Here she comes to save the day...

A mild-mannered, best-selling romance author sits in a Borders, signing copies of her newest vampire romance (hardcover, no less). Suddenly, a pink heart appears in the sky. Oh no, another romance author must be in trouble!! Captain Author-Bitch to the rescue!! MaryJanice Davidson rips off her glasses, kicks off her Jimmy Choos, and flies off to the nearest high speed connection, to defend the poor, beleaguered author under attack for merely expressing her sane, well-reasoned opinion. Those crazy readers/bloggers! Don't they know they have no right to criticize! They are not writers! Captain Author-Bitch will get them all!

Over at KarenS' Blog, there was a 'kerfuffle' (perfect word!) over book covers by Changeling Press (6/19). Browsing through the comments, I noticed that MJD had shown up for her usual "I bitch, therefore I am" type comment. All her comments have this vaguely superior, antagonistic tenor to them. Look, she's here and here and here, and here and here too!She shows up to prove that, yes, writers can be just as bitchy as readers, and don't expect her not to be a bitch just because she's dependent upon readers buying her books in order to make her many, many dollars. I think that's the point...maybe. The first time I read her snarky little commentary, I thought it quite funny. But now I'm amused in a groaning, eye-rolling, vaguely annoyed sort of way. I think she just likes to piss people off.

Will I stop reading her books? Nah. I loved Undead and Unwed, Undead and Unemployed and Under Cover. Nothing since then has lived up to that early promise, but I'll keep checking those "Undead and..." books out of the library. At least until they become so completely plot and character development free that they consist of one chapter of Betsy and Eric having sex and one chapter of the cast of characters sitting around the kitchen snarking at each other. Perhaps her Captain Author-Bitch alter ego is sapping her creativity. At least other authors being unfairly criticized by reader/bloggers can rest easy, knowing that Captain Author-Bitch is out to defend their honor, and that of writers in general.

As for the Changeling Press kerfuffle, I wonder if it was carefully orchestrated stunt to drum up some traffic for their site. I mean, at least a couple of people must have gotten curious enough to poke around. All I have to say is, in addition to the covers (many of them craptastic, to be sure), there are some incredible titles to be found:I Know Who You Did Last Summer, The Adventures of Wonderslut, Coffee Man and Straight Guy, and If It's Tuesday, There Must be Dildoes. Some of these titles are so...compelling, I might buy one for it alone. I have no idea about the quality. I do recognize some authors' names, I would imagine there's some great stuff on there, but, yes, some of the covers are off-putting, I'm sorry.