I had to take a vacation from your books… I absolutely LOVE reading your creations and respect you more than I can put into words – your courage and ability to create tales and deliver them so I can be entertained, enriched, enlightened; is something to aspire to. BUT… I had to take a vacation. At first it was because I ran out of books and had already exceeded my monthly eBook allowance. But really, it was more than that. I have some gripes and I just couldn’t read another book – they all seemed to be….
- Please, please, please don’t treat your readers like morons. We are smart and enlightened people. We READ. You do not need to repeat a zillion times (or really, repeat AT ALL), details in the story. If I read it earlier in the book, I remember it. Perhaps say it again if it’s been awhile, but I do not need you to tell me someone’s profession/age difference/insecurity/family relation/main plot point/tension or whatever, every single page. Especially if it’s NOT IMPORTANT to the overall book. I am tired of being treated as a moron.
- You don’t need to get overly creative about naming, well, the penis. If I read one more: “log; hunk of meat; poker; log of love; sausage;” and so on, I may just scream. Really? Nothing kills the mood quicker, honestly.
- Integrating characters or plots that clearly were edited out… but not fully. Lately, things seem to not add up, a lot. Like an entire plot was taken out because it was not relevant – and then, you have a random page or chapter with that thread. Please review what your editor does – this is very difficult to read and still understand what the heck is going on.
- Your characters, should well, be characters. I know that sex plays a major role in some, ok most, of your stories (and I thank you for that), but more and more I’m finding that characters break character to further the plot or get a random point across. For me, nothing makes me put down the book faster – I fall in love with your characters, but if they are just a jumble of undeveloped actions, I could care less about his plight, development, or where your plot is going.
- Taking the “easy way out” – I have seen so so so many “short stories” that had enough meat and bones within the characters and plot, to be actual, well, novels. WRITE THE LONGER BOOK. I don’t want you to neatly tie up the story in five pages so you can be done with it. Take care with your endings the same way you did with the previous 70 pages. It is so upsetting to be completely engaged and then have a “and then x, y and z fell into place and they lived HEA.”
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming (and I’m back to reading you with a vengeance).