Hi Jason,

It's clear that Richard Walinski and Richard A. Lupov (the reviewer) do not like your "obscure" book. Lupov is very harsh, saying that you will feel so embarrassed when you grow up. He cites some serious research mistakes that you made. It sounds as if you needed someone to proofread and clear those up before you published it. I suppose that you could still make the corrections if there's ever another edition.

Anyway, I loved Lupov's review and his conversation with Walinski for other reasons. Lupov seems to have a certain kind of amiable familiarity with what he calls the alphabet authors: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Sprague de Kamp, and Robert Heinlein. He says that they've had no real staying power or cultural impact... unlike Philip K. Dick... and -- ta ta -- H. P. Lovecraft... who wrote creepy crawly horror stories and were tales.

I laughed out loud when Lupov called Heinlein an old fascist recruiting sergeant "who is no longer recruiting fascists." Whoa! Bradbury is merely "quaint." Clarke is remembered as "the father of the communications satellite."

He says that Colavito's premise is that Lovecraft is the basis for the inspiration of many alternative archaeologists and Erik von Daaniken... but the book is badly researched and badly written... citing several serious mistakes... calling the book an example of "wretchedly bad scholarship." Lupov also thinks that you're dead wrong, trashing and thrashing at authors and "pseudo-scholars." He says, if you're a collector, you'll probably want this book for your collection. Otherwise, don't waste your time. They compare it to a horrible musical with Bette Davis croaking her songs, called "Two's Company," that musical collectors might want to have just to have a complete collection. Ugghh.

I don't really know what to make of this review because it's the only one I've encountered. Do you have links to other reviews?

I'm not inclined to trust just one reviewer.

What do you think of all this? Is there no such thing as bad publicity? Is it a learning experience and cautionary as regards research and writing? I hate it when someone is subjected to this kind of negative scrutiny, but at least you're brave enough and honest enough to put yourself out there.

Sue