I hate to be beat down by these pussies

[roberteggleton]

...but, maybe they won. I'm giving up the writing life, and will retire to reading anything that I can scrounge up given the crumby current marketplace of science fiction and fantasy.

I really screwed up. Some of you know that Rarity from the Hollow has received great reviews, and that author proceeds are donated to prevent child abuse. Well, anyway, I went to this newsgroup to tell them about my novel winning a 2006 competition for the best published. The people there started an argument about whether I had the right to tell them about my novel -- they called my post spam. The argument lasted a long time.

Apparently, emotions got charged -- not mine, as I was having fun and thought it was all a philosophical debate about what is or isn't spam -- and then some of the newsgroup members who have never read by novel posted insults about me and it on the Mobipocket site -- one of the two places selling it. One of them posted the directions on the newsgroup for posting reader book reviews on Mobipocket, but instead called me names and pretended that they had read the novel. I could tell that they hadn't because none of the posts included any info except from blurbs that authors had written or from the professional reviews. It has caused a five star rating to drop to three already.

I should have stopped my obsession with self-promotion. I feel especially bad about my mistakes on behalf of the abused kids that I work with in my treatment program.

Robert Eggleton
"Rarity from the Hollow"

[maggot]

Can you speak to the brass of Mobipocket and get it fixed? (Assuming, of course, that you provide proof and evidence)

[roberteggleton]

I'll try an email to Mobipocket to request that the posts that have nothing to do with a review be removed. Thanks. Except for the fact that no other negative post mentions anything about Rarity from the Hollow that wasn't easily obtained from one of the blurbs written by authors, or from one of the three book reviews, or the narrative about it winning an award for 2006 publications -- I doubt if I could prove that the posts were fake. If I was better at internet research, maybe I could find the posters' email addresses on Mobipocket and then match them to the newsgroup.

[roberteggleton]

There's this guy, Terry Austin, who keeps repeating that the "first law" is to protect, followed by the second law is "ourselves." It's so stupid for "laws." He does it every time following his sig. His posts about me sound like juvenile insults and it just pis..... me off so much that I've kept at arguing with him (my bad). I checked out his name by Google, and I don't see anything he could be quoting from. Does anybody know anything about this guy, such as a physical address so that I can knock on his door and freak out his neighbors.

Robert Eggleton
"Rarity from the Hollow"

[Tin_Lizzie]

I don’t know the guy, but I may be able to enlighten you as to what he’s misquoting. The nineteenth-century code of honor states that we must “protect ourselves from others, and protect others from ourselves.”

[roberteggleton]

Wow. Now, that's a cool quote. Thanks.

A little progress, one of the posters on the newsgroup caved in and agreed to donate $20 to prevent child abuse if I could verify my conviction. Of course I've been convicted, but that's another story.

He said that he sent the check. I'll find out in a few and either thank or blast him. Twenty dollars is enough to buy a kid an inexpensive pair of tennis shoes, and no joke for a child victim frequently made fun of at school. If he sent it, I owe.

He also wants me to stop posting about Rarity from the Hollow as a fund-raiser that helps needful kids. Sorry, but maybe 20 million would work to stop my compulsion. Please check out my novel that will help keep kids safe, not happy, but alive. Anything that anybody can do to help......................

"Rarity from the Hollow" (it's a growing addiction!)