Two Sides To Every Issue

I've been told by someone trying to rationally rip me a new one from the other side that there are more than two sides to every issue. I suppose if you have a geometric object then she could be right...and I suppose, I can admit she IS partially right.... just not the way she expected. This firestorm that my daughter and I have found ourselves drawn into should have been a really bad thing...except we have found ourselves getting to know some really spectacular people thanks to it's flames flashing out willy-nilly into some of the strangest places from the other side.

There are people we might not have gotten to know had a certain publisher with an irrational temper not lost it on September 1, 2010 in one of her own loops that we don't bother with. Even some of their wonderful mothers. Rose you're a delight and your new grandbaby a July 4th treat. So for that, thank you other side.

I have a very dear friend who is a best selling author...you know...from the really BIG list...the one that gets written about in the New York Times...and gets movie deals and, you know makes the real waves...and real controversy because he writes from his heart after tons and tons of brain frying research about things that stir up people in places of all kinds of power...(I'm reading his new book...a blockbuster.) I asked him about why he chooses to write about topics that set off such firestorms...and he said..."if I don't do what in right inside my heart, what good is anything?"

And you know what? He's right. His topics take on the big powers, and he takes them on unafraid because he has the courage of his conviction. Can I do less simply because I am just starting up that literay totem pole?

So, let me ask any and all...

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET AN "F" RATING FROM THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU?

And why would a company encourage receiving such a rating by failing to do one simple thing...respond to a request for information? That's all that was needed by this publisher? Doesn't seem like a lot, does it?

It's a mystery to me, yet that is exactly what happened when the publisher my daughter was recently, and lamentably with, was served with notice by the BBB that a complaint had been filed against them for Contract Dispute.

Let me backtrack.

I was primarily motivated to go a digging by someone who commented on the DEAR AUTHOR posting concerning the firestorm about the internal implosion that seems to be swirling within this publisher's company on September 2, 2010. It's really easy to check these things out now-a-days thanks to the Internet, and anyone can do it.

"AMUSED" claims legal knowledge as may or may not be the case, and suggested that the likes of Piers Anthony, a rather well respected voice in today's literary world, and rightly so, may not be omniscient in his evaluation and/or rating of my daughter's former publisher. Having a dual Bachelors degree in Psychology/Sociology, I can certainly agree with the supposition that human beings, being the creatures powered by emotions that we are, such a conclusion could well be valid.

That said, however, and having an analytical mind...just ask ALL my professors...I decided to see if the Better Business Bureau, (BBB) had anything on my daughter's histrionic former publisher. Having spent two years living just outside the Beltway, and interacting with many honorable people that genuinely make every effort throughout the course of their investigations to be impartial, and balanced implements of justice, I figured the BBB would not be influenced by the histrionics's of either publisher, author, editor, or cover artist. After all, the BBB has a long standing history of investigating complaints...some genuine...some nothing more than disgruntled tit-for-tat nonsense filings.

Into the BBB site I go.

All I had to do...and this is so incredible...was type my daughter's former publisher's PHONE NUMBER and low and behold, like Moses parting the Red Sea for the escaping Israelites, and there it was, a definitive "F" grade.

Whatever was BBB's reasoning?

Naturally I wanted to know more, and since I didn't stop during my college years at just an AA, AS and a BA, you've GOT to know I'm in love with seeking knowledge, I scrolled down

The "F" was awarded because the Publisher failed to respond to notice of a complaint that was filed for CONTRACT DISPUTE.

The PUBLISHER CHOSE not to respond and earned her very own "F". Uhm...may I just ask an obvious question WHY? My Dad would've said that was like taking a gun and shooting yourself in the foot, and Dad was a business owner...successful, so he'd know...or "Cutting your nose off to spite your face." Not a pretty metaphor, but accurate.

Back on theme...To "AMUSED" Piers Anthony, Predators and Editors, Writer Beware, AND BBB, are they ALL wrong, especially since the last one's negative is by the choice of my daughter's former publisher? Coincidence that all of them give this Publisher negative reviews?

You the general public be the judge.

Like my best selling friend, I am only following what I feel in my heart is right, and going where the research takes me, also where any one of those of you reading this posting can go and find the very same information.

Firestorm? Yes. Truth? 100% Coincidence? Seems doubtful.