Month: July 2019

Rotten Reviews from Rotten Writers

Happy Saturday, everyone! As my regular readers know, I started this blog as a way to provide support to fellow writers, whether they are aspiring or well established, and build a community of writers that build each other up, not tear each other down. I’ve just never understood why we can’t help each other. We all have our own genres, styles, and niches, so why can’t we share readers and rejoice in each other’s success? Unfortunately, not all writers think that way, and not just in modern times. We’ve been jerks to each other for quite a while. The proof is in Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews & Rejections.

I’ve discussed this book once before. Essentially, it’s a collection of famous writers’ worst–and most hilarious–reviews and rejections. It’s meant to show writers that even the best in our trade get rejected and reviewed poorly so that they don’t get discouraged. To me, it’s actually quite an entertaining read. Among the reviews from famous publications and rejections from well-known publishers are remarks on certain works and their authors from an unexpected source: fellow writers. Whether in letters, diary entries, or published reviews, it seems that writers have always loved to take the opportunity to tear each other down. A few stuck out to me strongly, and you’d be surprised as to the perpetrators of these rather scathing comments:

A cliché anthologist…and maker of ragamuffin manikins.

Aristophanes on Euripides in The Thesmophoriazusae, circa 411 B.C.E.

First, I want to point out the date of that quote: 411 B.C.E. Yes, writers were ripping into each other even in Classical Greece. In this case, it was a younger playwright accusing one of his older contemporaries of being a “maker of ragamuffin manikins.” (That’s too funny, I just can’t get past it.) But where did such critiques get Aristophanes? Well, both are arguably still well known with Aristophanes called “The Father of Comedy” and “The Ancient Prince of Comedy” and Euripides considered one of the most prominent Ancient Greek tragedians who influenced the likes of William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. Still, it’s worth noting that I had at least heard of Euripides before reading this book.

Whitman, like a large shaggy dog, just unchained, scouring the beaches of the world and baying at the moon.

Robert Louis Stevenson on Walt Whitman in Familiar Studies, 1882

Walt Whitman certainly took it in the shorts, even from fellow writers. Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of him being compared to an unleashed dog gone wild. Personally, I would take it as a compliment considering dogs are among some of the best animals in the world, but I severely doubt that Robert Louis Stevenson meant it like that. In case you don’t recognize the name, Robert Louis Stevenson was the author of both Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde–an odd combination if I’ve ever seen one. He was also a poet with one of his most favorite collections being A Children’s Garden of Verses. Still, odds are that more people have heard of Whitman’s poetry than Stevenson’s.

Image retrieved from Amazon

It’s a shame you never knew her before she went to pot. You know a funny thing, she never could write dialogue. It was terrible. She learned how to do it from my stuff…She could never forgive learning that and she was afraid people would notice it, where she’d learned it, so she had to attack me. It’s a funny racket, really. But I swear she was damned nice before she got ambitions.

Ernest Hemingway on Gertrude Stein in Green Hills of Africa, 1935

Ernest Hemingway, he was…quite the character. I won’t lie, my feelings about him are mixed at best. Was he a great writer? Absolutely. His mastery of minimalism and subtext is beyond compare. In fact, he’s my go-to for examples on how to utilize subtext in dialogue. He was also courageous and a real man’s man. Still, there is a strong argument–accompanied by a strong counterargument–that he was misogynistic. There’s no clear-cut answer to that, especially when you look at both his works and his personal life. His remarks on Gertrude Stein here really do not help the argument against him being misogynistic. To me, it seems like the knee-jerk reaction of someone who was butt-hurt that someone–a woman, no less–dared to criticize him. Writers aren’t the best when it comes to handling criticism, so it’s not surprising–it’s just rather unprofessional to attack another writer personally and in their art as a result.

It is of course a commonplace that Hemingway lacks the serene confidence that he is a full-sized man.

Max Eastman on Ernest Hemingway in New Republic, 1933

For all that Hemingway dished out, he took more than a few gut-punches himself. Even when it’s not about a legendary “macho” man like Hemingway, comments like this one are both hilarious and incredibly cringe-worthy. Max Eastman was a lot of things–prominent political activist, poet, writer on literature, philosophy, and society–but he’s nowhere near as well known today as Ernest Hemingway. Still, such a personal attack on a fellow writer seems rather unnecessary. Of course, Eastman was also a staunch supporter of the Women’s Rights Movement and a founding member of Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage, so perhaps Hemingway’s possible-but-not-proven misogyny caused some tension between them.

It’s a sad truth: writers have always attacked each other, and it will continue for the foreseeable future. Sometimes, the cause will be a dislike or disapproval of each other’s work. Other times, it’ll result from political, theological, philosophical, social, or economic disagreements. Real and imagined slights, jealousy, misunderstandings–a lot of things, both major and minor, could make writers lash out at each other. Then there are those jerks that just can’t keep their opinions to themselves when they hate each other.

Whatever the reason, tearing each other down does not help anyone. At best, you’ll go down in history as one of the literary world’s biggest a-holes. At worst, it could destroy your own career. As funny as many of these rotten reviews from rotten writers are, they are still toxic. Read them, laugh at them, but also learn from them. Do you want to be featured in one of Pushcart’s future editions of this book as the rotten reviewer? Or would you rather build up fellow writers and, maybe, grow your friend circle and fan base along the way?

What have your experiences been with fellow writers? Supportive? Destructive? A little bit of each? Leave your stories in the comments below!

Update 11/25/2022: This article and other pieces of my writing, from The Writer’s Scrap Bin articles to original stories and poetry, can be found on Vocal.


Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011

Book Reviews: The Professor by T.A. Evans

WARNING: The Professor by T.A. Evans contains some scenes of a sexual nature and accidental overdose. If you are under 18 years of age, do not continue reading. If you are triggered by accidental overdose or sex scenes or otherwise wish to avoid such depictions, proceed with caution.

Happy Manic Monday, everyone! It’s been quite a busy few weeks for me, but what else is new? (Organized chaos works with writing, but not so much with freelance work.) Anyway, to kick off July, I have decided to bring you another book review. This time, I’m going to be talking about a slightly steamier work: The Professor by T.A. Evans.

Clare Brenton is a fresh-faced college student. After a life of emotional abuse from a narcissistic mother and constant fighting between her now-divorced parents, she is ready to dip her toes into the outside world. Independence. Self-reliance. Freedom from a dark, twisted past. Clare wants it all. When she meets the charming and devilishly handsome Andrew, she also becomes ready to nurture a couple other neglected parts of her life: love and sex. However, love and sex are rarely ever so simple as meeting that special someone—especially when that special someone is your professor and twice your age.

As she and Andrew grow closer and their fling is taken to the next level, Clare must face the inevitable and introduce her lover to her family. Old wounds are opened, manipulation tears into relationships, and long-buried secrets threaten to rock Clare’s entire world. With mommy dearest right there to pick up the pieces of her crumbling life, Clare has to wonder, who is really pulling these strings? From dodging creepy coworkers and selfish mothers to the tangling of hers and Andrew’s shady pasts, this beautiful and intelligent college freshman has her work cut out for her. Can her relationship with Andrew survive?

I found Evans’s work to be engaging and entertaining. The plot is not unusual for contemporary romance novels, but Evans manages to add enough twists from the typical “difficult” relationship as depicted in this genre that it kept me on my toes. Clare’s unhappy childhood and family life along with Andrew’s life before meeting her provide a variety of bonding moments and tension for them, some bringing them together and others nearly ripping them apart. I even found plot elements that could be pursued further and complicate characters’ lives in the future, should the author choose to make this novel into a series. In fact, I would highly recommend it. Some of these elements leave a tantalizing thread that any writer should follow, lest they do themselves and their readers a disservice.

However, what really hooked me in this story were the characters. While there are a couple characters that I dislike all the time, there are none that I like all the time, and to me, that’s a good thing. Even the protagonists have flaws that complicate my feelings for them as I hope that everything will turn out well for them. Clare is not exactly my favorite (that is reserved for her best friend and coworker, Evan Reed), but she is a character that I can relate to, empathize for, and judge all at once. I do not approve of all of her choices, but I also feel for her when it comes to some of the more unsavory parts of her life. (I can definitely relate to the fights between her parents—albeit on a slightly less violent level—and the discomfort caused by her creepy, perverted coworker, Collin.) Andrew sometimes borders on the stereotypical “Mr. Right”, but Evans manages to right that with revelations about Andrew’s past and rumors about his present.

Now, as the work is contemporary romance, there are some scenes that are not appropriate for younger readers. However, they are neither crude nor overly explicit. Rather, they are sensual and passionate with just enough details to ensure that the reader can picture what is occurring. In a way, there is more of a thrill from this underdeveloped imagery that would be missing if the reader were told exactly what is going on. If you dislike such moments in novels period, you’ll probably want to avoid this book. Those who appreciate tasteful, subtle lovemaking scenes, though, will certainly appreciate it.

Of course, as with most works, this book isn’t perfect. The plot itself and the characters, even with the occasional slip into the stereotypical, are solid. The writing, on the other hand, could use a little work. On a superficial level, some additional editing and proofreading would help the work tremendously. In particular, the narration sometimes switches between past and present tense without any clear reason for it, even midsentence. While a minor fluke, these switches can be distracting and cause some confusion in the timeline. There is also some confusion in the timeline that does not have to do with the shifts in tense, but this becomes less frequent after the first chapter.

The pacing is also uneven at times. The narrative is a relatively quick read overall, but the problem more arises with scenes such as Clare and Andrew’s first night together, which gets into the passion too immediately for my liking. Sometimes slow pacing bogs down the story as well. The first few pages, for example, presents too much backstory for Clare too soon, which delays the real start to the story, i.e. when Clare first sees Andrew. Nevertheless, these scenes are typically easy to overcome, and the plot and characters are enough to want to read the book from start to finish.

Overall, The Professor by T.A. Evans is an enjoyable read. The story is compelling, the characters are realistically flawed but relatable, and family drama and plot twists keep readers on their toes. While around 250 pages long, the novel goes by relatively quickly. The writing could be improved, but those just looking for a good, sensual story will want to give this book a try.

You can buy an eBook or print copy of The Professor by T.A. Evans on Amazon. Also make sure to check out the author’s website at www.taevansauthor.com.

Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!


Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011