I have a fear will turn out to be a sexist douche

Didn't strike me as such.

He's one of those writers I have a fear will turn out to be a sexist douche

I would share that concern, although to be fair I can't remember what makes me think that.

He's absolutely never written women in a way that makes me mad, let me be clear, nor given any hint of not being a reasonable person in interviews or con reports or anything like that. The fear is purely paranoia-based.

I hear you. I haven't read as much of his work as you have (this is changing), so I'm going on personal experience. Nice in person.

Also, his commentary on firefly is always spot on. And the Summer Glau thing cracks me up. A bit.

I'm going to keep editing this post, because apparently I have more to say and am too tired to keep from hitting 'post' -

I worry about that with a lot of writers. Swanwick, for instance, currently. I like his female characters, but not always. There's always a scene or two that doesn't hit me right, but the rest is wonderful. Sometimes mind-exploding. I hate reading sci-fi writers with a "please don't be like that other guy" backstop, but, well, there it is.

I'm on a bit of a Brust-trip right now (I need to read up on The Descrator, see if it's worth buying), so I'm scanning tumblr for references. Protip: "brust" is evidently breast in some Germanic language. Don't bother searching it without "steven". Well, do, if you have a well-shielded monitor and you like that sort of stuff.

However, I read a review of Vlad in general where the author says that he doesn't like how Vlad engages in hating the Dragaerans, because he (the author) wants the moral high ground. Peppered all over the tumblr search results for Steven Brust is the following quote:

“Most people seem to take pleasure in feeling superior to someone. I’m not like that, which pleases me because it makes me feel superior.” — Jhegaala, Steven Brust

Methinks someone is missing a point here.

hahahahah. I can totally see him saying that, pausing to look around, and then continuing on, as one does.

Oh short story journals, why so fraught with drama?

In terms of fear of Brust being a sexist douchbag - I think it is a case he has strong correlations but those correlations are an example of correlation is not causation.

Based on reading his blog and discussion with other people, he is a hard drinkin, hard lovin, poker playin, pickup-truck driving country music fan and all around tough guy. Now that is something a lot of douchbags pretend to be, so it is easy to associate it with douchbagger. But really none of those things are causes of douchbagger, just happen to be things many douchbags aspire to. And of course, even if you don't know any specifics of Brusts life, some of this shows through in his "voice". Which inspires some of the fear, because of the correlation.

And of course there are a lot things in his life that don't fit the sterotype (probably because the stereotype associated with these things is wrong to begin with.) For instant he is polyamorous, probably bisexual, and a committed socialist. Also, given who his late mother was, feminism was probably fundamental to his upbringing, not just an intellectual conviction, but deep in his bones and his habits. So I suspect that "woman hating douchbag" is really an unlikely direction for him.

I don't read his blog, so I wasn't drawing any conclusions from his life. Was that directed at Consuela?

No wasn't suggesting anyone was reading his blog except me. I'm suggesting that some of the attitude shows through in his voice - not a douche bag attitude, but some of the other attitudes. And that might be what arouses the paranoia.

No wasn't suggesting anyone was reading his blog except me.

Yeah, I don't read his blog, but frankly, I've become pretty skeptical of much of the SF/F community in recent years. Unless I know someone understands race & gender issues, I tend to err on the cautious side. And I've been burned by writers I'd had good reports of, like Jay Lake.

And then there's Jim Hines, who seems like an awesome human being, and I wish I liked his books more than I do. Sigh.