Today is my birthday. There is one thing about my birthdays the last few years that have made it not so grand. I have either been sick or recovering from surgery. In 2002, I was recovering from ankle surgery. 2003, the flu. 2004 was the flu again. Last year I had a cold. This year it's walking pneumonia. Am I cursed or something? Is someone trying to tell me something that each year on my birthday I don't feel well?

And to add insult to injury, this year I'm 30. That's it. I have reached the age at 18 I said was over the hill. Funny thing is though, even though I'm sick I don't feel old. Now either my mind is playing tricks on me or I was wrong at 18. Hmm which could it be? I think I'll go with having been wrong since the other option means senility.:-)

I have to add some more really great authors to my list. These are people whose works I have found either through suggestions by other authors or on my own and their stuff is awesome.

Catherine Asaro: This woman is fantastic. Her Ruby dynasty books are fantastic. She also does a fantasy series for Luna books that is great. The third in that series is out later this year. If you'd like to check her out go to www.sff.net/people/asaro/ and have a look.

Gena Showalter: I found this woman through P.C. Cast, another great writer I mentioned in my last author post. This woman is fantastic. Her books are so funny and the stories are great. If you'd like to check her stuff out go to http://members.cox.net/genashowalter/ and enjoy.

Mercedes Lackey: I have known about and loved this author for a long time but I just forgot to add her to my original post. This lady is the QUEEN of fantasy. Her Valdemar books are sensational. She also writes for Luna as well. If you'd like to know what she has going go to www.mercedeslackey.com and look around.

UP AND COMING AUTHOR!

Jeri Smith-Ready: I was introduced to this author by Catherine Asaro. In fact Catherine was the one who gave me her web address. Her first Luna book will be out this November and it's called "The Eyes Of The Crow". I can only say based on the way her blog goes that this lady is very talented and I am highly looking forward to when her book comes out. If you'd like to check her out go to www.jerismithready.com and take a look. Check out her blog too, it's great. There is a link to it on her website.

I just recently read a blog post about reviewer comments to a novel on the Amazon.com website. Apparently an author felt a reader's review was mean-spirited and had Amazon take down the review. I gather the reader really didn't enjoy the book. If that's all it takes to be considered mean-spirited than the movie critics shouldn't even have jobs. Come on people. Not everyone is going to enjoy everything you do. I mean scroll down my blog to my favorites movies and check out my "Garfield" spot. A lot of people thought that movie stunk, but as I said I personally loved it. In the end it all comes down to taste and asking someone to pull a review because of that is to me a form of censorship.

People should have the right to say what they think of what you have done. As long as they are not insulting you as a person or using vulgar language, they should have the riht to express themselves. One of my favorite authors, Mary Janice Davidson does a great vampire series. Her "Undead" series. I love this series but I have to admit that her third book in the series disappointed me. Did I stop reading because of that? NOOOOO. I just won't reread that particular book. But I know from reviews a lot of people did like that book in the series. It all comes down to personal taste.

So stop crying in your notebooks authors. You are never going to make every single reader happy. That's unrealistic. Be thankful for those who do love what you wrote and just shrug offf the critics. And for heaven's sake, don't have their reviews dropped just because they didn't like what you wrote. Get a backbone people.