September 1st is Outer Alliance Pride Day. Outer Alliance.
From the About Us page:
"The Outer Alliance is a group of SF/F writers who have come together as allies for the advocacy of LGBT issues in literature. Made up of individuals of all walks of life, our goal is to educate, support, and celebrate LGBT contributions in the science-fiction and fantasy genres."
I am a member, and will be posting my Pride Day post tomorrow.
It's been snowing on and off here in the Seattle area for the past two days. Such a bizarre way to begin spring break. Seemed like it should have been the winter break instead.
I didn't read this discussion until today, but I have total sympathy for the poor guy with the spinal injury who definitely needed his meds for the constant pain.
One of my prescription drugs (I have a mild version of Asperger's Syndrome, and a version of ADHD) is one of the most easily-abused drugs out there, and there's even an entire illegal drug trade for this one drug. The black market for this drug is so huge that my parents' insurance companies won't cover for it. It's Adderall, which I desperately need to function properly, especially during the school year, or else I can't get any work done.
I'm 14, turn 15 in October, and start high school in September. To succeed in high school, I will need my Adderall to make myself able to focus. I know of other people who take Adderall, but I don't believe for a second that most of them need it as much as I do. I personally don't think the security at the airport would react well if they found a bottle of Adderall in my suitcase, regardless of the official diagnosis from my doctor.
If I don't have my Adderall, my Geodon, and my Citalopram, every day, in the correct doses, and take them at the right times, expect some strange behavior and spontaneous emotional outbursts. That happened recently on AW, on the day I accidentally only took 1 Citalopram pill instead of 1 1/2. Let's just say, I got confused about two rep comments I received, and posted a thread about it, which Jenna had to close. That's just one example of what happens if I don't get my medicine. If I don't get my Geodon at the correct time in the evening, I can't get any sleep at all for the entire night, or I'm a groggy zombie in the morning when I have to get ready for school.
It would be terrible if I couldn't get the correct doses legally, because my doctor's current combo of meds has made me much more stable than I've been in years. Do I still have outbursts once in a while? Hell yeah, you can never completely stop that. But because of it, I talk to other people more often, more people like to talk to me, and I have a bunch of friends, online and offline, male and female, fellow teens and other adults of a variety of ages. You wouldn't want to deprive a 14-year-old kid with Asperger's of all that, at the point in their lives where the neurological disorder affects them most negatively, and where they are getting closer to the point where Asperger's becomes much more easier to handle, would you?
Rush Limbaugh is a dirty aristocratic snothead who thinks he's above the law because of his wealth and status, and who makes people who actually desperately need their meds suffer. That poor guy who's living in excruciating pain shouldn't go to jail for 25 years. How about he goes free and gets his desperately-needed meds, and Rush gets serious major jailtime?
Ah, if only that truly happens. I really hope it does, though.
Amen Jim, I guess Roach and I were right.
"Wow, I've seen more than three people banned at AW, and I've only been there since March."
March 2006? Yah, about a dozen or more of them have been banned in the last month or so. Most of them were She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Roach, I think you might be right. Which certain scam agents/publishers? I don't know who that would be. Is it PA? He does sound a little like a wannabe/scam agent/publisher because of how he portrays other legitimate agents such as Miss Snark. I mean, why else would he despise Writer Beware and P&E? Most of the other agents who write blogs are decent people who don't think they're hot stuff. He has never bragged about any of his sales, though Miss Snark doesn't either, for obvious reasons.
I may be wrong and he could be completely legit, but he doesn't give off that impression, does he? Anybody know?
Dave, I know, but it seems like only heartless jerks would want to read SammyK's blog. You notice how he has almost no comments, probably because his blogs are so intimidating.
Mark, I think there was more to it than you're seeing. You say you're speaking from experience, but Jenna knows what she's saying and has her very good reasons. She has witnessed hundreds of disillusioned PA authors get stabbed through the heart when they found out that their book is lost forever and can never be sold as a non-reprint ever again.
The word "worthless" can be very emotionally ego-shattering when someone uses that word in connection to me, my writing abilities, or my book (which I haven't written yet, BTW, but am plotting). Sometimes I feel my stories are worthless, but I still remain confident that SOMEDAY, whether in 5, 10, 15, 20, or 50 years, I will be published, whether in magazines or in book form.
Mark, just think of how a poor writer who was just verbally and emotionally abused by PA, who starts doubting that their book was good (since PA accepts anything, they know it wasn't judged with high-quality standards), would react when someone calls them or their book "worthless," confirming their doubts. Some of them just blow it off, and continue writing. But less emotionally stable writers will, after reading the word "worthless," wallow in sadness and quit writing for good. That is sad. And that has happened to some of those who have found out they've been scammed by PA.
Some people, like me, are quite sensitive to certain words, such as "worthless." If you say it to the wrong person, you may have just destroyed the development and career of a potentially great author. You wouldn't want that to happen.
A Gent's Outlook is so pathetically convinced that Barbara Bauer is a legitimate literary agent. He basically says "you shouldn't go around labeling her as a scammer and attacking her professional reputation."
But she is a scammer. She charges far more than normal expenses (besides, she hasn't procured an advance or royalties for her writers, so there is no commission and there are no expenses), and she has a horrible reputation as an agent with NO SALES TO ANY MAJOR PUBLISHERS, because she ISN'T a literary agent.
And he goes with the attitude that "ALL real agents have no feelings of sympathy whatsoever and none of them hate it when a ruthless scammer takes advantage of clueless newbies." This isn't representative of all agents, only of SammyK.
I get kind of tired of his completely condescending blog. I wouldn't want such an antagonistic agent who pre-labels and calls me a stupid idiot newbie just because I haven't gotten my agent and publisher yet, to represent my work. He can go fuck Barbara Bauer for all I care.
I finally completed my long-awaited (and very long) rant on Barbara Bauer, with major Google-bombing.
http://alanyee.blogspot.com/
Anyone who's creating a master list of all the blogs on Barbara Bauer, make sure to link to this.
Be afraid, BB. Be VERY afraid.
Sorry Jean Marie, I underestimated how easily she would explode. I blame the inspiration for my technique on all those people on AW who started Google-bombing American Book Publishing, as in "OMG, today I was sitting here thinking, American Book Publishing Bedrock Books American Book Classics etc. etc. C. Lee Nunn."
I'm not sure, but I think that might have been started by either Aconite or Aruna, one or the other (sometimes I confuse them because they both start with A and are female).
I thought I had an unpredictable temper, but no, she's worse, she starts volcanic eruptions when she's ticked off (which happens very often lately, I've noticed *cackles maniacally*).
"TNH popped into the AW boards, made a post and soon after, pow, it was gone!!
Coincidence??? :"
It also wasn't a coincidence that Barbara Bauer blew her fuse a day or two after both me and Jim Macdonald posted extremely unflattering descriptions of her (more me than Jim, he just noted she was a fraudulent agent). Jenna herself confirmed my suspicions: my post was the OTHER reason Barbara Bauer tried to shut down AW. When she requested that Jenna remove my post along with Jim's, Jenna rightfully and stubbornly (as all writers naturally are and should be like) refused. From Queen Jenna herself:
"Don't feel guilty. Not your fault. I refused to take down your message, and Jim's. I'm a stubborn thing that way. ;)"
Basically, my offending post was this: a form of Google-bombing, in text form. I can't remember all of it word-for-word though. It commented on how it isn't illegal to post someone else's email address, how Barbara Bauer isn't exactly a helpless citizen being victimized by an unscrupolous email address poster who did it with malicious intent, and Barbara Bauer is a scammer. It went a little something like this:
"... But if it's a scam agent named Barbara Bauer, Ph.D., who runs a scam literary agency called The Barbara Bauer Literary Agency which is a scam (yes, I repeat, The Barbara Literary Agency run by Barbara Bauer, Ph.D., is a scam), and who's mad that she, Barbara Bauer, Ph.D. of The Barbara Bauer Literary Agency, was Writer Beware selected her for their Top 20 Worst Literary Agents List (yep, that's right, The Barbara Bauer Literary Agency run by Barbara Bauer, Ph.D., is one of Writer Beware's Top 20 Worst Literary Agencies) and who's mad that Ann and Victoria have exposed her, that is, Barbara Bauer, Ph.D. of the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency, and her, that is, Barbara Bauer, Ph.D. of the Barbara Bauer Literary Agency's shady business practices..."
I feel partly responsible for this fiasco. My post is probably what provoked her anger that later made her explode about the posting of her email address. Knowing how short her fuse is, I believe she thought I was calling her out. I suppose I was kind of doing that, but it was intended to be more about how Google would find my post when I wrote, "Come on, Barbara Bauer, Ph.D., I will personally make sure Google finds this thread and puts it on the first page of search results when someone searches for 'Barbara Bauer' or 'Barbara Bauer, Ph.D.' or 'Barbara Bauer Literary Agency' or 'Barbara Bauer scam.'"
I basically made her fuse blow up whatever was in her path. I personally hate and loath her for it now. I told the truth about her, and she goes and blows up my house (my online one, that is). I am now on a personal vendetta against her and we are all at war with her. You can't just blow up my (online) house and expect to get away with it unscathed, unpunished, and unfleeced for paying damages (although the AW main site is back up and the forums are about to also, though it will be very costly). Oh no, Barbara, this isn't how I or anyone else plays your little game of empty threats and vicious lies. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, writers and non-writers, editors and agents, bloggers of all ages, IT'S ON!
[Edited out confrontational word-play]
It was all about the posting of her e-mail address? I thought and was told that it was my and Jim Macdonald's posts about Barbara Bauer that, when Jenna refused to take them down, made the web host shut AW down.
I didn't hear about this part of the story though.
No clue.
Somehow, based on all the remarks on how dumb she is, and her total lack of logic, I have my doubts that she even has a Ph.D.
Usually, someone with a Ph.D. has ways of showing how intelligent and knowledgable and competent they are.
There's also this: it seems like she spends all her time on this "literary agency." I haven't learned of any other job she has. And I'd think a person with a Ph.D. in anything shouldn't have too much trouble finding a job.
She does seem fond of adding the "Ph.D." after her name.
NEWS FLASH: Holy shit, Barbara Bauer has temporarily shut down Absolute Write, thanks to my big mouth and my big mouth alone (except for Jim unfortunately, Jenna told me). I know it was me because I was the one who wrote a long post just yesterday with many uses of the word "scam" in connection with "Barbara Bauer, Ph.D." and "The Barbara Bauer Literary Agency." I thought it was quite clear that this woman has a very short fuse and is not very well-versed or convincing, but Jenna's web hosts don't seem to see that. I thought Barbara Bauer's threats were so baseless and hollow that NO ONE would believe her, but apparently not so. So now I have a personal loathing for BB.
So everybody who hasn't posted the Writer Beware Top 20 Worst Agent List on their website yet, right now is a good time to be like me and post this to your own blogs.
WARNING: If you do so, be prepared to be threatened by her. She hasn't done it to me yet, but she will, as I've just posted the Top 20 list to my blog.
Oh, come on. Even I know where that's from.
(Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.) Not bad for a teenager am I?
My older brother always wanted a hamster, but my mom wouldn't let him. I always thought it would be fun to have something different for once. Sigh. I wish your new hamster a long healthy life (despite the poor thing and his nightmares).
Well, I'm kind of stuck right now. I am a Christian, but I'm not a Creationist in the sense that most people here think. I believe that God created everything, but I don't really believe in all the nonsense that's attached to Creationists. I just don't see how the existence of God doesn't necessarily equate with evolution. I don't see how evolution is an impossibility. In fact, if I look at all the scientific and archaeological discoveries and compare them all, it all kind of fits together and makes sense. The newly-discovered fish just confirms my suspicions.
Man, it sucks for me to be a Christian who believes in evolution. I feel so squished in between two different groups.
I -HAVE- to remember to throw some hard-earned cash at my parents so I can buy this! I probably would read it over and over, so it probably will be worth the money. And it's for a good cause too (SFWA's Emergency Medical Fund)!
Teresa, have you done any promoting for Atlanta Nights? I wish it the best of luck.
I congratulate Teresa, Jim, and all the writers (and non-writers) who participated. How I wish I could have been involved in writing it (maybe you could organize another sting sometime).
You will hear from me in the near future! Anyhow, I'm out ;-]
"Ahhhh, Federal Way, Gateway to Tukwila, Kent, and Puyallup. As you know, you are living on top of the mudslide from when Mount Rainier was an active volcano, which could happen again..."
Sorry, help me with this one. When _was_ Mount Ranier active? It's been dormant for so long, but hopefully it will not become active again (at least while I'm still living here, hopefully after I have turned to dust).
"Any in all of Washington State?"
Sorry, I don't personally know any PA authors, though on the PA website they've mentioned so-called "signings" at places like maybe Tacoma, Yakima, Bellevue, and perhaps even Seattle. There are probably some in King County, but I wouldn't know them even if they were less than ten miles away. I would have been glad to help if I had connections with PA (though happily I have never touched their cursed email addresses).
FYI, I'm in the Federal Way/Auburn suburb of the Seattle-Tacoma metro. It would be nice to help tear down PA...
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2006 | 14 |
| 2005 | 6 |
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