He doesn't just jump the shark, he jumps it, flips it off and says, "SUCK IT, SHARK!"

My favorite author right now is a guy named Jeff Somers who writes the zine "The Inner Swine". I found TiS when I was living in Tucson, Arizona and everywhere else I've moved I've tried keeping up with his writing. I am so greeatful that he publishes TiS via both hardcopy and online. There were many long boring days and nights in Antarctica where copying The Inner Swine archives to my iPod helped me make it through. On top of that, the one or two times I've emailed him he's always been supportive and inspiring, despite me being a creepy anonymous stranger who writes websites about toy robots. I suspect Jeff just tries not to offend his fans because he's afraid that they're stalker weirdos and he doesn't want to piss them off, which I totally understand.

But boy did he piss me off with one of his recent web columns. His humor is largely based on self-deprecation and beer so I was surprised when he did the three things that usually turn me off to a writer. I think an author saying that they have no readers is an insult to anyone that has paid them any attention. He did that, which I hate. Then he went on to write about his writing, which to me is usually a sign that a writer has run out of ideas and is no longer appealing. Finally, the column ends with him telling his readers to "suck it". What an asshole!

If it were anybody else I would stop reading their crap and tell everybody they're not worth checking out. But it's Jeff and if there's one writer that I'd stick with no matter what, he's the guy. So I wrote him a little feedback about how I felt and he told me to suck it. I guess I should just let it go but I decided to write about it here in my blog that no one reads.