I think it is possible Texas heat is just not for some people. It causes delusions of grandeur and public fucknuttery.
That is the only thing I can think of as an excuse for Kathryn Falk, the CEO of Romantic Times, who attacks a blogger for:
** being a meangrrl
** not supporting women by telling them lies
** using her power for good and not evooool
** causing author’s to contemplate suicide
** being the reason the important people in the world don’t respect romance (you know MEN, who knew Karens was responsible for Bob Myers?)
** global warming
You can read her posts in full glory in Karens’s response to the asshat or here, or here. Or go to Dear Author and get the run down.
I really, really don’t want to believe this is Falk because nothing like the romance genre getting to be labeled that we are so great our one and only magazine with reviews has a mission statement to not review honestly but instead lies to the lil women writers for fear they may become sad and kill themselves.
This just defies comprehension.
So disturbing I can’t really be coherent in a response.
Isn’t she threatening Karn Scott with bad things, calling her a murderer by proxy WHILE she is telling Karen to be nice? Isn’t there a HUGE contradiction in stating your case for general niceness and overwhelming support by going after someone with ad hominems?
Gah.
I just love how you threw global warming in there. hehe
Ok people, someone explain it to me.
What is it about this time of year that makes people go nuts? Spring fever just doesn’t cut it, it’s rampant insanity.
And here I thought I’d seen everything in Romance Blog Land.
Will I cancel my subscription to Romantic Times? Well since I pay zero attention to the reviews probably not. I read them strictly for plot synopsis. The rating is of little consequence and frankly I like my reviews longer. Not Bam-long, but not RT-short either. Details people, I love details!
It’s a magazine I’ve never taken too seriously anyway. It’s very much a fan-zine IMHO. Which is how I explain the convention (which I really need to attend some day just to experience it) and the cover model “stuff.” I still contend that as long as women lose their minds over beef cake and pretty faces that the romance genre will also receive some measure of scorn. Just the way it is folks.
Lost my mind all over my blog on this one. Soooo touched a nerve.
My subscription has long since been retired. I can get any info I need about books from RT online. I agree with Wendy that from its inception I thought RT was a fan-zine and not a magazine to look at for serious reviews. I used it mainly for a shoppping list to know what was coming out and the monthly previews in the back.
I’m still amazed that Ms. Falk send that email to Karen and it is beginning to look more and more likely it was the “real” Kathryn Falk. If it wasn’t, she should speak up pronto because the more time that goes by she damages her credibility and her magazine.
Syb – that was a disturbing and bizarre letter. I don’t get it. Just goes to show you don’t have to be intelligent to be a CEO.
Here’s my analysis of this letter (I analyze when I get irritated at someone or something – it’s just what I do):
In a letter that has 2,648 words and about 70 paragraphs (holy shit!),
– approximately 42% of it was spent telling Karen what a bad person she was and how her “vituperative†posts and “mean-spirited†commenters were ruining the romance writing biz.
– 13% was spent in self-aggrandizing statements (“I discovered Fabio†HA!)
– 45% was psycho-babble bullshit, Rodney King-esque “can’t we all just get along†and even quoting “The Secretâ€
– She mentioned the poor Australian booksellers five times and talked about the “high, warm†feelings left over from Houston no fewer than three separate times. I’m thinking maybe a little more went on with a bookseller in Houston (wink wink nudge nudge).
Most ironic paragraph:
It will set us back years if we are portrayed as a bunch of jealous females baring their claws, upsetting our colleagues, and seemingly approving of a small group of savagely narcisstic women who can’t stand to see other people succeed.
She’s really too much. It was very entertaining.
Gwen you have way too much time on your hands.
Ok, here’s how I see it. Kathryn Falk is regurgitating the babble I hear everyday due to No Child Left Behind. We can’t let them feel bad about themselves, otherwise they won’t be worthwhile to society. Taking away criticism in anyway takes about ideas about what is good and what isn’t to the point where mediocracy is ok and we don’t really need to work hard, compeletion counts more. When no one is left behind, no one gets ahead.
Oh, and it’s a work of fiction, it was put out there and if someone doesn’t like it they have the right to say so. Don’t be upset about a bad review and don’t lambast and accuse of things that probably have no merit to the situation (ie the suicide comments).
With Gwen’s analysis it makes it seem that Kathyrn Falk is living up to the stereotypical “catfigting woman in Romance” rather than a dipolmatic CEO and businesswoman.
I’m still waiting for her to at least have the grace to deny that she wrote it.
If she didn’t write it, she really should say so, dontcha think?
She had to have written it. It’s not the kind of thing someone would do if they wanted to spoof her identity. A spoofer would make her sound even more silly, if that’s possible. This was a very reasoned plea for commitment to a funny farm. And a seriously bad judgement call.
Dear Author confirmed that RT says she wrote it. Oy.
Her remarks didn’t bug me nearly as much as Carol Stacy’s response to Lauren B. (Maybe because Kathryn Falk has always come on strong and that’s just who she is, whereas Carol has true administrative power at the magazine)