next would degrade society even further. I’m sure it too would be deemed a classic as long as it dealt with politically correct subjects that are far too worn out to remain interesting.

This reviewer probably didn’t like either sister:

Endless, pointless description. DESCRIPTION, DESCRIPTION, DESCRIPTION!!! The entire book is written in stupid metaphors. The few places where there is actually any dialogue bore the reader to tears. Honestly, I think that this is dubbed a classic simply because it is older than sand. Gee, maybe if I just go out and slop a few words down on a piece of paper, it’ll be a classic in 160 years! It’ll be required of every high school sophomore, like this idiotic “story.”

I bet this reviewer has a fear of rats as well;

At first I did like the book. Then it just started to suck right around the time when Winston was getting sexually involved with his girl friend. I hated the book so much that I forgot her name. The first hundred or so pages I liked, then it just got really boring. So I highly recommend that you DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.

 

I’m leaving this guy alone for the author to handle:

Man, this book is boring. All this weird stuff happens and it’s harder to get into than Lord of the Rings. And what’s up with the red writing? This is just badly written. James Patterson could do better.

To be fair, at least these people supposedly read. That’s more than can be said for many these days. Just for them, I plan to keep on writing so that maybe one day they can hate my words as much as they did these. At least it would place me in good company.

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