Integrity=Priceless

from:  www.goodnessmatters.com

Greetings, all of you:

Something occurred that had me feeling some type of way, and this is the abbreviated version of it.  Don't worry; I will be expanding on it shortly.

If one is truly dedicated to growth, you will not censor the voices that can aid in your improvement, nor would you dare to request that someone do that for the sake of stroking ego. As a person, writer, and reviewer, my integrity will never be for sale, no matter who it is. Any person or any organization that makes a request that I do is not the organization for me or a person I want to be affiliated with in any way, shape, or form. Ask yourself: How far are you willing to go? How much will you sacrifice the essence of yourself just to be seen? Will you recognize yourself in the end and are you willing to pay the cost?

In addition to The Review Board, I was made a member of two additional review boards.  With each of those members, I let them know my style of review and they had the link to check out my style of reviewing and after checking it out whether to include me or not.  Both organizations seemed cool with it.  Both seemed fine with it so far until I got a message from one that deeply disturbed me this morning:

Lines that stuck out to me:

"Please handle it with care..."

"chicklit royalty Blog politics..."

"We would need her publicity so gush more and make less critique."

Are you f--in' serious?  Please handle it with care.  What is this?  Is this person a newborn baby or is this person's ego just that fragile?  Anyone who has visited The Review Board will see in our description where it says "we do not stroke ego."  

In my reviews, I don't do it either.  

I don't care if the person is supposed to be some type of royalty in the literary world.  If what the person is writing is sub par, I'm going to write it as such, and no amount of clout is going to make me water down my integrity and my standards.  

For someone to even approach me and ask me to do that, after praising me for that very aspect, I find to be disrespectful and it makes me wonder what type of person he is.  It also makes me wonder if the reviews that are put up on the site are really his true thoughts, or were they "gushed" as he likes to put it?

Either way, I'm not down with it.  I put in my resignation.  I won't be associated with it, and I will let you guys use your deduction skills to figure out which one I've said "deuces" to.