Christian charity?

I was going to ignore the current slanging match between various weblogs on authors who are happy to send books overseas at their own expense like PBW and Alison Kent and our own JanieR versus those who aren't like Brenda Coulter.

The upshot of the argument is that Brenda doesn't see it as worthwhile, but an expense she's not willing to undertake. That's within her right. Brenda writes so called Christian Inspirationals, an insipid, unrealistic genre currently enjoying a resurgence in middle America as a panacea to the increasingly erotic mainstream romance genre. Oy. I'm not going to condemn those who read such books, either overtly erotic or 'sweet' romances (although I probably have by calling CIs 'insipid and unrealistic).

I am gobsmacked. Simply amazed that a writer would stoop to personal insults over a perfectly legitimate discussion, just because some people disagree. It gets worse:

These people love to hate, and I am one of their favorite targets. That they think I'm actually trying to annoy them in order to get attention shows exactly how little they understand about me and this blog. And every time one of them posts something about That Horrible Brenda Coulter, her blogging sisters pick up the cry.

Brenda, sweetie you're just not that important.

If you want to be a successful author, you do what you must, even sending copies of your books to overseas readers, no matter what you think of them. An expense in the short term will reap rewards in the long term. And I'm not talking about warm fuzzies and buying your way into heaven. It's a business, not a clique where you can exclude those who don't agree.

What Brenda has done now is to call into question respondents intelligence and personalities. To quote:

For the past several days, their fangirls have been rushing over here as eagerly as if they'd just been offered tickets to a Maury Povich show on transsexuals who steal their granddaughters' boyfriends.* Yes, I have received hundreds of extra visitors in the past few days. No, I am not grateful for the increased traffic, because I haven't been terribly impressed by the intelligence and the personalities of the individuals who have attempted to rail at me here on the blog (I delete all comments containing profanity) and who have sent me virulent e-mails (which I won't stoop to answer).

A weblog is public; keep private thoughts private otherwise you do open yourself to criticism and flaming. There are so many more important things to be discussing out there without resorting to personal insults or condeming people for having an opinion. This post, for example, is mine. I don't expect everyone to agree, that would be foolish of me.

For those of us overseas, we're thrilled that our favourite authors are willing to take the time to pay us attention; we are not so thrilled to be dumped on for being a 'promotional' exercise. There are more of us out there than within the borders of the US, and that means, by publically sneering at us, Ms Coulter will find a less than welcome reception should she ever decide to publish overseas.