As for me, I like nice.

"This book is so bad, so horrible, so nauseating and phoney [sic] that it's amazing." From a review of Bridges of Madison County.

"That's all they have, 50 friends? Did her BFF Oprah show up? How about the brown nosing Clintons? What Hillary actually missed a photo op?" A comment on People's article about Katie Couric and John Molner's wedding.

I read stories on the Internet most mornings. Since I’m not a TV watcher, this is how I learn most of what I know about the news. Not just the war-crime-politics portions, but movie-star and TV-personality stuff, too. (This embarrasses me to admit, since I’m always complaining about the quality—or lack thereof—on both TV and in the movies.)

                When I finish reading the stories, my attention invariably goes to the “comments” section at the end. And it doesn’t matter a bit what the subject matter of the story is, whether it’s Katie Couric’s wedding or Bowe Bergdahl’s rescue, many of the comments are scathing. They’re mean and heartless and often illiterate. Yes, this is a free country—you can write whatever you please about whomever you please whenever you please. Libel seems just a way of life for many people and no one seems to care. If commenters are lying, hey, that’s okay. No matter what they say or how they say it, they attach the opinion label to it and all is well.

                Book reviewers do this, too. Not all of them, not even many of them. But I do have to wonder, if reviewers don’t like the book, why can’t they just say it didn’t work for them? The editing threw them off-track. They were upset by a black moment they couldn’t buy into. The writing itself wasn’t what they required. They just didn’t care for the story.  Why do they feel it’s necessary to attack the author? (No, this hasn’t happened to me, but I’ve read reviews like that, haven’t you?)

                I know being nice just for niceness’s sake drives some people crazy. I know the term “politically correct” is anathema to those who seek to, you know, not be. My sister-in-law rolls her eyes because I write books in which no one kills anyone and the protagonists all live happily ever after. (She does this before she reads them and tells other people how good they are—she’s the best of sisters.) As far as I know, she’s never read romance by anyone else, though Bridges of Madison County is her all-time favorite movie.

                I didn’t like Bridges of Madison County, the book. I didn’t like the movie much better, though I would watch Meryl Streep no matter what she did. But I guess my point is, I didn’t know Robert James Waller, its author—so why would I want to denigrate his character or the way he tells a story because I didn’t like his book?

                Answers, anybody?

                Have a great week. Like Holly Jacobs says, hope you find some glee.