So, this was amusing.
It is probably the most obscure in-joke in the world and so only I and a select handful of people would find it even a little bit amusing, but you are that select handful, right?
Okay, maybe it's just me. :\
FWIW, I had never heard of Archie Green before.
This did make me realize that I have never created an image of Archie. Tim the Enchanter drew a very nice illustration of him for AQATTC:
But for what it's worth, I envision Archie looking kind of like a mustached, mulleted, slightly less portly John Goodman.
harry fucking POTTER
I totally do not understand the concept of "review rants" on
fanficrants. Regularly there are people complaining that someone left a review that was too short, too superficial, missed the point, asked a silly question, or otherwise failed to live up to the author's high reviewing standards. Umm, entitled much?(Let alone the people who literally rant about someone adding a Story Alert subscription to a completed story. So it's pointless for someone to do that - why do you care?)
I love reviews. Every fan fiction author loves reviews. I hate authors who beg and wheedle and whine, but I still get a warm fuzzy every time a new review arrives in my inbox, and so every little comment is treasured.
Even these:
you're story is terrible..actually it's torture please stop writing, or at the very least don't post your CRAP on DLP...thanks for wasting my time.
Okay, maybe not treasured....
also you main character is an unlikeable bitch...never met a protagonist that made me want to punch them. So fucking annoying, then again you probably based them after yourself so it's understandable. Btw wtf is harry fucking POTTER not in the HARRY POTTER story? you are an idiot
So, someone was so disgruntled that they left not one but two reviews on fanfiction.net telling me how much I suck. Hey, anonyreviewer, thanks for bumping my review count! :)
More seriously, I squinted at those for a minute, wondering if I should delete or report them, then shrugged and said "Nah." I'd rather do like John Scalzi and embrace my one-star reviews.
Honestly, there have a been a few times when people have written reviews or comments about my stories that I thought were just... not to put too fine a point on it... wrong. But so what? Okay, in my little heart of hearts, I'd be lying if I said I don't sometimes want to grab them and shake them and say, "Now look, fool...." But seriously, anyone who can't shrug off the occasional "You suck!" review on fanfiction.net or being trash-talked on DLP had better stay away from Amazon.com if they ever get published.
(By the way, anonyreviewer, if you happen to be reading this: I have never posted my
Leave reviews, yo!
Anyway, circling around in long-winded fashion to my point, I really, really enjoy all the discussion and conversations about AQATSA and people debating whether or not Claudia is a good mother and whether or not Abraham Thorn is a justified anti-hero or a terrorist and whether I know where the hell I am going as we approach the climax. Even
rheymus and your constant attempts to "gotcha" me. I get a similar range of opinions in reviews, even from my fans, some of whom think Alexandra is really showing maturity and character growth in this book, and others who think she's still an arrogant, ungrateful bitch.After the final chapter is up, I will do a post-mortem Author's Notes, and actually talk about how I see various situations, but I am not commenting much right now because I want the writing to stand up on its own. One of the virtues of fan fiction is that the author is more accessible and so I do have the ability to interact with my readers, and that means potentially I could shape how some people react to the story, but I'd rather wait and see how people react without my input. After all, a real book doesn't have the author "explaining" what each chapter means after you finish reading it.
But, do comment and review. I don't care much whether you do it here, on fanfiction.net, or in the DLP forums. They all raise the visibility of my stories. Well, maybe not here so much, since mostly the only people reading my LJ are people who are already fans. But the discussions here are longer and more interesting.
Another plea to use a LJ account
I've said this before: if you post anonymously, your comment automatically gets screened until I can unscreen it. If you are a regular commenter here, please consider creating a (free) LJ account, or use a FB account, so you can post without the hassle. There has been another uptick in spam on LJ, which is making me consider disabling anonymous comments completely again.
Alexandra Quick and the Fifth Book
Oh, and by the way, I have settled on a title for AQ Book 5. No, I ain't telling. ;)