geeknote-command fails when argument to --tags flag is empty

[vxe]

for me at least

the current

(defun geeknote-create-old (title)
  "Create a new note with the given title.

TITLE the title of the new note to be created."
  (interactive "sName: ")
  (message (format "geeknote creating note: %s" title))
  (let ((note-title (geeknote--parse-title title))
	(note-tags (geeknote--parse-tags title))
	(note-notebook (geeknote--parse-notebook title)))
  (async-shell-command
   (format (concat geeknote-command " create --content WRITE --title %s --tags %s"
                   (when note-notebook " --notebook %s"))
           (shell-quote-argument note-title)
           (shell-quote-argument (or note-tags ""))
           (shell-quote-argument (or note-notebook ""))))))

fails with

python ~/.emacs.d/opt/geeknote/geeknote/geeknote.py create --content WRITE --title emacs\ vs\ vim --tags '' --notebook ideas: exited abnormally with code 1.

removing --tags seems to work though obviously without the tagging feature

(defun geeknote-create (title)
  "Create a new note with the given title.

TITLE the title of the new note to be created."
  (interactive "sName: ")
  (message (format "geeknote creating note: %s" title))
  (let ((note-title (geeknote--parse-title title))
	(note-tags (geeknote--parse-tags title))
	(note-notebook (geeknote--parse-notebook title)))
  (async-shell-command
   (format (concat geeknote-command " create --content WRITE --title %s "
                   (when note-notebook " --notebook %s"))
           (shell-quote-argument note-title)
           (shell-quote-argument (or note-tags ""))
           (shell-quote-argument (or note-notebook ""))))))

macOS Sierra 10.12 geeknote 2.0.11 python 2.7.10