Writer's Report 2.0

It seems Alice Hoffman didn’t like a review done by Boston Globe freelance book critic Roberta Silman.

Besides giving a critical review of Hoffman’s The Story Sisters, saying, “This new novel lacks the spark of the earlier work. Its vision, characters and even the prose seem tired.” Ms. Silman also gave away much of the story plot.

This so angered Ms. Hoffman, she got on her Twitter account and tweeted to her considerable following of readers that, “Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron.”

Now Hoffman didn’t start out this way, she at first defended herself saying, “Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don’t have to,” and continued, “And we writers don’t have to say nothing when someone tries to destroy us.”

But it seems the more she wrote the angrier she got and then went on the offensive. Besides the “moron” comment Hoffman also stated “Now any idiot can be a critic,” and even tweeted Silman’s phone number and e-mail address, encouraging her readers to “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.”

Once Ms. Hoffman cooled down, she obviously regretted her knee-jerk reaction to the review.

Come Monday morning she deleted her Twitter account and in a prepared statement in part said, “…in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn’t. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions, and that’s the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn’t mean to hurt anyone and I’m truly sorry if I did.”