{"id":593,"date":"2012-05-29T08:02:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T15:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/?p=593"},"modified":"2012-05-29T08:02:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T15:02:57","slug":"my-mom-only-gave-me-4-stars-on-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/2012\/05\/my-mom-only-gave-me-4-stars-on-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"My mom only gave me 4 stars on Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In November of 2005, I wrote a novel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pony-Up-ebook\/dp\/B002MH2FXO\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-594\" title=\"Pony Up cover\" src=\"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Capture2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Capture2.png 203w, https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Capture2-187x300.png 187w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It was fairly terrible but really, really fun to write (and for me to read). Someone with a resume suspiciously like mine ends up free floating in space and has to save the world from terrorists with the help of her drummer-physicist-engineer husband. (Yeah, that would be C.)<\/p>\n<p>The novel came about via\u00a0<a title=\"NaNoWriMo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nanowrimo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">NaNoWriMo\u00a0<\/a>(National Novel Writing Month) and my officemate (and friend). Phil came in one day and said, &#8220;I really want to write a novel for NaNoWriMo.&#8221; I replied (and I swear I was just trying to get some work done, I may even have had headphones on) &#8220;I will if you will.&#8221; Phil will not live down the hassling until he finishes his novel. Which I&#8217;m sure will be\u00a0<em>this<\/em>\u00a0November.<\/p>\n<p>After two months planning and one month writing, I spent a year\u00a0editing\u00a0and refining and then got it self-published through\u00a0<a title=\"Pony up on Lulu\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/elecia-white\/pony-up\/paperback\/product-2161870.html\" target=\"_blank\">Lulu.com<\/a>, mostly as a Christmas present to my mom but also to continue the hassling of Phil.\u00a0A year or two later, Lulu worked out a deal with Amazon. One morning I got to work and there was my book on <a title=\"Pony Up on Amazon (Kindle)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pony-Up-ebook\/dp\/B002MH2FXO\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a>. It was very, very cool.<\/p>\n<p>Well, once you get a book (anything) on Amazon, the next thing to do is to get some reviews. Phil, exceedingly graciously given the aforementioned hassling, wrote a 5-star review for me. My mom also agreed to do a review. She gave the novel 4 stars.<\/p>\n<p>Let me say it more clearly:\u00a0<em>my mom only gave my book 4 stars on Amazon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, so amusing and cringe-worthy. Both at the same time. There is nothing like your parents keeping you humble.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, my mom had no idea that a 4-star review was akin to saying &#8220;just ok&#8221;. Amazon indicates it means &#8220;I like it&#8221; vs. the 5-star &#8220;I love it&#8221;. \u00a0In her review, my mom says that the work is pretty good for a first time author and she looks forward to more. It is a positive review with a few light criticisms from someone who reads a lot (a lot!) of science fiction and fantasy. She had high standards and my novel didn&#8217;t quite merit the same rating she&#8217;d give to Bradley, McCaffrey, Henderson, Norton, or Zelazny.<\/p>\n<p>My mom was very supportive in everything I did. I never had any doubt she loved me. But anytime I talk growing up, I definitely pulled out the 4-star review as an indication of how difficult my childhood was. It almost always gets me an incredulous laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Around the time my mom passed away, the reviews from both her and Phil disappeared (Lulu and Amazon weren&#8217;t linked anymore and the reviews didn&#8217;t apply to the Kindle version for some reason). I wish I&#8217;d copied them down. But I&#8217;ll never forget them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In November of 2005, I wrote a novel. It was fairly terrible but really, really fun to write (and for me to read). Someone with a resume suspiciously like mine ends up free floating in space and has to save the world from terrorists with the help of her drummer-physicist-engineer husband. (Yeah, that would be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,15],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logicalelegance.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}