"I will stop reading reviews of my books!"

He probably just read a review of his book.

This morning, a darling friend of mine emailed and mentioned she'd received her first poor review. Apparently, the reviewer must be used to those kick-ass Victorian heroines, who somehow manage to kick all those asses while wearing dresses with bustles, rather than the sedate, much more historically accurate girls of the period, who never kicked anyone's ass for fear of being disinherited and ostracized. So, when I reply to my best bud at lunch, I'm going to say this, "Don't read reviews. They are not for you. They are to inform potential buyers and readers. Ignore the reviews. Stop it. I said, stop it!"

Why? For the same reason that I seem to keep forgetting - reviews will vary, because every reader has a different taste and expectation. I know this. My Amazon freebie of On Falcon's Wings is still going on - I think / hope the price should change next week back to $2.99, now that all the other sites have also reverted back to that price (except Kobo - waiting on YOU). Thousands of downloads later, I'm getting in some reviews from 1-star ("too many characters") to 5-stars ("lots of characters, but the reader kept it all straight"). See why I shouldn't be looking at reviews - who's right here? Yet, each time a new review is posted, my heart skips a little beat and my thoughts do a little sing-song, "A new review? Let's go see!"

No, let's not. Let's just get on with the business of writing the next book and making it even better. That's my goal and I'm sticking to it.