You Can't Please Everyone, but it would be nice if you could.

A seasoned best-selling author once advised authors to not read the online reviews posted by readers, saying, "those reviews are intended for other readers, so they know if they'll like the book. You might get your heart broken if you see a bad review and focus on that one rather than all the good ones."

Fair enough, except recently, I saw a one-star review of ​"Knitting Up a Murder," the first book in the Yarn Genie Mystery Series. Curious, I foolishly read the review, hoping to see what about my writing or the mystery the reader didn't like, as those comments help with my future writing endeavors. I found the reader was angry because the series started out with the protagonist knitting in the first book and then switched to her crocheting in the next. The reader only knows how to knit and felt it is deceptive because all the books aren't about knitting.

Did I not clarify that Imogene being blamed for her husband being killed with her knitting needles caused her to stop knitting with sharp needles for a while?

​While it saddens me to think I disappointed this reader, I don't feel I was deceptive in having Imogene shy away from knitting for a few books. The entire premise of the Yarn Genie Mystery Series is that Imogene loves yarn and keeps buying more. She went back to knitting in book four, "Wedding Lace Murder," when she knit a beautiful ribbon yarn shawl, but that reader won't ever know that because she will never again buy one of my books.

*Heavy sigh*

It is probably just as well that reader decided to abandon Imogene since I'm thinking of having her take up crewel embroidery in book six.