Well...it seems sleeping until 11:30 in the morning, having a cup of hot tea, taking a trip to the post office to get my mail and getting copies of my newest book, then a nice burger with fries and a DP helped set me on the road to normalcy, again. I still took a nap, late in the afternoon, and then spent the evening finishing that mystery and also a re-read of RIHC6v2, and now I'm back to my usual snarly self.
The mystery wasn't so great. In fact, it was very disappointing. It wasn't just that Stevenson's style was bland and his focus on gay life in Albany, NY in 1979 seemed more like someone who'd researched the period and wanted to show off how much he'd learned than someone who'd lived it (the book was first published in 1981); it was just...sloppy. Especially the ending. The killer comes out of left field. The explanation tries to tie in anti-gay therapy of the time (which included institutionalization and shock treatments) but makes it sound untrue. A sub-plot is tied up in the least of ways. And there's this long, LONG description of accused's existence as a young gay man just after the Stonewall riots that so bored me, I had to force myself to finish...which I did in the bathroom while doing some business, if you know what I mean.
Needless to say, I like my writing better. And you have my permission to hear a hint of arrogance behind that comment.
I've also gotten into another back and forth with Amazon. The copies of LD that I got, I'd bought for myself from them on May 17th. I got a sales report that's supposed to go through may 20th, and they reported no sales. I asked them about it. You know what their line is, now? "BookScan (the group that supplies them with reports of book sales) only reports on maybe 75% of actual sales, so mine may never be reported." That's a new one. Seems they like to adjust their explanations for underreporting sales from one complaint to the next.
I suppose it's possible the sales hadn't permeated into BookScan's system, yet, so I'll give them to the next week's sales report. But I find it interesting that even Paul Krugman, who's a Nobel-winning economist, thinks that Amazon's rankings are matched with actual sales, something the company has SWORN to me is not true (he mentioned it when discussing his new book on his blog). But if even he's being fooled by this set-up, maybe they need to come up with something that better reflects people's perceptions...or just come clean as to how they're really making their profits.
I doubt they will. The US has turned into a nation of people who seem to think, "If you can get away with it, more power to you." That's one reason why we wound up with so many lying jackasses elected to office.
The mystery wasn't so great. In fact, it was very disappointing. It wasn't just that Stevenson's style was bland and his focus on gay life in Albany, NY in 1979 seemed more like someone who'd researched the period and wanted to show off how much he'd learned than someone who'd lived it (the book was first published in 1981); it was just...sloppy. Especially the ending. The killer comes out of left field. The explanation tries to tie in anti-gay therapy of the time (which included institutionalization and shock treatments) but makes it sound untrue. A sub-plot is tied up in the least of ways. And there's this long, LONG description of accused's existence as a young gay man just after the Stonewall riots that so bored me, I had to force myself to finish...which I did in the bathroom while doing some business, if you know what I mean.
Needless to say, I like my writing better. And you have my permission to hear a hint of arrogance behind that comment.
I've also gotten into another back and forth with Amazon. The copies of LD that I got, I'd bought for myself from them on May 17th. I got a sales report that's supposed to go through may 20th, and they reported no sales. I asked them about it. You know what their line is, now? "BookScan (the group that supplies them with reports of book sales) only reports on maybe 75% of actual sales, so mine may never be reported." That's a new one. Seems they like to adjust their explanations for underreporting sales from one complaint to the next.
I suppose it's possible the sales hadn't permeated into BookScan's system, yet, so I'll give them to the next week's sales report. But I find it interesting that even Paul Krugman, who's a Nobel-winning economist, thinks that Amazon's rankings are matched with actual sales, something the company has SWORN to me is not true (he mentioned it when discussing his new book on his blog). But if even he's being fooled by this set-up, maybe they need to come up with something that better reflects people's perceptions...or just come clean as to how they're really making their profits.
I doubt they will. The US has turned into a nation of people who seem to think, "If you can get away with it, more power to you." That's one reason why we wound up with so many lying jackasses elected to office.
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