It’s a bit ironic because about 8 years ago, I just could not get into Robert’s writing. I didn’t understand what all the hoopla was about but I started reading JD Robb, then slowly the backlist of single titles and now I am buying her in hardcover. At Costco and at a deeply discounted price, but I buy her in hardcover which is not something I can say about alot of other authors.

As for threads and apologies, I know what you are saying Kate R and I really don’t know how to handle those things. I think it is classy for someone to apologize and not classy to acknowledge the apology. As the blog owner, I don’t know if I should delete the original posts that led to the apology and then the apology or what. I hate the idea of deletion.

I did close the comments on some posts and so that is what I am going to do here.

Ask poor George W or Bill Schaefer.

Poor George W? Sorry, I just spat my coffee out just reading that bit.

One of the problems with being a public figure–even in the limited environs of the romance world–is that you’re not allowed the same leeway in terms of free expression be it merely misspoken or purposeful. Ask poor George W or Bill Schaefer. And this is not directly related, but sort of the same thing. This reminds me of Pat Oliphant’s absolute rule about never meeting any politician because he’d once met Barry Goldwater and liked him so much personally, he could never again use him as a subject.

Anyway, it was nice that you took the time to set the record straight. I’ve always admired that sort of forthrightness and acceptance of responsibility. Consequently, I shall also apologize for bringing up an incident long past and obviously deeply regretted.

Were you channeling POTC as well? Do you not worship the deliciousness that is Depp? Do you not want to lick his…um, I’m digressing. Rein it back in, girl.

Perfect control has been achieved. Moving on.

Perhaps we need a Congressional Committee to oversee the statute of limitations on how fricking long you can hold something against someone, apology or no.

The Apology Police?

The Grand Czar of Genuine Remorse (borrowing from kate there and giving credit where credit is due) or perhaps the Goddess of Abject Regret?

OK, that last one was over the top, but that’s what I’d want to be called.

Apologies should always be sincere. They should always be heartfelt. And they should always be met with a response, whether it be “EFF U, YA BITCH!!!” (which is just plain trashy & ungracious…and my mama would box my ears for that), “Thanks. I’ll never trust/talk to/read you again, but thanks for attempting to make it right.”, or “You know, that was cool of you to regret what you did. I forgive you and won’t bring it up again”.

Because true forgiveness moves on and treats you like it never happened.

Maybe someone can be elected the Grand Czar of apologies. You list your apology with the person (or a whole bureau perhaps) and if it’s accepted as sincere regret, no one may bring up your asinine behavior again.

It’s happened here–that a person apologized sincerely and there’s no response. It’s worse than a sneeze with no “gesunheit” and almost as bad as when a stranger trips and falls and no passersby stop. That’s why I posted this. (The bit at the end of the longish post)

[quote comment="2154"]Nora and her gang of cutthroats…[/quote]
What’s this? A bad POTC reference? Ayyyyye, me mateys, therrrre be pirrrrrrrrrrrrrates in dem dere waters!

Seriously, this just proves my point. We’re human. We all lose it on occasion. We all reach that place where sense is overpowered by _____ (pick one: temper, PMS, general snarkiness, etc.). We all have life experiences, i.e. certain things that push our buttons, chap our collective asses and fire our passions. Even best-selling authors. Have you situations in your life that you wish came with a “re-do” or “delete” function? Of course.

IMHO, that doesn’t make anyone a horrid person. It just means that we don’t have exquisite control all of the time.

In the words of someone much better with them than I am:
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.

In the end, we all resemble each other in that respect, dislike it as we may.

I don’t remember attacking anyone else, or what those circumstances might be.

In this case, however, whatever the circumstances, I regret, very much, I didn’t show more restraint, and more class. I certainly learned a valuable lesson from it–never to post when in full temper. Never.

Oh, and if I ever called myself queen of anything, it would’ve been in jest.

The incident I referred to happened about five years ago. I printed the whole thing since I knew public memory is very short, but I’ve just checked and I apparently finally tossed it in the last clean-sweep of my files. Suffice it to say that although there’s no reason for you to trust my testimony, my view of Nora “Queen of the Universe” Roberts (her words, except maybe it was Queen of the World) is the antithese of “sweet”.

[quote comment="2141"]The opponents here seemed equally matched though, so I’m not having a visceral reaction as I did when Nora Roberts and the Adwulf (addwolfe? something wolf) gang took out after poor Sandy from New Berg. [/quote]
Nora did what? See, now I’ve met her and think she’s a doll. But it can sometimes be a feeding frenzy over at adwoff.com, not by her but by Others. You don’t really want to be an opinionated conservative over there.

They’re always looking for new “chum”, IYKWIM.

It’s about Alan Grant, a detective who’s laid up and decides to do some research about Richard III — who has a terrible image, mostly thanks to Shakespeare, a servant of the usurping Tudors.

I think Tey was a big proponent of redeeming Richard.

1) Mary Janice Davidson et al do do some mighty fine name calling. I never did get to the bottom of whatever the actual discussion was about since it was impossible in such a short time to make my way through the chaf to the wheat. My judgement? None. Trash talk ain’t debate. All parties are probably guilty as charged (and I’d hate to sit on a jury tasked with determining who said what when). The opponents here seemed equally matched though, so I’m not having a visceral reaction as I did when Nora Roberts and the Adwulf (addwolfe? something wolf) gang took out after poor Sandy from New Berg.

2) It’s hilarious that Adele Ashworth is still flashing the “journalist” card since according to her own biography at her own space, she only majored in journalism, and between college and romance writing, she was an airline attendant. But alas, even if she were a crack reporter for the Salt Lake Desert News, that doesn’t translate into much more than being able to get the facts down by deadline in a format an average 4th grader can comprehend. Regardless, the argument itself is the same church different pew thing–and I’ve sat in several pews with several authors.

The last time I visited AAR this was precisely, exactly the “discussion” I had with Kleypas and fans (one erudite fan protested that readers had an obligation to read what the author intended not what they wrote. Ah. Right. “Dr Spock, we need to do that mind connection thing again!”) I’ve only read two of Ms. Ashworth’s books and they both had such abysmal plot problems, I wouldn’t try any more. (and before you ask: Winter Garden and My Darling Caroline) And Robin. You are to be commended for staying on discussion throughout and for making excellent rebuttals to some incredibly specious reasoning and downright snarky observations.

3) Dara Joy. God bless her heart. This has been going on for how long? It’s a pity, but this particular train wreck derailed a promising career. I thoroughly enjoyed a few of her books (although I had to hide them behind a plain brown wrapper since the smart alecks I work with wanted to know if she were a stripper.)

Many thanks, Jane, for helping me out on this. It’s an awful thing to have to confess to being fascinated by something that’s the romance equivalent to WWF. Sort of like sneaking a peek at People Magazine at the beauty parlor.

What chaps my ass (borrowing from Chelle) is digging up an old history book, spending almost $20 for it on ebay actually — and reading accounts that are obviously exaggerated and yet are solemnly presented as facts by trained historians. Pfah. Witnesses schmitnesses–I don’t trust any of them. Newspapers were big into selling newspapers or presenting a particular political view back then, not writing an unvarnished truth. Journalism as a scholar’s gig wasn’t around for a long time.

Kate, who gave up on the middle man and has been reading the Newspapers of Record (the NYT) from 1880s and wowwee, talk about attempts to pump up emotion. It makes Anderson Cooper look like a computer.