the Life of a Troll

The definition of a troll is: a mythical, cave-dwelling being depicted in folklore as either a giant or a dwarf, typically having a very ugly appearance.


With that being said, it's easy to see how that connotation has been modified to fit many keyboard warriors that have nothing better to do with their sad, miserable existence than seek out others and belittle, taunt, bully, and attack from behind a screen where no one can see them. These people are self important, feeling grandiose in their little attacks, that somehow they make the world a better place because they have rid the world of someone who doesn't think like them... WHATEVER.


The truth of the matter is that 97% of those little keyboard trolls wouldn't have the gonads to say it directly to another person's face. To be very honest, that probably is smart because if you did something like that to me I would have no problem macing you with pepper spray when you wouldn't back off. Personal space is valid and should be respected regardless of who you are.


But now, it seems we reward this kind of behavior, even offer book deals to people who act like trolls, stalk people who leave bad reviews, and go so far as to drive to that person's home. Yes, I said drive to their home. I will not mention her name directly because I am not giving someone like this free publicity. You want to look up this person and purchase books written by someone that would act like this, be my guest, but I will never purchase anything she's ever written or say her name because all that does is put money in the pocket of someone who should have been arrested for stalking. This was the first publicly released incident of something like this. After having stalked this person, she also released her address to the public, traveled to her home and harassed the reviewer by phone.


A bad review on Goodreads is how this whole, twisted story began. It began with that review, someone stating the book was horrible and it ended in this author stalking the person online as well as in person. There is a whole list of Goodread Reviewer Bullies out there, those who get together and attack specific authors and post bad reviews. Right now on Goodreads, Erin Morganstern, author of The Night Circus has finally announced a new book called The Starless Sea. It’s due to be released in Nov 2019. It is has hundreds of 1* reviews on Goodreads. The book hasn't even released yet. This is what happens in an uncontrolled setting, on that used to be fabulous site until it was purchased by you-know-who and his minions.


Now it seems behavior like this is how you get an agent and major publisher... The author admitted she paid for a background check on the owner of the house, and rented a car, with the completely crazy intention of driving to the blogger's home. When the other woman would not agree to a video chat interview, the author asked to speak to her over the phone but the blogger pulled out of the video. I don't blame her.


So there are two sides to this. 1. A crazy author that allowed the words of someone she doesn't even know to drive her into crazed behavior. 2. A person wrote a 1 star review of a book they didn't like, and that person could also possibly be part of this Goodreads Troll Reviewer List or just honestly hated the book for whatever reason. Honestly, we will never know all together what the truth is behind either side, but I will say it sickens me that the completely insane behavior and lengths the author took has led to a book deal. Let's encourage more people to act this way by showing them how if you behave badly.... you get your dream reward.


No thanks.

I don't go to Goodreads. I stopped the moment it was sold to you-know-who and I will never go back. There is no desire to associate with people who believe behaving this way is fine.


The sad truth of it is, they are everywhere! You can't post anything anywhere without it becoming the bane of someone's existence and being verbally attacked. Facebook. Twitter (the worst of them all), Instagram... all of them. Post anything that someone takes a offense to and you will attacked by not only them, but their tribe, and tons of people you don't even know who the hell they are. It's like a call to arms. They just fall out of the woodwork like termites.


It's sad when you are reduced to posting only cat videos, cute memes, and an occasional book teaser due to the combative nature of some of the population. In America free speech as become.... speak freely unless I don't agree with you, then I will hate on you, attack you, and possibly stalk you plus, if you are lucky, end up on television being paid to tell your story and get a book deal....