Where Has All the Love Gone?

You'd think in an industry/genre centered around the hearts and flowers (and yummy Alpha heroes) of lurv, the readers and writers of such industry/genre would be a little more about the love.

Apparently not.

You know, I don't spend a lot of time seeking out industry news, gossip and such. I enjoy me some good hot romances with deeply emotional or comedic stories and call it a day. But by virtue of being friends with authors, aspiring authors and other romance novel enthusiasts, I find myself more often than not with my curious nose in whatever happens to the be hot topic issue of the moment. And that's fine. I admit I enjoy it because it makes me feel like I belong to that tight circle that is the Romance Biz. As a reader (and sometimes writer) it's a fun time in the old town. And who doesn't love good gossip?

But, what is it with all the bickering, name calling and general pre-teen adolescent behavior that a lot of people exhibit in this biz? (both readers and writers) I mean, at what point does one go from swooning after the latest Crusie hero to talking smack about folks? Picking on authors, bloggers, readers, RWA and whatever else that can be dragged out in a general smackdown. It's silly, petty, and childish.

I've just come to the conclusion that some people just take themselves far too seriously. Expect far too much from other humans and spend much too much time sparking negativity into the atmosphere. (or blogosphere?)

Dudes, get over it already. If you feel you must express your opinion, do so and then get the hell over it already. Your opinion is yours alone. And if someone doesn't agree with you, oh well. Not your problem. Certainly not your responsibility to keep beating dead horses until an entire community is bloody, bruised and generally fed up. Let it go. Just close your mouths, shrug it off and just...let. it. go.

Not to sound all Sesame Street, but why can't we all just get along? If Nora doesn't like a swan hat that is her prerogative just as it's yours to say that a swan hat is no big deal. Whatever. A swan hat is just a swan hat until it becomes a big nasty argument fostered by a group of people with nothing better to do than make mountains out of tiny little mole hills.

Do a pair of tights really warrant so much furor that they garner three gazillion comments, 20 gazillion blog posts and many a frustrated tear? Do they really?

If they do, I musta slept through that lesson in life. Tights are tights, hats (tacky or otherwise) are just hats. No freakin' reason to alienate or hurt people's feelings. And don't you know that by fanning the flames with your incendiary negative remarks aimed at the people who objected to the tights, you're not helping the tights wearer? You're only further causing them harm because you're keeping such a useless argument going. Don't you think it'd have been easier for the tights wearer to swallow the quiet criticism had those of you who felt the need to defend merely let the subject drop after the first couple of pats on the head and refutes to the crits?

It just all seems so silly to me that it's become an issue of "tights and swan hats representing and defaming an entire industry." Dude, who knew tights and hats had that kind of power? Shoot, guess I'll head on over to Wal-Mart and pick me up some.

Seriously people, it's not worth all this. Sheesh. Read a book and OD on chocolate. You know, like normal folk.