I also liked: Bitter Author Face but I couldn’t decided on a title and went with the silly song beth has stuck in my head forever and evah.

At the risk of writing a book in the Smart Bitches Comments and because there is a question or two in here I would love anyones take on. I am posting my response to Candy’s very well done response to me here. For anyone not playing the home game or newbies around here… I like those bitches. I would post over there more often if I had time and or there was less coversnark (again nothing I have issue with just generally not my bag). So please do not mistake me for a kinder, gentler blogger (soooo should be a button).

Okay fine, I admit I am sweetness and light but I am not the blog police. Nor do I give a fuck about being the blog police. If you are done with this feel free to move along or if you want to know the issues visit Dear Author, they have the low down. Or go visit Smart Bitches and watch some authors moon us and shake their tail feathers… and no I don’t mean just the Trisk ones.

This doesn’t need to be pointed out as it will be the well said and correctly spelled shit while mine is the rambling… but if it is – those there be candy’s smart words.

I would like to point out once again that the post wasn’t particularly private, but sent to at least a couple hundred people.

You could not have joined that list. You couldn’t have clicked a membership button and ::poof:: belonged. No matter how you want to say okay there were too many people there, so nope not private… you don’t get to make that call.

There is public – you can link to it, point to it and anyone with a connection can join and see it. And there is private. This was private. So when the next forward is a private Samhain post about their business practices that goes out to all their authors, you are saying it is okay to post it. Even though it is a private email you can not verify.

Maybe about their site’s bookstore… the one not ‘owned’ by Samhain, isn’t their mainpage, sells jewelry or you know the decline of sales of some of their authors who seem to think their shit doesn’t stink.

(For the record I read Samhain and would say it is the better epub and have currently read a Trisk book like twice (something I plan to change). I don’t know or care about Gail Northman and really could give a fuck about ‘the children’. )

And true, it could’ve been edited or distorted–which is typically why Sarah (and I, for that matter) attempt to provide complete documents whenever we can.

Unless you were given someones password, logged onto the group and saw the post or unless you were a member all you had was the word of a very bitter author.

(For the record, I even like that bitter author, and even could give a shit less she forwarded the email. But I have never been able to wrap my arms around why this sort of thing is okay.)

If the post had been substantially edited, surely somebody would’ve come forward and said “That is a crock of lies, lieeeeeeeees.” It’s typically why Sarah and I ask for confirmation after talking about news items.

So you are all for giving space to someone who is lying (which is not the fact here but as you said could have been) and after shitting on someone, their company or their reputation – saying oops sorry my bad?

Dude I get this is a blog and not one that presents itself as a ‘newsite’, hard hitting or what the fuck ever but that seems shitty. If something could be damning to someones job or business, I think that is worth a few mins to check into. But that could just be me…

Jane handled this whole thing with more finesse than we did, but neither of us think what we did was especially wrong.

Yes but Dear Author and Smart Bitches are two different sites, different takes and that is great. This is the second time private information has been posted to SB, granted the other being an email was worse (IMHO) but the fact that you don’t think anything was done wrong is what I am trying to understand. Maybe you are right.

Also, since when were “news” and “gossip” mutually exclusive categories? (I can’t bring myself to insert a smiley here, so pretend I did.)

Yep and there is the issue right there I think. And something I am trying to find a handle on.

Really people, I am not on anyone’s side here. I LIKE the SB and if it wasn’t for the fact I respect the hell out of them I wouldn’t give a shit what they did or how they did it. And am well aware they could give a shit less if I did or not, it is for me I want to understand because I admit I could be wrong here.

So when does gossip become news. I get there are more than one bitter Trisk author, even though they don’t seem to be putting names to posts in public (we won’t even get me started on socks or I won’t ever shut the fuck up). And I would respect their OMFG AUTHORS NEED to be PROTECTED don’t let this happen to you!!! cry of woe if they had bravely come forth anonstyle during their battle for freedom. Or if it wasn’t happening as trisk is (seemingly) trying to change.

This just makes them look like asshats who are pissed off they were jerked around – after they have been cut free.

At the same time, I HATE blind item shit… fucking say what you mean or don’t say it. So… uh.. yeah I just can’t decide where that line goes. There is nothing wrong with being a romanceland tabloid and hello it is fun – but I still think there is a line. Just not sure where it is for me. You guys are smart enough to have figured it out for yourselves, I am slow. Sorry.

Think of some of the scuttlebutt you’ve handed Sarah and me over the past couple years–you know we’re not in the “anything sent over e-mail is fair game” camp, and implying so in this comment is dirty pool.

You know I am pretty sure about that personally. And I am sorry people have gotten the idea that I am ‘tsk tsking’ the bitches cuz people I like the SB. I am sorry but don’t look to me for a new, nicer blogger. I am most likely the bigger bitch here.

I know you have personally been on private lists with really good shit, some of it would have been news, important to romanceland, things the lil people ought to know!! but it isn’t posted, anywhere by anyone. My thought has always been because posting private list shit is evol. If that isn’t true, than what the fuck.

Why not, where is the line, when does private info become ok to wave in public. If it is just because you (that is a general you not Candy you) like the person, well many a ‘net friendship has gone wrong. Is this like a Bam review, it is funny as shit until the author is you.

Lookit, this is probably not especially helpful, but I think a bit of common sense would serve all of us well at the end of the day.

LOL yes it would. And really I go from the idea that anything I say to anyone about anything is something I will have to answer for at some point because people repeatedly show they can’t be trusted in the long haul (NOT at all directed to candy or sarah, who I personally trust very very much, that is in general). I think that sucks, I also think gail was a stupid shit and the trisk authors who came smacking you for being mean mean mean were complete dumbasses.

But this is also a company with issues, seemingly trying to fix those issues and bitching about Gail who hasn’t even taken over yet seems stupid. Pointing out all fucked up Trisk is by pointing to things Samhain does while saying Samhain is better is stupid. Saying yeah, well samhain pushed back their print runs too so there, is stupid.

So is bitching omg look at the issue people not privately posted email, personal shit or calling into question that maybe this is why romanceland gets no respect is stupid. This is the way you chose to present the gossip. So if this is why we are the dangerfield or publishing, take some ownership here don’t try to figure out how many licks it takes to make a private yahoo group not private.

As far as disagreement goes, yours is a lot more reasoned than most, and I do appreciate the viewpoint you come from. I do wish you’d quit it with the passive aggressive “Oh, I guess the poor wee publishers and editors learned an important lesson to NOT TRUST PEOPLE EVER AGAIN” bits. I prefer aggressive aggression.

LOL but it is true… don’t you think. Gail fucked up. And she fucked up big before she even took over. If she had been lucky no one would have ‘seen’ but ten to one she would have done it later.

If nothing else comes of the whole thing I think many a person who thought their private loops and shit were their home, authors who freely share forwarded info or author groups where they let their hair down, may have gotten the idea that hello… not a good fucking idea. Think before you hit send and all that jazz.

Of course it wasn’t that long ago a blogger was bitching about an author having an affair and telling her loop the dirty dirty. Soooo many didn’t get the lesson.

Shit, I need to save reading the rest of the comments for tomorrow. DAMN THIS NEED FOR SLEEP.

And I should never post before 8am anywhere… so whatever is clever 🙂