…And the world goes crazy. Or so I’m told.

Anyway, so Rachel Potter has resigned from AAR after making those highly inflammatory comments, blaming women for rape, and everything else that’s wrong in the world. She didn’t go quietly though. She slagged off the planet and her daughter on her personal blog, before rethinking and deleting the post. You may still be able to get the cached version if you’re quick.

Personally, I think she did the right thing. There are lots of comments over at Dear Author lamenting on what a shame it is that she’s no longer at AAR, but honestly, I don’t see how she could have continued there, after she’d shown her knickers in such a fashion.

I actually thought that Rachel’s comments were more of a one-off than her actual deep-seated beliefs – or at least I did until I read her personal blog, and saw some of the comments that she’d made on other anti-feminist blogs.

Yes, Rachel is an anti-feminist who fundamentally believes that post-modern feminism is the reason why the world is going to hell in a handbasket. She seems to also believe that young women of today who have discarded the traditional role of women (as in wife, home-maker, and mother) have played the biggest part in the disintegration of society. (more…)

There’s a very interesting post over at the All About Romance blog, entitled Drawing The Line.

The columnist, Jane, writes:

I’ve been thinking about Voltaire lately. Specifically, one of his most famous quotations: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

Last Monday, my campus newspaper printed a column by a male writer. In this piece, he called feminists and gay activists “a sniveling bunch of emotional cripples,” declared that date rape is an “incoherent concept,” and essentially that drunken flirtation is consent.

Jane then goes on to describe the resulting outrage that those comments caused in InternetLand over the next few days.

For me, the fact that a male writer dared to write those things in a public forum wasn’t the thing that captured my attention the most (after all, he’s a columnist trying to get people to read his musings) no, what perked up my interest was firstly, Jane’s take on the issue: (more…)

You know, I totally love it when people give me blog fodder. It really makes my day.

Kirk Biglione took exception to my previous post, and didn’t mind saying so:

Wow. Seriously?! Bernie Madoff stole money. Lots of money. Billions. Are you seriously comparing what Madoff did to the failure of a digital publishing startup? If so, you really have no sense of decency.

As someone who was involved in the Quartet “debacle” I can say without hesitation that:

1. No laws were broken.
2. None of the participants behaved unethically.
3. No money is owed (all debts were honored).

Frankly, your attempt to connect the Quartet Press participants to a Ponsi scheme seems actionable. I hope you have a good attorney.

Be still my beating heart. It’s not yet March and I’ve already been threatened with legal action, YAY!! (more…)

The following comment was left on a blog post (by somebody calling himself Barack Hussein Obama Sadaam) that I wrote a while ago, questioning whether or not racism in America had increased since Obama became president:

“I think that racism is increasing.

Minorities act like they want us to be racist to them.

Obama supports the NBA, which has some of the worst (dangerous) black people in the world.

Black leaders, such as NBA superstars, need to lead by example if blacks want racism to go away. I do not think blacks want racism to go away though.

Solution: Have all newborn black babies be adopted by intelligent white people. This will get rid of their terrible language of ebonics along with helping them succeed in life.”

This was my response: (more…)

Stan Collymore is an assholic jealous wanker, and he’s not fit to lick David Beckham’s boots.

Stan you went to a big club and you couldn’t hack it, you went to Leicester and you couldn’t hack it. You were shit at Aston Villa, crap at Bradford City, and woeful at Real Oviedo, yes please, keep living off your performances at Southend and Nottingham Forest ten million years ago. Fuckwit.

Rant over.

I had to repost this comment from some troll on Emily’s blog in response to her XOXO Publishing post:

You people all sound like a bunch of losers with time on your but to backlash at innocent people!

The website looks good to me, I have not seen any of the above accusiations you’ve all stated. The book trailer is very professional and I like the music its catchy.

I have submitted my work and so far I have received a very positive feedback.

As I could tell the website has not been officially launched, meaning its under construction.

I think all of you are fakes and its only one person responding to the false information. You’re all a bunch of morons, jealous group of people.

Who is this Emily Vien something. What makes her an expert to judge a new business?

And in a further comment:

The spelling mistake was done purposefully! I know of Emily Vienglory I’m a former reader. I will no longer be one of them. Backstabbing people is not my
style. Seems that is it hers and a Karen Scott.

Talk about going with the E-pubTroll Blueprint. The comment itself could be the subject of a drinking game: One sip every time the word jealousy is mentioned, *hiccup*, 2 sips for every spelling mistake, *hiccup* hahahaha!!

What a twat.

Look what AL found when she was looking through this year’s RWA schedule:

Online Promotion: B(u)y The Book (CAREER)
Speakers: Lori Foster, Jenna Petersen, Michelle Buonfiglio, and Danielle Jackson
Romance industry insiders and an Internet media expert teach you the simple, down home truth about successfully marketing and presenting yourself – and by extension, your work — to online media and communities.

I’m assuming Buonfiglio is the Internet media expert?

Internet media expert? Really?

She’s like that embarrassing relative that you wish would stay locked up in the house.

Hopefully she’ll change up from her last presentation.

I wont hold my breath though.

For those who were curious about Cindy Cruciger’s post that she deleted, here it is in full with some of the accompanying comments. I’ve edited out some of the more laborious comments, because… well, because they were boring and not really relevant.

Savage Incivility” – tried it once didn’t like it May 2

Filed under Jane Litte, Apropos of nothing, Assholes On the Web, Blog wars, Dirty Politics, Light a match for Karen Scott’s last bridge, Loose Thoughts, Pointless Blathering, The Four Horsemen, Writing by admin | 45 comments (K:There were 45 comments, but just 3 commenters)

Must be soap box day in 3 … 2 … 1. (more…)

Hey Guys, guess what, The Vindictive Rhinoceros has reared her very ugly head again.

Like I twittered last night, just as I start to forget that the bitch exists, up she pops wanting some attention from her favourite people in the whole world. Talk about extreme separation anxiety huh?

Anyway, from what I can tell, she was trying to make a political statement, but somehow ended up talking about yours truly, The SBs, and Dear Jane. She truly does love us so.

VR started off talking about wearing pyjamas on a website, (which I really didn’t get, but we know how fragile her mental state is), then she mentioned feathers on said website, then she made a statement about trying to eradicate conservatism from us (I have no idea which us she was talking about) , then she talked about a dress on Google Earth, then she talked about her work in class, (I didn’t actually think she was a teacher at the university, but I could be mistaken) then she mentioned that good old biblical figure, Saul whatshisface (wasn’t he the dude who got David into that unfair fight against Goliath?).

Anyway, apparently Saul had some rules, and there were supposedly 13 of them. I did wonder if VR meant The Ten Commandments, but I figured it was best to not interrupt her flow. She then talked about freezing a target, but I didn’t have the foggiest idea what she was talking about. (more…)

Aint that the truth?

Dear Ravenous Romance Peeps

Sometimes, it’s best to let the work do the talking. Know what I mean?

Getting into fisticuffs with your potential customers isn’t the greatest PR move methinks.

Letting some of your authors, Keta Diablo, Jamaica Layne run their mouths off on romance blogs is just not a smart move. Freedom of speech is all well and good, but surely you know that good PR is everything when starting a new business? You gotta be smarter than you’ve shown to be in the last few months. Seriously.

I’m just a reader, who along with a few others may have given you guys a chance in the beginning, had you taken the charm offensive route from the beginning. Unfortunately though, Ravenous Romance has now become synonymous with ‘Those Effing Crazies’. Unfair I know. Life’s a bitch that way.

One of your more vocal representatives once claimed that Ravenous Romance would “blow the competition out of the water” Do you think you’ve managed to do that?

Really?

You definitely made a splash, I’ll grant you that, but I’m not sure that all the negative attention you’ve garnered was part of your overall PR plan for Ravenous Romance, was it??? Also, I have to say, since becoming familiar with RR, the higher-ups at Elloras Cave seem positively normal to me now, which is quite scary. Believe me.

Anyway, I thought I’d offer up some advice, take it or leave it, but at least consider what type of image you wish to promote to your potential readers. The world outside Romanceland is massive, but online, it’s a very small world indeed.

Also, you may just want to label your books correctly. Readers get really mad when they get something different to what it says on the tin.

Just saying.