Not This Crap Again

Just when I thought I was out...

As I write this, I’m starting to identify with Michael Corleone in The Godfather III.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,” he says at one point in the film. While I’m not the patriarch of a criminal empire, I’m really feeling that line this week.

For those of you who have known me for several years, you know the story. I’m going to briefly recap it now for those who discovered me more recently. So let’s set the wayback machine to early 2017.

I had just released Escaping Infinity as my first sci-fi, and indie published, novel. A fellow author e-mailed me to let me know that he and a group of other authors were sending a package of e-books to a ComicCon in Wisconsin that had lost its entire literary track and Guest of Honor just three days before the Con opened.

Since no one could scramble up there in time to replace them, and not wanting those attendees looking to meet sci-fi/fantasy authors to go home empty-handed, this give away was put together. As it was the right thing to do, and it was also a smart way to get my book and my name out there, I added Escaping Infinity to the mix and then got on with other things.

It was a small thing to do and of so little importance in the grand scheme of things, that I’ve forgotten the name of Con, or the actual reason why the literary track cancelled. I think the authors were mad at the Con because they didn’t agree to draw and quarter someone over an allegation that was never proven over something that allegedly happened at another Con. I think.

At any rate, I shipped off the copy and I thought that was that. Until a group of people that I had never heard of before in my life launched a full-scale assault on me. Over having given away a free copy of my book.

And that’s is how a nearly three-year war began. To be honest, if I could actually go back to that time, I’d still give the book away, because it was the right thing to do. I’d just tell my younger self to ignore these cosmically insignificant idiots and get on with writing.

The Time Came To Stop The Madness

In late 2019, I finally realized this truth, and in a post (which was deleted along with my original website - which was never fully explained to me by the host server) I basically said as much. I vowed I would not give that crowd another moment of my time. For the most part, that vow has held up on my end.

And trust me, life has been so much nicer since I erased those people from my circle. In more ways than one at that.

My focus has been on building up Tuscany Bay Books, as well as writing my own stories. And with the outbreak of COVID, the losses of both my father in 2021, and my friend and business partner, Jim Christina, in 2022, my attention has been needed elsewhere.

Overall, I feel a lot better about where I am than I did when I was wasting my time fighting these trolls. My advice to all creatives is this: Ignore the nattering nabobs of negativity and be the best person you possibly can be. You will be much happier keeping them out of your circle.

An Exception To The Rule

Of course, there’s always an exception to that rule. Some times you have to take a stand.

After my post in December 2019, COVID broke out. We also had a few years of uncertainty and strife, mostly in the political realm. I had hoped that in the aftermath of these things, people in general, and these bad actors (who I will not name because they are even that unworthy) might try to be better.

Alas, that wasn’t the case.

In 2021, Toni Weisskopf, was invited to DisCon III as a Guest of Honor for the 79th WorldCon in Washington D.C.. At the time it seemed a welcomed goodwill gesture to atone for an earlier slight years before.

Only, for some people, many in that group I had battled with from 2017-19, they still hadn’t yet evolved from being sub-human goons. In an act of blatant yellow journalism, a hit piece was generated and promoted by this sub-species. The writer of it was awarded award nominations and his dubious works of fiction promoted after Weiskopf’s invite was quickly rescinded.

She was tarred and feathered for not taking the time from her duties as Publisher at Baen Books, one of the biggest SF/F imprints in the business, to personally monitor every area of an online forum for fans of Baen Books. One post, just one, was taken out of context and used to smear her and sink her honor at that year’s WorldCon.

It was one of the most blatant examples of “Show me the person, and I will find the crime” ever seen since the Soviet Union fell.

Here We Go Again

After a quiet four years, I was beginning to hope we’d heard the last of this nonsense. But no, these cretins recently said: “Hold My Beer!”.

Earlier this week, the organizers of this year’s WorldCon in Seattle, banned literary agent Leslie Varney without explanation. They’ve refused many attempts by many outlets to explain their actions.

In full disclosure, Leslie is my agent when it comes to representing my screenplays. She, and Toni Weisskopf, are very good people and did not deserve the treatment they received from WorldCon.

Leslie thinks it stems from her skirmishes with Patrick Tomlinson. An author who likes to attack women online, he once went after one of my authors and immediately found out what my very bad side looks like. He also likes to end his online posts to any critic, no matter the subject, with this “zinger”: “Enjoy prison, stalker.”

Frankly, in my opinion, I think the man needs a mental health check-up, but I’m neither a doctor, nor a judge so I can’t make that happen. But the fact is, Pat has gone after Leslie and she, rightly, hasn’t tolerated it.

It appears Pat will be a panelist at WorldCon this year, though that has not been confirmed. But given his history, it is stunning as to why the Con would boot Leslie, who lives and works in Seattle, for an author from Milwaukee who comes with a lot of bad baggage. Just Google his name and bring plenty of disinfectant along as you go down that particular rabbit hole.

A Stand Must Be Made

I had originally thought to let Leslie and her lawyers handle this. I have, over on X, let WorldCon know my feelings on the issue, and my full support for Leslie.

But I had a troubling thought. What if it isn’t her issue with Tomlinson that drove the ban? If not that, then what?

And that’s when I recalled that Toni is a successful professional Jewish woman. And so is Leslie.

If anti-Semitism has any role in the banning of both Toni and Leslie then it behooves all of us — left, right, liberal, conservative, black, white, or whatever, to stand up and denounce this conduct.

I have long said that the SF/F tent is big enough for everyone to fit inside. For a WorldCon that is openly preaching “inclusivity”, banning an industry professional from her hometown Con is the complete opposite of their stated goal.

Whether its related to Tomlinson, or a darker, despicable, and more sinister, reason, this ban must be reversed and both Leslie and Toni are owed sincere apologies from the organization that oversees it.

If you are reading this, if you share the same love for science fiction and fantasy that I, and many others, do then it is time to make a stand and decide that now is the time to end this nonsense.

It’s time to make SF/F open to any and all. It’s time to run the would-be gatekeepers back to the foul muck from which they sprang, once and for all.