A POSITIVE FROM A NEGATIVE
For the most part, I’ve been fortunate. My story, The Consuming, in the TALES FROM THE MIST anthology has received some pretty good reviews. I’m proud of that story and the very nice things that have been said about it. Things like:
“The Consuming by Rhonda Hopkins is the perfect example of gothic horror…”
“My personal favorites were The Consuming, by Rhonda Hopkins, a great creepy haunting story…”
“The Consuming by Rhonda Hopkins is the literary version of what films like Paranormal Activity tried to be. This has the bumps in the night flying off the page.”
“The Consuming by Rhonda Hopkins had a chilling Hitchcock feel…”
“I’ve got to give kudos to a couple that really sent ice spiders dancing down my spine. Rhonda Hopkins in “The Consuming” places her character (Serena) in one of my favorite subgenres of horror: The haunted house. Naturally, the things that go bump in the night (and also the day) frightened me, but then the real horror of the story arrives.”
So, I’ve been dreading getting a review that wasn’t so great. Realistically, I know not everyone likes everything and not everyone will like everything I write. That’s a given. And recently someone said they don’t like romance, so The Consuming didn’t hold their attention.
Now as far as bad reviews go, that’s not really so terrible. So someone doesn’t like romance and it wasn’t their cup of tea. But hold the phone — that’s where it gets a little confusing for me. Romance? Moi?
I don’t write romance. Okay, I’ve fluctuated on calling one of my upcoming series a “romantic suspense” to a “suspense with romantic elements”. That’s because I don’t think I write romance all that well. I think I write some things well – like suspense and some really reprehensible bad guys (maybe because I’ve had the displeasure of meeting more than my share of those). But romance?
Let’s just say I envy those that write romance and make it look so effortless, like C C MacKenzie, Stacey Joy Netzel, and Nana Malone, who recently made the USA Best-Sellers list (Yea, Nana!) or any of the other WG2E Street Team who write romance.
For those that don’t know the difference – in a romantic suspense, the romance is integral to the story. In a suspense with romantic elements, the romance isn’t so important and could be left out entirely without it really affecting much.
I didn’t set out to write something where romance was a big part of it. In fact, there’s not much at all in the way of a romance in the first novella, PREDATOR, in my Courting Justice series.
However, in the first full length novel ILLUSION OF SAFETY, my characters had a different idea. You see, Tori and Caleb have known each other practically their whole lives. He’s her brother’s best friend.
In chapter three, they sort of threw me for a loop when this happened:
“Oh my God…I thought…” Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Caleb looked around, found what he needed and gently took her hand, leading her down the hall. He pushed open a door and pulled Tori into a single bathroom, locking the door behind them. He took her into his arms and let her cry for a minute until she regained control of her emotions.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to panic like that.” Tori ducked her head so he couldn’t see her face.
“You have every right to be upset. And the panic was just a delayed response. You’ve held it together for over an hour after witnessing something horrendous. Hell. You not only held it together, you got yourself and a little girl to safety. So stop being so hard on yourself.”
Caleb turned the water on and fiddled with knobs until the water was warm but not too hot. He grabbed a towel from the dispenser, wet it and squeezed the water from it.
He motioned toward the sink. “Wash your face so we can go find out how Rebecca is.”
Caleb watched as she removed her purse from across her shoulder and placed it on the door hook.
He scrubbed the right leg of her jeans with the wet towel, removing as much of the coffee stain as he could. Tossing the paper, he studied her in the mirror. Her face was pale but still beautiful. Wait. Beautiful? Where did that come from? He’d known her nearly his whole life. Okay…so he thought she was beautiful. It didn’t mean anything. Right?
Her hair was a mess and it reminded him of what she’d been through. He couldn’t stand it any longer.
His gaze rested on her purse. Crap. He knew it was a nightmare in there. What the hell…I’m going in. He unzipped the bag and was surprised to find what he wanted on top.
Tori turned to throw away the paper towel she’d dried her face and hands with and saw the brush in his hands. Her eyebrow rose. “Have a hair emergency?” she asked.
“No. But you do.” He grinned and handed her the brush.
Not a whole lot of romance there, but there were more little scenes like that leading to a romantic relationship; so you see, I had to find a way to give them what they wanted. But it’s not so easy for me. And if I told you I re-wrote one pivotal chapter in their romance more than twenty times from scratch, it would NOT be an exaggeration. If I told you I re-wrote it more than fifty, it might be, but not by much. 
I’m hoping I’ve finally gotten it right. At least Tori and Caleb aren’t yelling at me anymore that it’s lame or that they “wouldn’t do that.” (Dr. Phil, please don’t come knocking on my door. I’m way too busy with my characters at the moment. We have deadlines to meet!)
Now back to The Consuming for a minute – the romance in it is more an “elements” kind of thing. I think anyway. It’s more about the ghosts, the hauntings and the way Serena handles it all. There’s a sexual attraction, which as someone recently pointed out to me, “…doesn’t make it romance. It makes it real.” And I agree with that.
But if I managed to do it well enough that someone referred to it as romance – I guess maybe I’m getting the hang of this thing better than I thought. So, I’m going to take that as a positive instead of a negative.
What about you? Have you ever received a “bad” review that you found good in, instead? Or have you written a not so great review of a book and hoped the author found something positive in your words?
As always, thanks for reading! And may you find romance where you least expect it.
I wrote this long comment that got somehow deleted in the nanosphere, so I’ll try again. I can relate to your experience because I had entered many contests when I began writing and found out that I wasn’t writing romance but women’s fiction with romantic elements. I was not following the formula for romance and consequently was getting dinged for that. The negative contest reviews I no longer took to heart because I wasn’t doing anything wrong when I found out I wasn’t writing what they were expecting.
Sorry your first comment got lost, Patti, but thank you for typing another one. Yeah, it’s all in one’s perspective. I did well in several contests, but even with that, there were some I didn’t do so well in and in some of them, some of the comments left me scratching my head. Fortunately many were also helpful. You just can’t please everyone. Thank you for stopping by, Patti! I hope you have a great weekend!
Rhonda, I’ve learnt not to beat myself over a not so favorable review especially when so many other people enjoy my stories. Bad reviews come with the territory once you put your work out in public.
I had someone complain one of my stories wasn’t erotica. I had to laugh because it was a short story romance and clearly labelled as such. So I just thought “D’uh! Of course it’s not erotica.”
See we can’t win.
PS: I’m waiting to read Illusions of Safety.
Thanks, Kiru! We certainly can’t win all the time. But that’s probably a good thing too. The good wouldn’t feel as wonderful as it does without having some disappointments in there to balance them out. Glad you popped in! Have a wonderful weekend!
Rhonda, that’s definitely not a negative or ‘bad’ review, it’s just that it wasn’t the reader’s cup of tea. With 12 stories, it’s bound to happen to all of us. I did like your touch of romance in The Consuming and thought you did it well. And I love that excerpt you posted, so I’m definitely looking forward to IOS.
Thank you, Stacey! I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, as far as “not positive” reviews go, that one was pretty good. Have a beautiful weekend!
Reviews are so subjective, so personally, if I don’t enjoy a book, I don’t review it. Maybe the book just wasn’t my cup of tea. Or I was having an off-reading-day. Whatever the problem with the book is, I generally realize when I’m part of the problem, so why should I give what’s basically a good book a bad review just because it’s not my preference of reading material?
I recently received a five star review from someone who hadn’t yet read the book and I found that entertaining. But I try to ignore the bad reviews unless they have something specific that will help me make the types of stories I write better.
Good way to look at it, Sheila. I’ve changed the way I used to do reviews. I felt so bad if I said I didn’t like a book, I just couldn’t do it anymore. So now I don’t review books I can’t give a 3 or better score on, but usually I only do 4 o 5. Just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean someone else won’t love it. Ha! Funny they gave it a 5 w/o reading it. That’s way better than those that give it a 1 without reading. Since I don’t have a lot of experience with being reviewed for my own work yet, my plan for the future is to do as you do. Look to see if there is something I can use to make my writing better and if not – ignore it. I just thought this one was kind of cool because of the “romance” thing.
I agree, some of our stories weren’t what the reader typically enjoys. That’s ok, too! Not everyone’s gonna like everything.
I didn’t really see it as a bad review. The reviewer bought the book, read it, and cared enough to tell us what he/she thought. Paying readers’ opinions are always valid. I just feel bad for the one story that rated a DNR (did not finish) in the review.
Oh, wait, that was mine…
hehe, Just kidding. I totally respect the reviewer’s right to not enjoy my awesome gangster/rat/vampire/horror/adventure/Halloween-Fantasy apocalyptic romance with animal on animal violence. It’s a pretty specific genre, but it’s clearly a growth segment of the market.
Your story was funny and awesome, Greg. You even made me like a rat like Giles.
It’s okay – lots of other people liked our stories. You just can’t please everyone. I know I don’t like every book I read, so I wouldn’t expect everyone to like mine. 
My advice? Write first, then figure out what to call it. To do otherwise leads to something less than genuine.
Oh it’s finished. I just had this problem deciding what to call it.
Thanks for stopping by, Dale!
The worst review I’ve ever gotten: “There isn’t anything I like about this. It was just terribly written and trite.”
I quit writing for about 8 years. Figured I just didn’t have it. Now, looking back, I see the reviewer as a young woman wanting to feel important and sound educated. I see my own flaw of taking everything too personally. (I still wish I had kicked that chick in the butt as she was walking down the stairs after class.)
But someone saying they don’t like your story because they don’t care for romance…that’s not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
I had to look up élan from that same review. Sheesh, I’m dumb.
Well that just sucks, Catie. You’re a wonderful writer and I’m glad you’ve embraced writing again. In some contests I did early on, I had some say some pretty hurtful things. But in the same contest people had a lot of positive to say. Sometimes they completely contradicted each other on what worked and what didn’t. I learned early that it’s all a matter of personal taste and that just because one person doesn’t like something, doesn’t mean others won’t. And you are NOT dumb, Catie! Don’t be talking about my friend like that.
I normally don’t read my reviews, unless I know they’re good.
But today I scrolled to one by mistake, and sure enough, there was nothing useful in it for me – it just showed me that that person wasn’t my readership. It was confirmed when I looked at their other reviews, and saw that they gave an equally bad review to what I thought was one of the best books I read last year! But IMO the romantic elements in “The Consuming” were fantastic!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Jennette. I appreciate that so much considering you write wonderful romance into your books. You’re right. Not everyone will be “our” readers. And that’s okay. There’s enough writers and genres for every reader and enough readers for every writer.
Rule #1 …. the customer is always right. Rule #2 … if the customer is wrong, see Rule #1. There’s something very personal about rummaging through a woman’s purse to find her hairbrush. Your characters are adding another whole level of UST to your suspense novel and it’s resonating with your readers. Let the UST flow … it doesn’t mean you have to write erotica.
Thanks, Anna! No – erotica is a whole other thing. It’s not the sex that’s at issue – it’s making the small intimate/emotional aspects seem real in progressing their relationship that’s difficult for me. I probably need a psychologist.
I could go on and on about this but I think that big publishers have “brainwashed” and “spoiled” consumers by expecting certain things from certain books through packaging. When someone makes a comment like that, they are telling you that your creativity should be in a box. A horror/suspense book cannot have romance, and a romance book cannot have horror. I think readers need to be rewired to expect the unexpected.
You said it, Natalie! Right on! Thanks for the post, Rhonda!
Thanks for stopping by, Tamara!
I agree, Natalie. I mean, I think there are certain requirements that must be met – for example in romance you should always have a HEA. That’s the whole point of them. But I love the unexpected in a book. I read so much, if there weren’t some of those moments, everything would start to look the same. But still, some people like romance novels. Some don’t. Some like horror. Some don’t. And, I’m good with that. Although I read just about every genre, there are things I don’t like and I don’t expect everyone to like everything I write. I’m just sort of tickled someone thought my story was a romance.
I’ve had all sorts of odd reviews on contests. Some would glow while others would nit pick over formatting. This being an issue since I have a mac and things shift when sent to them in RTF. They didn’t even know about this and dinged me points. The very same manuscript was offered representation by Crimson Romance. This is the book that’s currently Free on Amazon. Yeah, that whole contest thing, I’m done with them.
I know – it’s really kind of funny when you look at the differing opinions on the same piece. But, I also gained invaluable insight from several of the contests I entered in the past when I received very helpful and constructive critique. So I would still recommend new writers enter them – for the experience, for the feedback and for learning to deal with negative criticism. Thanks for stopping by, Sandy! Good luck on your current promotion and I can’t wait to read CONQUERED.
I think you write quite well, Rhonda, and you can count me as one of those in your readership!
I am honored, Aiden. Thank you so much!