Child Abuse Prevention Project gets Blasted

[Robert Eggleton]

I'm giving up the writing life, and will retire to reading anything that I can scrounge up given the crumby marketplace of science fiction and fantasy.

I really screwed up. Some of you know that my novel, Rarity from the Hollow, has received great reviews, and that author proceeds are donated to prevent child abuse. Well, anyway, I went to this newsgroup to tell them about my novel winning a 2006 competition for the best published. The people there started an argument about whether I had the right to tell them about my novel -- they called my post spam. The argument lasted a long time.

Apparently, emotions got charged -- not mine, as I was having fun and thought it was all a philosophical debate about what is or isn't spam -- and then some of the newsgroup members who have never read by novel posted insults about me and it on the Mobipocket site -- one of the two places selling it. One of them had posted the directions on the newsgroup for posting reader book reviews on Mobipocket, but instead called me names and pretended that they had read the novel. I could tell that they hadn't because none of the posts included any info except from blurbs that other authors had written or from the professional reviews. It has caused a five star rating to drop to three already.

I should have stopped my obsession with self-promotion. I feel especially bad about my mistakes on behalf of the abused kids that I work with in my treatment program.

Some of you may object to this post. I guess that it doesn't much matter now.

Robert Eggleton
"Rarity from the Hollow"

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[Gina Stevenson]

I should have stopped my obsession with self-promotion.

Well ... 'guess sometimes if someone's heart is in something they've written---especially with a noble end in mind (helping the kids)---it's hard not to get carried away a bit defending it, huh? :o 'Sorry it got out of hand.

However, don't quit writing; just remember this situation next time you're tempted re the same. ;)

[Robert Eggleton]

Thanks for the advice and I'll try.

[Robert Eggleton]

My novel won a Noble (not Nobel) Prize!

M E D I A R E L E A S E
CONTACT: Robert Eggleton
Phone: 304.346.7907 (home) or 341-0511 (work)
E-mail: robert_t@charter.net

Local Author Awarded the Noble (Not Nobel) Prize

Praised or maligned, the Nobel Prize for Literature is always news. It selects the best from the world and therefore misses much of value. Carolyn Howard-Johnson, “Back to Literature” columnist for MyShelf.com, closes the gap (only slightly) with her an annual “Noble Prize for Literature.”

Over the last years the Nobel committee has recognized authors for their literary expertise but there has also been a trend toward awarding the prize for, as Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Tim Rutten says, “an author’s particular relevance to the moral moment in which the world finds itself.”

Howard-Johnson’s prize therefore concentrates on books that address these same issues. Her lists have included well-known authors who explore discrimination in their writing like Toni Morrison and Ralph Ellison, but she tries to concentrate on authors who have not been posted to bestseller lists or won major awards. Some past winners are LA's Leora G. Krygier and Randall Sylvis. Fifteen books were named as the best releases in 2006. One of the winners announced in the January issue of Myshelf was:

Robert Eggleton for his e-book, Rarity from the Hollow (Fatcat Press). Nominated by Evelyn Somers, an Editor of The Missouri Review.

Mr. Eggleton is best known for his investigative reports about children’s programs. Today, he is a therapist at the Prestera Mental Health Center in Charleston, West Virginia. Rarity from the Hollow is his debut novel. Author proceeds are donated to a child abuse prevention program operated by Children’s Home Society of West Virginia (Dennis Sutton, Executive Director, can be reached by telephone at 304.346.6644).

To read an excerpt or to learn more about Rarity from the Hollow visit:

www.fatcatpress.com , or

book reviews can be found at:

www.baryon-online.com/baryon103/rarho.html
http://www.missourireview.com/tmr-blog/?p=310

To learn more about Howard-Johnson’s "Back to Literature" column or to see the complete listing of winning publications visit:

http://myshelf.com/backtoliterature/column.htm