By Heather A.
Over the weekend I found out about a problematic person in the SFF community. He seemed like a nice person in real life when we met to do an interview for this blog, but the accusations from women writers in the community left me stunned (the interview has now been removed).
I take their side.
The accusations include gas lighting, grooming behavior, his saying he could ruin someone’s career because he’s an influencer…it’s appalling and despicable (click for thread).
Some publishers have already condemned his actions by removing his work from their website (Book Smugglers) or removing him from the staff (Fantastic Stories)(Mothership Zeta) and I think these are the correct course of action because it’s important to know that actions have consequences and victims will be heard.
He did apologize.
Apparently this behavior has been going on for some time so it’s hard to believe that his apology is genuine. The screenshot from the tweet below is from 2014.
Ann Leckie’s blog post “On Apologies” and Ali Trotta’s tweets get to the crux of the issue of why the apology doesn’t stand up (click for thread).
A few authors also wrote about how this transgression hurts the community.
- Mary Robinette Kowall “On Being Friends with Someone Who Turns Out to Be an Asshole”
- Ann Leckie “On Blacklisting”
- Alyssa Wong tweets.
- Maria Dahvana Headley tweets.
Indeed, this is a fall from grace, but more than that, it’s a lesson that using people for personal gain is never right. For those, like me, who may not have felt personally victimized, but still guilty, I found comfort in Sarah Gailey’s words (click for thread):
And I just want to emphasize that I want to be here for support of the community and those who may have been victimized by this person. This blog will not be promoting his work in the future.
More info can be found here.
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