New Developments in the DarkLit/Marceau Publishing Fiasco

Today, the HWA emailed me to let me know Caitlin Marceau has filed a complaint against me, stating that I’ve harrassed them online. If you’ve followed along, you’ll know none of this is personal – purely business/contractual failings – & something we’ve been very upfront about. Caitlin has also previously labelled us misogynists, & at this time, we’ve still not received a public apology, nor has Yolanda received an apology for how she was treated or any update on the significant editorial fees owed to Austrian Spencer. This past weekend some royalties were paid out, though discrepancies & questions regarding those remain. I’m sharing the email I’ve received from the HWA (with the sender redacted) & my reply, as, from the beginning, we’ve been forthright with being transparent.

Email (with screenshots below);

“Steve,

I am contacting you with the consent of the HWA Board and copying the Executive Director. We received a troubling email from a member, Caitlin Marceau, complaining that you are harassing her online and defaming her character.

Now, to be clear, none of this happened in HWA spaces so we cannot intervene; however, as she is a member, we gave her advice and passed on the information about the Grievance Committee, which is there for members to settle business disputes.

Here is the page with that information: https://horror.org/grievance-committee/

Since you are a member, we felt that it was our responsibility to alert you to her formal complaint and give you the same advice. We also would like to encourage you to stop posting in public about your issues with her and her press and please utilize the grievance committee to adjudicate this issue. See above.

We let her know that you would be contacted as well.

We are here to help our members. We have formal processes especially for business disputes.

We urge you to take that route.

Please let us know if you have any questions.”

My reply;

“Morning (redacted)! I hope all is well and October looks promising for you!

Thank you so much for letting me know.
To be upfront, it’s not surprising, though the allegation of personal harassment, is at best, laughable, as everything I’ve posted online has been factual and accurate and is directed at Caitlin Marceau EiC of DarkLit Press and Hedone Press, while nothing is directed towards Caitlin Marceau the person.
I’m aware the HWA won’t be intervening into Caitlin and DarkLit’s publishing fiasco, which is where this issue is stemming from, nor that the HWA will intervene on the very real libel issue Caitlin has created by publicly labelling the group of authors seeking royalty compensation as misogynists. I’m unsure what role the grievance committee can play here, nor how they’d be involved, as what lies before us and Caitlin is both a legal financial issue and a legal libel issue.

If you have any further information you’re able to share with me, I’d be interested in seeing/hearing about it.

Thank you for your time and bringing this matter to my attention.
Take care,
Steve”

This is where we sit at the moment and I plan on submitting everything to the HWA, showing there’s been no shred of personal harassment towards Caitlin Marceau, while from the other end, there’s now been a misogyny claim still out there and now a false harassment claim.

As always, I’ll keep you posted.

Screenshots of the HWA email;

My reply;