(no subject)

[doyle]

Buffy tie-in writer gets her raaaage on.

To all the people who think they can do better and are so generous with their criticism, I say go for it. Write your Buffy book and send it to Pocket and see how far you get, with your misspellings and lousy punctuation, and all the twisted, nonsensical sentences that violate every possible rule of grammar.

Damn, I thought Yvonne Navarro wrote Resurrecting Ravana, which I got one and a half chapters into before the redundant, crappy writing made me give up. That would have made this funnier. (She did write Paleo, Tempted Champions, the Willow Files and the Wicked Willow trilogy - anybody who's read them, are they any good?)

Comments

[killerweasel.livejournal.com]

Boy, she sure is pissed off.

Tempted Champions was okay, Paleo was pretty good. Willow Files and the others with similar titles are basically episodes from the show, they aren't new fiction. I have the first two books of Wicked Willow sitting on my 'to read' stack right now, but I haven't had time to get to them yet.

I know a lot of people don't like his Buffy stuff, but I enjoy Christopher Golden's books. The Gatehouse Trilogy is neat, and I did like Spike and Dru. (Golden aslo has a very good series called Bodies of Evidence, about a college student who works in a ME office)

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I liked Pretty Maids a lot - I loved the shipwreck and the scene with the German uboat. I was surprised how much I liked his original villain in Immortal, too. I'd like to read some of his original fic.

[akadougal.livejournal.com]

Golden's original stuff really is very good horror. I also read a fair amount of his comic stuff, and I would say he's a better comic writer than novelist. He also agreed to do an interview for a fanzine that I used to run, and was very very interesting about it.

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

The Buffy tie-ins I've read were crap. Bad, poorly written crap. And you want to talk misspellings and poor grammar? Take a look at the Season 7 novelization. Every single page - no lie - has misspelled words.

Sorry, but Barb C could write rings around any of the tie-in authors. As could Herself. As could half a dozen brilliant fanfic writers. ::pokes rahirah into submitting for tie-ins::

Hell, there's a bunch of us (Buffy fanfic writers) who are published authors.

And Christopher Golden is a hack. Not to say that I don't envy him the money, but his work - at least, his Buffy novels - really are not that good. You want good horror?

Lee Thomas, Nick Mamatas, David Niall Wilson, Nina Kirikki Hoffman, etc. (Most of those are on LJ, too.)

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Gotta agree. Every one of the maybe, 7 or 8 Buffy novels I've read, or attempted to read, have been eye-achingly wretched pieces of crap. I remain shocked that anybody could have willing attached their real names to them, because, such shocking 'novels' would be grounds for execution under my world order.

Just because it's marketed as 'young adult' fiction, doesn't mean it has to be badly written tripe.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Hui. Bitter much? She makes a few good points but that doesn't change the fact that the few Buffy tie-ins I've read were crappy mediocre at best, boring, and showed no real understanding of the characters. The Angel novels seem to have a somewhat better quality - though I did find many of those to be boring, badly characterized and weirdly off-canon, there were a few I really liked.

Whether to blame deadlines, editors, or writer... against the best fanfic has to offer, the average tie-in novel stands no chance. And what's with the generalization, I know of at least a handful of fanficcers who're pro writers and plenty more who aren't, who could still write Holder, Golden, and & into a corner.

But some of those amazon reviewers *are* annoying.

[vampedvixen.livejournal.com]

I find it almost funny the way she makes excuses for not proofreading her own work. "I didn't have enough time.. blah, blah, blah.." That excuse might have worked in High School (if then!) but this is the real world. It's her job and responsibility to make sure the book is proofread before going to print.

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

Hmm... writing to deadlines, to someone else's requirements, having to properly characterize and still manage to not suck... sounds like someone needs a few ficathons to whip her into shape.

Seriously, I use a beta, like everyone else, but I like to think that even the first draft I send my beta is fairly non-suck. There isn't really any excuse for writing technically inept crap, especially if one's being paid for it.

[outoftime.livejournal.com]

In addition to what everyone else said, the thing is - you put yourself out for the public when you publish something. Not everyone is going to like everything. People have the right to express their opinion - and you can't take that as a personal slight. I mean, sure, you can, but don't have a temper tantrum about it!

[attaining.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. *loves your icon*

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the link. It was quite the fun to read. I haven’t read any of tie-in novels, and I cannot discuss how good they are, and don’t write as much, but I read a lot. And as a reader I find her rant utterly ridiculous. I don’t care what are the circumstances of the writing and publishing. I honestly don’t. if I read a book and I don’t like it from the first page, I’ll stop reading it. If there are typos I will notice them, and they will bother me, and I really, really don’t care that it was because editors were mean to the author, or because it was a conspiracy against the language rules. And If I don’t like the book, why wouldn’t I express it in a review? It is my right as a reader.

I can understand when fanfic authors make their own rules of accepting or not accepting critique – people here write for their own pleasure, but to hear this whining from a published author…

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Oh...nasty.

I can't imagine that did anything positive for her popularity. She just sounds like a stressed out, insecure bitch. Being so obviously rude made her come across as very unprofessional as well.

I know people get frustrated and have bad days. I know it's hard to take the critism... but wow. I would never by her books after reading that.

Her basic arguement was that she delivered crap, but it wasn't her fault. Um... so? I'm supposed to feel ok about the money I spent on your crappy book because the quality of was 'out of your control.'
WTF?

[septembergrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first Wicked Willow book. It's not bad for a tie-in. I kind of quit readiing it because ( checked the end of the last book and saw that it ends by curviing back to the breaky crayon speech, so reading the other 300 pages seemed pointless.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

So much for professionalism. Fanfic writers complain less that that-BAD fanfic writers. What a stupid twat.

[attaining.livejournal.com]

She calls herself a professional? That was harsh. I don't really like tie-in novels, and it's really hard to get through the entire book on some of them. Like others, I've read better fan fic. I did really like Pretty Maids, though.

People paid her to write her books. People paid to read them. They should not have to pretend to like her drivel because she's over-sensitive about her work. She threw her stuff out in public. When you get involved in that, you have to know that not everyone is going to like you or what you do. You should also know that when you whine and then slam Buffy fans in return for not liking your book? You appear to be a 13-year-old throwing a temper tantrum because, omg, Tina said this about you your behind your back.

Yes, reviewers on Amazon can be annoying, and yes, editors can be bitches, but a rant like that should not come from the mouth of a supposed professional writer. And heh, if they're only inferior teenage fans who can't even spell or appreciate hard work, why does she care what they think?