Sun > Status Update

Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.com/sonnyhassell/stat......"


I don't personally think you're involved but I do know you and Piper Vaughn are good friends. To say you have no pony isn't necessarily true. In fact, you're profile picture is a series in which you collaborated with Piper Vaughn in. So..

I really didnt want to believe it. Because it's a shitty thing and because I didn't want to fathom that so many would cover for her/him/they. But there's too many loop holes and too much evidence.

Thank you all for bringing this to light.

Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.com/sonnyhassell/stat......"

Wow. Um, I am pretty sure that Susan was hurt by this. I think she states clearly that she thought she was friends with SH. Please go read through all that was posted before trying to call out someone who is not causing trouble but sharing information. Also, as an author, I would think you would want to be safe and not sorry. Behave.

Monica wrote: "I have hundreds of reasons to be mad, but I’m the very first one to say Santino (or whoever wrote the books) is (or at least used to be because the new books are all pretty much the same) very tale..."

Amen.

Bitter wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.com/sonnyhassell/status/..."

You're correct, I'm not involved. And it's also true, that I am friends with Piper. However, our friendship hasn't inhibited my critical thinking skills whatsoever. You'll notice I did not attempt to hide who I was when commenting. All the things I've read seem unarguable IMO. Having said that, when I initially read the twitter feed and blog posts this one picture of Susan's tweet from 2013 really throws me off. I am asking how it fits in with everything? If she knew this person back then and spent time with them then wouldn't she have known the wife, and child? What name did she know him as? How does that relationship fit with all that is happening now? I think it's a fair question to ask.

Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.com/sonnyhassell/stat......"

This whole status and thread is about being catfished by SH. Obviously Susan was catfished too and if you look through the twitter anon accounts, people in SH's inner circle at that time was told the dude in the pic was named Mike and was SH's roommate who needed a job.

Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.com/sonnyhassell/status/...

I am able to speak for myself and don't require anyone to tell me how to behave. My question was logical. If others are implying that every author associated with this person is tainted and therefore suspect, then how does her friendship with the same male individual from 2013 have any different expectation of knowledge? Again, I am not making any accusations. But since she put this out there, I feel it's fair to ask the question.

The difference is Susan is addressing it and addressing it within her boundaries of safety. People are creating anonymous accounts out of fear from what this author does and have their rabid following do.

Any other author associated with SH who has a picture taken with "him" is so quiet when their past behavior is to scream from the rooftops how wronged SH is.

I think the silence speaks more than someone speaking out.

I highly doubt Susan knew that man she was taking a picture with was supposedly Santino Hassell and she was going to post that picture as what? Arrogance that she knows who he is? What would that purpose prove and if that was Santino Hassell, why let "his" picture be posted when they are notorious for the face hiding behind objects?

I can understand it creating questions but Susan, who was a reader and once a supporter of SH isn't the one who needs to be providing answers for being in a picture with the stunt author.

Sara wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.com/sonnyhassell/status/..."

Like everyone else, I'm trying to make sense out of it all. I see people making judgments about the culpability of every person who interacted with Sonny. I read all of anons twitter posts a few weeks back and honestly it was this one pic that made me think that there was no way the stuff was true if Susan had known him for that long.

Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. https://twitter.c..."

You know what? This is not what I am here for. I am here to read books and talk to people about books. I shouldn't even have to think that the author I am reading is not a real person and that not real person is pretending to have a FUCKING DISEASE that many of us have had to deal with IN REAL FUCKING LIFE and you are questioning ONE FUCKING PICTURE that you yourself state was taken in 2013! What is your point here? Why are you picking on this one thing when there are a million others to see?

I can form my own opinion about you and it is not good. Fuck off. This is getting way out of hand and I feel like I can't read anything right now because God only knows if it is safe. I do know your book that I have not read yet is NOT SAFE. God I am pissed.

Jayden wrote: "honestly it was this one pic that made me think that there was no way the stuff was true if Susan had known him for that long. "

For me, that one picture made me think if Susan was lied to, everyone was lied to. And now seeing all the people who were part of that inner circle of the ICoS group at that time all coming out with similar stories about SH? There is a side adding up and it stinks like catfish.

Sara wrote: "The difference is Susan is addressing it and addressing it within her boundaries of safety. People are creating anonymous accounts out of fear from what this author does and have their rabid follow..."

My question is genuine and not aiming to attack anyone. And I loathe fake account making which is why I'm here as myself and not any puppet. I worry that others are being swept up in the mess this person manufactured, being held accountable when it's far more likely that they were misled and lied to as well.

Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blasting this situation. ht..."

You replied to me. Not the other way around. I never said anything negative. I asked questions. Not sure why that's so objectionable.

Shana wrote: "~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "Alisa wrote: "But the publisher in question has immediately blacklisted anyone even daring to whisper a question about the situation..."

Which publi..."

OMG. What I'm reading is so horrifying, it's like watching to trains wreck at 200 mph. I hadn't heard any of this, but I'm not on the twitter posts and I am only partially m/m (one character is gay, another is bi). So my knowledge of the genre and many of the authors is very limited.

Riptide, however, got my attention. One of my favorite authors has her books through there. If Riptide is doing this, it's totally disgusting and now I'm torn between loyalty to an author I adore and the need to dump the publisher she uses.

I, too, am a cancer survivor, had it before my first book was published. I couldn't even think about using my cancer as a fundraiser to fans.

Gawds, this is horrible.

Sara wrote: "Jayden wrote: "honestly it was this one pic that made me think that there was no way the stuff was true if Susan had known him for that long. "

For me, that one picture made me think if Susan was ..."

Yeah, I think it caught me as odd in light of this post, so I questioned it. After reading so much, and the twitter feed is just ripping left and right it's hard to keep track of who is real or not.

Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitter account blas..."

Because here, where we all are talking and feeling safe, you came and questioned that. You think you were questioning but you did not come across that way to me. Me.

Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This was featured by the twitt..."

I wasn't questioning you though. And I wasn't attacking her. I asked a question on how it fits with everything.

Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude baking? This wa..."

But why? Why is this what you choose to focus on? Why are you not focusing on the fact that this person pretended to be sick and people gave them money. I just don't get you. I have been advised to ignore you. Thank you for posting!

Jayden wrote: "Sara wrote: "The difference is Susan is addressing it and addressing it within her boundaries of safety. People are creating anonymous accounts out of fear from what this author does and have their..."

There's a whole reading community being swept up in this mess along with 438 Patrons who found the SH account when it was posted SH was joining Patreon because they needed money for health related issues. Not saying they all have pledged for that but the common denominator has been "I gave money because they were sick."

When Nikki first started posting, SH deleted thousands of tweets they were being called out for. Long gone was the snarky author who loved their knife emoji. They were replaced by a promotion machine and began changing the labeling of their bio.

The info on Twitter moves fast but there are too many that have the same story when it comes to SH. The lies are so tangled that even SH lost track of who they are along the way but readers, they noticed.

Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Jennifer☠Pher☠ wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Wait! What about the 2013 twitter pic you posted with the same dude ..."

Cool

Sara wrote: "Jayden wrote: "Sara wrote: "The difference is Susan is addressing it and addressing it within her boundaries of safety. People are creating anonymous accounts out of fear from what this author does..."<

It's so sad. And so incredibly unnecessary.

@Jayden......I initially had your same question and I don't know Susan so I really have no idea what her truth is. What I do know is that she has finally spoken out. The silence from co-authors is deafening. As far as I am concerned, silence is passive acceptance. They either knew and cosigned it or they just don't care. Neither of those options is acceptable to me.

Manipulation is an ugly thing. For many reasons, this one goes far beyond a simple masquerade of female author pretending to be male and using a fake picture.

It includes finances, yes -- significantly. It includes creating elaborate stories to assist in continuing the web. The chosen lies are also telling. Illness, children, trauma.

The first two are bad enough, but trauma... I'm a therapist who specializes in trauma. To create a story from fake trauma for whatever reason is cruel, particularly to those who struggle through the culture of blaming the victim.

On top of that, the way it again highlights women in the M/M community is horrifying.

By allowing it to continue, even if someone didn't feed into it, there is complacency in that.

And in the end... for what?

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: ".... The fact that SH is undoubtedly an excellent writer is insanely frustrating. SH writes real situations, interesting characters, great dialogue; their books are creative, sharp, and truly well-written.

The Cyberlove series that SH and Megan Erickson co-wrote is one of my all-time favorite series ever.

I HATE that I have to give up on their work, but I can't continue to support the many, many lies, not to mention the harassment and gaslighting.

I wish SH had just let their work speak for itself. ..."


WORD, Damn it! , Damn it! Damn it!I

I'm so angry, so sick, so hur, so sad...

The problem with your question, Jayden, is it is much akin to that which we ask people in domestic violent situations often -- why did you stay?

While you may not think it is the same gravity, it has that same connotation and comes from the same place. It's a question with a point, one that didn't need to be made.

I do not believe Susan knew what was happening. It sounds to me like she truly believed she was helping the person on the other end of the pictures. Perhaps I'm wrong, but if this is the case, my thoughts above remain the same.

Samantha wrote: "The problem with your question, Jayden, is it is much akin to that which we ask people in domestic violent situations often -- why did you stay?

While you may not think it is the same gravity, it ..."

You're implying I was motivated by a negative goal. That's incorrect. So much has been suggested that everyone must have known, when it seems that more people were fooled. That tweet posted by the anon account was the one thing that cast doubt for me.

Jayden wrote: "Samantha wrote: "The problem with your question, Jayden, is it is much akin to that which we ask people in domestic violent situations often -- why did you stay?

While you may not think it is the ..."

So you had doubts and you asked in a way that put those up front. That is, in essence, a negative goal. Maybe not intentionally, but much of what we do that is hurtful is not necessarily intentional, but it doesn't make it less hurtful.

Hi--

I'm Sakura, the one running #SHConfessions and @sweetsakuradoll on Twitter. I don't want to speak for Susan, but since it seems like she's not online I did want to say something before things spiraled out of control.

Susan likely can't say much about those photos because of an HR situation at her job that could get her fired. There is a story behind them, and that story is wild--and the catfish is deeper than you even know. Those photos are part of Susan being taken in by the fiction that Santino and the "roommate" are two different people; they managed to catfish her in person. Sharing further details on that, though, could threaten her livelihood.

Again, Susan, sorry to step in and speak for you and I hope this doesn't violate the confidentiality of our conversations; I just kind of wanted to ease people's suspicions so they'd focus on the catfish.

-S

Wow...it's been busy over here. :)

I wasn't going to come back on to this post, because the original intent has always been to make this about the WORDS and PICTURES that SH himself put out there. This wasn't about me.

But, since Jayden had a question (Hi Jayden!), I'll respond.

I am exactly who I say I am online and in real life. This is my real name. Those are my real details in my profile. And I have met many of you in real life, face to face. I do not hide. Namely because I do not have anything interesting to hide.

I am a prolific romance reader (the internet knows this, my family knows this, my work knows this).

I am a staunch Democrat and speak openly against Donald Trump (the internet knows this, my family knows this, my work knows this).

I am friend and fan to the Cockyboys (the internet knows this, my family knows this, and yes, my work knows this. (and Jayden knows this because we've met in person a few times at events)).

I do not hide who I am, what I enjoy, and what I believe.

The only thing I keep private and do not speak about is my work. I am in Human Resources. And though it's not technically against the law for me to say if someone was a coworker, I don't believe in divulging ANY information of any employee that has ever worked for any company I have worked for.

That tweet from 2013 came from a work account and was at a work event. There is a person in that tweet. I will not speak to who that person is or their name or how they came to be referred to our company. Not because of fear, not because of getting in trouble, but because of ethics...an ethical and professional standard I hold for myself.

If this is not sufficient enough to somehow validate that I'm capable of relaying information provided by SH himself, about himself, and calling out the inconsistencies in that information, I totally understand.

I'm not here to be judge and jury for anyone other than myself and what authors I support with my energy and my dollars.

I hope that helps...even if it doesn't answer the question about that ONE tweet.

Hi Susan, yep, we have met, and it's why I felt comfortable asking. You seem pretty forthcoming about stuff. In any case, I genuinely appreciate the reply.

I may be late but nevertheless....

If I may also step in, since clarification is needed...
I know Susan well, I’m proud to say she’s one of my dearest friends. And she absolutely, unequivocally, without a doubt did NOT know she was being catfished.
She has the biggest heart I’ve ever known and was simply, trying to help her friend’s (not friend) roommate.
This con is not new...or simple.

You may not know me.
But MANY of you know Susan and that in itself should resolve any questions.

The question I keep hearing is "What do authors owe readers?"

The answer is absolute honesty, or absolutely nothing. Anything else is fraud.

I sincerely hope there is an official investigation into fraud where this entity is concerned, and I hope it includes anyone and everyone who has enabled her/him/them to perpetuate fraud on kind hearted readers who have donated thousands of dollars to their health and well being. If you are an administrator of one of his SM groups and you are deleting comments and blocking people bringing up valid concerns, that is collusion to fraud, and you need to stop. If you are rebranding him while punishing other authors/bloggers for voicing their concerns, you need to stop, that is collusion also. I don't expect the many people who have worked with this entity in the past to "be in on it," it feels perfectly reasonable that they were duped, too. But at this point, if you are still working for this entity, you are supporting fraud.

Sheri wrote: "I may be late but nevertheless....

If I may also step in, since clarification is needed...
I know Susan well, I’m proud to say she’s one of my dearest friends. And she absolutely, unequivocally, w..."

I know Susan. I met her on GR years ago. I have also met her in person, and she's absolutely fabulous and REAL.

Susan!!! So proud of you my dear sister!

Someone had to be brave enough to call the Spade by its name. Someone not only brave but with eloquence and class!

Love ya!
See ya soon <3
~Jo

And #MeToo. And I don't use that tag lightly. It is appropriate here.

I remember Susan telling me about this, in person, about 2 years ago. My head couldn't get all the players straight. It was mind-boggling even then.

I can tell you, and the reason for the tag, is all of this has real life affects, with real life consequences. Hurtful, painful consequences. Things that can never be healed.

What a sham. What a shame.

Your sisters are with you, Susan, with much love and respect.

XOXO

I probably shouldn't be writing this because I hate drama (just the thought of being involved in drama makes me cringe) and I'm not a SH reader. I've read a couple of his book in the past and didn't enjoy them, and never really paid attention to him. However, I am a fan of some of his co-writers and many of the other authors that publish for RP.

When I first heard of the drama surrounding SH it was just a few weeks ago. I didn't really understand what people were saying, and I totally agree with an author's right to privacy, so I didn't honestly take the accusations seriously.

I am an open and friendly person, but I don't like cultivating friendships with authors. I have certain authors that I'll say hi to at a convention or "like" their tweets, but I'm not in any author fan groups, I'm not a reader on Facebook, and I just try to maintain boundaries. So when I saw the tweets from SH's rep and the backlash from his friends, I didn't really look further. I believed that the drama was from overzealous or doxing fans (and doxing is something I take extremely seriously).

However, I had a couple friends DM me to talk about the situation, and I poked my head back in a few days ago with a different mindset. This isn't about an author having a pen name or even a married couple writing as an male author. This is about an author possibly pretending to have an illness to gain money from concerned fans, and, apparently, a long history of emotionally and mentally abusing women (his readers/friends).

Now, what I'm curious about is all of the authors that defend women and victims in the #metoo movement and #timesup moments without question who are remaining silent on the multitude of women, many of them POC, who are saying that SH hurt them or used them. Even if SH is a man with cancer (who apparently isn't bisexual because that is now absent from his online profiles), those are meaningful things.

I would LOVE, love, love for it to come out that the other authors in his circle were not involved. In fact, I would be soooo happy if even one spoke up about it. I'll wait and see because I don't want to write off an entire group of authors yet, but I haven't heard a peep.

Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "I probably shouldn't be writing this because I hate drama (just the thought of being involved in drama makes me cringe) and I'm not a SH reader. I've read a couple of his book in the past and didn'..."

Agree, I'm waiting too for make a decision about other authors. But now, silences are speaking very loud and it's really disappointing when some authors always are very vocals speaking about victims etc.. and now they are quiet because the other person has a lot of power in the community.

Susan I just recently friended you & I am in awe !!!! Thank you

Thanks for the honesty

Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "I would LOVE, love, love for it to come out that the other authors in his circle were not involved. In fact, I would be soooo happy if even one spoke up about it. I'll wait and see because I don't want to write off an entire group of authors yet, but I haven't heard a peep...."

This ... and I also I don't write to write off the publisher completely :(

Susan thank you so much for sharing this. You are amazing!

I’m another person who absolutely hates any sort of drama whatsoever but I think in this case, if these allegations prove to be correct, there needs to be a drama. There is no excuse, none, that can condone faking an illness for monetary gain and personally it tips a person who I found to have all the markers of a bully into something else entirely and that something is nothing good.

As you know I have basically taken a step right out of m/m and the main reason for that was witnessing people who I see as my friends being ripped apart by authors and readers alike, this author is certainly not the only one to have behaved badly but he was often times the ringleader. Knowing people who were hurt by this made it impossible to read any of his books but even then I found everything to be tainted as he has oh so many ‘cheerleaders’. I made the decision not to support any author or publisher who has condoned, supported or encouraged the targeting of readers who have had genuine concerns or questions. The bottom line though is all the joy I ever found in this community has more or less entirely disappeared. So much so that even seeing updates or reviews for certain books makes me queasy and I’m sure I am not the only one who feels that way, so it baffles me how his ‘author friends’ can’t see the potential damage he could cause to a relatively small genre.

I have always preferred not to know too much about authors as I find it incredibly difficult to separate an author from their work. For me the less I know about their personal life the less likely it is that my reading experience will be influenced. I do follow authors via various social media platforms and they do share somewhat personal things but these things are almost always completely mundane things, the things SH shared were not mundane, they were deeply personal and to then get on his high horse about people looking for answers regarding inconsistencies in his various personal stories that he openly, and as far as I can tell happily, shared is another red flag.

When we met two years ago I know you were struggling with things that were happening and as you are a professional who is obviously passionate about her job you couldn’t and didn’t discuss the things that were happening. I see now that it was much worse than I could have imagined and knowing what a kind and generous person you are and reading between the lines, it makes this persons targeting of you even more shameful.

I don't really do social media so I really missed all of this. I read Santino Hassell's bio in one of 'his' books and thought that this sounded quite extreme but hey I don't normally go around questioning people's life stories so I just took it at face value and didn't think too much about it. The few times I looked at 'his' twitter I thought 'he' was kind of a drama llama but again I didn't really care because I enjoyed the books. When I was seeing this morning that people were retracting their reviews on books from SH and Megan Erickson I was wondering what was happening and thought it was the 'normal' GR drama where an author said something rude or stupid and it takes a life of it's own. But no, it took me some time to find it out what was happening but when I did I was really shocked. I am still in shock to be honest.

I would be annoyed if it was only another woman pretending to be a gay or bisexual man to sell some books because I don't think this is necessary and really destroys the credence of the mm romance genre. The books were good on their own, there was no need to pretend to be a bisexual man.

The whole cancer thing though is crazy and a whole different ball game. This is actually criminal behavior. I didn't know this was happening but I feel so bad for everyone who was duped by this person. I want to give every person who was emotionally abused by this asshole a hug because I feel like shit after reading all of this, I can only imagine how people feel who were actually emotionally involved when it was happening.

I also can't believe that some of my favorite authors are involved in this at least to some extent. I really liked Megan Erickson's books and I gave her credit for being so clear about who she was because I always found it a little bit weird that SH was so secretive while also sharing so many unnecessary family details about his kids etc. I also love many of Avon Gale's books so I hope that these other author's are coming clear soon about their involvement in this and I hope it is not as bad as it sounds right now. I will give them the benefit of doubt right now but something needs to happen and this cannot be swept under the carpet.
Sorry for the long rant, I normally don't participate in Goodreads drama but this is next level shit and made me super angry. What a way to start the day.

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "I'm just going to say this: Liver cancer is rare in people under age 55, particularly in those of Caucasian decent. ..."

My mum died of Liver Cancer in 2014, three weeks after she was officially diagnosed, aged just 66. The relevance of my comment - every one of her consultants and doctors said the same thing as Dani has here.

I had defended SH when a post was made on one of my reviews and I'd spoken to his PA but wasn't aware of all these allegations of obtaining money under false pretences as I don't "follow" the author other than via the FB group.

But the more information is coming out, and the growing silence coming from both agent and publisher, the more my disquiet is growing.

Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "I probably shouldn't be writing this because I hate drama (just the thought of being involved in drama makes me cringe) and I'm not a SH reader. I've read a couple of his book in the past and didn'..."

I'm in same position exactly and agree with your post A to Z,

Scarletine wrote: "People who know me know this is my seperate account for reviewing and I am author Isobel Starling..."

Excellent comment!

I don’t have a clue about Santino Hassel, and frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. I’ve read some of his/her work. Some of it I loved and some, not so much.

I don’t know anything about his/her private life, nor do I want to.

That being said, I was a victim of catfishing on a large scale a little over three years ago. That is a completely different thing than an author being someone other than their private life. If a person is lying about their health to get money, lying about children and financial status to get money, that is despicable. If I’m not mistaken, this person has been published with some publishers in the past. I could be wrong. I haven’t researched it. If this author has catfished people by lying about their health or financial situation, I would suggest contacting a past publisher and taking that information to the authorities. It’s unfortunate when catfishing happens that results in defrauding people out of their money. It’s painful and makes the person feel stupid. There is also a bit of a mourning period that happens before anger begins. Boy do I know how this feels.

Anyway, the best course of action is to find a true entity that can find the real stats on this person and take the information to authorities. Amazon may even be able to help or assist in stopping the person from defrauding individuals from their money due to lies about health or financial situation. This isn’t about an author behaving badly. It is more about a person committing fraud in order to steal money from trusting individuals. I wish you all luck in being able to find the real person and getting justice.

Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "I probably shouldn't be writing this because I hate drama (just the thought of being involved in drama makes me cringe) and I'm not a SH reader. I've read a couple of his book in the past and didn'..."

I think we'd all love it if even just one author in the "squad" were to speak out and say SOMETHING. But the whole lot of them are not only silent, but also blocking people on Twitter who are asking - begging - them to speak out. Same with the pub, unfortunately. I don't want to believe that they are all complicit, I really don't. But, in the face of so much silence and suppression, I'm going to err on the side that they are. Maybe someday they will see the damage they are causing with their silence.

It's their reactions and behavior that tipped the scale for me from doubt to absolute belief. The lightly veiled threats, the harassment - this is how dictators afraid of the truth coming out act. You hide if there's something to hide. You bury the truth, gaslight, bring down the hatchet.

You can't doxy public information. What people are questioning isn't something they found by invading privacy. It's something SH shared over and over again, contradictory things, drama on top of more drama. It's a lifestory that sounds remarkably like an angsty novel where the author couldn't keep the plot straight.

So what does it mean? All these authors were in on it? Was it monetary gain? Can't be anything else. There's too many of them for it to be plain friendship.

I need some solid fucking proof. Even when all evidence points to the truth. I want to see it in plain daylight. If for no other reason than to see everyone involved exposed.

OTH, I'm just a simple reader. I read books for pleasure only. While this pisses me off, my thoughts and prayers are still with the families who lost innocent children in the Florida school shooting.

Perspective.

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "It's their reactions and behavior that tipped the scale for me from doubt to absolute belief. The lightly veiled threats, the harassment - this is how dictators afraid of the truth coming out act. ..."

This!!! well said Dani.
It bothers me so much that people are acting like it's a lie of pen name.. no. this person manipulated a lot of people with information that nobody asked for.

It's a sucky situation all around and I honestly believe this is only the tip of the iceberg. The chips are going to continue falling and who knows how far are the authors involved.