The Real Power of the Pen

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. So said Oscar Wilde. Another way to think about it comes from the 1942 movie Bambi, where the wise and forward-thinking Thumper said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

Bad reviews are a pain, they hurt, and they can be cruel or plain old nasty. No matter how many good reviews we get (and the vast majority of our reviews are plain old wonderful), the occasional bad ones stick with us. They are impossible to forget, or get rid of, like when you step in something and now you can’t get it off the sole of your shoe. You might forget your social security number, the date of your wedding anniversary, or how your spouse of twenty years takes his coffee, but you can quote verbatim the bad review you got ten years ago and the name of the bad reviewer.

While researching this blog, we learned that many books considered to be classic literature, by iconic authors, received at least one bad review. To name just a few: For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Okay, we get it; not everyone likes everything, but to slam Harper Lee? Come on.

So, while we don’t quite put our novels into the above category, it does make receiving a stinker review on Amazon a little bit easier to take. Some people just don’t like us; we get that too. But a good review, with five stars displayed next to our title, makes us giddy with joy (and relief). A bad review, with the dreaded one star, can be devastating. When that happens, we are lucky to have each other to commiserate with. Wonder who Harper Lee called?

As avid readers ourselves, we turn to our astute and perceptive pink-nosed rabbit friend, Thumper, when it comes to writing reviews: If you can’t say something etc. etc.