I FEEL THE LOVE
I know this is the opposite of what I should be doing as far as self-promotion goes, but I want you all to know that it's not always easy being a Famous Author. Like others before me, I have been attacked and abused by the public. Because I'm in a good mood, I've put a lot of work behind me this week, and -- hell -- it's Friday, I thought I'd share a few slings and arrows. Consider these excerpts a cautionary tale about life at the top...

From Publishers Weekly:

Desperate times call for desperate measures in Byrnes's dialogue-driven, tepidly humorous sophomore novel... Though Byrnes relates some hard truths about the often unsavory lives of the well-moneyed, none of his characters are particularly likable. Readers wanting more than long chapters of dialogue and a few cheap laughs might want to search out Byrnes's first novel, The Night We Met, instead of this facile, featherweight beach read.

Feel the love!

Meanwhile, a reader somewhere in the UK (it wasn't you, was it?) writes:

I didn't even finish this one - I simply couldn't be bothered. Neither the lead characters nor the storyline held any interest for me. Whether Mr Byrnes is a "one-hit" wonder or he wrote this in a rush to fulfull some publishing obligation - I'm not sure. Harsh words I know but that was how it left me feeling. The lead characters are completely 2 -dimensional and didn't have any characteristics to win over my interest - I couldn't be bothered whether they would have a happy-ending or a tragic one. I guessed the ending easily - checked that I was right and threw the book in the back of the cupboard.
These sort of books aren't meant to be intellectual or thought-provoking. They are meant to entertain (preferably for me with likeable lead characters that, for a few days whilst reading, you care about).
This was a complete failure.

Feel the love!

And, yes, I get e-mail:

Just finished your novel, Trust Fund Boys, and while I liked the character development and the story line, there is nothing that irritates me more than incorrect use of the objective. Things like "He gave it to Mary and I" drive me up a wall and there were no fewer than four egregious errors of this type. Do a search of your manuscript of "and I" and you'll find them... Please, don't let me find any repeat of such in your future novels.

I guess it's good I'm under Dale Peck's radar, right?