Sour Grapes and Bashing Your Profession

On February 21th, 2014, a blog was posted that sent every Harry Potter fan "to the mattresses." I’m using that Godfather reference because this blog post angered so many so fast that the Potter Fan base went to Amazon.com to do the kind of damage that they can. They started to give the author of the blog, Lynn Shepherd, 1 star ratings on everything she's ever had published. Had they read anything she's ever written? Nope.

This blog was posted via Huffington Post UK, so it was bound to get a ton of attention. I am almost sure that she knew that going in. She wrote a blog basically saying that J.K. Rowling, the author of the much beloved Harry Potter series, should give up writing for profit. Well no, that’s not exactly the gist of what she wrote was- Rowling could keep writing her children books, but she needed to get out of the adult market because she's had her turn. (Don't worry; I'll link the original blog by Lynn Shepherd so you can read it yourself in all its glory.) 

Who hasn't heard the stories of Ms. Rowling writing Harry Potter in a coffee shop, while cuddling her infant child? That she took Harry Potter to several publishing houses and got turned down more than once. I think she is the ultimate success story. She fought hard and got published. Her story was good on its own and it became a success. 

 Obviously, I have few problems with Ms. Shepherd's blog post.

She has a big problem with adults who read "children’s stories." The books/movies she has posted she has neither read nor seen one minute of. She hinted at this in the first part of her blog. She didn't really go into it, but I'm thinking based on other statements in the blog she has a problem with adults who read children stories because they aren't reading "adult" books like those she writes. She does make the back handed statement that "any reading is better than no reading." 

I got angry just reading that again to get the quote right. I read. I read everything I can get my hands on. I feel it is the very job of a writer to read as much as they write. I'm currently writing this blog, with my two year old son helping me - and by helping me he is handing me his Legos so I can pull them apart for him. I do this every couple of minutes. My point is that tonight after he goes to bed, and when I get a quiet moment to myself I'm going to read. I think a writer who doesn't read whatever is out there is doomed to be a boring writer. Reading is like training is to a runner. You train, you run. I read, I write. 

I have read all of the Harry Potter books. When I read them I didn't have a child. Now that I do have a child I am very excited at the idea of reading them to him. Ms. Shepherd has no idea what she is missing. She is going by a label on a shelf in the book store. I wonder if she just walks in and passes up the fun stuff and goes straight to her little section of the bookstore. That sounds kinda lonely. When my husband and I go to the bookstore it's like a mini vacation. We are tourists in the land of make believe. I'm sitting here trying to think of one section of the bookstore I haven't checked out. 

This isn't even really the biggest problem I have with her blog post. 

The fact that she tells Ms. Rowlings to go back to children's writing, because that is not in a market that is her target, angers me. She had her run in the adult world and she needs to step down. Why did she attack J.K. Rowling and not Stephen King? He writes adult fiction and spends a great deal of the time on the top of the charts. She did it because she writes what she calls "Literary Murder." She references all the authors that she is inspired by and not one of them are alive today. She's Charles Dickens and Jane Austin all the way and she decided to throw in some Law and Order for good measure. If J.K. Rowling hadn't been revealed for writing a good Crime novel "The Cuckoo's Calling,"  it might not have went from selling poorly to being a huge hit. 

I am almost amused that Ms. Shepherd is calling her out on this.  I mean she wrote it, used a pen name and I think was happy to let it sit there. But word got out as it often does and it becomes a hit - not to mention it is actually a good read. 

To sum this up, Lynn Shepherd went from the highest amount of comments on her blog being 3 to over 600. That's a huge jump. Now people are talking about her.  Did she realize it would possibly be career suicide by pissing off readers and other authors? Even Anne Rice had some pretty great things to say and by that I mean she put the smack down in words on Lynn Shepherd. 

I'm a writer. I've said that. I can't imagine ever asking anyone to stop writing so I could have my shot. No, I think of J.K. Rowlings cuddling her baby and working on the magic that is Harry Potter. I think about Stephen King keeping all his rejection letters and using them to make himself work harder. In this world that you get a medal for just showing up I think some people have forgotten about the hard work and absolute determination it takes to get published. When my novel is finished, and it's a Sci-Fi/murder mystery, I will not ask Dennis Lehane to give up writing or call my local bookstore and insist they remove all of the works of Robert Heinlein. I will be grateful for the rejection because when it's finally there the reward of being publish will be so sweet. Even if it never happens I write for myself and I write to do better than the last story, to learn something new every time I sit down at my keyboard. Isn't that the point? 

Lynn Shepherd to me is doing this for the fame. She's basically written a blog post the same as a "celeb" drops a sex tape. It's pretty shameful she can't enjoy the fact that she has novels for sale on Amazon.com and just enjoy that she gets to do what she loves for a living

This is how this writer-writes :)

Here is the Shepherd Blog