Is Agent Janet Reid Censoring Speech To Protect Her Absolute Write Bully Friends?

Public Figure Janet Reid on Left at Writer Conference - Note Expressions of Disdain on Faces of Onlookers

To set some background here. Janet Reid, formerly Miss Snark, and now an agent with Fine Print Literary Agency representing crime fiction, has been a collaborator with Absolute Write for at least eight years. She has possessed at least two identities on the Water Cooler forums (one being a fat shark) and is friends with the bully cabal noted elsewhere on this blog, namely Old Hack, Hapisofi, the sock puppet Stone, and others. Janet Reid has also engaged in bully slug outs more than once, so she is extremely familiar with Absolute Write Water Cooler pathology. We've known about her but never mentioned because she is just one of dozens of life's axe grinders and embittered cowards who seek a sniper vantage point at Absolute Write. What better place to fester and target enemies and berate others for reasons of catharsis than an Internet forum wherein you can be anonymous and even protected by owners like Melodi and Lisa who are just as deliberately vicious as you are?

Janet Reid is also a phony in our opinion. While pretending to care about writers and project a snarky though overall beneficent image on her blog, she is known around the U.S. as being a terrible bully at writer events. Hard to believe? Not if you've seen her in action. One of her most infamous bully foundations was at the Backspace conference in New York. She mocked and belittled one writer after another, and for some reason, was invited back for more. She's actually been ejected from conferences for her nastiness, but the writers, especially the women, are terrified of her so they keep quiet. We've known about this also, heard the stories for years, but never had an opportunity to mention it in relevant context until now.

Janet Reid's Symbol - From Her Blog

We are grateful therefore to Ms. Lesley Cameron who made an effort to contact us by posting on our blog recently. According to Lesley, she made an attempt to include her viewpoint about Absolute Write bullies on Janet Reid's blog, responding to other posters engaged in a debate on the merits of belonging to bully boards for writers, but her post was censored by Reid. But before we examine that, let's look at a portion of the letter to Janet Reid written by a fan who cannot comprehend why Janet, seemingly a good person, advocates that writers fling themselves into the jaws of a bullying forum like Absolute Write:

I've been reading your blog for awhile now and have seen you speak highly of Absolute Write.com on multiple occasions. I admit, I am biased in the opposite direction. Every time I see you tell writers to check out their writing forums, a little part of me dies inside.

Why do you like Absolute Write so much?

Every time I have posted or read and replied to posts there, I have been bullied, belittled or ignored. I always leave their forums feeling like I need to crawl into a tight space and cry, or wanting to pick up my monitor and chuck it across the room. I don't want to sound haughty, but I'm almost positive I am not the only person who feels this way. With a simple Google search of "bullying on Absolute Write" a variety of results come up where people talk about their experiences.

Now I'm sure there are gems of people out there in the Absolute Write community, but it seems like the majority like to tear new writers down in an attempt to make themselves feel better. This leaves me wondering why someone I respect (you) and go to for answers, and who seems to really care about writers trying to pursue their dreams, would advocate a place that has such strong ties to bullying behavior.

There is more, but what this perplexed Janet Reid fan doesn't know is that Janet herself is one of the bullies drifting through the forum kelp like a predator shark looking for victims. She has a dual personality, a Jekyll-Hyde thing going on. She is one persona on her blog, quite another persona on Absolute Write--like so many others!

And this brings us around to Ms. Lesley Cameron's first note to us once we contacted her:

Dear WAR Blog,

No doubt you've seen the Janet Reid blog thread on Absolute Write? Or have you? It begins with one person asking Reid why she cheers for Absolute Write all the time. Reid answers, pretending not to have any knowledge of the bullying there: "For starters, that's never been my experience at AW..." This statement made me angry. I knew she was blatantly lying. I noticed also that any and all posts critical of Absolute Write disappeared about half way down the thread to be replaced by glowing reports and insinuations that complainers are weak minded or just troublesome egos. Though some of these more positive posts seemed authentic, they hardly acknowledged the widespread and rampant trashing of writers, self-publishers, and small presses that goes on there all the time. It appeared to me as if Reid might be censoring critical posts while putting out a call to sock puppets and suck-ups from Absolute Write in an attempt to prop the thread in favor of that board. See what you think for yourselves. One of the posts, "Anonymous," was written by Reid herself. I made a post supporting the people talking honestly about the bullying and my post was deleted by Reid that day.

To summarize, my post pointed out that no other website in existence has fostered the growth of so many other websites critical of it. I included a link to your WAR blog in the post as a place that displays all of these websites that expose Absolute Write for what it really is. As I said, this post was quickly deleted by Reid. This is when I began to suspect that other critical posts were also being deleted. It seemed that Janet had decided that too many negative posts were not good for business, or her relationship with business associates on Absolute Write.

Next, I posted again, and this too was deleted, but this time I saved a copy. Here is my next post on the Janet Reid blog:  

For the record, I made a long post yesterday with a link to specific instances of bad advice on AW as well as instances of moderator and owner bullying of writers and press editors, and the post was deleted. I agree with people who say AW is huge and there are opportunities here and there, cultural niches, etc. but there is a load of nasty activity associated with a club of people who affiliate with the owner; and if you are looking for top level advice on any kind of writing, a group of amateurs and board owners who are not writers are the last people whose advice you want to take.

I know a blog that proves this, but posting any links as proof will get this post deleted ... and that's another thing. All this great advice writers posting here are receiving? Well where is it? Where are the links to the specific advice?

Everyone would like to see.

As Lesley tells us, the above post was also deleted by Janet Reid. Apparently, Janet was no longer tolerating honest criticism of Absolute Write, especially not from anyone who made accurate observations and asked tough questions. But the drama doesn't stop there. Lesley wrote Janet "Miss Snark" Reid herself the following letter and shared it with us:

Miss Snark,

You've been on the water cooler for many years and you hang out there with the worst bullies on the forums including the phony Macallister Stone who as everyone now knows isn't a writer at all, just a horse farm owner! For you to make a statement like "For starters, that's never been my experience at AW ...," immediately following a post by a victim of Absolute Write who was clearly bullied on their forum, is disingenuous in the extreme. In fact, it is a lie. It has been your experience, Janet, because you've been involved in the actual bullying. You've been witness to it many times. You can't lie to everyone and expect to get away with it 100%. I know better.

You censored my first post on your blog that was critical of Absolute Write. I pointed out that no other website online has so many forums, blogs, and other sites railing against it for nastiness and bullying, and I provided links to prove it. You prohibited that post. At a certain point in your thread, about half way down, you decided to only allow posts that were leaning towards positive. Who knows how many other posters with negative experiences have been censored also? You also censored my final post that asks your followers to provide a link proving their contention that Absolute Write is giving them great advice about writing.

By the way, Janet, I've been to the Backspace conference in New York and I've seen you in action. You take pleasure in humiliating people in public. I've never seen the like anywhere else. You are a bully online and offline. I was told by one of your deluded followers at Backspace that you were a good Catholic. That is just plain funny, and also somewhat predictable.

I'm going to relay your censorship to the websites that tell the truth about Absolute Write and your bully friends.

Best Wishes,

LC

To this date, Janet Reid has not responded to the above letter.

Thank you, Lesley! This touches on a lot of the points we've been making  here at WAR about the bullying and hypocrisy on the part of AW owners and moderators (not to mention quite a few members). When you look at Janet Reid's resume, it's hard to believe that a professional like her has a darker personality that dons a disguise and participates in the degrading others, but as we can see, Janet is transcendent. She also revels in the degrading of others in public. Perhaps, the more successful she becomes, the more entitled she becomes to rake writers over the coals?

And if you're out there, Janet, does your abominable attitude which displays itself when convenient have anything to do with the fact that you might just be a frustrated writer?

Our advice to you, is to get serious therapy. Learn to live with your limitations and stop taking out your inferiority complex on innocent people.

Abuse Contacts at Absolute Write's Hoster

Below is the hoster for Absolute Write. We are encouraging a write-in campaign on the part of everyone who believes they have been libeled, smeared, or unfairly humiliated by the owners of Absolute Write and their moderators, or members, including but not limited to James D. Macdonald (aka Congenial Sage or Uncle Jim), Debra Doyle (aka Old Hack), Teresa Nielsen Hayden (aka Hapisofi), Melodi Sherman (aka Macallister Stone), Lisa Spangenberg (aka Medievalist), and Stacia Kane.

If you or your press or organization have been the victims of these people or their associates on Absolute Write forums, please write the contact below and note your case succcinctly and why you believe Name.Com should take action to rectify the ongoing defamation and cyber-bullying on the part of identifiable iPredators extant on a forum board they host.

Please refer them to the google search phrase, "Absolute Write reviews" or "Absolute Write complaints" or both.

We need to work together, people.

Domain Name ABSOLUTEWRITE.COM
Registrar WHOIS Server whois.name.com
Registrar URL http://www.name.com
Registrar Name.com, Inc.
Registrar IANA ID 625
Registrar Abuse Contact Email abuse@name.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone +1.17202492374

---

Old Hack Doyle's Cat Avatar

"Crazy Mean" 

Over 16,000 Posts

Trashy "sponsored articles" That Produce Income for Absolute Write. Keep the smears coming!

Teresa Nielsen Hayden, aka Hapisofi, Shreds The New Guy

Case Study #1 Teresa Nielsen Hayden Baits A Naive Editor

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159546&page=5

 

Teresa Nielsen-Hayden in Her Element

The new guy to the Absolute Write boards never saw it coming. And that's exactly how they like it at AW. An Australian editor joined AW and at first, began having friendly conversations with his fellow writers. Teresa Nielsen Hayden got wind of his editor status and the hackles went up. With Teresa, remember, it's all about ego. Anytime she encounters an editor or an agent on her turf, she sniffs her or him out, analyzing whether or not credentials and writing skills on the boards are up to her own standards (which is funny considering she is neither an editor or a fiction writer). Her words:

Me personally? I have decades of experience in newspapers, magazines, and reference and trade book publishing. That's as opposed to working for a toy distributor that took a fling at printing books. /Source

So, what does she do? Teresa Nielsen Hayden spends an inordinate amount of time (as if she's some kind of legitimate journalist) and "researches" the Australian  by doxing him. She cherry picks what she wants to find out about him online to build her thesis on why he should be be discredited in front of the whole world by one of her self-righteous diatribes. She didn't contact him by phone to get a fair and balanced interview, because a faux journalist is not interested in being fair and balanced.

Here's how this ongoing saga started with the Australian and Hapisofi (Teresa's psuedo):

Post #98

After doxing him, she defines for the AW community what her perceptions of his qualifications are: (her words in italics)

As for you? I went from notes like

* doesn't know a query letter from a cover letter
* hasn't seen much slush
* has a shaky notion of what book editors do, and a shakier notion of what agents do

to

* hasn't worked in the editorial department of a general-interest trade book publisher
* hasn't worked in sales and distribution
* has no in-depth acquisition experience in adult trade nonfiction
* in adult trade publishing, period
* hasn't done marketing or promotion for a mainstream publisher
* is emphatically not a professional proofreader or copy editor.

#105 post he replies:

HapiSofi said I had not worked at a trade publisher. She didn't ask me. She didn't read where I mentioned Pearson in the thread (although I admit it was small and in passing). She didn't try to verify anything at all. She blurted out that I hadn't worked for a trade publisher. She did this because she assumed. She assumed that every single person I've worked for is listed on my About page. She was wrong. And what is really frustrating is that no one bothers to point it out to her.

This Australian editor was gobsmacked that Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Melodi "Macillster Stone" Sherman would take a swing at him. What he didn't understand (as most newbies to AW do not) that this brand of trashing and insult is an established pattern of the AW mods.

A little back story: Many of the AW mods and cronies have acted as "publishing industry watchdogs" for years. During the old Jenna Glatzner days they worked together to expose agents and bigger publishers for defrauding hopeful authors. But over the years, their successes have turned to an ugly form of self-congratulatory, shoot-from-the-hip vigilantism. Their modus operandi is to assume most people they don't personally know who come to the AW boards and claim to be part of the publishing industry are frauds unless proven innocent....and this is where it gets interesting. Because when you are up against them, you cannot be proven innocent. And what's worse? Google ranks their rantings so high in search results that within days your friends, customers, business associates, and so forth, are reading pages of vehement and ill-informed attacks made by AW posters who behave as it they are authorities.

In the Australian's case, watching him publicly try to prove his legitimacy over and over is exactly the game they so love to play. Teresa Nielsen Hayden sets the stage by taking a swing. The unsuspecting newbie defends himself. The rest of AW mods lay in wait to peck, peck peck, trolling the newbie to continue to lay out more evidence. The AW suckups want to join the game. "Let me in coach, let me in." The real dogpile begin.

If you don't have the time it takes to wade through  hundreds of posts on this thread to see how this all turned out, we'll summarize it for you.

The Australian has his professional reputation trashed. The more he fights back, the more they pounce. Meanwhile, search engines aggregate everything and the Australian has learned a very important lesson.

Do not go onto the AW boards if you are expecting a civilized, fair and balanced community. And do engage when getting dogpiled online.

Teresa's response post #106

I think you need to read the Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes. Seriously. It's all about what life is like in the vicinity of authors. If you want the short version of that description, it's only occasionally like spending a week getting roasted on AW, but it's a lot more like that than any kind of "normal life." It's a terrible thing to say, but we really are a representative sample.

In other words:

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

A little bullying builds character.

It's a terrible thing to say, but we really are a representative sample. 

Absolute Write Cheerleader Defends The Dirt Factory

"You can search thousands of threads, and it is really the best source for finding out the dirt on the agents/agencies that you’re thinking of querying. Writers can talk about their experiences, and the moderators of the site have lots of experience in the industry and really do their research."

The above is a June '14 blog snippet from one of the Absolute Write Water Cooler followers attempting to defend that board. It's done in subtle fashion. Nevertheless, the single statement above is like a sales pitch made by the owner Lisa Spangenberg--or let's just say, if Lisa had decided to write a boilerplate description of the AW Water Cooler, this would be part of it.

Two major false statements here, as anyone will see who really understands Absolute Write and its violent arena of competitive blathering: "best source for finding out the dirt" and "the moderators of the site have lots of experience in the industry and really do their research." When we read this, especially the last statement, we fell out of our chairs laughing. Even our interns were giddy. The only "moderator" with any "experience" at all is Teresa Nielsen-Hayden, known as Hapisofi, and she's a fraud of a former stafff editor pretending to be a current editor and an acquisition editor at that. Then a step down is Old Hack, a mediocre SF writer who pens bad to mediocre stories and self-publishes them with her husband, The Congenial Sage (both infamous bullies on Absolute Write Water Cooler).

The bigger point, however, is that this blog writer, obviously an amateur beginner writer, has been led to believe the marketing fiction (spun by Lisa Spangenberg and AW mods) that the Absolute Write Water Cooler is a place that will serve her/him well. Or is this all just a lie arranged to help AW defeat the rising tide of "hate sites" crawling up the Google search page like vengeful warriors climbing the wall of a burning castle? It's hard to tell. Suffice to say, the observation is false, absurdly and comically false.

Next, we have "the dirt" issue. Well, dear readers of W.A.R., as we all know, if the "dirt" doesn't exist, the moderators and sycophants of Absolute Write will make it. Matter of fact, the place is an ongoing dirt factory, and the owners are the corporate bosses of dirt production. We have examples of this synthetic dirt right here at W.A.R. It's everywhere. Not a day goes by that we don't have to cleanse ourselves.

Help us, dear reader. Spread the truth about this dirt factory. We have an ethical obligation to warn fellow writers who might stumble in and soil themselves. Let all smeared presses, "hate sites," and humiliated writers unite. We have nothing to lose but our pain.

The "iPredator" Nature of Abusers on Absolute Write

iPredator definition as follows:

"A person, group, or nation who, directly or indirectly, engages in exploitation, victimization, coercion, stalking, theft, or disparagement of others using Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

iPredators are driven by deviant fantasies, desires for power and control, retribution, religious fanaticism, political reprisal, psychiatric illness, perceptual distortions, peer acceptance or personal and financial gain.

iPredators can be any age or gender and are not bound by economic status, race, religion, or national heritage.

Whether the offender is a cyberbully, cyberstalker, cyber harasser, cybercriminal, online sexual predator, cyber terrorist, and internet troll or engaged in cyber deception, they fall within the scope of iPredator.

Why Flee Absolute Write for Other Writer Forums? Is Criticism Possible Without Resorting to Bullying?

See Absolute Write above, doing that thing they do. Bewares! Background check! OMG! The jury is in and it's all history now, though one that repeats itself while reminding you of one of Saddam Hussein's old kangaroo courts. Presumption of guilt is the rule, a tone of snarky accusation is the norm, and the merciless prosecution won't rest until the accused press and anyone who dares defend it is hanging from a cyber meat hook.

Btw, we are going to compare writer forums in this post. One forum culture is filled with ugly and bad people, and the other is filled with good people. First, the ugly and bad.

Glancing above, it appears that the relentless Bath Party of Absolute Write has tracked down and cornered yet another doe in the headlights. This time we're looking at the trembling remains of Xchyler, now evolved to Hamilton Springs Press. Open the thread and see our favorites doing that classic Fox News tactic of shouting down and over the protestations of the victim in question, poor Mary Duke from Xchyler press. The Party does slam, make lies of omission, leap to hostile conclusions, parse and spit, insult the name of the press, and generally do everything possible to compete with each other in terms of spite and ill-humor. Four pages of it, and it gets worse as it continues. A full page at least is devoted to making fun of the name.

Now, no one is saying that a valid question or two, or point or two, isn't raised by AW, we're just saying that in all the furor and acid of their snark the value to the reader is lost and the grotesque theater created thereby serves only the AW Water Cooler owners and their cronies.

Because of a maybe-possibly unethical action (?--since AW reveals this "action" we do not know if said action is nonsense or valid) of one person at the press years before, the latest evolution of the press with new editors, website, etc., are not allowed by Absolute Write to ever escape contiuous persecution. Once X evolved to Hamilton Springs Press with new staff in an attempt to start over, Lisa Spangenberg and Melodi Sherman (aka Macallister Stone), the Absolute Write owner operators, simply appended HSP to the old X thread so that everyone would once again flock to that thread to watch Mary Duke endlessly thrashed and humiliated. She can never escape the beating. The press can never escape. And she makes the mistake of threatening legal action and this only makes it worse!

As each new person reads the thread, it is republished again and again, and Mary is beaten, again and again. The same old assumptions and logic leaps and half-truths and exaggerations step forth to force her into submission. She should never have made the mistake of trying to offer a simple explanation on that board or of assuming the hounds of Hussein would be reasonable. They're not. They are vicious. Hamilton Springs must pay the price every day of their existence. The post is at the top of Google, where it doesn't belong.

The worst thing for HSP struggling to get a new start is that they simply can't. Absolute Write won't allow it. The "sins" of the past, courtesy of the Dirty Bath Party, will never be forgotten. Lisa Spangenberg and Melodi Sherman of AW are not going to lose a revenue stream. HSP, once fused with X, will continue to bring potential members and advertising click-throughs. Why not grow and prosper at the expense of Hamilton and whoever else gets in their way? For those of you who love ruthless profit-seeking people, AW is your Eden.

Now let's look at a very different forum that also discussed the exact same press.

www.writingforums.org/threads/xchyler-publishing.128386/

This is the kind of discussion that belongs on forums. The discussion is polite and balanced. Though posters disagree a bit, all is well. We learn to approach HSP not with loathing or fear, but simply with caution and a willingness to explore.

Big difference in cultures here.  It's worthwhile to compare and contrast the versions.

Absolute Write's "Hate Sites" Dodge

"A successful lawsuit will send a message to the world and to the perps at AW that their guerilla war against writers is over and that money gained in click-through advertising by purposely humiliating people and stirring interpersonal conflict with a team of seasoned cyberbullies isn't good for business after all."

We've all known someone who will never take responsibility for their actions no matter what they do or how often their error or inappropriate behavior is pointed out to them. With a few, the piling on of evidence simply makes them resist all the more strongly. And what choice do they have? An admission of one thing, or another, might result in the whole house of cards falling to the table.

Such is the environment at Absolute Write. Owners Melodi Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg will not admit that even the smallest error or overreaction has taken place. None of the untold hundreds of writers smeared and driven from AW have ever been anything but 110% guilty of their own demise. Not a single mod or admin is liable or at fault.

This may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn't. All one has to do is see it on their boards. As we talk about in our About WAR post, there are swarms of sycophants standing by to bolster and enable Melodi, Lisa, Teresa, Doyle, Uncle Jim and all the rest who are Star Chamber regulars.

As Melodi twitters while still maintaining her sock puppet guise as Macallister Stone, it's the "hate sites" causing trouble, lying, etc. The hate sites. Let's think about this. Can anyone find one other writer forum with an enormous halo of hate sites orbiting it like a pack of rabid predators? Just one? No. It doesn't exist.

Absolute Write is the only writer forum on the Internet to have stimulated such a violent and ongoing surge of indignation, bitterness, discontent, and yes, hatred. It might occur to someone over there to stop and take a look and perhaps take just a little bit of responsiblity for this bloating bubble of discontent. But no. No chance. Won't happen. Won't ever happen.

It's just the hate sites. Those guys. Bunch of losers, trolls, and all related to the Write Agenda. Melodi and Lisa have repeatedly donned sock puppet guises and infiltrated these forums to suggest to those present that only one source is responsible for the huge and growing burst of AW hate sites: The Write Agenda. Of course that isn't true. Maybe it's even beginning to sink into their heads that something bigger is swarming. Maybe they'll realize that a lot of pissed off and libeled people are gathering and determined to make a few of the Water Cooler members pay for their acts of unfair and vicious defamation, acts now are so numerous and outrageous that it's hard to believe.

Let's hope justice is done soon. A successful lawsuit will send a message to the world and to the perps of AW that their guerilla war against writers is over and that money gained in click-through advertising by purposely humiliating people and stirring interpersonal conflict with a team of seasoned cyberbullies isn't good for business after all.

In-Depth Reviews of Absolute Write Cyberbullying and Abuse, and Links to The Review Websites

Below are a select number of intelligent and insightful reviews by writers who have run afoul of the current Absolute Write regime, or who have observed the cyberbullying of others in their forums. Some wish to remain anonymous due to fear of their reputations and livelihoods being smeared in retaliation by Absolute Write moderators and their followers (or whatever you wish to term them).

We encourage everyone from attorneys to social psyche researchers to take time and read these reviews carefully.

-  All it takes is for one question to be asked, or one axe grinder to make an appearance, and the predators smell blood. A swarm of anonymous fairies and fops with ridiculous icons appear and begin fomenting themselves into leaps of logic, unfounded assumptions, and distortions of reality. 

-  The crazy power trip is ruining a magnificent concept and something that could be so good.

 ______________________________________________

It's pretty much just what you'd expect. A lot of bad-to-mediocre writers giving bad-to-mediocre advice to bad-to-mediocre wannabe writers. The site is huge and confusing to navigate, sub-divided too many times into categories that are again sub-divided. The mods are powertripping jerks, just as many of the other posters have said. I met a handful of nice people, but no reason to stick around. I never posted any work to be critiqued because honestly, so much of what was posted in the critique section was so bad and the advice that was given equally amateur... I just didn't feel like I'd gain anything from it that I didn't already know. And most of the advice from different critters was conflicting, anyway. 

- Rachel W. - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews


The main focus of Absolute Write is the "Water Cooler", a huge forum which addresses authorship of any kind. It has begun to suffer from a typical ailment that creeps in most long-standing Internet forums: the dreaded Clique Mentality. This occurs when a relatively small set of users contributes the vast majority of posts, combined with a set of unwritten rules--which are often rather unclear to anybody else than the clique itself. Hapless outsiders who violate these clique conventions will often find a mob of old-standing users pounce upon them like a group of ravenous wolves. I'm not joking--it's not a pretty sight when it happens. I have seen posters on Absolute Write being bullied merely for disagreeing with a clique member on a fairly minor matter. The mob will pull any trick to discredit an outsider: ridiculing, twisting words of out context, and fairly often rather nasty personal attacks. People with few to no publishing credentials will get told that heir opinions are unimportant and that their writing likely sucks. The irony is that most clique members are themselves writers of mediocre fare dwindling in the lower parts of the midlist, if that ...

- Anon : The Missing Alexa Reviews


As far as I'm concerned, if a site is run this way it has no value so I will ignore it and encourage everyone to ignore it. It is run by a bunch of lower mid-list (and that may be being generous) old biddies who have nothing better to do than to dictate their rules to others. Free speech does not exist on AbsoluteWrite and where free speech does not exist, I will not go. They talk a good game about "respect your fellow writer" but take umbrage at things in an oversensitive way and pull that respect from you without a second thought.

- Mark Breuer : No Irish, No DGs


If you're a member of Absolute Write, I guarantee you've seen the moderators sweep into a discussion where the topic is one of their pet peeves, use the unfortunate poster as a punching bag, invite long-time members to join them, and then lock the thread and sometimes boot the member. It's never a straightforward warning about the rules, or a request for clarification. The moderators are not there to facilitate discussion, they're there to drive the discussion. If it ventures out of the bounds they like, even if the discussion is polite, it gets locked if for no other reason than "attitude."

It took me about five minutes to gather some examples. I went to a single topic and looked through the first few pages for locked threads. To be fair, two of the threads I saw were locked for legitimate (at least, what most forum admins would consider legitimate) reasons: resurrecting ancient threads. The rest were examples of moderators treating members like garbage.

- Absolute Wrong : Silencing the Lambs


So whatever the merits of the campaign against Absolute Write, or the motivations of those behind this campaign, I have to (reluctantly) say that those in charge of Absolute Write Water Cooler richly deserve it. In the short time that I had an identity on that board, I would cringe every time that I logged on, in anticipation of the latest gratuitous, public insult that the board moderators had lodged against me, along with the warning "don't you dare talk back, or it will turn out badly for you" (their exact words).

- B.Q. : Haters Gonna Hate (Victoria Strauss Troll Battle)


This morning, we found out through a few book club members that a forum known as the Absolute Write Cooler had identified us as a fake. Apparently, this is because we don't have an "existence that isn't associated with this book blog. No one reports going to lunch with her, she didn't show her pet at a local cat show, she hasn't participated in a Walk For Life, she isn't listed in a graduating class."

Correct me if I am wrong, but my book blog should be about books and what I want to include. If you do not see what you want to see, that doesn't make me fake.

Then came the next disturbing element of this unfolding drama. So we've been certified as fake. The forum moderator HapiSofi bashed the book club in more than one thread. She was applauded for her 'detective' work. Absolute joy, that people find so many useful ways to spend their time. But one thing, was missing. Where is HapiSofi's contact information? From as far back as 2012, three characters appear in every thread together. HapiSofi, James McDonald and AliceShortCake. Then there are names like Old Hack, VeinGlory and Torgo. Again, no contact information, no social media links for most of these profiles.

- Quality Reads UK


Ironically these “websites / authors” are doing what they claim others are doing, taking advantage of people who are looking in good faith for facts and information, truthful information about the publishing industry. Their responses are reduced to internet babble. A mix of half truths, alleged facts and very personal un-professional remarks and behavior. They tend to be abusive, Holier then thou, and totally off the mark. ALL they have to do is PROVE what they post. Just saying they have “hundreds” of complaint isn’t going to cut it. People are fed up with that attitude. Courts are leaning heavily toward companies and individuals who are entitled to face their accusers and their alleged facts.

One poster stated that they’re “reaping what they sow” how true. All of sudden people are asking them questions about who they really are, besides mutual friends.

So why don’t they just tell the truth?

- Publishing Facts


For a site that's for writers, one would think they'd go out of their way to understand what people are saying before they say they are stupid on the forum. Mods should never attack people on the forums....NEVER. Any forum that allows that is a bully place. A place where mods can push around people and expect them to fear them. It is not ok to run a website like that. That breeds cliques and makes other posters feel like there's special treatment. Absolute Write is just like that. They allow bullies to mod. They also allow cliques to control who gets into trouble.

- J.J. - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews


Absolute Write, for those who don’t know, is mostly a set of forums where writers, agents, publishers, and other sorts of folks in the writing industry chat. And of course, with the huge burst in self publishing, a bunch of posts about that started up. So they made a set of forums for self pub. I rolled across them a couple of months ago, and was pretty horrified by what I saw: a large number of folks claiming to be industry experts deliberately spreading misinformation about what self publishing was, how best to go about it, and whether one could actually do it successfully (outside a few “outliers”). So I stepped in and started pointing out the flaws in the logic.

- Kevin O. Mclaughlin

Beware. Absolute Write, in the hands of Lisa Spangenberg and her associates, is in effect a judge-jury-prosecutor platform, and one utilized on an almost daily basis to publicly humiliate, bash, defame and even scold people they have never met and do not know, as well as businesses they have never interacted with in any form whatsoever. All it takes is for one question to be asked, or one axe grinder to make an appearance, and the predators smell blood. A swarm of anonymous fairies and fops with ridiculous icons appear and begin fomenting themselves into leaps of logic, unfounded assumptions, and distortions of reality. All this would be amusing if it were not for the fact that their extensive dialogues and diatribes become public record and are ranked high in Google.

And will the average reader always understand what kind of sociopaths he or she is witnessing. Not necessarily. They appear to speak from authority quite often, give the appearance of sincerity, and there is a background history of real scams revealed by Absolute Write. Users there like Victoria Strauss, who give the appearance of legitimacy, will rush in to show support. But as we all know, the best way to maintain the momentum at Absolute Write is to mix a few grains of truth into one continuous and hydra-headed avalanche of lie. In reality, the core site is a lie on more than one level. The owner and her sock puppets and assorted gang not only shred people all day for amusement and publicity (as someone pointed out, the mediocre writers get publicity for their poorly written books each time they post) and monetary gain (huge revenue from advertisements), the site itself purports to offer good advice to writers when in fact it does no such thing. Advice is amateurish and quite often just plain wrong.

Regardless, the bullies at Absolute Write, herded there by Lisa Spangenberg (as we all now know) and goaded on by her at all times with great vigor, basically function as a Salem witch trial. Accusations are often baseless, but delivered and discussed with excessive zeal. Victims are displayed for purposes of torture, and anyone who disagrees is accused of being a witch also.

One has to ask: what gives such cowardly arm-chair nerds the right to act as prosecutors, judge and jury? Nothing gives them the right. These are a bunch of losers looking for payback. I've seen it before. I've fired abnormals like this at my job because they were caught retaliating against other workers using phony online identities.

I know the type, and I sincerely hope someone is able to bring legal action against Lisa Spangenberg and her hateful crew.

- PublisherW - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews

"ABSOLUTE power corrupts absolutely." is the phrase that really sums it up which is funny and ironic. The head admin Spangenberg that has the sock puppet Stone is on a huge power trip over having that big board that looks great, that people want to join, but it's so insidious because it looks harmless and super fun but any of the mods that are nuts like that OldHack and Spangenberg will just randomly attack people and people can't even defend themselves their either banned or have some humiliating subnic,

And I'm not talking about the small publishers and scam publishers that they bash, I'm talking about just writers trying to talk about any issue if a mod agrees with ANYTHING on ANY topic then they can insult, belittle and degrade that member to their hearts content and the member will be banned if they say one word in their defense or even if they say anything perceived as "snarky" back and they just play these nasty little mind games that they think are so clever, but anyone can see through them, it's just that people can't do anything much about them because it is a private business, but yes, the crazy power trip is ruining a magnificent concept and something that could be so good.

She really doesn't have to act so crazy and nasty to keep control of her board and it's really hypocritical to let certain mods spew misinformation and throw around insults like that Old Hack.

- Shay Richards : The Looking Glass of Caroll Bryant


Now, if there is any environment more toxic than GR, it’s the Absolute Write Water Cooler. It’s a snake pit. And not just any snake pit. We’re talking Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of snake pit. Why is it so bad? Its not just because of its members. Its moderators play a big part in it, too. Keep reading and we’ll show you what we mean.

Now before we continue, we want to show you some Alexa reviews we found  here. All of the five star reviews are legacy reviews, because once upon a time, when AW was fresh and new, it was a good place to be, but slowly over time, it became corrupt.

- STGRB : The Banning of Robin Sullivan


Yikes. I never even ended up posting. I'm one to lurk before joining in, and after watching the mods tear apart people for NO reason, then egging on others to bash those people, then carrying on long after they chased the person from the site...yeah I think I will pass on joining in. I've never seen anything so vile. There is a definite "clique" there. The site is great for them, but it looks like it's near impossible to become part of their "in club". Whether I could get in with them or not, I don't think I'd want to because I won't stand behind such poor behavior. This has to be the worst writing community I've ever encountered.

- Anon - The Complaints Board


I’ve only been a member briefly, and found this blog by searching how to leave the AWWC. It’s horrible. I thought it was an open, honest forum to exchange ideas and learn. I found myself in the middle of backbiting, condescending, bitter people (including two Mods) who were not helpful at all and hide behind screen names.

How am I supposed to take career advice seriously from someone called SuperModerator, when I can’t tell if they’ve ever published anything? I asked a specific question, and when I questioned politely but firmly the uninformed and negative advice an anonymous writer gave, she harangued and condescended like a fishwife.

On another thread, she jumped into a productive discussion and tongue lashed not only me, but every contributor! Lord, it must’ve taken her half an hour just to quote every single one of us LOL It was a ludicrous critique: she said we “had to” provide evidence for everything we said. This, immediately after telling me one of her pets doesn’t have to provide any, and I am rude for asking. 

- Anon : The Cult - Absolute Write Water Cooler

Attention Law Enforcement, Attorneys or Private Investigators Pursuing Action Against Absolute Write Members

The owner of Absolute Write, Melodi Sherman, exposed her IP address above. Using some of the best Geolocators a few weeks ago, including Infosniper, we have cross referenced results and believe we have located her residential address in Everett, WA. We will not publish this information here, however, if you wish to know the address, and can prove your credentials, write us at marilynweiss402@yahoo.com with your request. It is our hope this will lead to effective civil action against select members of Absolute Write whose real identities are protected by the board owner and her live-in administrator, namely Melodi Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg.

Additionally, using Google Maps, we have identified several horse farm/boarding facilities, and narrowed down the correct location of their business on the northernmost part of Ebey Island. This is the location of Melodi Sherman's farrier business known as Snohomish Pastures. The first photo above is from their Tumblr account, and the second photo below this was taken from Google Maps. This unlicensed business is located on 63rd Avenue SE, Everett WA. We are not sure of the actual address, however, visual identification is confirmed. The property is entered via a locked metal gate and the road inside is bordered by small trees. See the top left of the bottom photo from Google.

Identification of this current business address will enable the delivery of subpoenas or whatever else is required. Again, this is an unlicensed business in the state of Washington.

Also, the old registered domain from Godaddy on 1825 Douglas Avenue is just around the corner from the above horse boarding facility. It is our belief that Melodi Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg are likely still inhabiting the residence on Douglas Avenue.

The area around the horse pasture and on Douglas Ave. is ramshackle and impoverished. It has a Grapes of Wrath appearance to it. A journey on Google Maps makes this known. So here are Lisa and Melodi living their lives in relative poverty and surrounded by animals, lots of junky cars in the yard and rusty trailers.

Should we feel sorry for them?

Just not possible given the many years of wrath and smear from their dirt factory.

About The W.A.R. Blog and Why We Do This

Like the mentally conflicted origins of superheroes in the comics, our origin also began as the result of a long and drawn out bloody trauma initiated by anonymous fantasy writers resident on the tacky forum board known as Absolute Write. It began one day quite suddenly. A friend's email alerted us. "Have you googled your name or your business lately?" We did so and there, fourth place in the search results, was a link to Absolute Write and a little comment below the link: "Bewares, Background Check, and Recommendations." My wife and I did a big HUH??? Bewares? Background check? Who was background checking us and what right or qualifications did they have? And how did this link jump so high on google? What bothered us from the start was that their wording presented us as something potentially ominous. After all, the word wasn't "review" it was "beware." Why did anyone have to "beware" of us?

We clicked on the link and there it was: nearly two pages of incredibly negative and misinformed snarky comments by at least seven different Absolute Write members, all of whom appeared as anonymous creatures, stones, cats, and whiffs of vapor, and all with signatures promoting their self-published or e-published fantasy books, the kind of books with the stock covers and predictable hack titles, and all of their venom fomented at the top of the first page by a ridiculous floating fairy thing that called itself "Hapisofi." Apparently this Hapisofi thing ruled the forum, for the other posting creatures were engaged in agreeing with everything she said and trying to outdo each other with acts of sycophancy.

The Hapisofi Thing

To our horror, the Hapisofi fairy leveled a diatribe at us and our business. She used every means at her disposal to make us look like fools and frauds. She commented in such a manner as to create a totally false picture of who we are and what we do. She seized on select bits of information, left others out, issued forth with three outright lies, insulted us personally in the nastiest way imaginable, and spun her own fantasy world wherein we were the villains and she was the hero. She crowed and lied while being cheered on by her Absolute Write elves and booger trolls. Other mods joined in after page two, including side commentary in the nature of "they deserve it" from Medievalist (Lisa Spangenberg) and someone named Macallister Stone (Melodi Sherman), and on from there.

My wife and I made the enormous mistake of believing we could straighten things out by going on the forum and telling the truth. When I say enormous mistake, I am not even close. The things and floating fairy Hapsofi surrounded me like a pack of starving dingos running down their dinner. No matter what facts we pointed out, or links or references, it was all shot down in the most arbitrary and hostile manner. The snarking stones and cats and vapors began competing with each other to deliver the most biting comments while the Hapisofi dodged in and out with cheers for the others. It was exactly like those highschool bully forums you read about all the time. Could these things actually be fully functioning adults? What was their problem? Why did they relish such an unfair scalding of people they had never met? Didn't even one of them stop to see and realize how unfair it all was?

We knew all was lost when a statement made by Macallister Stone, the owner of Absolute Write, bascially declared us guilty by virtue of our resistance. We were termed sockpuppets, and worse. We were then banned from the forum while Stone, Hapisofi, Medievalist, and others swung their big machetes for another page or two. The creatures surrounding them said, "Good job!" and "Thank you for warning us, Hapisofi!"

In the aftermath of that horror, we sought legal counsel. We were not in the States at that time, but managed to talk to a few attorneys via email. They agreed that these anonymous things had commited acts of per se defamation against our business, but first we had to find out who they were, and to do that we had to track down the real owners first. There was also an issue of our possible "public figure" status which allowed these Absolute Write people to practically get away with murder, as the saying goes.

As time went on, we did lots of research on these Absolute Write things, and discovered that we were not alone in our desperation. It seemed like hundreds of others were posting their terrible experiences with Macallister Stone and her cadre of attack dogs. One website refers to them as "the infernal snake pit of Absolute Write." We could not agree more.

We've also learned that the intent behind Absolute Write was a good one, but after Macallister Stone's government took over, the dark clouds moved in. She feeds a world of negativity and hostility that few people can imagine possible unless they've been through it like we have.

After bonding with a number of other anti-Absolute Write forces, we are working to create a joint task force of people who have one goal: to pull the fangs out of Absolute Write by any legal means necessary and to reveal the ongoing fraud they perpetrate by claiming to be a source of good information for writers. On the upper level for Melodi Sherman, the owner, it's about selling click-through banner and google advertisements, and in the forum trenches, it's about e-published writers trying to sell their books by getting visibility in conflict threads, or about amateur writers kissing up to the others in hopes of gain. In other words, there is no reason to be fair or good. If Absolute Write were run by good people, they would have contacted us and requested an online interview and discussion in their forum, allowed us to present our side and take questions while moderating in a way that respects everyone.

Join us. Help us. Enough is enough. We want justice for ourselves and everyone else. Even if you believe we're full of it, that's fine. Do the research, learn the truth. It's all out there.

Thank you.

The W.A.R. Blokes

Absolute Write Promo Vid Pulls Them In

Mac Attack Declares Squirming Grubs, Lunatic Con Artists, and Lying Little Cowards Not Fit to Lick Shoes!!!

The W.A.R. blog has been officially scarred and made an even more important part of the Absolute Write JEER (Justice, Exposure, and Efficient Resistance) movement. Let us have our fun. We have happily logged some real Mac attack stuff on our post regarding the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop run by Old Hack, Congenial Sage, and Hapisofi Teresa.  We couldn't be more pleased. Thank you, anonymous poster person, whoever you are. We prefer to believe you are Melodi Sherman or Lisa Spangenberg herself, and it's easy to believe since the venom and nature of the insults is remarkably similar to horrible things uttered by the duo on a frequent basis.

All those who critique or dislike Absolute Write cyberbullying are squirming grubs, lunatic con artists, or lying little cowards not fit to "lick their shoes." The shoes btw are those worn by Mac and Hapisofi Teresa, according to the poster who at first pretended to be an alum of the Viable Paradise workshop.

Thank you, anonymous poster person! Please return with more insults asap. We hear your hatred as applause.

As a matter of fact, it has given us just the amount of extra stimulation to inaugurate "Hunt for Mac Summer" in 2014, an extra push to identify the business or residential address of the people who own Absolute Write so that they or their members may be sued for defamation, or arrested for violating cyberbullying laws.

Mel Sherman Reveals her Sock Puppet ID Used on Absolute Write

Looks like Melodi Sherman, alias Macallister Stone and the real owner of Absolute Write, forgot about this public post on AboutMe.Com. Her business, Snohomish Pastures, is located on Ebey Island in WA, near Everett. Snohomish Pastures as a business is unlisted. As others have pointed out, no license, no taxes paid, and so forth. More found here on Forums Review. Please join us in locating the exact business address for purposes of serving subpoenas, and further legal action including potential prosecution of cyberbullies currently resident on Absolute Write forums.

Click on photo above for a larger image.

Adult Cyberbully Culture and Digital Narcissists Unleashed at Absolute Write

We find the adult cyberbully culture at Absolute Write to be a cross between Ann Coulter and National Enquirer. Coulter fits because she is a narcissistic and incredibly snide accuser who plays a game of creating her own reality to suit her needs; and National Enquirer works because it never stops attempting to degrade and humiliate people.

From a study on high school and college cyberbullying that applies perfectly to the juvenile and hostile culture nurtured by adult cyberbullies at Absolute Write: http://studentaffairs.arizona.edu/assessment/documents/CyberbullyChapterFinal.pdf

Cyberbullying: a broad range of behaviors or actions in which a person uses technology in a way that is perceived as aggressive or threatening to another person.

"The popularity of social networking sites ... has been blamed for fostering a culture of digital narcissism in young people (Keen, 2007). Suler (2004) described a phenomenon called the online disinhibition effect , which refers to greatly diminished internal censorship when communicating in cyberspace. He said, ‘‘People say and do things in cyberspace they wouldn’t ordinarily do in the face-to-face world. They loosen up, feel less restrained and express themselves more openly’’ (p. 321). This effect can be either benign (e.g., appropriate and meaningful self-disclosure) or toxic (e.g., destroying someone else’s reputation). The tendency to exhibit a more narcissistic, aggressive, and uncivil persona in the digital world is also described by Aboujaoude (2011), who proposed that a more dangerous e-personality exists parallel to our nondigital selves."

Does the above describe the cyberbully culture at Absolute Write led by Melodi "Macallister Stone" Sherman, Lisa "Medievalist" Spangenberg, and her cohorts such as Hack Doyle and Hapisofi Nielsen-Hayden, several of whom are exposed on this blog?  The answer is an enormous YES.

"Toxic" is the key word to describe the e-personalities of the AW bullies. "Entitled" is another.

"By hiding behind anonymity, the bully often feels safe from detection, and thus is more willing to make false or mean-spirited comments ... Cyberbullying, unlike face-to-face bullying, can happen any place and at any time, and has the capability of reaching an audience that can number in the millions."

And what type of personalities engage in such behavior? From a poll of study participants:

"They also expressed the view that in cyberspace, people who are less powerful in the real world can become the most powerful in the virtual world, providing an opportunity to exact retaliation and revenge that would elude them in the real world."

One has only to read our blog posts and put two and two together. It's all here.

Snideness Becomes Stacia Kane - Bottom Lister Author Still Hopes for Sales on Absolute Write

Stacia Kane, an Absolute Write regular, has been a phone psychic, a customer service representative, a bartender, and a movie theatre usher. She wears a lot of black, still makes great cocktails, likes to play music loud in the car, and thinks Die Hard is one of the greatest movies ever made. She believes in dragons and the divine right of kings, and is a fervent Ricardian. Her books have been repackaged time and time again by major publishers, but sales still sag to the bottom list, and yet, she persists. If you're not sure why, here are some of her favorite quotes from her books on a dating website. And if this bio of Stacia Kane doesn't say it all, there is more below.

From the mouth of author Stacia Kane:

"And you’re a fucking hypocrite. Outing people from behind the veil of anonymity. Yelling at people for daring to express opinions while behaving as if every word you type is precious and golden. Deciding it’s your place to attack people you deem “bullies.” (By the way, I’m also not talking about the difference between bullying and what you seem to think is bullying, and how offensive that is, and how I’m tired of seeing people hide behind the buzzword-of-the-day to justify their own complete lack of human decency.) Honestly, I’m not just angry and sick about this. I am both of those things, intensely. I’m furious. I’m horrified."

It's Stacia Kane herself taking a stand. Hooray. Okay, but? Is this the Stacia Kane who hangs out perpetually on Absolute Write, in the very midst of some of the worst bullying online? Not only allowing the bullying with her silence but also assisting it with her own shrewd style of pseudo-reality creation? The answer is a huge YES, it is her, one and the same. And her fans in the comment section couldn't be more supportive. It's always educational to watch an author, even a bottom lister like Kane, get her butt kissed--and by some Absolute Write regulars.

 

 

Our opinion of the hero Stacia Kane, however, is more like the one posted over at STGRB, a site decried and insulted by her whenever possible:

Stacia is known around the web as being quite a nasty troll when it suits her. She loves jumping into the fray whenever there’s a war going on, stirring the pot, then jumping out again. She’s one of those people who love causing trouble, which is the reason trouble always finds her. Avoid her at all costs. I’ve had my eye on her for years, and she’s bad news. She has a negative reputation for a reason.

And:

Stacia is a bully-instigator. She also propagates the bully mentality by validating the bully views, even if she doesn’t have the whole story. I think she does this to try to get more book sales and get more popular with goodreads reviewers. She’s a bit of a snake to put it nicely.

But these comments can't be taken at face value. We had to go and search out a lot of Stacia Kane posts on Absolute Write. And guess what? The posts above are totally correct. With failing book sales and a sagging career, Stacia Kane repeatedly injects herself into popular conflict threads on Absolute Write, i.e., the kind of threads that draw the most readers. Unlike the many thinly disguised bullies on AW, she is careful not to openly lie, however, she is a master of the lie of omission, and the art of making misleading statements. If she were getting divorced and accused her husband in court of yelling at her abusively, she would leave out the part about having first allowed the dog to pee in his soup without telling him. Then she picks and chooses whatever abstracted bits of reality suit her purpose, and in a way that is sneaky and cunning.

For example, when she's out to trash whoever or whatever, she creates a false impression by picking and choosing bits of information guaranteed to make her victim look sorry or pathetic or downright bad. If she wished to trash her local plumber for refusing her offer to have a martini after work, she might go to Yelp and say, "He showed up with dirty hands and a wrench. I got the bill for 1345.00 and he vanished." She would naturally leave out the part about his other tools, his van, the fact that he washed his hands before entering her house, and the big part about the enormous amount of extensive work he did to restore and refit her pipes; and yes, he "vanished" because the work was done and he moved on to his next job. Stacia is so good at this type of character assassination she could blacken the Buddha himself.

In exchange, she gets loads of page views for whatever "fucking" ghost book she is pushing, hoping against hope someone will buy them. And they do.  An example of one of her fans is below on Youtube. If you want those types of fans, then author Stacia Kane is a great model for you, and perhaps, a reason to hang out on Absolute Write and chase her down to read you ms or give you tips on writing sex scenes.

One of the Kane-ettes. A good example of Stacia Kane's reading public:

James D. Macdonald of Absolute Write - Writer or Sort-of-Writer or No Writer At All?

"She is the prose lady ..." He's the plot guy. She's Hack, he's Sage. He calls himself the "Congenial Sage" and he tells new writers on Absolute Write how to write. But according to the clip above from the Viable Paradise website, he isn't an actual writer. He's "the plot guy." Btw, there is no other instance of this revelation on the web, though this quote by him above says it all. And are his plots really good or just mediocre, or awful? You have to judge for yourself. If you go to Amazon and choose one of the books he and Old Hack (Debra Doyle) have disgorged, you'll see a big divide between reviews by his friends and sock puppets and those by real readers. A good example is a poor book about a boy who goes to wizard school (yawn):

http://www.amazon.com/School-Wizardry-Circle-Magic-Book/product-reviews/0816769362/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Is this fair? Might some of the incredibly positive reviews be legit? You decide. And do you want these two telling you how to write now? Maybe. Maybe not? Hack and Sage bill themselves on Absolute Write as accomplished authors. Okay. They are the expertise available on-site that Melodi Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg (AW owners) are always crowing about in marketing copy. As a matter of fact, Hack and Sage are on the boards over there so often that they've amassed many thousands of posts, well over ten thousand. But how do real authors have time for hanging around notorious cyber-bully forums? And why would they want to? Perhaps if they hadn't spent so much time there grinding other authors, presses, and business professionals into raw submission they might not have become bottom-listers (in terms of sales) at Tor Books for the past several years?

Only speculation. Only their therapist and editor knows for sure.

It might also account for why Hack and Sage formed their own self-publishing company known as Madhouse Manor (look up the books found in the next link on Amazon) to churn out their latest masterpieces. Great covers too:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/72524

Maybe sales are good, maybe they are not. We just wonder what accounts for the sour expression below? Say hello to James, the Congenial Sage. If you want to be a "writer" like James or Hack, go to Viable Paradise Writing Workshop where you will learn the abc's of doing it their way. After all, they started the workshop and they have a right to tell you whatever they wish, and maybe they will hint at what great authors they are.

Viable Paradise Writing Workshop With Absolute Write Bullies. What Could Be More Fun?

Big Ominous Minds Pondering The Use of  "Angrily"

As we have seen in posts below, Hapisofi ranks as one of the worst cyber bullies on Absolute Write, and as of today, Old Hack has been voted the absolute worst cyber bully on Absolute Write. But here, in this rare vintage photo taken at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop, we have Old Hack (Debra Doyle) and Hapisofi (Teresa Nielsen-Hayden) holding sway over the assembled science fiction writers. This is the only photo of its kind that we know of and thought to share it so that you can begin to put a face on the people who spend the greater part of their lives unfairly exercising power over others using bullying tactics. It's a wonder for some that these women are adults, not vicious foolish teens on Twitter or Facebook, but for those of us who have been scarred by them, who have had to answer for their lies, who have been banned and humiliated for daring to disagree with anything they say, it's no wonder at all. And by the way, they actually believe they are entitled to do what they do. That makes them all the more, dare we say, evil? Perhaps that is too strong of word, for some.

Anyway, some time ago, a friend known to us posted a brave note about the bullies on Absolute Write, including one about Hapisofi on AgentQuery.Com and he wrote to tell us he heard the post was going to be taken down by an AQ mod who was friendly with Lisa Spangenberg (see our posts below) on Goodreads. He made a copy of the posts which began as a post by a writer confounded by the high cost of the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop. As it turns out, he was right. The entire thread was removed because it was critical of Absolute Write, the Viable Paradise workshop, and the Nielsen-Haydens, including Teresa's husband, Patrick, a managing editor at Tor. Here it is, the bully workshop for science fiction writers, as presented in this post that once existed on AQ:

Apples or Snakes? Leaders of Paradise

I am debating the huge cost and potential red flag issues associated with Viable Paradise Writing Workshops in science fiction. I am going to be in the Martha's Vineyard area in fall and was considering the Viable Paradise Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop, but given the enormous cost of $2000.00+ which does not include any transportation or incidentals or the separate application fee which I found a bit unusual, I put on the brakes and thought to ask around to make certain I wasn't tossing over two thousand to the winds. I am hoping someone here has had direct experience with the workshops. First, I followed their link to writers who have published since attending the Viable Paradise writer workshop. The clear marketing implication is that all of the writers on this list, and there are scores, would not have been published in these many online journals (many of which are ridiculous) if it had not been for the lessons learned at Viable Paradise. As someone who once dabbled in marketing departments, I found this to be transparently sleazy, and I was further put off when I read some of the work by these writers and found it to be amateurish, not at all the quality one should find in a national SF/F publication. I thought, if these are the cream of the crop from Viable Paradise, what kind of instructors did they have? OMG! Viable Paradise can't possibly be responsible for every bad story that gets published after someone attends their workshop, but best not to advertise it!

After I checked on the credentials of the instructors, I found these to be hit and miss also. I looked on Amazon.Com and found many reviews of the Viable Paradise faculty work, especially James D. Macdonald, to be negative. The reviewers were universal in their review of the senior SF faculty member's work, James D. Macdonald as mediocre and unimaginative--and has a co-writer working with him. What is he writing then? The worst parts or the "best" parts of the work? And I've heard strange rumors re a female instructor, one Teresa Nielsen-Hayden (a link to her really bad writing), who was formerly a Tor editor who I understand was let go for reasons of health, and who now works in a book/convenience store in Brooklyn, but I am not going to repeat the details because it is hearsay and could be sour grapes of some kind. I was not there, but it is true I found that many of the faculty live on an Internet chat board called Absolute Write--famous for biting off heads on a daily basis. Everyone is so afraid of them. I've been told the Viable Paradise faculty have several pseudos each on Absolute Write? Could it be true? It all sounds crazy, but I am sure though that some of the instructors at these workshops are not bad people or involved in malicious flame wars against others. It doesn't make sense that all of the faculty would be involved. Who has the time anyway?

I am generally leaning against not attending; perhaps too many red flags for this Viable Paradise Writer's Workshop, but I am waiting here for someone to tell me differently. If anyone has been there and learned how to write fantasy or science fiction and can demonstrate it helped them, I am willing to listen. I really do want help and it would be convenient to attend the workshops in the fall. If I could focus on those members of the faculty who are useful and avoid the crazies, it might be fun and productive. I just don't want my head bitten off by former Tor editors because I questioned their opinion on something. And it anyone there really a decent writer? If so, who? Is there any proof?

Btw, did anyone ever have their book published by Tor or any other major SF publisher as a result of networking and studying at Viable Paradise? I can't find any evidence.

Help!

Margaret Spengler