I’ve deliberately stepped into the public light by blogging from Iraq this year. I’ve been cautioned by well meaning friends to watch what I say in a public forum, because, well, it’s a public forum. And before I’ve hit send/publish, I’ve always tried to sit back and think, what would my brigade commander think if he read this about one of his officers.

That, in and of itself, has been enough to keep me relatively sane, I think. I’ve made some mistakes this year and I’m sure that no author can go through their publishing career in these days and not make a mistake online that will haunt them forever. When it becomes standard practice for commanders to ‘interview’ prospective officers by Googling them to see if there are any keg stand photos out there, you’ll understand my caution is not just for writers alone.

However, over on Amazon this week has been an object lesson in authors truly behaving badly. I don’t know this author, but I did see a couple of authors who’d public posts, on Twitter and on their own blogs, have been professional, insightful and full of great information. Two of these authors stopped by said train wreck and offered the advice to the self destructing writer that she might want to stay away from the keyboard for a while.

An energetic debate is always an enjoyment for me, but watching this thread develop over the course of the day, I couldn’t help but wonder if the author was drunk. Even if she was, the damage has been done. She did not offer much to the conversation about bad reviews and she blatantly attacked anyone who did not agree with her. She’s entitled to her opinion and at least she has the courage to jump into the fray rather than retreat, but I’m inclined to agree with the authors who recommended stepping away from the keyboard. She’s not gaining anything here except notoriety and I’m enough of a novice in the writing world to wonder just how much value there is in notoriety. I’m watching the thread for the learning experience of what it looks like when a public person goes on a rant and trying to take away some very important lessons.

I’m sure this debate is going down in the urban legends of popular literature.

I’m taking away one very important lesson: what you put online, stays online.

Send with caution.