The awesome Jackie Kessler and her character Jezebel have interviewed yours truly and Bella Bulluci, star of Jinx, the third Bigtime novel (due out Sept. 2). You can check out the interview here.

Thanks so much Jackie! 

Somehow, despite my vow to whittle down my TBR pile, it remains at around 15 books. My own fault, really, since I took some books to the used bookstore to trade in and came home with three more. Sigh.

Although in my defense two of the books are really short — The Unhandsome Prince by John Moore and one of the Atlantis books by Alyssa Day. They’re both under 300 pages.

Ah, well. I’m planning on doing some reading this weekend, as well as working on Assassin 2 — in between watching the Olympics, of course. 😎

What about you guys? Anyone got big plans for the weekend?

So the big story in the book world this week is the release of Breaking Dawn, the last book in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga, which folks have been anticipating almost as much as the last Harry Potter book.

People seem to either love or hate the book. Those who love it, really love it. Those who don’t, well, you can read their reviews on Amazon. Dear Author also posted an interesting, thoughtful review yesterday.

Why do I find this interesting? Well, as a reader, I’m always curious as to what other people think about books. Reviews help me decide what to spend my money on.

For the record, yes, I did read Twilight. I really enjoyed the book — until Bella found out Edward was a vampire and became obsessed with him about halfway through. I’m not a huge fan of obsessive love stories, and I thought the book became a Romeo and Juliet with fangs at that point. Still, there were things I liked about it, and it certainly wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, though.

Bad reviews are part of being an author. Everybody gets them. One of the worst reviews I ever got was one word — insipid (for Hot Mama, I believe). But lots of people seem so angry in their reviews. Like Meyer has personally betrayed them. They’re calling her book poorly written fan fiction and worse. Much, much worse.

As a writer, this sort of scares me. Would I like to have Meyer’s success? Sure. But I don’t think I’d want to be in her shoes right now. Passion and popularity can be double-edged swords, especially when it comes to books. Maybe it’s because people have to use their imaginations more than they do at the movies. But I don’t ever recall seeing a movie or television show with the sort of vicious reviews that Breaking Dawn has gotten.

It’s happened to other writers too. Some folks didn’t like the final Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling. Others don’t like the direction J.R. Ward is taking her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Ditto for Laurell K. Hamilton and her series.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I always respect an author’s achievement of finishing a book. Of writing, editing, and polishing it. Even if I don’t like the finished product itself.

It’s an accomplihsment that should still be celebrated. People seem to have forgotten that. And that’s a shame.

What do you think? Will you read Breaking Dawn? How far is too far in a review? Share in the comments.