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Finally, an update in the EC v DA vexatious defamation suit.

(Even though I’m not on twitter, I monitor #notchilled pretty regularly, because it’s the only way I have to get updates on the case, not having a PACER account or the like.)

Today, Courtney Milan posted a quick update/analysis of the latest happenings in the case.

Using a few more characters: judge John R Adams denied TiNut’s motion to quash the subpoena, in a rather snarky manner too.

I can’t copy and paste directly from the document, but the judge basically¹ says, “you claim that your identity should not be made available to the defendants, because you know nothing about the case; however, both in your letters and in your tweets, you have proved without a doubt that you know all parties involved, and all sorts of facts of the matter at hand, intimately. Your not-quite-a-motion to quash is hereby denied.”

The moral of the story: don’t brag about all you know and can prove, and above all, don’t offer to testify in favor of one of the parties, lest you discover the legal system is not that easy to manipulate.

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¹ I think, for an extrapolation, it’s pretty close.

Any Ellora's Cave authors who are publishing elsewhere...

If you would like some free promotion, here at the blog, at my blog and at MyMedia forum, leave a comment and I’ll contact you for details and scheduling.

This offer is only for non-Ellora’s Cave books, self-published or published elsewhere, and it’s not a quid-pro-quo type thing in any way, shape or form.

As I said on my blog, this is about helping out those authors who have been left out high and dry to whatever degree, due to ongoing shenanigans within Ellora’s Cave, as well as due to any involvement with and/or support of Jane Litte and Dear Author during the vexatious defamation lawsuit Ellora’s Cave filed against them.

It was all quiet, then Anne Rice opened her mouth

Many of our readers are aware of Anne Rice’s increasingly strange behaviour, claiming that she doesn’t need an editor, that readers who write negative reviews hate her, sending her fanboys and girls to attack a blogger because she dared use pages of her book Pandora (after writing a fairly negative review of it) for a craft project, and over all being a huge drama queen with a large platform and little common sense.

Ms Rice, not content with the fact that her opinion is sought less and less often, is not shy about sharing it as loudly as she can.

Today I was made aware that while posting that she ‘knows nothing and has no opinion,’ in truth Anne Rice is chiding anyone speaking in support of DA or JL, and claiming that EC will have its day in court. Funny, I thought it was the people accused who had their day in court to prove their innocence. Further, I thought that in defamation cases, is the people doing the accusing who have to prove there is defamation.

Still, not surprised to see Anne Rice talking out of her ass again. It’s become her schtick, yes?

EC v DA shenanigans and filings

Deirdre Saoirse Moen has a number of recent posts on the amazingly tasteless behaviour of Ellora’s Cave principals and staff.

Check out Double Entry Divas and The Sunken Queen for more.

The Defense filed its objection to TiNut’s motion to quash the subpoena, and Courtney Milan explains both that and what the gag order meant for the parties, here.

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Signs of life... (EC v DA)

…but not here.

Go there.

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(Sorry about that, but there’s only one of me to create content for two blogs and a forum–plus work–which means something’s gotta give at times)

Hey, TiNut, screenshoot this! (EC v DA related shenanigans)

You know one of the best things about being a reader who has no writerly ambitions?

Knowing that I will never have to deal with dicks such as TiNut as my publisher.

For your amusement, and in case someone does decide to subpoena the ‘anonymous’ TiNut account, its latest threats:

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Charming? (aka, old business is current business) (EC v DA)

I was reading #notchilled when the always entertaining TiNut spewed erm…tweeted, this particular witticism:

TiNut - EC and company are charming as witnesses and clients
Oh yeah, I see how charming it is to have Tina Engler/Jaid Black giving the finger to everyone on her facebook page.

 (embiggen at your own risk)

FIRST result, people, top left!
Very professional, indeed. Befitting the owner of a *cough* massive *cough* company.

(Please do excuse me while I laugh myself silly over here in the corner for a moment)

Okay, I’m back.

So charming as clients and on the stand that the judge in the Brashear case spanked them every which way till Sunday, tears and all.

A taste, because I just can’t resist:

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A bit of news (EC v DA)

New document added to the docket. You can see it here.

I parse it out over here.

Thanks again to Deirdre Saoirse Moen and to Courtney Milan.

Jaid Black on "being wrong"

While I would prefer that people following #notchilled stopped engaging TiNut, the hashtag is still a great source of previously unknown to me snippets of wisdom from Tina Engler/Jaid Black.

For example, back in early October, EC author Sedonia Guillone wrote about how proud she was, being an author for Ellora’s Cave, and…no, let me quote, lest the post gets memory holed and then readers may suspect I made this up. (Screenshots at the end, click to embiggen).

Here we go:

I have communicated personally with Jaid Black and she has always been kind to me, responding to my concerns and queries promptly.

Jaid Black has been kind, people.

It’s not like this is a business relationship where what is essential is professionalism or anything. Kindness is always good–who wants to deal with assholes? but where there is no professionalism, overt kindness may hide all sorts of assholeishness.

She is not the first intelligent person I have seen become the object of people’s hostilities online and the mood behind what i see as yet another witch hunt feels again like a mass hysteria in which the truth gets buried.

The other thing I find upsetting is the clamor by some to boycott EC books. Whatever the rationale for that action, I can feel nothing but upset. One cannot try to break the publisher without injuring its authors.

Yeah, because fellow authors, plus editors and cover artists, speaking up about not being paid is a witch hunt. It’s not like facts backing up the allegations matter, right, so long as you’ve drunk the EC Koo-laid.

I, course, cannot leave out this:

We authors work hard. We have written our hearts and souls into our books, praying that readers out there will buy them not only so we can earn a living but so that the reader will enjoy them. Now there are people trying to get others not to buy these books and make an already difficult career to make a living in even more difficult.

Hearts and souls…can “my babies!” be far behind? And oh, look, the whole “we need to make a living” thing.

(This makes me angry for a whole ‘nother host of reasons, so I’ll leave it alone. Expect: many an avid reader also would like to make a living doing whatever it is, and many don’t, no matter how hard they try.)

Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it many more times (and I believe most readers agree with me):

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Not a post: leaving breadcrumbs (EC v DA)

Courtney Milan has a brief blog post about the denial to remand the case back to state court. Go, take a peek.

(Comments off on this one, but feel free to comment in and to any of the previous real posts.)

How could I have forgotten? (EC v DA...sorta)

A long, long time ago (September 2010) I wrote this very short post:

Over at Dear Author there is some noise over Red Rose Publishing and the alleged issues the company has with authors, editors, etc. The fun started here, followed by this tidbit, and it’s currently going strong here.

The quick and dirty summary: Dear Author reported some shenanigans; anonymous authors came out; sockpuppets followed; RRP’s owner wants all blog content related to the company taken down; Dear Author pretty much ignores the noise; lawyer-like threats follow; Dear Author pretty much still ignoring them.

The moral of the story: be careful who the fuck you threaten with legal action over the internetz–they may just be real lawyers who not only won’t be cowed by your barely coherent threats but who will actually know the law.  (In simpler terms: be careful you don’t bite more than you can chew.)

The links work, if you have some time, but the upshot?

EC did bite a lot more than TE/JB is gonna be able to chew, let alone digest.

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I am loving this (aka, the law of unintended consequences)

Last week I realized that one of the blogs I visit regularly had an ad for Ellora’s Cave up in the front page.

Considering the fact that EC is suing a blogger, and that the blogging community rallied around her to the tune (so far) of almost $55,000, saying I was taken aback is to greatly understate the matter.

I seriously considered dropping the blog from my bookmarks, and was getting all ready to breathe fire and stuff, when I realized a few things:

  • One, there’s another blog–very well known and very vocal in its defense of Dear Author–sporting the very same ad for EC.
  • Second, it’s quite likely that both these blogs (and probably a fair number of other book blogs) signed contracts months ago for these ads to appear this month, well before EC committed the unmitigated stupidity of suing Dear Author.
  • Third, it’s also quite likely that at least some of the money these bloggers are making off these ads is going directly to help Dear Author and Jane Litte.

Don’t you love karma?

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Edited to add: well, it gets even better (though my timing? not so good, as I had this all scheduled and then saw what follows below)

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Wouldn't it be interesting... (EC v DA)

if someone shot a video showing the entire process, from getting the check in the mail, opening it, and seeing the different dates between the check and the post mark?

I have a feeling more than one interested party would love to have such proof of the allegations that, regardless of what the books at EC (and the checks themselves) may show, the reality is that the royalty payments are delayed beyond any interpretation of EC’s ‘vague’ contract terms.

EC v DA - date disparity

Should it be proven... (EC v DA)

…that PubNut (TiNut for short) is actually Tina Engler/Jaid Black, or anyone else directly involved with Ellora’s Cave, tweets like the one below may be of particular interest to any authors and editors who have not been paid, or who have not been paid in a timely manner, or who have in any other way been penalized for not toeing the Tina line:

PubNt - should it be proven that this is actually TE...
Best part is the certainty that there are literally hundreds of screenshots of all the bullshit spewing out of both this and other TE identities, in quite a few computers in widely diverse locations. Any accusations of tampering/altering images would be laughed out of court.

Who's the liar here? (EC v DA)

As a firm believer in karma, I’m confident eventually some people will cry in court (again) while having their lying, cheating, thieving asses handed back to them by the judge.

PubNt - Jaid Black lying once more

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This is not a post (EC v DA related)

This is just a note to say that:

a) nothing has come down from the court yet, though I believe Courtney Milan when she says that at this point it’s not whether or not the case will stay in federal court, but how hard the Nut…erm…EC will be spanked,

and

b) to direct our faithful readers’ attention to Deirdre Saoirse Moen’s blog, notably this post, this post and this post.

I hope to have something new to contribute at some point soon, but right now there’s really nothing happening.

Unless you considering the Nut spewing its particular and very peculiar brand of “logic” all over #notchilled  as “something happening,” that is.

If you find yourself in possession of some disposable income (I know, holiday season = unlikely, but still), here are a couple of good causes for you to get rid off it:

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Seriously?

Did anyone else laugh at this?

PubNt - self awareness, you're doing it wrong

No kidding.

Who knew? (very brief EC v DA update)

(Updated – again)

Hat tip to Courtney Milan for posting links to the latest filings in the defamation lawsuit that Ellora’s Cave brought against Dear Author and Jane Litte.

Who knew one could outright giggle while reading court documents?

A choice bit, from page 13 (please note I redacted Ms Litte’s legal name):

The public perception of the company, prior to Ms. Litte’s article, was that its founder, Ms. Engler, was notoriously difficult to work with, was a generally offensive person, who mismanaged money, who had a history of being delinquent on her taxes, who maintained an offensive and embarrassing social media profile, who suffers from severe mental health issues,who engages in nepotism at the expense of other employees, and who was generally incapable of running a large successful company

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Drinking the Ellora's Cave Kool-Aid

Reader beware: I am not a writer, I’m just a fed up reader and blogger.

Also, I’m not feeling particularly nice at the moment, as I’m pretty enraged at the utter disregard some people have for the very real risk they put people when they continue to engage an asshole who keeps. doxxing. a person.

A person with a family, the members of which a) have nothing to do with anything, yet b) are put at risk as well. every. fucking. time. that asshole replies to said people.

So if you want measured, impartial commentary, do your blood pressure a favor and go elsewhere.

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More of Ellora's Cave authors speak up

It has been a crazy ten days, hasn’t it? Since Ellora’s Cave filed suit against Dear Author and Jane Litte, we have seen people saying, “now you understand why EC authors are afraid of speaking out?” Boy, yes, we do.

Which is precisely why the community rose so magnificently to the occasion, and raised the full $50,000 in less than four days–and the donations keep on coming. And, I believe, it’s that response that’s given more and more EC authors the courage to speak up about their own issues with the company. These authors are but a tiny fraction of the total contracted with EC–someone has mentioned 800 or 900 authors total. (more…)