Rant Post When did blogging become so vicious?

Hey guys! I hope everyone is excited for the upcoming weekend. I know that I am for sure. My son had surgery this past Tuesday. Nothing too serious but hey surgery is surgery right. So I have been taking the last couple of days to hang out with my little guy. I was finally able to steal a couple of hours this morning to fiddle around online and read up on some blog posts that I've missed and I keep coming across some pretty negative posts. Whether it has to do with the outrageous Plagarizing that has been going on within the YA blogging community or the Author Bashing a Blogger post that I read earlier this morning (if your not sure what I am talking about you can read all about it here) things seem to be taking a negative turn in our wonderful little community. 

Obviously when you become more and more involved in a hobby or anything really, you become personally invested in the lives of others. You meet more people and connect. They become your friends and allies and you feel that when something bad happens to one of your friends that problem inadvertently it becomes your problem as well. I can understand this. Heck if someone was rude or purposely hurtful to someone in my life I would want to defend the hell outta that person. But when do you get involved? What issues become so outrageous that you feel like you need to step up and voice your opinion?


To be honest I try to stay out of most of the drama. I really do. Life is too short and my home life is too hectic to be caught up in the online drama that lately seems to be all over the place. But I have finally had enough and right now seems like as good a time as any to get "involved" sort of. I don't usually rant on here as you all know. I try to keep this blog as strictly professional as possible. Leaving it to reviews and book related posts. But I am seriously getting sick and tired of all of this negativity. We all blog for various reasons but if you run a book review blog then all of us have something in common. We love books and we love connecting with others who do as well. 

I know that at times being creative can be hard. Hell I look at my reviews and sometimes I feel like I just say the same thing over and over again. I look and think "is there any real personality to these? Am I just repeating myself over and over again?" 
We all come across "writers" block. Hell I do all the time. But I put in time and effort into my reviews and if I were to ever find out that someone had plagarized my reviews I would be hella pissed. Ya I said it Hella! If I had an Author personally attack me because he/she didn't like what I had to say about their books I would definitely speak up as well. But my point in this is why? Not everyone is going to like your work. And you are not always going to be able to come up with some witty review. Does not mean you have to go out of your way to create drama. LIFE IS TOO SHORT! Obviously with our community being so small (even though it is growing) Everyone becomes very close. Your issues ( if you make them known) will be publicised. People are going to find out about it, even if they are in a small dark corner like myself. It gets out there. 

Do we not all have enough to deal with in our daily lives and when we come here to get away from it all it just follows? I am not saying to not speak up for your friend or have their back. I am not saying that you do not have a right to be outraged and make these feelings known. By all means. I am just trying to say that if we all stuck together and helped each other and were actually happy for one another then this community that we have all built would be a much more enjoyable place to be. 

Peronsally I blog and review because it is a freaking awesome hobby. I don't do it for others. I don't do it for the "fame" so to speak that can come along with it. Hell I just attended a Blogger Night at Penguin Canada a couple of weeks ago and was surprised that anyone knew who the heck I was. It's humbling and amazing to know that people out there recognize me from the blog. And yea it is a great feeling to know that I am not spending all of this time on here for nothing. There are some really well known blogs out there that have amazing reputations. But sometimes "fame" is definitely not all that it is cracked up to be. Everyone get's jealous, it's human nature. But if well tried to show a little bit more compassion and stopped being so greedy and started being happy for our fellow Blogger's and their accomplishments then we would all be much happier I am sure of it.

Share the love my fellow bloggers. If you are feeling like you are in a rut ask for help or take a break. And for all of those wonderful Author's out there. I know that you have put your lives into your work but seriously not everyone is going to like or love it. Everyone is different. Try to take the criticism as best as you can. You are allowed to feel hurt or upset if you receive a bad review. Talk about it with the people in your life. Do not go out and personally bash the blogger who gave you that negative review. You are the one who is going to end up looking stupid and silly. Not the blogger. 

Again let's try to just be happy :) I know too optimistic right? I don't think so.