Reviews—writers love them and hate them in equal measure. Reviews share many things in common with Christmas presents…or birthday presents. On the surface, they are an exciting prospect and just getting one is a joyful experience—that exhilarating moment between knowing you’ve received one and actually reading the reader’s thoughts on your book.

Sometimes, after you’ve unwrapped it, exhilaration turns to elation—YES! They “got it,” they understood, they loved it!

Sometimes, you find despair—Oh, they didn’t like it.

Writers are used to those highs and lows. In fact, with reviews, we can experience both the high and the low for the same novel. But hey, you can’t please all the people all the time.

We’re all pretty well trained on etiquette. We know that any response to a poor review is a death-blow to our career. A writer’s persona demands public humility when the reader loves our work…and absolute, stoic restraint if they hate it.

But…

Every so often…

There’s that one review…

The one that is so misguided…

That is so darn misinformed and ridiculous…

That it that makes us advocates for the torture of the reviewer

That review that tempts us to break the bounds of etiquette and give them a lethal, verbal, public smack-down.

But we can’t, of course…well you can’t…but, perhaps, we can do it for you.

S.K. Anthony and myself have a very special episode coming up on Writers After Dark. An episode devoted to those Crazy, Misguided Reviews. We’ve all gotten one…or will. Since you can’t respond to your own, we’re decided to do it for you…in our own, humorous little way.

And to get involved—to get that small satisfaction of having the last word—watch our short trailer and learn more.

Also, while everyone has been busy with A to Z blogging, me and S.K have been hard at work revising and revamping our video series—shorter episodes, funny and informative topics, and of course, our own brand of humor. If you haven’t watched, check out Writers After Dark on Youtube.