EL James Celebrates, Chuck Wendig Pouts, Annie Rice Spreads Hysterical Rhetoric (as usual)

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” – Martin Luther King.

Hello, Dear Readers, how are you all today? I’m feeling a little ranty, so be warned. Did any of you participate in the #AskELJames Twitter yesterday? You did? You didn’t? Well, it was a rousing success. What? You’ve heard just the opposite? I know, but really, Dear Readers, what has the internet been talking about for the past 24+ hours? Here’s a hint:  Not Anne Rice.

Once again, threats of physical violence are not acceptable so all those who felt the need to leave one attached to the hashtag managed to make James the object of sympathy, so think about it.

I haven’t been all that involved with the whole 50 Shades furor because I just plain hated her writing, if you want to call it writing. James has had an interesting rise to infamy. She started by writing fanfic and indeed  50 Shades is a Twilight fanfic ripoff. Not only that but she seems to have left the fanfic community on a father sour note. There are more accounts of her fanfic days out there but I’m going to borrow a page from James’ style of research and just not bother.

What has bothered a lot of people is that James seems to like to ignore, avoid, and block those who wish to engage her in a discussion of the inaccurate portrayal of BDSM, the abusive nature of Christian and Ana’s relationship and what a lot of readers define as rape. She also likes to send inappropriate messages and engage in a little jeering and belittling* with her fans. This Twitter exchange highlights a response, to a DV survivor yet. Charming.

So. When #AskELJames appeared a lot of people had a lot of questions and a lot of snark to post. Hey, it’s not like EL hasn’t done the same. S lot of posters have been saying she should have known better, that her PR people are probably looking for their next position, and that there just wasn’t any excuse for what happened to her.

What happened to her is people are still talking about a woman who can barely write her name. Do I think she got spanked? Hell no. She’s probably laughing her ass off and high-fiving whoever thought that campaign up. People are still talking and it seems to me it’s all about what happened to James and nothing about what James has done to others.

Now we come to Chuck Wendig who wrote this post about poor, beleaguered ELM James and then this post where he pouts and whines and get sympathy because what? Oh, I guess people pointing out where you totally ignored James’ behavior and the people she has attacked is more than you can handle. A more graceless, self absorbed post I have seldom seen. Not once, not once did you acknowledge any of the legitimate issues people have had with James, not once did you point out her behavior has fanned the ire of members of the BDSM community and DV survivors. No, no, you just couldn’t be bothered.

What was it, Chuck? Did you just not bother to do any research or are these people not as important as a woman on top of the best seller lists despite her inability to write a decent grocery list? Let me give you a clue, Chuck, those people read books and now I’m betting they won’t be reading you.

“Today I peeled back the Internet curtain and looked into that #AskELJames hashtag and thought, “Well, there’s some ugly stuff going on there and it’s against a woman,”” C Wendig, Online is IRL. You know, I had to reread that line a couple times before I actually figured it out, “and it’s against a woman”, so you chose to leap on your keyboard and ride to the little woman’s rescue. “To that society, women must shout back and louder, until a woman’s voice is as unremarkable as a man’s.”– Caroline Criado Perez. So the next time you decide to ride to the rescue ask yourself if you would do this for a man and if the answer is no,  then shut up.

BTW, congratulations, you have gotten the STGRB’s seal of approval for your post. If that doesn’t make you realize your colossal mistakes and missteps then nothing ever will.

Dumbass.

Then there is Annie, what can I say? That isn’t profane, that is. If ever there was a menace to authors and reviewers online it is Annie, who never lets the facts get in her way. Annie has been trying ever so hard to silence those that she doesn’t like and won’t bow down to her. She’s even found herself a couple mind numbingly stupid stooges to do her dirty work so she can claim willful ignorance.

I guess it’s understandable in a way that Annie would want to rush  to James’ defense, she did thank her for making erotica more acceptable and thereby making A N Roquelaure more profitable. Ever the champion of hysterical, overwrought, incendiary accusations having little to do with reality this link takes you to a solid rebuttal of her latest foray into the reality only she inhabits, and this is not the first time Annie has used inflammatory language to garner sympathy for her Holy Cause, read this. And this link points out that Annie, for all her holy fervor, doesn’t really look into the James furor, she just takes the word of someone who wants to curry favor and runs with it.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” – Martin Luther King.

ETA: “jeering and belittling“

Anne Rice and Reality- drifting ever farther apart

Sigh. Time to exercise the pigeon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne Rice is at it yet again, it seems that she is fascinated by yours truly. People flock to me like pigeons to popcorn so I can see why the poor dear keeps posting about me, all this charisma is a heavy burden. But let’s see what else she’s posting about, shall we?

Um. Wow.  Of course the negative reviews are fake????? Bullies patrol the site day and night? Oh, honey, you need to get a grip.  Beauty’s Kingdom isn’t garnering the landslide of five star reviews you think it deserves and you want to blame a group of people that don’t agree with you because, after all, it’s much easier than facing the fact that your book just wasn’t that good.

That’s right, report the downvoters because they are obviously fake. Wait- how do you know who they are? Oh, that’s right, you have a little list of people who don’t kiss your ass feet and, what, give their names to your minions and tell them to go forth and report? Amazon hasn’t listened to you about the real name issue and they deleted your whole thread that was nothing but post after post of links to stgrb so now you are just pointing to various posters/reviewers and repeating to your fans to report, report, report.

Get a hobby- here’s an idea- write a book.

You investigated them? This from the woman who used to say that she couldn’t know everything posted on stgrb because it was too dense. Not to put too fine a point on it, Annie, but I wouldn’t say that anymore because after reading parts of your latest offering I have absolutely no trouble believing that. And since you can’t even read past the latest post on that site anything you claim about “investigating” the Top Reviewers Forum can be viewed with a very large dose of skepticism. And we all know that you conveniently ignore anything that doesn’t suit you, too, so you wouldn’t be a reliable source for anything.

Okay, one last thing that has been explained to you more than once, no one is required to use the same name on every site they use. There is nothing wrong with using one name on Amazon and a different one for GR, BL, FB, Twitter, and wherever. Nothing.  People use different names different places for a variety of reasons but evidently the only reason you can think of is, well I’m not sure what you’re thinking. Are you?

 

You’re losing it, Annie.

 

 

Anne Rice wants to dox you!

Last year Anne Rice signed a petition by a friend of hers demanding that Amazon remove anonymity from anyone posting a review or in their forums.  It didn’t quite reach its goal even with Rice gracing it with her celebrity and talking it up all over the media any chance she could.

Not being a fan of her writing, and of herself, I have missed out on a lot of the fun and games of Rice setting her fanpoodles on unsuspecting reviewers or just having a go at them herself. This last year I’ve caught up and it’s been a fascinating read. Who could forget the “review” Rice posted when Blood Canticle wasn’t received with the proper amount of reverence and five star reviews. Or the blogger who used a battered copy of Punishing Pandora for decoupage. Rice has, finally, stopped providing her more rabid fans with links to critical reviews of her work on Amazon after posters started to vehemently protest but she wasn’t happy about it.

Rice has been a poster on Amazon for quite some time, pontificating on this, that, and how to correctly review books. Her efforts on the latter subject haven’t met with the level of success she believes she deserves. Rice does not like her opinions and pronouncements dismissed or argued. She gets- testy.

Lately Rice has become enamored of STGRB, a site known for being the idol of almost every author who has tried to lie, cheat, bully, harass, complain, pout, and just generally be an embarrassment to the book community. Known for its less than savory tactics, including doxxing, Rice has now taken to commenting and complimenting their various posts that bear small resemblance to reality.

Why would Rice champion such a site? Because they want what Rice wants- your real name. When you give Rice or, say, Melissa Douthit a one or two star review they want to be able to find you. They want their friends and fans to be able to find you.

They want to be able to rain down on you every form of coercion, harassment, and threat at their disposal. Don’t believe me? An author called me because I wrote about her gaming the system. Author Kathleen Hale stalked blogger, Blythe Harris, and wrote it up in The Guardian. And then there is this, an author in England tracks down a reviewer in Scotland and assaults by breaking a full wine bottle on her head.

And now Anne Rice wants your name attached to your reviews, attached to any comment you post on Amazon.

Recently Rice started a thread in Amazon’s Top Reviewer Forum for no other purpose than to spam for STGRB. Three or four days later it was deleted by Amazon. Now if Amazon hasn’t changed their policy then Rice would have gotten notification of why it was deleted but all she has ever said was the “bullies” managed to get it deleted by their actions. Yes, on that, we reported her for spamming every time she posted praising or linking STGRB.

Rice might want you to think that this was somehow underhanded but that’s what that little button is there for and, you know what, Amazon doesn’t take down a thread because a few people don’t like what is posted otherwise Politics and Religion would be pretty thin pickings. Amazon looked at what Rice was doing and decided she was in violation of their TOS. And that’s the reason why her thread was removed.

Time for screenshots:

Rice is talking about that blogger who used her book for decoupage. This wasn’t the only reason she changed her policy, years later than she should have. her fans never missed a chance to pounce on any unsuspecting reviewer and Rice was fully aware of this yet continued her posts.

Now here is an interesting ss:

Rice seems to be somewhat unglued by a passing observation that she and another poster live in or lived in the same neighborhood. You would think a woman who doesn’t like the thought of someone knowing where she lived would be more resistant to the idea of doxxing. But maybe she just wants to disclose someone’s name and let another author reveal their address, I hope that all the people she might eventually dox have sufficiently distinctive names. otherwise that might prove embarrassing, at the least, for Rice.

Here Rice approves of SPA author, Maggie Spence, calling me because I objected to her gaming the GR system, having family post five star reviews for her book on GR an d Amazon, and insulting other authors on the KSP boards when they tried to give her advice and urged her not to do what she ultimately declared herself “morally comfortable” doing. Spence hasn’t quit complaining about the backlash since. Of course rice would approve of this call because she doesn’t like me and calls me “the notorious blogger”.

This is hilarious because I have a very small following and most people in the book world have never heard of me but somehow Rice has the idea I can destroy a budding author’s career with one one star review.  Uh no, but the book that inspired that review might be enough to destroy it.

Rice tells her People of the Page constantly not to go to the Top Reviewers Forum on Amazon, so let me show them (and you) what she posts. Ready?

 

This next is the title of the thread Rice started and Amazon deleted.

Wait- she would invite us over? After she almost melted down over the casual observation by a poster that they used to live in the same neighborhood? I have a perfect ss for this:

Maybe Amazon doesn’t do anything because those posters aren’t violating the TOS?

So Rice gives a site that has doxxed reviewers/bloggers, insulted reviewers on their looks and weight, endorsed some of the biggest liars and cheats “writing” today, and cutting and pasting facts and screenshots to support whatever lie they wish to promote.

You remember paro/Kevin Weinberg, don’t you? The recently banned from both GR and WP for flagrantly violating their TOSs. When Rice talks about the dark spots on the internet Weinberg certainly qualifies but he will agree with her and promote that site so Rice loves him.

Or not so much because she has said absolutely nothing in his defense either time. Hmm.

Rice loves to tell posters they are confused or hysterical and then uses that as an excuse not to answer their questions or just puts them on ignore.

Moving over to her FB page Rice keeps up a steady barrage on her People but she never produces any evidence, she just keeps reiterating the same things over and over.

We don’t mind you being critical, we mind that you make accusations you can’t prove and keep making them.

And now that her petition, her thread devoted to her pet site, and her (probably) numerous abuse reports to Amazon haven’t garnered her the desired result Rice is considering doxxing. Why?

Well, Rice doesn’t like the way I review, she doesn’t think I, or anyone else, should recommend not reading a book. She believes that with that one sentence you will all magically not buy that book and thus I will have destroyed an author’s career. That I should wield that kind of power. She doesn’t like that I blog about plagiarists, cheaters, liars. She doesn’t want me to have an opinion, or maybe she doesn’t want me to have an opinion that doesn’t meet her specific requirements.

And so we come to this:

Does Rice pay any attention to what her People are saying? Put down? I hope Renee doesn’t live next to any of you.

And here it is, what she really wants, not just your name- your address, your employer, your family’s names. Because she doesn’t like the way you- and I- review and nothing she has done so far has stopped us. She wants to “tattle”, to call or email your boss and/or your family.

Rice has a book release on Tuesday, now how many critical reviews won’t be posted because of her behavior? Reviewers were refusing arcs of this book because they don’t want the trouble that comes with giving her  less than favorable reviews.

I’m not alone in believing Rice isn’t doing this for new authors. I think she does it for what she gets-admiration for her ‘bravery’, and what she doesn’t get- critical reviews. There is a bully here and now she wants to dox us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homework

Good morning faithful readers, all 7 of you, I have a little project I’m working on. Here is your homework. Read all the links below and then do a little independent research. Research is good for you, at least that’s what I tell myself when I have to do it.

Bullying.org is against them: http://cuddlebuggery.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Bullying.orgtweet.png

Foz Meadows is unimpressed: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/foz-meadows/stop-the-gr-bullies-a-response_b_1690469.html

https://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/bullying-goodreads/

Ray Garton is unimpressed, as well: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ray-garton/stop-the-gr-bullies-_b_1696640.html

Successful sci-fi author John Scalzi sees them for what they are: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/07/17/bad-reviews-i-can-handle-them-and-so-should-you/

Author Jenny Trout has also been harrassed by STGRB. But Anne Rice doesn’t like her (because she tried to politely let Anne know that STGRB were not good people) so it’s OK that they did that. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the screen shot of what happened when she tried to tell Ms. Rice about them: http://jennytrout.com/?p=7532. Here are her thoughts on the site: http://jennytrout.com/?tag=stgrb

How about Jim Hines? http://www.jimchines.com/2014/10/victim-or-perpetrator/

Or Allison Dickson: http://www.allisonmdickson.com/2012/07/there-are-no-gr-bullies-only-whiny.html

http://www.jessicascott.net/blog/2012/07/thoughts-on-stop-the-gr-bullies/

http://www.lindseyrothculli.com/2012/07/hey-goodreads-ant-bully-bullies-be.html

https://behindstgrb.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/stgrb-captures-romancelandia-citizens-incites-a-new-mccarthyism-era/

https://rosepetals1984.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/soapbox-saturday-3-critique-social-media-interaction-and-bullying-a-reflection/

http://www.bookshelfery.com/imo-bully-me-and-ill-bully-you-because-that-makes-it-right-logic-i-has-it/

http://lmpruitt.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/reporting-thursday-stop-gr-bullies.html

http://sugarandsnark.co.za/?p=4485

http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/07/stop-gr-bullies-stalking-tantrums-and.html

http://bookish.livejournal.com/3248363.html

http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/something-is-very-wrong-with-us-and-its-not-bad-reviews/

https://behindstgrb.wordpress.com/

http://www.stgrb.com

http://stopthegrbullies.net/so-called-victims-of-bullying/

http://stopthegrbullies.net/criticism-is-not-bullying/

https://nevillfeast.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/what-does-it-take-to-be-called-an-amazon-fora-troll/

http://the-digital-reader.com/2013/04/29/how-not-to-respond-to-bad-reviews-the-anne-rice-edition/

https://www.goodreads.com/user_status/show/60276438?page=1 (almost forgot this one!)

Happy reading.

The End Is Different From The Beginning

This blog started out in my usual snarky style and then went to a very different place.  I thought about changing the beginning but, no, it stands.

 

It’s been one of those days where the insanity just makes you wonder about the thought processes of some people.  Our good friends over at that site implemented a new policy a few days ago, they have been trying ever so hard to be just like the regular folks since Annie Rice-cakes has given them her blessing.

Annie loves her BFFs at that site. And her BFFs are trying so very hard to appear reasonable.

Look at this, no name calling, peoples, it won’t be tolerated.

I always thought “soulless sociopath” wasn’t very complimentary but I guess I was wrong. And I don’t mean to be nitpicky but if you are going to insult someone then you really should spell their name correctly. I think you need-wait, what am I saying, I know you need an editor. (I’ve read one of your books, Mel) You keep posting these mistakes and people are gonna wonder if you can spell. Answer:  NO.

Where was I? Oh, yes, here.

Bullies, One-Star, Horned Monster, Hairy.  Pathetic failed lives, lowest …intellect, pathetic, small-minded, puny minds.  They love us over there.

Then the creepy factor goes sky-high when Observer claims to have researched us or some of us. Wait, wait, no. Did you just equate a group of reviewers with a mass murderer? You did.

You just said  1) You were “researching” our lives and how creepy is that? and 2) You assert that we are “on the same spectrum” as a serial killer.

I won’t point out that this last part is distasteful and disrespectful of the victims and their families and minimizes their suffering and the actions of one man bent on making everyone pay for what he believed the world denied him.

You can sit over there and point your grubby little fingers and call us names, like you just did, and insult our lives and appearance-we don’t give a flying fuck.

But to sit there and use a very recent tragedy as a comparison to reviewers, mostly women, that you want to bully, harass, and silence? How bankrupt of normal human compassion are you?

George Chen

Katie Cooper

Veronika Weiss

Cheng Yuan Hong

Christopher Michael-Martinez

Weihan Wang

These are the names of the dead. These are the names of the dead.

Tomorrow morning you will wake up and go to work, talk to your friends, have dinner with your families. You can write another less than stellar book and despite my 1 star review you will sell your book. You will go forward.

George, Katie, Veronika, Cheng, Christopher, and Weihan won’t.

There is a vast difference between receiving a snarky review and being murdered.

I guess the dead are fair game.

Dear STGRB,

I didn’t say Becky’s and Naomi’s (Pigglywiggly on Amazon.uk) reviews weren’t “on the up and up”, I said the reviewers were Baldwin’s daughters. Did you miss that? Sorry, let me make it perfectly clear- reviews and ratings by Naomi and Becky on GR, and reviews by R. Vowles and Pigglywiggly on Amazon.uk are by the author’s daughters who never mention their relationship to the author.

Considering that Amazon frowns on and usually deletes reviews by close relatives and others they consider to have an interest in the book(s) succeeding, I can see why Mandy would want to keep this quiet.

 

Here is her dedication to her three children.

 

 

Look who is living at the same address.

 

Her bio from poetry site.

 

If Mandy had just gracefully accepted that 2 star review and kept quiet she would still be cheerfully gaming the system. But she overreached her talent as a scammer and got caught. You want to support her and condone her actions, well, that’s no surprise at all. But in case you missed this part too, she lied.

She lied on KDP:

 

She lied on GR:

She denied any relationship, however casual, with Naomi and Becky. She lied and accused other posters of having sock accounts and creating “fake” reviews. I didn’t review her books, I didn’t even give them a 1 star rating, I left this:

 On all three books.

Linda left a review  stating exactly how much she had read and what problems she found. Were either of these fake? No. Are  the ratings left by readers fake? No. You can rate books based on whatever you feel like. Some people don’t like being lied to.  Some people didn’t like her revenge review of Linda Hilton’s book, it appeared right after she accused Linda of accusing her of having sock reviews, something that Linda did not do. And some people left a rating after Mandy posted this blog.

Isn’t Mandy a real sweetie? I can’t understand why everyone just isn’t bowled over by her charm.

Back to those reviews, I have no idea who Susan Smith is, but she has been around Amazon.uk for a few years before she was roused to leave a review.  I had wondered if she was a friend of Baldwin’s “helping” her by posing as a “bully” reviewer so Baldwin could cry abuse and be one of  your gang, uh, group.

I do know that looking at some of her other 4 and 5 star reviews that I am not easy about some of them and as soon as I finished this little costuming project I’ve got I’ll give them a closer look.

So, let me reiterate, I never said I found the reviews by Becky and Naomi suspect, I said they were by her daughters and those daughters never disclosed their relationship in said reviews. Baldwin lied repeatedly to readers, reviewers, and other authors when she claimed she did not know who wrote those reviews.

She is definitely your kinda author.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Pits…

From the biggest pit of all:

I don’t recall accusing Mandy Baldwin of having sock puppets, but let’s go here and look. Nope, no mention of socks. And what about that comment by Gavin?

I don’t see any socks, do you? No? Well then, I guess J. is just lying to his/her “friends” about what I really said. Just like Mandy Baldwin lied to pretty much everybody when she claimed she didn’t know that  positive reviewer and hated fakes, and just like that reviewer and one other lied to everybody when they did not disclose their relationship to Baldwin.

Speaking of fakes or, in this case, made up names (Mandy really, really hates those):

Hello, Mandy/Rose. I see you are proud to join the rank. (No, that isn’t a typo or an incomplete sentence.)