My Blood Runs Cold: An Objective Review

So did I. But I was looking at my driver's license the other day and it had a different name on it. John Jacob Jingleheimer something...

But please don't repeat that around here. I don't want anyone to know it.

Coincidentally, your name is my name, too.

Non-fiction. And it probably won't surprise you or anyone else to know my professional writings are basically theological in nature.

(Thought balloon of the chapter headings, read aloud in a Goofy voice)
Evolution is just a theory!
Why are there still monkeys?
Kalam cosmological argument!
Pascal's wager!

*Pounds on sides of head to make it stop*
*Jumps out window shrieking*

And then... it all went sideways.

What's sad is that, if I did write that kind of stuff, there would be a market for it.

Here in Europe, the market would be pretty small but it would still exist. Among American Christians, it would be a pretty large sector.

not even thinking of taking the time to read this whole thread so this may have been mentioned BUT...
(respectfully submitted)

The first and so far only e-book publishing fiction author I have fallen in love with approached the pricing question in exactly the opposite fashion.

Her first book was free, for a while and then .99

Being free, and presenting an appealing concept, I downloaded it

And I loved it.
When the second was 2.99 I happily paid.
The third and fourth were 3.99 and I eagerly paid.

In my non-professional judgement, the first taste of your work ought be as cheap as possible. Mine was 2.99 and AFAIK it still hasn't busted 20 copies sold. If I ever finish the next one (of which I despair since i ought be working on it right now) the first will be free in hopes of serving some promotional purpose. And the first week or two the book will be discounted as well

I've had a thought for a while now; I wonder what poor Liet will do when this book blows up huge; because it's going to. Thing is, even if he's objectively right about it -- which he's not -- that doesn't diminish the odds. Twilight and 50 Shades Of Gray are absolute crap. So what if he's right and my book is, too? What's he going to say if it leads to something as big as the other two?

When? You go through phases of being a lucid poster, and, apart from a few stick-pokers, you get lucid responses.

At TBBS you made an utter arse of yourself, over here, iirc Storm asked everyone to give you a fresh start, which you then proceeded to piss away.

And it's a real pity as you can be a really good poster.

Given the raft of differing views here, the feuds, the venom over the years, the fact that you're pretty much the one point of unity in being treated like a fucker really ought to underline the problem is you.

That defines the target, not the problem. Again, what are you lot, helpless? Do you have no free will? Are you dumb, brainless creatures enslaved to simple stimulus/response like amoebae?

And you acknowledge that there are stick-pokers, but you sort of gloss right over it, don't you? I behave myself, the hardcore cunts act like, well, cunts -- I retaliate. And then everybody behaves as thought I wasn't trying to play nice. I'm actually amazingly fucking patient. But I'm human. You get a gang of fuckwits riding me long enough, yes, I'm going to fucking lose my temper and let 'em have it. I'd like to see any other poster here put up with the same shit and not do that.

Ask yourself why you're the target. Hardly anyone likes Liet, yet does he attract the opprobrium you do? No. People who have similar overall political outlooks treat you with similar derision as those with diametrically opposed ones do. Ask yourself why.

Why are you the WF special snowflake?

Instead of deflecting, apply a little self-awareness for once.

Why is anybody a target? Because they're different. Because they don't fit in. They don't conform. Is that what this board is about, conformity? Deflecting? I don't think you're seeing the forest for the trees, here, Ecky. I'm perfectly self-aware in this environment. I don't think the other people here are seeing this environment for what it is and maybe taking a breath to ask themselves if this is really who they want to be.

I behave myself until the sticks come out. Don't get upset at me for taking the sticks and shoving them up deserving asses. Don't like it? Don't provoke it -- and don't let your friends provoke it. Y'know, they wanna get nuts -- so I get nuts. If that upsets anybody, they always have the option to not act like cunts toward me. That's always on the menu.

Right. We have @John who is a bronie, @Nova who is a pre-op TS, @Ancalagon who is a self-confessed ginger.

Then we have a whole slew of political views, sexualities. Fuck, you can't do a Trek thread without it devolving into a pro/anti JJTrek tirade and abuse.

You're far from the only poster capable of causing a ruckus.

We're all different. Have a lot of the rough edges come off? Yes, time does that, but few on here can be called conformist.

Try again.

@John's staff, can't be fucked with, hence few do -- and that's not to say that none do, there's always Face, who will fuck with anybody. Then there's @Nova, and aside from the fact that she's about as inoffensive as milk, who's going to be politically incorrect on top of the usual douchebuckle and fuck with her? None of the crowd who fuck with me, who are invariably on the political left. Ancalagon is a member in good standing of the just-named clique, his comrades certainly aren't going to give him shit at every opportunity.

So, no, there's no need to try again. This board's dominant political ideology has shifted, leaving a libertarian noncomformist in a unique position to be fucked with even without said fuckery being a tradition with this crowd that goes back to before this board even existed. And you haven't disputed the fact that I don't instigate, I merely retaliate. So the short and sweet answer remains: all they have to do is not instigate. If you disagree, tell me on what basis you believe they're entitled to instigate and yet I should not retaliate.

I'll give you an example: Liet. Liet hasn't read the work, but he saw fit to spew a bunch of non-constructive crap at me about how much he thinks it sucks. How do I know he hasn't read it? I offered him a real simple way to authenticate that he has: All he has to do is name the characters in the first installment in chronological order of appearance. That's not remotely a tricky or complicated authentication. Hell, WAB even did it already, and Liet couldn't even be bothered to read his Cliff's Notes version of the thing.

You might ask: Why would he do that? To overcome my skepticism about his having read it to really drive the knife home. If he really wants to wound me, he'd jump at the chance to authenticate his (entirely non-constructive) criticism.

I mean, credit where credit is due, at least WAB had the decency to take his troll that far.

Not Liet. He hasn't done it because he can't do it, because he hasn't read the work.

But if I tell him to take his attempted psychological assault and shove it up his ass, I'm the bad guy?

This is incredible, woe me woe me, it's everyone elses fault but mine.......

I'm just the wasp. Don't like getting stung? Put down the stick and walk away. But quit wailing on the nest and then bitching when I swarm your asses. The mechanics are simple. You fuck with me, you get paid what you work for. So the solution is real easy. Don't fuck with me. Or do, but don't complain when you get what you're after.

Right, this flatly contradicts your previous point. You say everyone's a conformist, and the board turns on anyone "different", yet you yourself provide, errr, people who are different.

You need only look at the Progressive Pope thread to see a lot of the board has real issues with gender identity, so yes, @Nova is pretty inoffensive (but hasn't always been, a previous incarnation certainly could be), but certainly more different from yourself to attract trolling if that alone was someone's endgame.

So now it's only a "clique" that come after you. And lefty ones at that.

Balls. There are plenty of times I hold back when I just want to drop a tonne of abuse on you, but I really don't see the point, you occupy a similar position as @Dayton3 - someone to lake lazy potshots at if I'm bored, purely because the two of you have issues at such a fundamental level it's obviously baked deep in your personality.

I've seen a wide range of people have a go at you, including @Storm, who I am sure is really a left-wing member of the WF Elite

People had a go at you long before the change in staff, long before. Going way back when the TBBS days.

Stop making excuses.

Actually, Storm was one of the earliest alpha readers for this book. He liked it quite a bit.

And you're right, you have seen quite a lot of people here have a go at me -- without provocation. Not without retaliation, though. Same mechanism, same result, same Protip: Don't fuck with me. And if you do, don't bitch about my response to it. Don't like my responses? Fair enough. Don't bust your ass to earn 'em.

This thread makes me want pie. Quantum filament pie.

For every piece of shit book that makes it, there are thousands that don't. Hell, there are probably thousands of good books that don't make it for every Shades of Gray.

And? Liking your works !== not giving you shit on here, or at the TBBS, where he cheerfully did when you warranted it.

Actually a lot of provocation, but that's the thing with you, an actually pathological inability to take responsibility for your actions on here.

I'll stop bothering now. I'll go talk to my cat, she's more self aware that yourself sadly.

Right. You just go right on ahead and admit that I'm reacting to provocation -- and then dismiss the provocation as any part in the reaction in the very same sentence. Because that sure as hell doesn't add up to "inability to take responsibility", in your eyes, on anybody's part but mine.

"Hey, we're a bunch of rotten cunts at this guy pretty regularly. Now and then he has enough of it and tells us off! That bastard!" What a carefree world you all must live in.

And the reason those don't make it is a lack of buzz. Guess what this thread has provided.

Jesus fucking wept. Guess we know where Trey and Parker got the idea for Cartman's personality now.

Yes, people do provoke you, but this doesn't occur in a vacuum and is based entirely on how you've acted towards this board for years. How you're treated on here is entirely your only bloody fault.

Yes, those who poke you with sticks are to blame for individual rants, but the overall arc of them sits squarely on your shoulders. Yours.

Thats not the issue at all.

Part of the problem is your point blank refusal to take on board critisism or alternative points of view, both about your work, and the general positions you take in WF debates. Now, you are not the sharpest tool in the box and thats ok, it stands to reason that others will not agree with your viewpoints. However, you take it all as some kind of character slight and go so far off the reservation its unreal. You then blast into personal insults and ham up this nonsensical 'im a troll you are here to entertain me bullshit' Sprinkle in the current 'its not my fault, everyone bullys me' crap and its not hard to see why you attract the attention you do.

All of these issues on there own, fine people handle them. All of them added together mark you out as one of the most deplorable characters on the board.

Look at it this way, you don't take on board or entertain any other points of view. Fine, neither does Paladin when he makes up his mind. He's not a dick however and rarely if at all have i ever seen him plumb to your depths.

Apostle and Dayton hold some pretty outrageous views, difference is that they are not as prolific as you nor do they go after posters who pull them up on it.

Volpones got sand in his vagina and moans like a bitch, he's not here 24/7 like you turning it into a constant wail.

Leaving aside garamets political views, shes had all manner of shit on this place for being a writer that some dont agree with. Does she take it as a personal slight against her work? Maybe but she just mans up and deals with it.

You obviously have some sort of issue where you feel the world, probably outside of WF owes you something. You have been dealt a shitty hand and you think you have something to offer that is worth more than you recieve. The problem is that you fail to recognise reality.

Do we need to go into the fact that you supposedly spent your 'vacation' moaning about WF? You need this place more than it needs you Castle, maybe its time to embrace it rather than acting like the moron.

You know, that's probably the best fiction you've ever written. No, I don't think you have a future in that business.

How do you expect me to react to that steaming load of shit, fella? Who do you think you addressed that to? Are you stupid? Do you not know what reaction that's going to provoke? Sure, you do, yet you stupidly puked it up anyway. I'm going to give you a mulligan on it, and if you don't take it, and then you don't like the reaction it gets, you're living proof of everything I said upthread.

Yeah, you shat that out not knowing what it would get you.

So the problem is that you don't understand the word provoked. I'm not doing it to myself, dumbass. You want to put the whole thing squarely on my shoulders and absolve anybody else of any involvement in it. Sure.