Sun > Status Update

Jaime wrote: "once I am done, I may link back to a statement by a publisher or write a statement as to why there is no content. Right now, I am just trying to remove all traces of SH ..."

Of course! Thank you :)
I just think it would be a way to warn future readers who come to this genre later and have no clue what happened here.

Sakura paid a visit and provided a link to a doc to report the Patreon account. Seems like you don't need an account for this one yourself!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...

Thank you, Sakura :)

ChaosMoon wrote: "I had my own horrible abusive email exchange with Sadie Sins when I emailed to ask about where to buy her books. She had pulled them from KU, after a long disturbing rant. Then, I found her website..."

I’m so sorry to hear that you had to deal with this, ChaosMoon :-( sadly, there are as many bad authors out there as there is in general. I understand where you’re coming from tho...

Jaime wrote: "That would be considered a federal offense I believe.. any fraud via the mail.. (don't quote me, I am a NP not a lawyer) lol.."

It would need to be reported to the PostMaster General, they would make the determination. But, wouldn’t it be lovely to see them facing federal fraud charges?

Nope, I’m not evil... much... LOL

I'm reading this thread since wednesday and I still can't wrap my head around the extent of what happened. I've been reading everything I could find about this since almost a week, but I didn't feel like I was 'legitimate' enough to add my comment here, but here I go.

I want to thank you, Susan, for opening this thread, and letting us know everything. I also want to thank Nikki, Sakura and everyone who contributed to unveil and share the thruth. It must've been hard and painful. You guys are brave !

My heart bleeds for the people who were abused, the confessions some of you shared broke my heart. And knowing some personnal stories were used to write books ? That makes me sick to my stomach, I can't even express how despicable it is.

I'd like to think that in the end, the evil couple will have to face the consequences of what they've done, be punished in a 'legal' way, but I tend to be on the pessismistic side. :/ I'm kind of sure they'll come back under another name, and start from scratch another sham.

To end on a positive note, I just want to say that I'm in awe when I see how our community stands up, how people fight and are brave in all this distressing mess. Thank you for everything ! ♥

*~*~*Kael*~*~* wrote: "I do believe Christopher Rice himself starred an SH book at some point and I think they were "friends" on GR! So he might just have a vested interest in fighting for what's right [in fact, from his online presence and how he represents himself, it SEEMS he would want to fight for what's right and be a part of it]!! "

Uh, don't count on Christopher Rice. In fact, I'd advise not contacting him about this in any way. Anne Rice is notorious for her anti-reader stances, targeting reviewers over negative reviews, sending her fans after people who post reviews she doesn't like, targeted a blogger for making art out of one of her books, calling people "bullies" for posting negative reviews as well as those calling her out for her unprofessional, unethical behavior, etc.

Her basic position is, the author is to be supported, no matter what, and readers should STFU if they don't like it.

And Christopher is tight with Anne (no surprise). Even if he privately feels otherwise, I doubt he'd take a public stance that ticked her off, or was so contrary to her own.

Just google Anne Rice and "reviews" and you'll find it. I highly doubt he'd do anything, particularly publicly.

Another day ending in Y and another set of non apologies.
I have left a comment on Karen Stivali's facebook statement.
I can't do the same with Ericsson cause she has me blocked across all platforms for the last 3 years.
Still no taking responsibility for the bullying and the gaslighting and the inciting to censorship.
More disturbingly there is now a twitter thread which shows Megan knew for at least a month that SH was married: and still she raged and insulted and called for censorship. She "foamed" at the mouth calling people scumbags while she knew they were telling the truth.
Both hint at how hard it is for them to come to terms with the loss of a friend, of having to deal with re adjusting memories etc to which I want to respond: "and what are we chopped liver?"
None of us knew this fraud to be the reality of the person we had been friends with and supported and cherished for so many years but guess what we did not do: we didn't insult, bullied, censor. We listened.

So one more time: no passes and no redemption arcs for these two.
On a spectacularly good note: Courtney Milan has just dragged good old Eddie C the big bully all over twitter.

Francesca wrote: "On a spectacularly good note: Courtney Milan has just dragged good old Eddie C the big bully all over twitter. ..."

I don't read historical MF but boy, am I loving Courtney Milan right now ^^

Francesca wrote: "Another day ending in Y and another set of non apologies.
I have left a comment on Karen Stivali's facebook statement.
I can't do the same with Ericsson cause she has me blocked across all platfor..."

+1

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "Optimist ♰King's Wench♰ & MANTIES Champion wrote: "Just FYI, Shams still has over 300 patrons. I'm guessing they're the ride or die fans but here's a way for everyone to shut down that source of in..."

I reported SH already :) Everybody should report SH on Patreon !

Truuss wrote: "~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "Optimist ♰King's Wench♰ & MANTIES Champion wrote: "Just FYI, Shams still has over 300 patrons. I'm guessing they're the ride or die fans but here's a..."

Reported him/them/her too. Hopefully it will shut the account down !

Ami wrote: "Francesca wrote: "On a spectacularly good note: Courtney Milan has just dragged good old Eddie C the big bully all over twitter. ..."

I don't read historical MF but boy, am I loving Courtney Milan..."
And I'm sitting here crying for @thisblackmagic Xen x Cole McCade. Breaks my heart. In this genre especially he should always be " the cool kid ", always. I gave a pass for SH and some of the shittiness I saw randomly because in this genre " he " stole that pass by claiming an identity, not just a pen name and that was what Nikki was screaming about. I'm thinking again about Harper Miller's blog post, so spot on. I'm thinking about Noah, Daniel, Jenn and all of the other readers/friends who were manipulated because that elite club is so alluring.

Truuss wrote: "I reported SH already :) Everybody should report SH on Patreon ! ..."

I did, too. I used the google.doc because I don't have Patreon.

As sad as it is, this from Ann Sommerville has stuck with me and succinctly explains something we readers should never forget:

"Readers, protect yourselves. Authors are selling you something - even I am. Use your heads, not your heart. If we weren't good at convincing people of emotions, spinning believable yarns, we wouldn't be writers."

Josy wrote: "Sakura paid a visit and provided a link to a doc to report the Patreon account. Seems like you don't need an account for this one yourself!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA......" thank you for this, I don't have pantreon so the doc format was pretty useful. 😃

Can I say how much I love that the covers of SH's book aren't immediately visible anymore when you search for them?! I know it's a very small thing but I'm loving it anyway.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/1961...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/222372
https://www.goodreads.com/series/1521...

"Josy wrote: "Can I say how much I love that the covers of SH's book aren't visible anymore when you search for them?! I know it's a very small thing but I'm loving it anyway."

I LOVE this too !

Josy wrote: "Can I say how much I love that the covers of SH's book aren't immediately visible anymore when you search for them?! I know it's a very small thing but I'm loving it anyway.

https://www.goodreads...."

When it comes to the Riptide novels it looks like they were going through removing the images. I'm guessing because they returned rights and the images were copyrighted?

JenMcJ wrote: "As sad as it is, this from Ann Sommerville has stuck with me and succinctly explains something we readers should never forget:

"Readers, protect yourselves. Authors are selling you something - eve..."

That entire piece she wrote was so spot on.

Sure, we as readers appreciate books we enjoy and authors who write them, sometimes very enthusiastically. :D Nothing wrong with that. Sure, sometimes we choose to engage and interact with them in social media. Nothing wrong with that either.

But we should not put them on a pedestal and treat them as people to submit to, to be subservient to, and we should never allow them to treat us (or others) that way.

And we should keep in mind always, they engage with readers in large part to market and promote their products. Sure, some likely sincerely enjoy it too. Some are nice and decent people, who truly appreciate their readers. But they are professionals interacting as a part of their business, and as the voice of their business.

We readers are their customers. Their fans are their customers. Other readers are their potential customers. Unhappy ex-fans were customers and now are unhappy customers. And that's something these interactions should reflect.

These personal attacks by authors, as if everyone has an equal position, is unprofessional and unacceptable. Even if someone is behaving wrongly or inappropriately, or abusively or even stalking an author, authors harassing that person via social media is NOT the productive, ethical, responsible, appropriate way to handle it.

I'll also add we should not allow them into intimidating us into not posting a negative review, or in fudging our honest opinion so it's stated more positively than we truly feel. Ethical authors never attempt to manipulate readers regarding book reviews, and any who attempt to do so are actually violating Amazon TOS, GR TOS and FTC regulations, and can get themselves in a lot of trouble. And that sort of thing should be another big red flag for readers.

Josy wrote: "Can I say how much I love that the covers of SH's book aren't immediately visible anymore when you search for them?! I know it's a very small thing but I'm loving it anyway.
...."

The only two without a cover for the Baron Series titles are books 3 and 4 - did they ever have a cover? They still have pub dates..

Same for the 5B books, the only ones without a cover are 5 and 6...did they ever have a cover?

JenMcJ wrote: "Josy wrote: "Can I say how much I love that the covers of SH's book aren't immediately visible anymore when you search for them?! I know it's a very small thing but I'm loving it anyway.
...."

The..."

Baron's 3 had a cover and 5B books both had covers, yes.

I thought that if you remove a rating for a book, its no longer included in the average rating. You'd have to rate the book 1☆ to bring down the average rating. Or am I wrong?

I'm coming a bit late into this thread but I have been following everything for a few days, on GR and on twitter. And I want to begin by saying a huge THANK YOU to all the brave people that have come forward. You are all my heroes.

I discovered Scamtino's books only a year ago but I did not get involved more than following them on Twitter and FB and casually checking out their website for new releases (fun fact : the only thing I really read on their blog was something about a burn-out, them working too much and being overwhelmed by their full-time job and their writing. At the time already, I remember having found odd the fact that they could be so prolific with kids + FT job).

A few days ago, I went to check some reviews of their new books on GR and that's on a comment in a review for the #3 Barons that I saw something about them being a catfish and shitbag person. I went to check Twitter and that's when I stumbled upon Nikki's Twitter, as well as all the other #nastybirds and I was shocked at first, but then, very quickly, came anger and disgust. Yeah the books were alright but in this case, dissociating the creators from the creations is not an option imo. Maybe it never is. It probably never is if you ask the people harmed.

I was very far away from all of this but I want to say thank you for exposing them. Thank you Susan for this thread, thank you Noah, Jenn and all of the other brave people who shared their heartbreaking (and infuriating) stories, thank you Nikki, Sakura and all the amazing persons who faced the shitstorm without backing down once (I feel bad for not naming you all but know that I have your pictures on my imaginary ceiling, in my head).

I'm French and I know that one of two of their books have been translated and published by a popular french MM publisher and, as one person already did on this thread if I recall correctly, I will reach out to them in the hope that they will stop and withdraw the translations and publications.

Concerning the co-authors, I have seen very few real apologies, the ones coming from the 'squad' (apart from Amy Jo Cousins) sounded like damage control to me and I can't seem to summon an ounce of empathy towards Megan Erickson. Is she sadder to have lost a friend or to have lost her one way of being 'significant' in the MM community ?

Anyway, this post is not really relevant but I wanted to voice how grateful I am to the people who made this community a bit safer. You are amazing people and know that whatever kindness Scamtino ripped from you, they were always losing cause they never had any to spare to begin with.

Clare wrote: "I thought that if you remove a rating for a book, its no longer included in the average rating. You'd have to rate the book 1☆ to bring down the average rating. Or am I wrong?"

It depends. Removing a rating does take that rating out of the average rating. So, depending how how many ratings are removed, what those ratings were, how many ratings are left, and what those ratings are, the average rating may or may not change. Or may not change much.

1 staring a book will have more impact on an average rating than a no rating will.

ETA: I recognise that this is a safe space for victims/survivors of the SH debacle and that therefore my comments/views here are unnecessary. I have decided to remove them rather than cause further harm, distress, pain or offence which was never my intention. I am sorry I did not fully appreciate the purpose of this thread before commenting and my thanks to Optimist and others for pointing this out.

I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l...

JenMcJ wrote: "The only two without a cover for the Baron Series titles are books 3 and 4 - did they ever have a cover? They still have pub dates.. ."

I know and no, I don't think they had a cover yet. I meant that when you search for the books, it defaults to the editions without a cover. Yes, the other editions still have the cover present but it still looked kinda good :)

Reflection wrote: "On a personal level I won't be making any changes to the star ratings or my reviews (assuming they have not been deleted without my knowledge) because in spite of everything, the fiction by SH and co-authored books are amongst the very best that I have read in recent times.

It doesn't bother you that there that all or most of the significant interactions between his characters were probably ill gained from private conversations SH had with his victims?

I'm not attacking, I'm just asking. I'm really curious on your perspective.
Because to me, it feels as if I've been reading someone's diary without their permission, as if I've somehow violated them. Even though I have done it unwittingly, it still feels wrong to have read them. And it feels wrong to even re-read the stories I've already read, not to mention read any unread stories I might have already purchased.

Clare wrote: "I thought that if you remove a rating for a book, its no longer included in the average rating. You'd have to rate the book 1☆ to bring down the average rating. Or am I wrong?"

I'm more concerned with raising awareness and I'm glad all my links stayed so far. I'm afraid if I 1-star the books, the reviews might get flagged.

Tamara (緑) wrote: "Reflection wrote: "On a personal level I won't be making any changes to the star ratings or my reviews (assuming they have not been deleted without my knowledge) because in spite of everything, the..."

I agree, Tamara. I loved the first two Barons books (the only SH books I've read so far), but knowing Noah's story, it taints those books for me.

Alexandra wrote: "That entire piece she wrote was so spot on.

Sure, we as readers appreciate books we enjoy and authors who write them, sometimes very enthusiastically. :D Nothing wrong with that. Sure, sometimes we choose to engage and interact with them in social media. Nothing wrong with that either.
..."

I really like what she said! Thank you for posting!

Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."


Oh, Riptide....Nooooooooo!!!

Josy wrote: "Clare wrote: " I'm afraid if I 1-star the books, the reviews might get flagged. "

I'm certainly not going to try to get someone to rate/not rate however they see fit.

But I did want to just give the FYI, on GoodReads readers are allowed to rate a book whatever they please for whatever reason. GR won't remove a rating/review simply because it is 1 star.

If they have a problem with the links being there - and to be honest their track record on that sort of thing is a bit double-minded so I can't say for sure - then they will, regardless of the rating. If they don't, then they won't no matter what the rating.

It is true that GR is more likely to notice a review if it's flagged, and who knows if it's more likely to get flagged if it's got a rating. I can't even guess what that weirdo will do or not do regarding flagging anything. ;) But even if flagged GR will only remove it if GR feels it violates GR TOS.

Josy wrote: "I really like what she said! Thank you for posting! "

Thanks Josy! My pleasure.

Tamara (緑) wrote: "Reflection wrote: "It doesn't bother you that there that all or most of the significant interactions between his characters were probably ill gained from private conversations SH had with his victims? , the..."

They may not have yet gotten to that point. I think they said they only started reading about it today and there's a lot to cover. At least I hope so.

Reflection, you might want to take a look here:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/SHconfess...

Tamara (緑) wrote: "Because to me, it feels as if I've been reading someone's diary without their permission, as if I've somehow violated them. Even though I have done it unwittingly, it still feels wrong to have read them. And it feels wrong to even re-read the stories I've already read, not to mention read any unread stories I might have already purchased. ..."

I get sick every time I think about reading one of the books.

JenMcJ wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."



Oh, Riptide....Nooooooooo!!!"
I sent riptide a public ask through tumblr where I stated I wanted to know when they're planning to make a statementbig on the subject of their editor. I included the link to Xen's thread-blog post too. I hope they will respond soon.

Alexandra wrote: "I'm certainly not going to try to get someone to rate/not rate however they see fit. ..."

I didn't see it like this! I just wanted to explain my train of thought, why I didn't rate them 1-star although I thought about it.

But you are right! In this case, no matter of links or 1-star, they will have a problem with it.

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "Optimist ♰King's Wench♰ & MANTIES Champion wrote: "Just FYI, Shams still has over 300 patrons. I'm guessing they're the ride or die fans but here's a way for everyone to shut down that source of in..."

I did the same from my Patreon account yesterday.

I also sent this to InterMix/Berkley

BerkleyNALpublicity@us.penguingroup.com:

FAO Purchasing Editor etc

I am sure you must be aware by now of the situation which has occurred within the MM Romance Community regarding the person purporting to be Santino Hassell. An author with which you have a line of books - the Barons Series.

If you are not aware, however, here are some useful links:

Publishers Statements

http://riptidepublishing.com/a-statem...

https://twitter.com/dreamspinners/sta...

Agent's Statement

https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/sta...

Background to the events

https://thesaltminers.tumblr.com/post...

https://thesaltminers.tumblr.com/post...

https://thesaltminers.tumblr.com/post...

https://spellboundscribes.wordpress.c...

https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://twitter.com/i/moments/9707166...

https://twitter.com/sweetsakuradoll/s...

https://twitter.com/thisblackmagic/st...

I would like to know what InterMix intends to do regarding the series published by this manipulator and possible fraudster.

yours

Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

Holy shit!!! That's awful and I feel like every good thing Riptide has done in the past few days has been undone completely...

Wasn't it Sakura who hinted at having damning evidence for this sort of behavior from SL?

edit: is it possible they had no clue about SL's unprofessional behavior?
I'm equally upset about their mindset about POC!

Marbles wrote: "Riptide will own the copyright to the covers, so they will remove them so SH can't benefit from them anymore. "

On GR that's not exactly how it works. Yes, covers are likely removed from any not-yet-published book, because the rights for those books have been reverted to the author. So the rights to the cover art for those books no longer exists, and won't if published. Those books had not yet been published by that publisher, with that cover art.

However GR is a database of books that have been published. When the cover art was used on a published book, meaning the rights to that cover were there at the time of publication, those covers will remain on that edition of the book in the GR database. If future editions are published under a different publisher, or self-published then those editions would need a different cover. But the past editions will keep the cover they had at publication - in the GR database.

Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

I... I don't even know what to say about that. Just... no words.

Sandra wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

I... I don't even know what to say about that...."

At the very least I think it explains why this particular publisher didn't apparently care about the very unprofessional behavior of some of their authors on social media.

But, that's just my observation as an outsider. There's a reason we rarely, if ever, see authors published by the big publishers act this way in public and when interacting with readers.

Thank you for all who shared. I know that it can't be easy coming forward this way for anyone. There were prices you all paid that I think are really too high. But I think that's what the abusers counted on.

As for Cole McCade AKA Xen. I've decided to support his patreon to do something--anything--positive during this awful time. https://www.patreon.com/thisblackmagi.... I'm not going to wait and see how it works out. People speaking out costs them something and I want this community to be a better place that actually supports queer authors, and POC.

I was very ignorant about all of these things until just the other day. (I'm not on Facebook, and I'm not great at networking--don't have enough time in the day to both write and try to figure out being social on the internet!)

It makes me very angry what's been going on. I hope everyone who's been hurt can find a place of healing. And I hope the gay romance world becomes a safer place.

I've had a lot of respect for Riptide and didn't know anything about behind-the-scenes things like this. My efforts (small though they are) to support that publisher will be affected by whether they address this or not, and how. Because if it's authors vs. publishers, or publishers allowing abuse in their ranks, it's far, far better to support authors. Even if that means giving up some good books at some point.

I'm so sorry for all that people have suffered through these situations and abusive persons. This isn't OK. :-(

Sandra wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

I... I don't even know what to say about that...."

"And, uh, no, we don't mind POC. ;) But I will warn you ... we won't put them on the cover, because we like the book to, you know, sell."

HOLY SHIT. HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

I seriously feel nauseous right now. That is so blatantly racist and nasty, I want to cry. And she wrote this to a person whom she knew was a POC.

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

I... I don't even know what to ..."

My thoughts exactly. I really feel this needs to be addressed proberly.

~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

I... I don't even know what to ..."

It's truly horrible! I really hope she won't get away with all that hate speech!

I hope everybody who has a Twitter account ask Riptide what´s going to happen because it´s unacceptable. He was very brave writing that and he deserves people know and listen and ask to the publisher.

@Elsa
Yep, just tweeted Riptide and I also subscribed to Cole McCade's patreon account. Even though my limit is reached. But 1$ more won't hurt me and I might up it at a later date.

Alexandra wrote: "I'm just gonna link this here:

http://blackmagicblues.com/on-sarah-l..."

I saw this on Twitter earlier and shared it.

I hope Riptide address this swiftly because, for me, that's pretty much indefensible without action being taken against the person mentioned.