SusanWiggs | Amazon Archives

February 09, 2009 | 8 Comments

(image from wikimedia commons)

Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to post nasty reviews on Amazon. The same person used 4 (and counting) different names to give poor Fireside 4 low ratings. I’m very flattered by the attention!

Three of her fake personae were invented just to trash Fireside. The other has posted nasty reviews for Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice, Bill Clinton, labor unions and Democrats in America. She pretty much hates everything except self-aggrandizing, right-wing memoirs. She probably hates puppies and angel food cake, too.

When people go to that much trouble to be negative, you have to feel sorry for them. This person clearly has personal issues. Also, she didn’t actually read the book, or she would have seen where the storyline went–in an unexpected direction. AJ’s story in Fireside is just something that happened, it’s fiction based on a real situation, like everything else in a novel. It plays into the themes of family, commitment and loyalty, which I love to explore in my fiction.

I don’t need for everyone to love my books, and I have the e-mail to prove it. So I won’t be asking Amazon to remove the review-bombs. Besides, controversy sells books. Just ask President Obama. 🙂

I can’t wait to hear what this one-star bomber thinks of the people of Avalon saving the public library in the next book! PS: She might be my good luck charm, bringing all this attention to my book. It’s currently #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Hooray!

December 31, 2007 | 6 Comments

Oh, fun! The Winter Lodge is up for a Reviewers Choice Award from RT Book Reviews. It’s up against some of the best books of 2007. I am in good company–every single author in this category is one I regularly read and love, so there’s really no down side to this. Here’s the whole list:

- SIZZLING
  Susan Mallery HQN (January 2007)
- NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR’S
  Christie Ridgway Avon (January 2007)
- THE WINTER LODGE
  Susan Wiggs Mira (February 2007)
- JUST LIKE HEAVEN
  Barbara Bretton Jove (March 2007)
- SUGAR DADDY
  Lisa Kleypas St. Martin’s (March 2007)
- VIRGIN RIVER
  Robyn Carr Mira (April 2007)
- ALL ABOUT EVIE
  Beth Ciotta HQN (May 2007)TANGLED UP IN YOU
  Rachel Gibson Avon (August 2007)
  
  A TOUCH OF MINX
  Suzanne Enoch Avon (October 2007)
  
  THE PERFECT MATCH
  Kimberly Cates HQN (December 2007)

Best of luck to us all!

Lightning strikes twice in the same place.

November 06, 2007 | 7 Comments

Well, in the same week, anyway. The Winter Lodge was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. Then Amazon listed it at #1 on the Best of Romance list.

This is a particular honor because The Winter Lodge was a “monster” book–one that drove me nuts, writing it. (For those of you who’ve read it, I’m talking about Jenny’s romantic history.) The emotions were hard in that book, and the deadline was insane. But I’m not complaining. Garrison Keillor reminds us that writing, as a job, is the opposite of hard:

“The truth, young people, is that writing is no more difficult than building a house, and the only good reason to complain is to discourage younger and more talented writers from climbing on the gravy train and pushing you off.”

All’s well that ends well. Thanks to PW and Amazon!