Dealing with Authors Who are Jerks, Bastards, or Downright Evil in Real Life

Stay the Course: How to Keep Writing ... Art Appreciation

Dealing with Authors Who are Jerks, Bastards, or Downright Evil in Real Life

(I originally wrote this entry in August 2024. I used "problematic" in the title in an attempt to cover a broad category of writers whose behavior readers might take issue with. But as I write this addendum on January 14th, after the horrific details about Neil Gaiman came out, "problematic" is far too mild a term, so I changed the title.)

I wrote the following mini-essay forthe latest edition of my newsletter. I try to avoid repeating content betweenmy blog, newsletter, and YouTube channel, but since a number of my newsletter readerscontacted me to say how much they appreciated the essay and that it should havea wider audience, I thought I’d share it here as well.

Ayear or so ago, author Tom Monteleone posted a screed on Facebook complainingabout how the Bram Stoker Awards were no longer awarded for merit but rather toserve a social engineering agenda. He claimed nominees were chosen primarilybecause they were BIPOC or LQBTQ+, not because of the quality of their writing.In this post, he also insulted specific writers he felt were unworthy of theaward. The post received the sort of reaction from the Horror community thatyou’d expect, and Tom reached out to a number of writers via email to explainthat he wasn’t racist, that the hard-edged and sometimes-controversial persona heeffects got the better of him. (If he was sincere, he would’ve posted this onFacebook too, but he didn’t.) Then the next night, he went on a podcast hostedby a couple alt-right dudes, was obviously drunk, and doubled then tripled downon his racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic comments. He succeeded inimmolating his career and tanking his small-press publishing companyBorderlands Press.

Tomrecently decided to start a newsletter on Substack, and the first issue wentout to all his email contacts, not just those who chose to subscribe to hisnewsletter. I received that email, and it was Tom’s Screed Part II. Hereiterated the same points he’d made a year ago, and he attacked someadditional writers he felt weren’t worthy of the Stokers’ Lifetime AchievementAward. I was saddened to see Tom hadn’t learned anything in the interveningyear, but I wasn’t surprised. I wrote a blog entry about older white malecishet writers with, shall we say, limited perspectives. You can read it here: https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-open-letter-to-my-fellow-old-white.html

Iconsidered Tom a friend and a mentor, so the situation with him was a difficultone for me to deal with emotionally. I broke off contact with him, and unlesshe makes sincere, public amends to the Horror community – and especially to theauthors he denigrated – I don’t intend to have any contact with him ever again.

Sometimes peoplelike Tom and the Grand High Terf J.K. Rowling out themselves as toxic. Othertimes – as with the recent sexual abuse allegations against Neil Gaiman – otherscome forward and out them. But how should we react when a writer we admire, orwho we have a personal relationship with, turns out to be a not-so-good person?The short answer, of course, is you can react any damn way you wish. There’s noright way. But I can share with you how I attempt to navigate these roughwaters.

· Can you separate the art from the artist? Should you? I have an MA inEnglish Literature with a Creative Writing Concentration. Our professors wereup front about authors’ often problematic backgrounds. Poet Ezra Pound was afascist. Edgar Allan Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, and he wrotevicious literary criticism of writers he disliked. Lovecraft was racist. Dickenswas rumored to have had an affair with his sister-in-law. Our professors taughtus that these writers weren’t literary gods to be worshipped, but humans likeus, with all the good and bad that comes with being human. We could read theirwork and ask how their racism, fascism, sexism, homophobia, etc. influencedtheir writing. We could also read their work knowing that it represented thebest part of themselves, while not ignoring the negative aspects of theirpersonalities. Or we could say “Fuck that guy,” and never read anything by themagain. But all these responses had us engaging with the complex anduncomfortable reality of art vs artist vs society.

· Problematic writers are good models of what notto be.If you’re introspective (and if you’re a writer, you should be), once aproblematic writer shows their whole ass in public, you’ll examine yourself tosee if you have any of their issues inside you. When I first started writing atthe age of eighteen, self-publishing was considered something only failedwriters did. It took me a while to see indie publishing as a viable option forwriters. I had a prejudice to overcome, and seeing people rail againstself-publishing over the years and listening to counterarguments helped meovercome it. So while problematic writers cause damage to the community and toindividuals (in the case of Rowling, damage on a worldwide scale), they canalso have a positive effect in some ways. After Tom’s first attack on HWA’srecent LAA honorees, I gathered all the physical books of his that I have andput them on one of the bookshelves in my living room where I see them all thetime. They’re a constant reminder to me keep my mind and heart open and tocontinue trying to be a better person today than I was yesterday.

· Don’t put writers (or anyone else) on a pedestal. Tom’s books alsoremind me of this. As I mentioned earlier, it’s important to remember thewriters whose works we admire are human. But we also dehumanize people when weput them on a pedestal. Whether you denigrate a person or lionize a person, youaren’t giving them the respect of treating them as fully human. People aren’tdemons and they aren’t gods. They may do horrible things or wonderful things,but those things are part of the range of human behavior, for better or worse.

· Don’t immediately engage in a social media pile-on. This is my policy,and you may feel differently – and if so, you do you – but let me explain myposition. Once a scandal in the writing community breaks, I try to give myself48 hours before responding to it online. I read other people’s posts about itand consider them, but I wait to see if it’s a real situation, a real situationthat’s being exaggerated, or not a real situation. I don’t want to contributeto the early noise and confusion that accompanies a scandal, and I certainlydon’t want to potentially do any harm to someone or to their career. It alsotakes me a while sometimes to sort out my thoughts and feelings about asituation. An immediate post from me would be something inarticulate like “Thisam bad.” Some people undoubtedly post quick reactions because they have astrong moral stance regarding the situation. Others respond fast becausethey’re acting emotionally and have to post their feelings now. Somepeople rush to post because they want to show immediate solidarity with thecommunity, and I suspect that some might post out of fear that they’ll beviewed as silently approving of an offender’s behavior, which could end up gettingthem canceled. Waiting to post about a problematic writer scandal works bestfor me, but your mileage may vary.

· It’s okay to have mixed feelings about the situation –maybe very mixed. I never got into Harry Potter, but my wife anddaughters did, as did a number of my friends and colleagues. So when J.K.Rowling outed herself as the Queen of Transphobia it didn’t have any emotionalimpact on me. But if you grew up reading her books, if they were important toyour development as a person, it can be difficult as hell to reconcile yourfeelings about the work with your feelings about Rowling’s current pathologicallyshitty behavior. I’m here to tell you that however you feel is okay. Never wantto read Harry Potter books again? Fine. Want to still read them, but with fullawareness of how awful Rowling is to trans folks? Fine. Want to honor your pastexperiences of her work while recognizing what a terrible human being she’sbecome? That’s healthy. Want to publicly boycott her work? Go for it. Findyourself doing any or all of these things at different times as you try to dealwith your emotions? Perfectly normal. The only response I advise against is puttingon blinders and pretending that a problematic writer isn’t problematic. That’s nothealthy.

· Don’t let the reveal of a problematic writer stop youfrom writing.Maybe you viewed Rowling or Gaiman (or in my case, Monteleone) as a role model.You learned to write by studying their work, listened to their advice onwriting and publishing, and learned how to comport yourself as a professionalby observing their career. None of those experiences are invalidated by therevelation that your role model is a horrible human being in one or more areasof their life. The knowledge you gained is yours, and you could’velearned the same lessons from a zillion other writers. You just happened tolearn them from someone who, while a good (maybe even great) writer, is ashitty human. Use that knowledge to create and bring positive things into theworld. Balance the scales, at least a little, by using your light to countertheir darkness.

· Acknowledge that these situations suck and willcontinue to suck.Some people will always be sad about Rowling’s transphobia. I’ll always be sadabout Tom. It’s okay to be sad, and while you’ll likely adjust to your sorrowover time, it’ll never be fully gone. You need to find a way to make peace withthat somehow and just keep going.

I like this resource from the American LibraryAssociation: “Addressing Challenges to Books by Problematic Authors Q&A” – https://tinyurl.com/y5tt2ca8It presents a thorough analysis of the issues involved in dealing with authors whoare deemed problematic. It’s written for librarians, of course, not individualreaders, but I think it still presents a lot of good points for readers toconsider.

Feel free to leave a comment below, but because many peoplehave strong emotions regarding this topic, please keep your comments civil and constructive.I’ll remove any comments that attack others or spew vitriol for its own sake.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Bookof Madness ,Book 2 in the Custodians of the Cosmos series is Out Now

Addto this. . .

–A visit from Gina’s sister Juliana, who might be a double agent serving theBlack Trust.

–A member of the Multitude known as Bad Jack, who changed the course of bothNeal and Donnie’s lives when they were young, and who now seeks to obtain the Insanitariumfor his own nefarious ends.

–An extradimensional trip to the deadly realm called Low Town.

–And the birth of a very special little girl.

Itall adds up to one very bad day for Neal and Gina, but in order to get the jobdone, they’ll have to risk more than their lives. They’ll have to risk theirimmortal souls.

Nopressure.

Paperback:https://tinyurl.com/5n8z78fx

Kindle:https://tinyurl.com/bddetj5u

Audiobook:https://tinyurl.com/2s3fu6vt

Praisefor Book One: The Atrocity Engine

"Waggoneroffers a fresh variation on the trope of a covert agency combating evil in hisblood-drenched Custodians of the Cosmos series opener."- Publishers Weekly

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Terrifier2: The Official Novelization is Up for Preorder

TitanBooks will be bringing out this novel on Oct. 8th – just in time forthe theatrical release of Terrifier 3! I had an absolute blast writingthis book, and I hope Terrifier fans will love it! Brad Miska of BloodDisgusting said this about the novel:

“Terrifier2 is seriously one of the coolest and most entertaining novelizations I’veever read. @timwaggoner absolutely crushed it!”

How’sthat for an early review? Here’s the synopsis:

Thenightmarish Art the Clown returns from the dead to continue his murderous andmad spree, in this gruesome novelization of the hit horror film.

Ithas been one year since the sleepy town of Miles County survived the murderousspree of demented killer Art the Clown, but little do they know the nightmareis about to begin anew.

Resurrectedby a sinister entity, Art is back with an appetite for murder andmayhem—setting his sights on the recently bereaved teenager Sienna and heryounger brother Jonathan. The streets are about to run with blood, and Siennamust somehow survive this gruesome Halloween night and discover how to defeat abrutal and unforgiving killing machine from beyond her nightmares.

There'sno stopping Art once his sights are set on you…

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SCHEDULEDAPPEARANCES

IGW Genre Con. August 17th to August 18th.Huntington, West Virginia.

World Fantasy Convention. October 17th to October 20th.Niagara Falls, New York.

Authorcon V. March 28th to March 30th.Williamsburg, Virginia.

StokerCon. June 12th to June 15th.Stamford, Connecticut.

WHERE TO FIND ME ONLINE

Newsletter Sign-Up: https://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tim-Waggoner/author/B001JP0XFM?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/