cup-of-shut-up2.JPGThey erupt now and then, like huge zits on an acne-prone teenager.

Author/publisher/agent scandals, or verbal slip-ups, or plain old flame wars.

Usually it’s just a minor breakout—nothing a good skin abrasion, or a splash of burning astringent won’t cure.

But sometimes it’s a Crater Lake-size zit, one of those enormous bastards that require a tourniquet, transfusion, and possibly follow-up plastic surgery.

And althought it’s a great lesson for anyone trying to avoid such pit-falls (excuse the pun, lol)…you’re sometimes left to wonder how or why people fall in.

Do people really want to know so much about others, even those they admire?  How much of yourself do you consider wise to expose to the public, whether through your books, your blogs, or posting on other people’s blogs?

And is it best, after all, as one reader raged at a particular author, to “just shut the f*ck up and write!” ?