How To Ruin Your Writing Career

A friend of mine passed along this book review that turned viral. Basically, the blogger Big Al gave the book ‘The Greek Seaman’ a mediocre rating, saying it had an interesting story but the grammatical errors could be distracting. The writer, Jacqueline Howett, being a classy professional, started harassing the reviewer in the comments section, saying he didn’t know what he was talking about and that her writing is perfect. As more and more readers took Big Al’s side, Ms. Howett continued to insult the blogger and prove his point – her comments were poorly written. She eventually gave up on “coherent” arguments and started using expletives instead. Big Al’s blog Books and Pals may seem unimportant but apparently professionals in the publishing world follow Big Al (if they didn’t before, they probably do now since the review went viral) and I’m sure Ms. Howett’s writing career may be impossible to salvage.

The lessons we can learn from this? 1. You can’t expect everyone to love your work. 2. Don’t ever respond to a bad review, especially not publicly. 3. Keep good friends around you who’ll let you know when you’re making an ass of yourself so you’ll know to shut up before things get worse.

Check out the train wreck for yourselves.

Who’s the purple lady?

Some of you may be wondering who is that pretty purple lady in this blog’s banner. Well, she isn’t Zola.
But she is an important force throughout Zola’s life. This is Queen Lazuli. I won’t tell you too much to give away the story but she is the wife of Zola’s uncle and they are the reason she’s lost.
The creature standing next to her in the banner is also an important force in Zola’s life but for very different reasons. His appearances are scarce but always crucial.

Thank you to Rivenis for the beautiful artwork. Check out the full picture below.

Queen Lazuli meets her match.

Racial Segregation… in the bookstore

What I’m reading right now: “Dead Until Dark” by Charlaine Harris

I posted about whitewashing on Facebook a few months ago and wanted to share this with you guys. I like to follow an agent’s blog called Pub Rants. Kristen had a very interesting entry called “Publishing Isn’t Colour Blind” and it talked about how there is still widespread whitewashing in the publishing industry (e.g. depicting non-white characters as white on book cover illustrations) and many booksellers still put all books by black authors or starring black characters under “African American Studies”. So, whether you write science fiction, thrillers or non-fiction you would be on the same shelf just because of the colour of your skin. Doesn’t that sound like modern day segregation to you?

Check out the article.

My Book – The Lost Scion

I’ve been struggling for awhile with the synopsis for my book The Lost Scion. Most writers run away screaming at the thought of summarizing months, sometimes years, of hard work into just a few sentences. Well, I did a little research and bit the bullet.
Here is the shorter version of the synopsis, as opposed to the full one that you would submit to a publisher. (If you want the whole story, buy the book when it comes out!)

The Lost Scion’s Synopsis:
Zola doesn’t know who she is.
She was adopted by a loving family but never felt like she truly belonged, especially since she always had strange “abilities”. The Newcomers of the north terrify her but she knows they are her kindred and she must face them someday.
Everything changes when she is kidnapped by slave traders and rescued by a former knight, who takes her to Sejomo, spiritual leader, Gifted One and lord of a faraway city. She soon discovers that she is also a Gifted One, having the ability to set things on fire with her mind and the help of her amulet.
After training Zola for a year, Sejomo reveals that she is a princess and the rightful heir to the kingdom of Arizimuth. This would be a happy ending if it wasn’t for her uncle and his sorceress wife Lazuli who declared her father crazy, took the crown for themselves and declared their son the heir to the throne. Zola balks at Sejomo’s proposal that she pursue her rightful place as heir and tries to run away from her destiny.
However, she soon realizes that she can save her adopted family from slave traders and protect Arizimuth from her uncle’s oppressive and poisonous regime if she becomes Empress. Now Zola must fight for her birthright whether it be peacefully or through rebellion and her struggles will lead to the ultimate showdown.

Welcome to Zola’s World

Hi, everyone! Welcome to Zola’s World. My name is Gina and I’m a budding novelist. Zola is the protagonist of The Lost Scion, my first fantasy book. I named the blog after her because she is at the centre of the first fantastical world I’ve created.

This blog is about me but it is also about Zola and you will learn more about both of us each week.