Sun > Status Update

Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to every single person who believed me and their kind words. Thank you.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

OMG Noah. Of course we believe you!!
I’m so happy you came here to see that you are not at all alone and that you have a huge amount of support.
Thank you for sharing your story. I know it was not an easy thing do.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Thanks to you, Noah :)

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

I've never met you before, but I believe you. Thank you for sharing your story.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

So brave you and everyone here are, Noah. My heart goes out to you. ❤️

Alona wrote: "When someone says something like: I read the book I don’t care about the author. I say: I also read the book for the story, I never cared about the author personal life, but there are enough good books out there without me supporting someone vile!"

I agree. Personally I prefer not to know about an author's personal life. However, when authors put info out there about their personal lives, when they interact with readers in public spaces, or when vile and reprehensible information about their private lives becomes public due to the nature and degree of those actions, then it can, and often does, become of interest to me and a component in my buying and reading decisions.

Because there are people who, due to their attitudes and or actions, I do not want to support with my dollars. I don't want to put my money into their pocket. I don't want to support, encourage, or appear to endorse certain things. Even to the degree of turning a blind eye to it.

I certainly won't berate anyone else for making whatever decisions they want to make for themselves in that regard, that's entirely up to them and their right.

However, for me, there are times it matters.

I'm not so bothered by those that want to "separate the art from the artist" if they want. But usually when I see people saying such things it appears to be a dig or admonishment of those who choose not to for certain things. And that does bug me.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Noah--thank you for sharing your truth. I believe you. I hope you are in a good place, taking care, and doing well.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

You were very brave sharing your story. Thank you for that!
I hope this whole thing has helped you get at least a little bit of closure.
Stay brave <3

Alexandra wrote: "Alona wrote: "When someone says something like: I read the book I don’t care about the author. I say: I also read the book for the story, I never cared about the author personal life, but there are..."

I can share a secret with you ;)
I had times that I purposely went and bought a book that I did not intend on buying, only because I saw the author being bullied here.
I can remember at least two occasions when that happened.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

It's REALLY good to see you here, Noah. You are incredibly brave and your honesty was heartbreaking but empowering as well.

And to see so many people from back in the day coming forward...I've missed you all. I'm sorry for the circumstances that brought us back, but I'm definitely not sorry to be reconnected.

Alona wrote: "I can share a secret with you ;)
I had times that I purposely went and bought a book that I did not intended to buy, only because I saw the book/author bullied here.
I can remember at least two occasions when that happened. "

Those kinds of things can bring attention to a book or an author that otherwise would not have been noticed. And that attention isn't always negative. I know you're not alone, I've seen others doing similar :D

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Thank you, Noah. You are a v. brave person. 💜

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Thank you Noah for sharing your story. I believe every word of what you shared with us and I truly admire your bravery. Know that going forward you are not alone, you have a whole community behind and supporting you.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me...."

Noah, thank you so much for being so incredibly brave and sharing your experiences with us! I believe you and I'm so sorry for what you had to go through! Take care, Noah! I wish you all the love and happiness in life! ~hugs-

Susan wrote: "Susan wrote: "I love that this thread is still going on, keeping the conversation alive.

I am frustrated by these statements by people close to Santino Hassell. ..."

I typed this comment last ni..."

I agree, I think it´s very personal if you want to forgive them, or not. I never saw Roan making people feel bad, I saw the others speaking bad about readers, reviewers, without names but we all knew who they were talking about, they talked between them and with others readers like Eddie. I don´t have screenshots, but I´m sure they did it because I saw them and because they even did it to me. And the gaslighting, too. For me, Karen and Megan were the worst doing that, but that´s my opinion. Knowing this, I know people can be manipulated, they can be victims too, and I would have believed Karen, Amy Jo, Vanessa or Megan apologies if their apologies had spoken about the victims, but they speak about themselves and how they feel. If they didn´t know about the real SH I´m sure they have to feel bad and they need time, but they need to know how to say I´m sorry.

On a lighter note, can you imagine all the blame-throwing going on in their house right now? Picking apart every interaction, trying to decide who made the fatal mistake...

Alexandra wrote: "I'm not so bothered by those that want to "separate the art from the artist" if they want. But usually when I see people saying such things it appears to be a dig or admonishment of those who choose not to for certain things. And that does bug me."

Yup. There's also an undercurrent of "why must you (general "you") ruin things for me ("me" being the person comparmentalizing)". It's a sentiment I rarely, if ever, agree with.

Alexandra wrote: "Alona wrote: "When someone says something like: I read the book I don’t care about the author. I say: I also read the book for the story, I never cared about the author personal life, but there are..."

Alexandra it's like you're speaking straight out of my own head. I couldn't possibly agree more with both of your posts if I'd said all that myself.

I'm really frustrated with all this. I just want the authors that I spend money on and elevate to treat people well; I don't want them to use my money and the the platform that I help give them to treat others horribly.

So I'm unhappy with these authors who are all, "I didn't know, it wasn't my fault," for completely selfish reasons. I don't want to wade through what they did, what their interactions were, what their relationship was, and what their "apology" says to figure out if buying their books would likely be enabling them to be abusive in the future.

So, I haven't decided what to do with any authors other than SH, partially because all of the information regarding them is so dispersed, and I have some information processing issues (which makes holding on to all this incredibly difficult, as much as it pains me to admit this). I'm just not happy.

Karen wrote: "Aissa wrote: "I originally made a small post earlier but under an anonymous name. I deleted it. But Jenn said I need to tell my story. I would feel better. I love you, Jenn, but I feel like throwin..."

Alyssa, I can't find the original post: so I am going to mine here too. I am also sorry for not questioning him at the time.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Noah you matter! You are important! No one has the right to treat you the way you were treated by SH. YOU are the better, stronger person. YOU are who I'd want to emulate given the choice.

Thank you for your bravery in speaking out. I am so very sorry you suffered through that.

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Hey Noah! Thank you for sharing, it was brave and very much appreciated. Know this: you are most certainly not alone

Fabi wrote: "Alexandra it's like your speaking straight out of my own head. I couldn't possibly agree more with both of your posts if I'd said all that myself. "

Aw, thank you so much Fabi! That makes my day.

I've just been reading all this, taking it all in, empathizing with so many feelings and hurts, being angry on behalf of the victims.

I'm not a part of this particular bruhaha, but I can listen, I can hear, I can support, I can understand, I can validate.

And I hope we, as readers in general, can try to remember, when we engage with authors, even those we feel we come to know and are friendly with, we always, always deserve to be treated with respect, and always have a right to expect them to behave as professionals - because that is the role in which they have in these interactions.

And we can try to keep that in mind too, when we see others being treated poorly.

Ariadna wrote: "Yup. There's also an undercurrent of "why must you (general "you") ruin things for me ("me" being the person comparmentalizing)". It's a sentiment I rarely, if ever, agree with. "

Agreed. "Why are you showing me this? Making me see it? I don't want to know!"

But usually it feels more like, "YOU should separate the artist from the art, and YOU need to stop caring about what he does or thinks or how he treats people, even his own customers."

I have more respect for the honest, "Yeah, the guy is scum, but I like his books so I'm going to read them anyway."

Another note from Riptide:

http://riptidepublishing.tumblr.com/p...

Noah wrote: "Thank you, Susan, for creating this thread. You have no idea how much it's meant to me to see so many stories and people that make me feel less alone in what happened to me.

Also, thank you to eve..."

Noah...thank you so much for trusting me with your confession. Thank you for speaking, for your bravery, for your honesty, for just being you. I hope that wherever you are in life right now, you're happy and healthy and loved, with only the best things on the horizon for you. You are amazing, and I admire you so much.

One more thing. I've seen some links to people saying what authors owe readers. I've even seen one that listed what readers owe authors which seems to be a tongue in cheek list of things heard/seen authors claim. That particular list is 100% wrong, although unfortunately I have no trouble believing some authors had made such assertions.

Here's what readers owe authors:

If they acquire or gain access to that author's book(s) that they do so in ways that are legal.

That's it. Don't let any authors try to tell you or convince you that you owe them anything else.

Jordan wrote: "Another note from Riptide:

http://riptidepublishing.tumblr.com/p..."

So they said "he" signed the contract. That means that Marvin signed the contract, right? I'm still not sure where we are on the topic of who actually wrote the books - he or she. Not that it matters much at this point because everything else that came to light is so much disturbing and unethical but does it have legal repercussions if he signed the contract and she wrote the books?

edit: Just to be clear: it matters to me in so far that they claimed to be a bi man and pretended to have shared the same trouble in life other queer people face.

Josy wrote: "Jordan wrote: "Another note from Riptide:

http://riptidepublishing.tumblr.com/p..."

So they said "he" signed the contract. That means ..."

I'm just making an assumption here, but my guess is they are simply using "he" here in deference to the pen name, and in order to not divulge information that they probably feel is confidential.

Alexandra wrote: "I'm just making an assumption here, but my guess is they are simply using "he" here in deference to the pen name, and in order to not divulge information that they probably feel is confidential..."

That makes sense. Thank you :)

Josy wrote: "That makes sense. Thank you :) "

:D

Josy wrote: "Jordan wrote: "Another note from Riptide:

http://riptidepublishing.tumblr.com/p..."

So they said "he" signed the contract. That means ..."

This shows the actual manipulation of this cult if they still believe this is just about the authors gender.

Alexandra wrote: "Josy wrote: "Jordan wrote: "Another note from Riptide:

http://riptidepublishing.tumblr.com/p..."

So they said "he" signed the contract..."

My first two books were published under my real name (for full disclosure, it's Kara Braden) with an agent (formerly at Donald Maass) through Sourcebooks Casablanca. For those books, all my paperwork went through the agent. I don't know what info the agent did or didn't send to Sourcebooks.

My third book, published under this name (which will be my legal name if I survive this divorce), was published through Riptide without an agent.

The first part of my Riptide contract reads: "This agreement, dated (date), is made between Riptide Publishing, herein called Publisher, and Kara Braden, writing as Jordan S. Brock, herein called Aiuthor, as respects the following titles: Hartsbridge Island #1 (working title), herein called Work 1, Hartsbridge Island #2 (working title), herein called Work 2.

Both contracts are formatted differently. I don't know how Riptide formats contracts for authors who are co-writing, working through an agent, or both co-writing through an agent.

I want to mention something in regards to whether the author did anything illegal. I only know bits and pieces of the story from twitter and GR. I saw SH claimed to have cancer. I'm in Australia and there's an Australian blogger Belle Gibson who falsely claimed she had cancer and she cured it with natural remedies. She made a lot of money from her claims and last year a government department fined her $410,000. I don't know if Gibson's case is similar to SH or if legal cases like this happen in US.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-09...

Thank you for posting this. Yesterday the subject popped up on social media and I had never heard of this author. I was shocked by the events.

Noah - it was incredibly brave of you for sharing your story. <3

Dani - I'm not sure what's happening but I hope everything is OK.

I have been following all this for the last week or so. I’ve read SH’s books, but knew nothing else about his whole community and fandom, other than noticing his huge patreon support. I have been following all of this, trying to make sense of all of it. I did notice the occasional pic of him on SM.

I will say, the revelations of Noah (and others on Sakura’s twitter and google docs) explained very well what SH was up to with the cat fishing as a technique to mine other peoples’ experiences to fill their books. The sob stories as a ploy to defraud people of money is self evident.

Can I just ask the following, as trying to make sense of everything:

I’m deducing that SH appears to be a couple called Alicia and Marvin? I saw some suggestions that A did the writing, but M was in the photographs of “SH”.

I get the whole connecting up with someone online who identifies himself as a man called Santino, and communicating with that person always online in writing. I know of writers who have co-written books without ever meeting the person face to face. I too have multi year friendships with people online whom I have never met.

So here’s what I’m confused about: I’ve noticed on this forum, and the Sakura one and around and about, people “meeting Santino”, “traveling with Santino” and meeting SH at conventions.

Do they mean they met with a man holding himself out as SH? Or do they mean hanging out with Alicia, knowing she used the pen name SH? Or did they spend prolonged periods with ?Marvin? Who was pretending to be SH, or with the couple A and M, knowing they were both the writers behind the Santino identity?

I do get, say, meeting a guy at a convention who says he is Santino Hassell, and knows the ins and outs of all the books he’s purported to have written. I get having face to face discussions with such a guy about, say co-writing a book, and tossing around a few ideas face to face, and then in terms of the co-writing, it all being done online. As opposed to sitting next to each other in front of a typewriter or sharing a pen and a sheet of paper.

I am not trying to justify Author A or Author B, or any other defenders of SH or people who have been close/not close to him. Nor am I trying to apportion blame to anyone who dealt with him, or did not, or whatever.

I am just trying to understand how SH operated in our universe. I’m getting the non physical stuff, just not the physical presence and interactions in our universe.

AGandyGirl wrote: "This shows the actual manipulation of this cult if they still believe this is just about the authors gender."

Hmm, I'm not sure about this. I think it was just in answer to this question "Surely you had to know what was going on, were you mailing him checks attention Santino Hassell or was it to Marvin and Alicia? Surely he's not the only author on your books with a pen name?"

Noah, thank you so much for speaking up. When I shared your story many who were on the fence realized what a huge impact this has had, which lead them to read other survivors accounts and finally open their eyes to what happened.

I'm going to do a video about this... Would it be all right if I read what you wrote in the video? I'm hoping this will amplify voices of those who've been through so much. This is an important issue that impacted our community and I know not everyone will take the time to read through threads like this-they should, so I'll link it, but a video will have a different reach.

If you'd rather I just link to the tweet, I will definitely do that. Whatever you're most comfortable with.

This thread has been amazing and I admire the strength of all those who've spoken up. I was never in the sphere or SH or the other authors connected to him. I was just another reader who enjoyed the books. I did share them with my readers though, which is why I want to make sure they're aware of what's going on now the best way I know how.

Shelby wrote: "I don't think this has been posted yet, so here's Roan Parrish's statement : https://www.facebook.com/roanparrishb..."

Wow, she said absolutely nothing.

Kathleen wrote: "Shelby wrote: "I don't think this has been posted yet, so here's Roan Parrish's statement : https://www.facebook.com/roanparrishb..."

Wow, she said absolutely nothing."

I’m thinking that authors who did not fully get the shenanigans would need a lot of time to process all this, and their relationship with SH and what the reality was. And they already have a picture in their heads of who SH is, it would take a bit of time to reconfigure it.

I’m saying this as a general statement. I have no idea of how much any author knew about what.

I’m wondering about Alexis hall.

You all might be right to be so offended by all the alleged lying and posing from this author but the truth is I will keep on reading what he/she writes because he/she is one of the best I have found in this MM romance genre which btw I read for entertainment. The reason why SH have lots of readers is not the lies about his pretend life because I never read anything about this author before and I always keep track of everything he publishes, I did not know any of this until today that I found this link under the comments of his/her new unpublished book and curiosity brought me here.
On the other hand, there is plenty of literature from the social/militant writers that you can pay for to read and be loyal to your concience. And please you dont have to pay for anybodys house because they claim to be sick, especially if you dont personally know them, that is just stupid. You want to do charity, do it at hospitals or going to the really poor neighbourhoods or really poor countries.

Re authors - There are a few that have stood up to be counted. Garrett Leigh, Sheena Himes, Kade Boehme. I know i missed some. just seen what ive been in groups of. Victoria Sue has lost some people from her group because she disagreed with them when they said they didnt care about the drama - just wanted to read the books. Im going to make sure i buy from these authors.

Amazonaute wrote: "I have been following all this for the last week or so. I’ve read SH’s books, but knew nothing else about his whole community and fandom, other than noticing his huge patreon support. I have been f..."


Marvin attended two small-ish romance novels conventions in fall 2016 and fall 2017. He did this as SH. There are several photos taken by Megan Erickson and other attendees that were then posted in social media. Alicia does show up in a few of the pics, mostly on the periphery of Marvin. Karen Stevali also appears.

In addition to that, Megan Erickson, Piper Vaughn, and Avon Gale posted photos of the times they went on vacations with Marvin--always identifying him as Santino Hassell. Roan Parrish went on at least one vacation (New Orleans in 2017), but I don't know if she posted pics because I never followed her social media.

Earlier this year (I want to say late January?) SH did a post where there were a handful of photos of him with his face visble. Some are from the conventions and some are from vacations with the "squad". One is a photo of SH and Roan looking at the camera.

Marvin is the person in those pictures.

ETA: Although the squad did spend a lot of times together with Marvin (and, at least once with Alicia--at the fall 2016 convention), it's more believable that they knew who Marvin was.

As a matter of fact, SH did mentioned back in October 2016 that Santino Hassell was a pseusonym. Whether they addressed him as Santino, Sonny, or Marvin, I have no idea. I wasn't there.

BUT, both Megan and Piper have gone on record that they knew SH's legal name. #AreyoupickingupwhatImputtingdown?

Amy wrote: "In case anyone is wondering what other authors are involved, this is a picture that SH posted of a weekend trip to New Orleans in November 2017. That's Avon Gale, Piper Vaughn, SH, and Roan Parrish..." No way they didnt know

I'm adding my pessimistic two cents on the "friend" authors' non-apologies.

They're covering the bases. If it blows over, they didn't really jump the fence nor admit to any wrongdoing. If it doesn't blow over, then they have the "I was too shocked to respond appropriately" argument.

I am 100% with Alexandra on this. If an author treated a reader with anything less than the respect due a customer, then imho, their business should suffer.

"A business" can refuse a customer their premises and even their products to some extent. A business can refuse to engage in a verbal battle with a customer.

A business cannot, without repercussions, insult, demean, or otherwise attack a customer.

So, I want to know who's in the authoring business and who is part of a selective possee. As far as I'm concerned, the possee can read each others books because they don't deserve an extended readership.

Are any of you differentiating between what a co-author knew? For instance, it's one thing to cover up the author's identity (one half of a married couple posing as the author at cons) vs. covering up some of the other abusive behavior that has come to light more and more in the past two days. I can forgive the first, and it's doubtful they knew about the latter because a lot of it took place several years ago.

Evelia wrote: "You all might be right to be so offended by all the alleged lying and posing from this author but the truth is I will keep on reading what he/she writes because he/she is one of the best I have fou..."

You know, I was with you, about reading what you wanted, until you demonized others who actually do care about authors who treat their customers like garbage. That was where you lost me.

Sure, go read what you want, perfectly fine. Don't need to care about this issue at all if you don't want to. Go on - shooo.

Meredith King from blog Diverse Reader
https://www.facebook.com/DiverseReade...

Evelia wrote: "You all might be right to be so offended by all the alleged lying and posing from this author but the truth is I will keep on reading what he/she writes because he/she is one of the best I have fou..."

Are you expecting a cookie?