My blog is not a political place. I know I have some very conservative readers, and they are welcome here. I know I have some very liberal readers, and they are welcome here. Anyone and everyone is welcome here.

I blogged about why I don’t blog about politics a few years back, and had some guy somewhere link to my post with one of those “This is what’s wrong with the world” kind of things, because according to him, “those of us who have brains have a responsibility to educate others.” The arrogance of that still astounds me. I would never presume that I’m so much smarter than my readers; why in the world would I? Most of my blog readers are readers of my books, so hello insult. Sorry, but I don’t write books for stupid people, so why would I assume my blog readers are stupid? (That doesn’t mean you’re stupid if you didn’t like my book[s], just that I don’t write them with some kind of lowest common denominator in mind.)

With anything on a blog, you’ll have people who stumble across it, love it, and decide to run out and buy my books, or there’ll be people who stumble across it, hate it, and decide never ever to buy one of my books. That’s just the way it goes. But to me, politics are different. There’s more of a chance for anger and hurt feelings. And as I said so long ago, I do not want the buying of my books to become a political act.

Basically, we don’t discuss politics here just because I want everyone to feel valued and welcome here. Because everyone is.

Which brings me to the next issue/rule. NO comment flaming. This is my blog; I say what goes here, and I have zero compunction about deleting comments I think are flame-y, rude to other readers, whatever. I don’t usually delete comments which are rude to me (although I have, when it’s a personal issue carried over from somewhere/something else) but I do delete comments which could be shitty to other commenters. I may give a warning–”Let’s keep in mind that this is supposed to be a fun place, shall we?”–if it looks like it could be heading that way. But I may not. Also, I can and will break the links back to your own blog/site if you’re being an asshole here; why should you get hits on your blog because you’re rude?

On the other hand–because this issue came up once–if two people are having what looks like a civil disagreement, I’m not going to interfere. Like I said, it came up years ago; two readers disagreed on something, and one of them emailed me, furious that I hadn’t “backed her up” but had allowed someone else to disagree with her. (I actually hadn’t “backed her up” because I disagreed with her too, and it seemed like a perfectly polite, calm discussion to me.) Honestly, as long as nobody’s engaging in name-calling or whatever else, I probably won’t step in to “back someone up.” Why? Because this is my blog, and me stepping in feels too much like I’m telling someone they’re not allowed to have an opposing viewpoint here. I may step in to confirm someone’s facts or whatever, but that is NOT me taking a side.

As I’ve said hundreds of times, my readers rock hard, so I don’t believe arguing in comments is ever going to be an issue.

Spam will be deleted immediately; I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone.

Occasionally I post excerpts of WIPs. Occasionally people copy these and post them on their own blogs. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do ask that you link back to the original post, and please let me know about it, either through email or @ on Twitter or whatever. That goes for regular blog posts, too; you don’t have to tell me if you’re just linking to me or whatever, but if you’re quoting a sizable chunk of a post I’d appreciate a heads-up. Everything on this blog is protected by copyright, obviously.

Bottom line is, this website and blog is my “house.” You are all valued, welcomed guests here. But just like any guest in any house, certain things won’t be tolerated. (Again, this is aimed more at drive-by-type commenters, because I know my readers would never behave this way.)

I’m very, very tired of the idea that anything goes on the internet, that it’s okay to forget someone else is an actual person with feelings because you can’t see them. I’m tired of people behaving online in a way they never would in real life. Sure, as I’ve said before when I first started blogging I got swept up in things a few times; it’s easy to get swept up into things. But I’m heartily sick of it now. I’m sick of the idea that someone who made a mistake will never be forgiven for it, but will be haunted by it for the rest of their life. I’m sick of the idea that a throwaway comment means someone is an evil person who deserves on fear and pain in their lives (obviously, if the throwaway comment is racist or something that’s a different story). I’m sick of the idea that because someone made a statement public by posting it on the internet, that means it’s perfectly fine for hundreds of people to gang up on them and call them names. Imagine that same person making a statement with which you disagree at a party. Would you grab a few hundred other people and shout them into a corner? Doesn’t that feel a little like bullying to you? Yeah. It’s the same thing when it happens online. Some of that can’t be helped; you reach a lot of people on the internet, and those people are going to have opinions. But there’s a difference between disagreement and jumping all over someone. One respects humanity. The other doesn’t. One simply disagrees with the opinion, the other decides the holder of that opinion must be an idiot/asshole/attention whore/whatever.

I’m not saying people can’t have opinions about what others say or that they can’t state those opinions. I’m opinionated on things, certainly, although as I said before the focus of the blog is changing. I’m just tired of those opinions being stated as if the offending party is a worthless piece of shit, just because they shop at used bookstores or whatever (I’m deliberately trying to think of an example I haven’t seen before). And that’s not what we’re going to do here; it’s not ever something I want happening here.

I really don’t think any of these “rules” are going to have any effect on my regular readers. But I wanted to put them out there, so here they are. This is not the place for namecalling, flaming, comment wars, politics, and/or putting other people down. This is not the place to come if you’re looking for a fight.

And I think that’s it. It’s important to me that this be a good place, and a fun one, and because it’s important to me I’ll do what I have to do to keep it that way. I believe you all want the same thing, which is why none of this is usually a problem here.

I’m happy to have anyone and everyone here.

I’ve seen a few times online in the last month or two people–people who should fucking know better, IMO–running contests where one of the ways to enter the contest is to post about the contest on blogs or message boards. In other words, don’t just promote the contest on your own blog or Twitter feed, but post about it on various message boards or in comments on other people’s blogs.

This is spam. It is spam, spam, spam. It is tacky and it is rude, and just as a general FYI–although I know none of you would ever do such a thing–it will not be tolerated here. I can ban IPs from this site, and I will do it.

Here’s the thing. This is MY blog. It’s MY website. And while I follow certain rules–which I’ll get to in a minute–the fact remains that at its most basic level, this site and blog are here to promote me and my books. Along with, of course, the books of anyone I mention in posts or invite to come do a guest post here. To “walk” into my blog and start dropping your own promo is the height of rudeness, akin to walking into my home and starting to redecorate without being asked. I don’t care what it’s for. Don’t do it. It’s rude to me and it’s rude to you guys, the readers of this blog, who do not deserve to be treated like rubes or fish in a barrel, just waiting to be led around by the nose.

As of this writing the blog gets anywhere from 200-600 hits a day, every day. On days when I post the numbers go up; no-post days, of course, have lower numbers (and some posts got much, much higher numbers, but those are obvious anomalies). And I’m aware that’s nowhere near the kinds of hits really popular blogs, really popular names, get. But they’re still MY numbers; you’re MY readers, and I’ve worked hard over the years to attract you and entertain you and get to know you a bit, even, and let you get to know me, and you and that work mean a lot to me.

If you have something to promote–be it a book or a charity–email me about it. There’s a good chance that I’ll invite you to guest post about it, or I’ll mention it. And if I don’t, it’s probably because I don’t think my readers would be that interested in it, frankly. And you know what? That’s up to me. because, again, MY BLOG. MY READERS. I owe them–I owe you guys–the respect of not being treated like some nameless, faceless gaggle of wallets.

Which brings me to the other thing. A long time ago now I did a post about why I don’t blog about politics, and the gist of it was, because I respect you all and think you’re capable of making your own decisions without my input. This is still true. But, as I believe I said in a follow-up post at some point, which I’m too lazy to hunt around for–there’s another reason, too.

What made me think of it is, I was discussing blogging with a pal of mine a couple of days ago, and she mentioned how she keeps to certain “rules” on her blog. I replied that I do too, and that it’s because I want my blog to be a place where everyone is welcome. Where everyone feels valued and included. To use politics as an example again, I know I have a few very conservative readers. I know I have a few very liberal readers. But I don’t believe I have ever had a situation where those readers got into an argument; I wouldn’t allow it to happen, but it’s never even shown an inkling of happening. And that, I think, is largely due to you, and what great, smart people you are, but I like to take some of the credit as well, for setting a tone here and sticking to it. A tone of respect and open-mindedness and willingness to learn, and of accepting everyone and their opinions.

That’s hugely important to me. And since it’s been a while since we discussed this I thought I’d bring it up again, and lay it out for any newcomers now and in future.

We respect each other here. If we disagree we do it politely. I’ve posted some…not inflammatory posts, but I’m a very opinionated girl, especially when it comes to publishing, and I will express those opinions, at least up to a point. I’m passionate about publishing, and have strong opinions, and will voice them–again, to a point. And people have come along and disagreed with me in comments, and some interesting discussion have been had. I’d certainly like to think I was respectful in my replies, even when, as happened once, the person leaving the comment was not particularly respectful to me.

The thing is, I want people to enjoy it here. I want you guys to feel like, even if you disagree with everything I say, you’re still valued (although if you disagree with everything I say I do kind of wonder why you keep reading here, but hey, far be it from me to spoil your fun). I want this blog to be a FUN place. I want it to be a place where discussions are had, and everyone walks away from it feeling like, even if they didn’t change anyone’s mind, they still had an enjoyable discussion. I don’t ever want someone to click away from this blog regretting that they even bothered to speak up, or feeling lousy about themselves, or like all they succeeded in doing was angering themselves and other people.

Yes, as I said in the politics post, I could probably win some readers if I started being politically outspoken (I’d probably lose some, too, but who knows?) But I don’t want the reading of my blog or the buying of my books to become a political act. I want the reading of my blog or the buying of my books to be about enjoying the posts on the blog and the stories in the books.

I have some general idea who some of you are. You regular commenters, I know some of you fairly well. But there are a lot of lurkers, too. I’d like to encourage them to comment, and one of the ways I try to do that is by not insulting them. If you choose to lurk, that’s entirely your choice, and you’re welcome to do so. But I don’t ever want someone to feel like they CAN’T comment because they’ll get beaten down or belittled for it. You’re entitled to your opinion, and whether or not to share it is up to you, but you have my promise that I will never belittle you for your opinion, and neither will anyone else here. And I hope everyone who reads here knows that, and feels that.

This is a fun place, at least I hope so. I hope it’s an interesting place, too. I hope everyone reading this knows how much I appreciate their reading, and feels welcome.

So that’s it. The rules of the blog. No spam, and be respectful. Neither of these have ever been a problem here. I intend to keep it that way.

And thanks, everyone, for reading. You mean more to me than you can imagine.