My Top Ten Pet Peeves

10. People who don't follow directions. Actually read instructions and hum, follow them. Novel concept I know.

9. People who don't do their job. When someone is relying on you for something, you might want to provide it.

8. Publishers who treat their authors, artists, editors, and other staff like a nuisance. (We have already covered that treating them like dirt goes beyond a pet peeve in blackout stage). But publishing is a business, like any other, and well employees (be they authors, editors, artists, staff, etc) deserve to be treated well, and valued, not made to feel like a nuisance.

7. Divas. Yep, major frickin' pet peeve. Really, I have no problem if you want to ride the drama llama, but when it parks itself in my front room and starts eating my carpet, we have a problem. I don't mind being here for people, but seriously. Come on! I don't need to know every little thing about your life, and everything you view as going wrong.

6. Stupid people. Yeah, I know, the world is full of them. But come on! There are levels of lack of common sense, and stupid people just piss me off. Ignorance is no excuse, and its never too late to learn.

5. People who don't understand that "I don't know" is a valid answer. Don't blow sunshine up my ass, or attempt to bullshit me. I don't know works for me. I can understand and accept that no one knows everything. What I can't understand or accept is when people can't simple acknowledge the fact that they don't know something.

4. People who are more interested in fixing the blame than in fixing the problem. In most cases, who's to blame isn't as important as fixing whatever the problem is.

3. Being thorough doesn't mean being nit-pickity. Please, when you are asked to be thorough on cover art forms, that means don't just put "this is a heterosexual romance with a buff man and a curvy woman". Give the artist more than that. But, please, by the same token don't tell the artist that the couple met at a costume dance in a ballroom in an spaceship theme where the woman was wearing a green velvet 1816 dress and the man is wearing buff colored knee breeches in the style of 1649, a patch work peacock jacket and brown knee high boots with a diamond buckle favored by the king of that time. Oh, the woman is wearing a triple strand of pearls with a emerald the size of a fist on the third strand and THAT is the image you want on the cover. Seriously, we aren't going to set up a photo shoot to get the image just so. We do try out best to accommodate, but come on!

2. Don't be a hypocrite. If you expect someone to hold to a deadline, then you need to meet your own dates. IE if you say something will be returned, paid, etc by a certain date - um, make it happen!

1. People who wait until the last minute to do stuff. If you half ass things, then at best, they are half assed. Not something to be proud of. Now that said, some people have a talent for working under pressure and can truly pull off things well if they wait until the last minute. But if you are not one of them - then don't do it! Certainly don't wait until the last minute to do something that requires input or action on my part. I am not going to rush because you are a dumb-ass and can't manage time better.

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Whew …

I admit, I feel better. : ) That doesn't mean that I have covered all of my pet peeves, but maybe, just maybe, people will read this list and stop doing the top 10! At least in regards to me.