Man, I've been skipping and skimming and didn't realize that the ass you guys were talking about was the author of Wool. Sad now.

I loved askye's interpretation of events. I'm sure that is exactly what was going on!

Which I think means he wants to be Humble But Noticed so he can Thrill some Fan (and broaden her mind)

But more importantly, he can have that story to tell over and over. But it's not a story that he's telling to brag (in his braggart little mind), no, he's telling it humbly. At cocktail parties or dinner parties or when he's out with friends. It's the The Time at Worldcon, I was Anonymous Among the Unwashed Masses, and a Fan Recognized Me and it Made her Worldcon Experience. I'm Sure She Still Tells this Story To this Day!

And he has little hearts drawn all around it.

Only she didn't play her part and meanly trampled on his attempts to be The Humble Hugo Nominated Author Walking Anonymosly in WorldCon (THHNAWAW for short). She squashed that dream like she was wiping dog poop on the galley copy of his book when it was Officially Published.

And now. Now she has to PAY! And he's going to do it publicly.

Which of course totally backfired on him.

Heh. And I'd be willing to bet at least a parasol that askye's version is exactly it.

I'm taking a more cynical view...he's a very canny self-promoter. He chooses self-promotion over going the main-stream route. Then he posts something with "Hugo" in it right about now (as well as SF and cons), uses the word "bitch" (which, with "cunt" is the word most likely to cause a reaction) right up front.

He then blogs about self-pub vs. traditional, crotch-grabbing, and doubles-down on "bitch."

I think he did it on purpose, to create publicity, as there ain't no bad. He's in SFWA, so aware of the gender-based crap that fires up the interwebz there. I would really like to see how many page visits he got on Amazon, let alone how many new purchases.

OTOH, I've certainly had encounters with people that crawled up my butt that much. I mean, I'm currently planning to release bedbugs into...I've said too much.

For any Sylvia Plath fans.

OK, the Js agree, one S and now a T.

soul-bearing artist

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Mmm-hmm.

Hmm, this is a very long entry, and the build is slow, but basically it's the story of a decades-long instance of sockpuppetry in academia. Layers upon layers of deceit, quite amazing: [link]

Mmm-hmm.

I still want to read the book! Although I can't imagine why they didn't put a picture of Plath on the cover.

I read a good chunk of it, and couldn't really get into it, though I'm sure plenty of people will love it. I just came away from it thinking, "Wow, I really don't care about fashion. Like, at all."