And the book backlash starts…

So, it took a few weeks for the backlash to start, but today I found not ONE, but TWO very amusing attempts to convince others not to read my book.

The first was this email:

Message: I am writing this [the following text in quotes] on behalf of my
grandmother, Joy B. Dearden.

\”I purchased \’Behind Closed Doors\’ on Monday. Finished the book on Tuesday. I
SHREDDED it Tuesday night. It went to the county dump Wenesday.\”

I personally find your warped veiw of mormons disturbing and immature. You are
not doing yourself any form of justice by making a religion look twisted and
perturbed by weaving lies into the minds of people that don\’t know any better.
Simply because of one experience you had does not mean that the entire church
revolves around scandal.

I personally don\’t find comfort in the religon of the LDS church, but that
dosen\’t mean that I bash and destroy it via written text in such a disgusting
manner.

Here\’s hoping that someday you can write something other that hogwash.

My response? “Well, since I am a ‘glass half full’ kinda girl, I’m really glad to note that your grandmother continued to read and finished, quite quickly, the entire book, before she shredded it.”

My warped view of Mormons is disturbing and immature? But you didn’t READ the book yourself, right, so how would you know that? How is it disturbing, and how is it immature? Guess what, I found Mark Hacking’s behavior disturbing and immature, too. IN fact, I was REALLY bothered when he shot his wife to death and and then threw her in the garbage like yesterday’s trash. Then pretended someone had killed her.

You know what else? Mark Hacking was a Mormon. Did you know that? Perhaps you did. My books are about Mormons. Good, bad, ugly, some affected positively by the doctrine, others negatively.

Obviously, the book was riveting enough your grandmother couldn’t put it down. Go Grandma! Shred that book, baby.

The next little ripple I saw was this Amazon review.

This book was awful. The plot alternates between incoherent and completely predictable. The writing is cliche and clunky. As for the promised expose of Mormonism, that consists of a character scanning a book shelf and noticing titles like Fawn Brodie’s “No Man Knows My History.” Courtney Perkes amazon review.

First of all, as a writer, I must note that it HAS to be absolutely impossible for a book to alternate between incoherent and completely predictable. That just can’t happen.

Secondly, obviously, your review has an agenda. And that’s okay, except you are not honest about your agenda. There IS no promised expose of Mormonism. Wherever did you get that idea? This book does delve into the Mormon experience, but it certainly doesn’t come close to covering all of it, and doesn’t claim to do so.

Of course, your opinion is yours, Courtney, and I won’t take that away from you. Too bad you can’t write a structured sentence, using the correct form of words, because then, perhaps, people might take you seriously. Or not.