My morning chuckle from Benjamin Shaw

I was wasting a little time on the Net and thought I'd check out The Assassin on Amazon, and found that Benjamin Shaw of Greenville, South Carolina, posted on the book, giving it one star, along with the header, "Don't waste your money."

Then he proceeded to say that fans of Janet Evanovich and Dan Brown will probably enjoy the book and that it's fast-paced. That's his idea of an insult??? Sheesh, bring it on, Ben! If even a fraction of the millions of Evanovich/Brown fans out there buy this book, I'll be thrilled. And fast-paced -- heck, who wants to read a suspense that isn't fast-paced??

To give Ben his due, he does get into real insults in the review, but when you open with the Evanovich/Brown line, the rest just doesn't matter.

Which brings me to something that's puzzled me for years -- online booksellers' policy of allowing readers to post negative reviews. I've never, ever seen a commercial or print ad that says, "Sophy Schlub of St. Paul says this product sucked big-time, but we're hoping you'll go ahead and buy it anyway." Can you imagine ol' Ben walking into Barnes and Noble or Borders with printed copies of his review and the store letting him post them on the shelf where the book sits? Or the clerk at Waldenbooks saying, "Oh, you're buying The Assassin. Well, Liz in Texas loved it, but Ben in South Carolina said it was a waste of money. Do you still want to buy it?"

Giving negative feedback at the point of purchase of a product you're trying to sell is just too weird a process for my logical brain to wrap itself around. And that brings me to my theory. You knew I had one, didn't you? I think most people out there are like me. I pay zero attention to Amazon reviews. Oh, they're fun to read, and when someone says something lovely about your work, that's always great. But I've never bought a book because of a review, and I've never not bought one because of a review.

I don't even see reviews on a particular book unless, for some reason, I've gone looking for that book. If I'm already interested, Ben in South Carolina isn't going to sway me. I don't know him; I don't have a clue what his tastes are (well, yeah, I do -- he apparently doesn't like mega-sellers, and wants stories that craaawwwlll their way to the resolution). There are very few people I take book-buying advice from -- not even, sometimes, my best buds. Two of my three "sisters" and I all read the same book recently -- one loved it, one didn't get past the first chapter, and I put it down after three or four chapters, disappointed that the heroine didn't get killed in the attack that had just taken place.

So, keeping this in mind, I've decided Amazon allows negative reviews for two reasons -- they know most shoppers won't pay attention to them, and it makes their disgruntled customers happy to have a place to vent. (Frankly, I can't imagine wasting time writing a negative post/review/letter after reading a book I didn't like, when I can just jump right into the next one on the pile.) But for whatever reason, people like Ben feel better after putting their half-cent's worth out there for the world to see, and it doesn't hurt anyone.

Well, not permanently. Author egos are often fragile, and for a lot of them, a hateful comment, even from a stranger, can sting for a while. Thankfully, I'm way tougher than that! Rachel8:11 AM

Revisions are done!

I am so jazzed (now that I've recuperated from the mental exhaustion) -- the revisions are done and in New York! This was really more a rewrite than a revision -- I bet I totally redid at least half the book.

If you're curious about the revision process (I was, too, until I experienced it for the first time) . . . let me run through the steps Assassin went through. I started out with Editor A, wrote the book and sent it to her, and somebody in NY decided Editor B was a better fit for it. So Editor B read it, suggested revisions -- not too bad, either, though I was overwhelmed at the time (little did I know . . . ;-)

I was buckling down and doing those revisions when Editor B left the publisher for another house, and Selena and I got assigned to Editor C. I sent her the revised manuscript, she sent me more revisions, I revised again, she asked for more, I revised again, and again, and . . . well, you get the picture. I joke that it took me three months to write the book, and another twelve to revise it. Not that there's really anything funny about it.

This time around, on Deep Cover, we were in a bit of a time crunch, so our goal was to do one set of revisions. Period. They almost made me cry. (Heck . . . almost??) I know authors who love revisions, who see it as a chance to do all the last-minute tweaking and make the book the best it could possibly be. I agree with that in theory, just not in emotion. I know the second version of DC is better than the first, but it was still like pulling teeth to get it done.

Someone I knew once picked up a dictionary and said, "My book is inside this book. I just have to pull it out word by word." That's exactly how I felt about the revisions. Getting the first draft of a book down is the easiest thing in the world to me -- I love to write, I do it fast, and I do it well. As far as revising, though, I'd rather clean toilets. Shovel dirt. Haul rock. Smooth down gopher mounds.

Hmm . . . I did all of those to celebrate. The revisions may have whipped me, but I can still kick those gophers' butts. Rachel7:23 AM

A new dotcom!

You know about Happily Ever Authors if you've come here more than once -- it's the promotional group I belong to -- mostly Oklahoma authors who write mostly romance.

We've had a yahoo group for more than a year, but now we have our own website! One of our members, Gloria Harchar, designed it and got it up for us, like, today, and you need to check it out. The URL is www.happilyeverauthors.com (yeah, like you expected something else???).

Each month, we'll have a featured author, and this time around it's moi. Check out the pearls of wisdom, and enter the contest. The prize is autographed copies of The Assassin -- yumm! And while you're there, check out the blog, too, and make a note of our very first HEA chat -- May 19th at 8 p.m. Central. We're an entertaining group if I say so myself -- and trust me, if you're not reading us, you need to be. Yeah, we're that good. (Big ol' grin here)

Rachel Rachel2:28 PM

The cover for DEEP COVER. I love the colors, and she looks just like Selena! Isn't it cool?  Rachel8:45 AM

That's me on the left at a book signing at the Book Place in Broken Arrow yesterday. On the right is author Shelby Beckett, whose book, BETWEEN, comes out next month. Check out her website at: shelbybeckett.com. Rachel8:41 AM

Channel 6 interview

I survived!

Not only that, but I sounded coherent and didn't have that deer in the headlights look, or so I'm told. I had to get up so early that my brain wasn't fully functioning, so I forgot to set the VCR. Luckily, Leah did tape it, so I can check out her copy and see for myself.

It was really pretty interesting being in the television studio, with all its little "stations" set up for the weather guy, the anchors, the guests, and the cameras, the teleprompters, etc. I admit, I didn't take in too much of it to start -- I was about to hyperventilate -- but I finally reminded myself that Selena has learned the art of projecting calm even when she isn't, and if she could do it, surely I could try. And it worked, more or less.

Next time I won't worry nearly so much, and by the time I make it to The Today Show with Matt Lauer (hey, we all dream, right?), I'll be ready! Rachel9:15 AM

Places in the book

I've been getting questions from some of the local readers about a few of the places mentioned in The Assassin. Yep, the Dari Diner in Cleveland is a real place and has excellent pork sandwiches. Okay, so my sister Leah insists the beef is better, but she's wrong. Pork rules. (Maybe I spent too much time in the South, where I regularly heard, "If it ain't pork, it ain't barbecue.")

And Tony's favorite sushi restaurant does just happen to be Fuji, my own favorite, though the multi-pierced chef has left us and gone off to another sushi bar. (If you happen to frequent Michelle's new place of employment, tell her you read about her in the book!) The Thai restaurant is Lanna Thai, which just happens to have the best pad thai anywhere, and their Thai tea is oustanding, too. It's just tea and evaporated milk, they tell me -- you wouldn't believe how much tea and evaporated milk I've gone through trying to duplicate it at home (and failing).

The Vietnamese restaurant owned by James Tranh is the only place mentioned in the book, I think, that's not real (besides Tony's and Selena's houses and the Marland Mansion). However, there is a real Vietnamese place in the same general area that's fantastic called Mekong River. My husband and I are regulars there, and can't resist the Saigon Sampler . . . or the soups . . . or the seafood . . . Hmm, think I'm getting hungry. Rachel7:51 AM

6 in the Morning

This is a local morning news and entertainment show on the CBS affiliate in Tulsa, and they've invited me on for an interview next week! This won't be my first time in the station -- one of my dogs was included in a piece a few years ago -- but it will be my first time in the station in front of the cameras. I'm already starting to shake! New clothes! Hair and makeup and be in downtown Tulsa by 7:15 in the a.m.?? What was I thinking??

Oh, well . . . if you're in the local area, tune in -- Tuesday, April 12th, around 7:50 for the interview. I think we'll be giving away a copy of the book, too.

Wish me luck! Rachel11:33 AM