The more well-known an author gets, the more likely they’ll receive some interesting comments or requests by email or on their blog or website. Some may be lucky to get totally sane comments, others may get totally crazy requests. This is what we’ve received.
Question 69 – As a writer or blogger, what was the most unusual request or comment you’ve received?
I don’t think I’ve gotten either a comment or a specific request that was really unusual. (Unless you count spam comments, which can be hilarious when they aren’t just unreadable.) Or a specific request at all.
I got a comment from someone who didn’t like Oreos. That was really unusual.
I wish I could say I’ve received from strange and unusual requests or comments, But I can’t. Or at least not truthfully. I sure can’t wait to read what the other authors share for this one!
I can honestly say that I’ve not received any weird or outlandish requests. I guess I can look forward to the day when that might be a problem!
I don’t get many unusual requests. The comments that often stump me are those which make no sense because of typos or because the writer’s first language isn’t English. The latter I find to be quite tricky, since I know what it’s like to try my best at a foreign language only to be laughed at.
I don’t think I’ve gotten any off the wall requests. The closest I’ve come was an invitation to join a food tour in Miami and blog about it. That request on its own wasn’t strange, especially because I kept a sporadically-updated food blog at the time, but the strange part was that the invitation came in the form of a comment on my writing blog. (I went on the tour and it was tasty, by the way.)
Every comment I’ve received has been unusual in its own little way, but this is another matter of memory, and that is where I continuously fail.
I usually don’t like to talk about my love life… In seriousness, I suppose the most unusual was someone asking me if writing about so many “evil” things was difficult for me, morally. Took me a moment to realize the person was talking about Science, my comfort in writing about women and gay issues, and the equality in my books, not the ancient evil monsters from beyond. I was troubled by that…
I don’t know if I’ve really gotten that many unusual requests or comments. On YouTube I’ve gotten a few declarations of love that caught me a little off-guard, but there hasn’t been much strange or unexpected on the blog or with regards to the book. I suppose if I was going to give one example, I’d say this one rating/review I got on “Nowhere to Hide” on Goodreads. The guy basically had nothing but good things to say about the book, but then he gave me a 3-out-of-5-star rating. That really perplexed me, because if I had literally nothing bad to say about a product, I’d probably give it 5 stars, right? And if he really thought it was only worth 3 stars, then why didn’t he explain his reasoning? I don’t know, that one just kinda annoyed me. I can handle the 3-star rating, but tell me why you only gave it 3.
I wish I had an entertaining story to tell here, but my blog followers have been well behaved and comments on my writing have been fairly standard. I’ve been thankful for that, but now I’m going to be waiting for something really far out there to pop up so I can share it the next time a question like this pops up.
Beside bizarre spam comments? Nothing much, really. All my commentators have been (apparently) sensible people, and the wacky comments tend to come from my RPG friends, so they don’t really count. (I play some of my story-characters in games with them, so now and then we’ll break into in-character commentary on a post.)
In response to my novel on combat in Vietnam, a woman reached to me on my page on Facebook and publicly posted pictures of the headstones of her husband, brother and uncle. She said they all died in combat in Vietnam or later from wounds suffered in Vietnam. She thanked me for writing about the trauma of war and the wreckage it leaves behind. I did not know what to say for a while. I stared at that one for a long time before I could respond.
If I did not fully believe it before this happened, it certainly drove home to me the power of words and of storytelling.
I’ve had a couple. The first was a comment about a worldbuilding post I’d made on this blog. It came as a response to a Facebook post I made linking to the blog post from someone I knew in school. He’s a Christian fundamentalist and creationist, and he was offended about my talk about the creation of a planet.
The second was a request to write a guest post on the blog. It was an interesting topic, and I said yes. However, it turned out to be an advertisement or endorsement for a product, which goes against WordPress guidelines for free blogs. I cannot have advertisements for products, unless I have a paid account.
How about you?
Have any of you bloggers or authors received unusual comments or requests? Share them in the comments below.
I Read Encyclopedias for Fun 
Reblogged this on Elizabeth Rhodes and commented:
What’s the strangest comment you’ve ever received online?
Reblogged this on North of Andover.
There was that time someone asked me, ‘Is your twin psychic, too?’ How am I supposed to respond to a question like that, anyway? *shakes head*
Well, that’s an odd question.
It is. And even in fiction, I prefer the term “psionic” rather than “psychic” — different connotations.
Yeah, totally different connotations.
Reblogged this on On the Edge of Enlightenment and commented:
I’m not really in a rush to get more either, but I’m sure I will eventually.
Reblogged this on and commented:
Sometimes questions catch you off guard, that’s for sure. Today the Authors and I talk about which unusual comments or requests we’ve had that bewildered us.