She's also not getting any likes or comments on her recent FB posts. I wouldn't be surprised if the few active followers she has are tired of her whining and complaining.
Did I miss the parts where anyone poked at her for homeschooling or being a mom?
What does the amount of money she makes from her books matter? Is she attacked/unattacked based on the dollars made? Are all beginning authors not making a certain amount somehow victims (as if few authors considered successful don't still keep their day jobs even with traditional publishing ).
Not that I think poking at her for being Catholic is okay, either—but she wrote books that openly had a Catholic slant/rewriting-history to them and she posts constantly about being Catholic where I don't see how religion can be avoided when discussing/reviewing her books in detail. Or that she would even want to take Catholicism out of the picture.
Is this a complaint or a call to arms? An attempt to have hordes of moms, home-schooling/home-schooled and/or lots more Catholics jumping in to support her and her works? Facilitated Friction (drama) marketing technique to reach a statistically large group of folk who should be moved by the proffered issues.
She tried it apparently unsuccessfully with the trendy "I was bullied" but failed to garner expected support from those who were bullied or are against bullying (yes, also statistically a large group but not many who were targeted by bullies will equate the psychological and/or physical trauma they suffered from that harassment to any trauma her retail products suffered because not everyone liked and promoted the books).
Where next is she going to seek support? What large group will she next seek sympathy from? That one okay-when-we-do-it-but-bullying-if-customers-do-it author site has died off where cannot even go over there and rant to the sympathetic and the scheming.
Self-publishing and our capitalistic society gives opportunities. Riches are not guaranteed. No one is evil or bullying merely for not buying or liking your product; no one is evil merely for not finding a creative work to their taste.
No, you didn't miss it. No one has given her a hard time over homeschooling or being a mom. That's her go-to stuff for trying to garner sympathy. From the start she's complained that these mean academics are harassing her when she's just a housewife. Blah, blah. Then she trotted out the Catholic stuff, and whined about liberals in academia, and how they're trying to ruin what tiny pittance she gets from selling her books. Ad nasuem.
No one is really poking her for being Catholic either. Sure, there's been mention of it because of the content of her books, and the obvious agenda to paint MA as a martyr. And then later there was mention of it due to her outrageous behavior, because she puts herself out there as a devout Catholic and her behavior is pretty ugly.
Truly she must be beside herself, because she's obviously a control freak who cannot fathom she's unable to those reviews to be removed, and everything she tries just gets her hand slapped. Unless she figures out that it's not going to work, and she's just making things worse, I think she may continue to escalate. The good news is she doesn't seem to have much savvy about how to do that in any noticeable way. She's not really getting much attention on FB or her blog, or her Twitter. And her idea of what to do next seemed to be contacting the guy's college again. Although it looks like she might have dropped that idea after what Ms. M. said.
I think she's blowing smoke, dangling in the wind, and is beside herself with frustration she just CANNOT GET HER WAY.
Her lack of support is showing its effect -- she's getting whinier by the hour. "Catholic homeschooling mom with literary pretensions"? Please.
Though just going by her own behavior, *pretensions* would seem to be spot-on.
What homeschooling or being a mom has got anything to do with anything else really begs the question, though. But at least now she's clued us in as to what those tags were supposed to indicate ... I suppose?!
If she'd just accept that those reviews are gonna stick, and put this effort and energy into productive ways to promote her books I think she'd be much happier. Or shoot, writing another, better book. Working on her skill as a writer.
Unfortunately she's written books in a very niche market. I can't imagine there's a huge audience for HF about the French Revolution that's heavily Catholic promoting.
I'd expect there are probably a lot of Catholics who might enjoy fiction with a Catholic slant, but have a hard time thinking a lot of those would have interest in French history. That's a combo of two sorta small markets, and it's gonna reduce the number of people interested to start with.
OK, peeps, bear with me here. Vidal hates Simon because he is a successful professor and director of theater at a Benedictine college. In fact, Simon was a Benedictine monk for his young adulthood, so how's that for a bit of Catholicism.
Vidal hat5es me because I have a doctorate in history with a concentration in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, so I know every time she blows smoke in her books, and I called her out on it. She also knows I'm Catholic. and both of us are members of lay orders.
So there you are: better educated Catholic academics who don't like her books. She absolutely cannot challenge it, or deal with it.
What both of us have criticized is her hamfisted attempt to imbue historical personages with a modicum of faith with some decidedly odd--and woefully inaccurate--mantle of piety. How dare we!
Vidal did not raise the issue of her fabricated "housewife with a blog," homeschooler extraordinaire," and other ridiculous monikers on GR; she was careful to do it elsewhere, and her acolytes made the claims for her as well. But she is fiercely proud of her research and boasts of it often, also mentioning her MA degree, so she is contradicting herself. Of course, I know some of the sources she prefers, and they are not credible, nor held in any sort of esteem, high, low, or in-between, by academics. That fact galls her. If critics have less education than she does, her take-down of them is less, and a one-off.
But not in my case. Not in Simon's.
Nevertheless, I expect to prevail, one way or another. But I have to admit that I am bloody tired of this crap, and weary of one of the most despicable individuals I've ever come across.
Thanks for that, Maggie. That helps give some background info.
Linda - *shrug* some negative reviews go unnoticed, most on Amazon seem to at least get a comment or two. I just showed yesterday how a positive review can bring on personal insults, if it's not pleasing enough.
But she, and her fans, don't seem to be aware of BL's existence (fingers crossed).
In the interest of keeping this matter at a low profile, I'm going to post this here rather than start another thread.
EMV's books are shelved by a few people here on BL. Most of the people do not have a lot of activity, and some haven't been active here for years. They don't follow a lot of people and have even fewer followers.
I'm in the process of looking through some of the Amazon reviews to see if there's any connection between this BL reviewer and anyone else. I see, however, that there is a review from "Cantilever," which has 29 associated comments, so I'm going to be enjoying (?) that for a while.
OOPS! Bingo! KathleenKelly posted the same review on Amazon. She claims there that she received a free copy from the author.
I gotcha. Most of the comments on Cantilever's reviews have been deleted by Amazon I think LOL.
From Kathleen's review I found her blog, and from that I found her on GR. She looks like a typical book blogger, and looks like she's got a Catholic interest. Book bloggers unfortunately often post glowing reviews, and see themselves as book promoters. She's probably not a actual fan, she's only reviewed that one book. Doubt that there's anything to worry about there - but it's very good to have the heads up :D
I wasn't going to spend a lot of time hunting her down, and so I'm glad you did. The fact that she posted the same review here and on AMZ was a pretty strong hint to me that she was a blogger/promoter. Good to have that confirmed.
I'm not what I'd call an expert on Anglo-Irish history, but I'm pretty sure most of the Penal Codes were rescinded long before EMV's relatives settled in Canada in the 1820s.
I don't have millions of dollars to spend on -- nor the time to 5-star all of them even unread -- books to ensure all the authors (not even all the authors who are moms or those who are " deserving" ) make a good living.
My definitions of evil and of bullying don't include someone not enjoying a product and daring to say so. Even if someone with a commercial,interest in the product is a ______ (insert "mom" "girl" "Catholic" "bully's target" or whatever).
I work for a living, too, with my own bills to pay and try to budget for the books I do actually enjoy. She's writing and publishing books to retail sale -- it's not my responsibility to help make her living by writing free advertising type of reviews (or to encourage other readers to do do) because she's mom/ bullied/ trolled / homeschooling/ Catholic/ etc.; it's hers if she wants to make a living at writing to write a book that gets a readership and to navigate the difficult book industry.
While just giving your opinion of a book in a way author cannot use as advertisement isn't trolling or bullying (unless more is going on than apparent in review and social media spaces), there are lots of trolls and attacks. I can sympathize with the victims -- but, I am not obligated to buy their products and write gushing endorsements ...
The audacity of thinking a reader, a *customer*, who has actually bought the book somehow is obligated to promote the book for the author, or failing that at least be quiet, is outrageous in the extreme.
It's bad enough when they think that when a free review copy has been provided, but when they think readers are people who PAY THEM for the "privilege" of giving them promotional material it's beyond crazy.
What does the amount of money she makes from her books matter? Is she attacked/unattacked based on the dollars made? Are all beginning authors not making a certain amount somehow victims (as if few authors considered successful don't still keep their day jobs even with traditional publishing ).
Not that I think poking at her for being Catholic is okay, either—but she wrote books that openly had a Catholic slant/rewriting-history to them and she posts constantly about being Catholic where I don't see how religion can be avoided when discussing/reviewing her books in detail. Or that she would even want to take Catholicism out of the picture.
Is this a complaint or a call to arms? An attempt to have hordes of moms, home-schooling/home-schooled and/or lots more Catholics jumping in to support her and her works? Facilitated Friction (drama) marketing technique to reach a statistically large group of folk who should be moved by the proffered issues.
She tried it apparently unsuccessfully with the trendy "I was bullied" but failed to garner expected support from those who were bullied or are against bullying (yes, also statistically a large group but not many who were targeted by bullies will equate the psychological and/or physical trauma they suffered from that harassment to any trauma her retail products suffered because not everyone liked and promoted the books).
Where next is she going to seek support? What large group will she next seek sympathy from? That one okay-when-we-do-it-but-bullying-if-customers-do-it author site has died off where cannot even go over there and rant to the sympathetic and the scheming.
Self-publishing and our capitalistic society gives opportunities. Riches are not guaranteed. No one is evil or bullying merely for not buying or liking your product; no one is evil merely for not finding a creative work to their taste.
No one is really poking her for being Catholic either. Sure, there's been mention of it because of the content of her books, and the obvious agenda to paint MA as a martyr. And then later there was mention of it due to her outrageous behavior, because she puts herself out there as a devout Catholic and her behavior is pretty ugly.
Truly she must be beside herself, because she's obviously a control freak who cannot fathom she's unable to those reviews to be removed, and everything she tries just gets her hand slapped. Unless she figures out that it's not going to work, and she's just making things worse, I think she may continue to escalate. The good news is she doesn't seem to have much savvy about how to do that in any noticeable way. She's not really getting much attention on FB or her blog, or her Twitter. And her idea of what to do next seemed to be contacting the guy's college again. Although it looks like she might have dropped that idea after what Ms. M. said.
I think she's blowing smoke, dangling in the wind, and is beside herself with frustration she just CANNOT GET HER WAY.
Though just going by her own behavior, *pretensions* would seem to be spot-on.
What homeschooling or being a mom has got anything to do with anything else really begs the question, though. But at least now she's clued us in as to what those tags were supposed to indicate ... I suppose?!
Unfortunately she's written books in a very niche market. I can't imagine there's a huge audience for HF about the French Revolution that's heavily Catholic promoting.
I'd expect there are probably a lot of Catholics who might enjoy fiction with a Catholic slant, but have a hard time thinking a lot of those would have interest in French history. That's a combo of two sorta small markets, and it's gonna reduce the number of people interested to start with.
Vidal hat5es me because I have a doctorate in history with a concentration in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, so I know every time she blows smoke in her books, and I called her out on it. She also knows I'm Catholic. and both of us are members of lay orders.
So there you are: better educated Catholic academics who don't like her books. She absolutely cannot challenge it, or deal with it.
What both of us have criticized is her hamfisted attempt to imbue historical personages with a modicum of faith with some decidedly odd--and woefully inaccurate--mantle of piety. How dare we!
Vidal did not raise the issue of her fabricated "housewife with a blog," homeschooler extraordinaire," and other ridiculous monikers on GR; she was careful to do it elsewhere, and her acolytes made the claims for her as well. But she is fiercely proud of her research and boasts of it often, also mentioning her MA degree, so she is contradicting herself. Of course, I know some of the sources she prefers, and they are not credible, nor held in any sort of esteem, high, low, or in-between, by academics. That fact galls her. If critics have less education than she does, her take-down of them is less, and a one-off.
But not in my case. Not in Simon's.
Nevertheless, I expect to prevail, one way or another. But I have to admit that I am bloody tired of this crap, and weary of one of the most despicable individuals I've ever come across.
Linda - *shrug* some negative reviews go unnoticed, most on Amazon seem to at least get a comment or two. I just showed yesterday how a positive review can bring on personal insults, if it's not pleasing enough.
But she, and her fans, don't seem to be aware of BL's existence (fingers crossed).
EMV's books are shelved by a few people here on BL. Most of the people do not have a lot of activity, and some haven't been active here for years. They don't follow a lot of people and have even fewer followers.
The one review I found
http://kathleenkelly.booklikes.com/post/1010814/the-paradise-tree
is pretty gushing, even though it doesn't have any stars, and it's from October 2014.
I'm in the process of looking through some of the Amazon reviews to see if there's any connection between this BL reviewer and anyone else. I see, however, that there is a review from "Cantilever," which has 29 associated comments, so I'm going to be enjoying (?) that for a while.
OOPS! Bingo! KathleenKelly posted the same review on Amazon. She claims there that she received a free copy from the author.
From Kathleen's review I found her blog, and from that I found her on GR. She looks like a typical book blogger, and looks like she's got a Catholic interest. Book bloggers unfortunately often post glowing reviews, and see themselves as book promoters. She's probably not a actual fan, she's only reviewed that one book. Doubt that there's anything to worry about there - but it's very good to have the heads up :D
I'm not what I'd call an expert on Anglo-Irish history, but I'm pretty sure most of the Penal Codes were rescinded long before EMV's relatives settled in Canada in the 1820s.
I don't know about the of time frame regarding the Penal Codes, but that wouldn't surprise me.
My definitions of evil and of bullying don't include someone not enjoying a product and daring to say so. Even if someone with a commercial,interest in the product is a ______ (insert "mom" "girl" "Catholic" "bully's target" or whatever).
I work for a living, too, with my own bills to pay and try to budget for the books I do actually enjoy. She's writing and publishing books to retail sale -- it's not my responsibility to help make her living by writing free advertising type of reviews (or to encourage other readers to do do) because she's mom/ bullied/ trolled / homeschooling/ Catholic/ etc.; it's hers if she wants to make a living at writing to write a book that gets a readership and to navigate the difficult book industry.
While just giving your opinion of a book in a way author cannot use as advertisement isn't trolling or bullying (unless more is going on than apparent in review and social media spaces), there are lots of trolls and attacks. I can sympathize with the victims -- but, I am not obligated to buy their products and write gushing endorsements ...
It's bad enough when they think that when a free review copy has been provided, but when they think readers are people who PAY THEM for the "privilege" of giving them promotional material it's beyond crazy.