So out of nowhere, I received the following email from an email I was unfamiliar with:
I can write better than you. Show me how I am wrong. I am here to HELP YOU but it’s between you and me and that’s it.
I thought that was odd and wrote back, asking who he was since he hadn’t identified himself. He told me. His name rang no bells. Apparently he’s a convention organizer. I wrote back and said:
Okay, well, I’m unaware of your writing credits, and I’m pretty satisfied with the quality of my skills, but thanks anyway.
Seemed reasonably polite. Except I guess not because he wrote back again and said:
OK.
I feel bad for your situation and all and was trying to help, but I guess “listening to me” is too far out there a concept for you to reach me…
I mean, I was sitting around, minding my own business, a non-writer writes to me and tells me he’s a better writer than I am, and when I pass on his offer to help me, he gets snarky.
There are days sometimes I think publicizing my email was a mistake.
PAD
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Are you kidding? This is gold, Peter! Comedy gold! LOL
David Turner, I disagree.
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This is bullying, with vicious and violent intent. This person is deliberately coming out of the void and insulting a stranger, dumping on his life’s work because he/she can.
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There’s nothing funny about this.
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Peter, you’re a great writer. That you have never won or as far as I know not even been nominated for any of the awards for science fiction & fantasy writing is a great disservice to you and a blind spot in the field.
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I have seen this kind of hateful behavior in electronic closeness but physical distance again and again and again.
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This is why that although other colleagues who are more public occasionally mention exchanging e-mail with Jonathan Frakes, that e-address is not available to fans. This is why William Shatner employs people to filter his. This is why Claudia Christian has a public Facebook page for fans and a private, carefully controlled personal page for only her real-life personal friends and professional colleagues.
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You show your real life. You write about your emotional highs and lows. You’re open and well-known both, and that paints a target on the back of your shirts for creatures with this kind of mindset.
This AOL address is very public, and as you suspect, a separate, private address for personal friends in real life and professional colleagues is an idea to consider.
Well, I’ve won an Eisner and an Inkpot, if that helps. But never a Hugo or Nebula, yeah. Never even nominated. Be nice but I’ve given up on it. There are just some people whose every work is noticed and others who, well, aren’t. Used to bug me. Now I’m used to it.
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PAD
I think it’s a stretch to call this bullying, or vicious and violent. It’s not even really insulting. It’s just a typical kook being kooky. I get a message like this every so often and just laugh it off.
It’s an attempt to bully, bullying stems from viciousness, it’s emotionally violent to just insult someone you’ve never met because they’re a quasi-public figure.
Is it really bullying if the target is not initimidated? Or really even bothered at all besides possibly being bemused?
But where is the insult? I guess it depends on how you read the first sentence. If you emphasize the “I” it sounds like an insult. Otherwise, it just sounds like bragging, but not necessarily insulting to Peter (maybe this guy just thinks really, really highly of how own writing skills).
*his own.
“Is it really bullying if the target is not initimidated?”
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Is it really rape if the victim doesn’t cry? Is it really attempted murder if the shot misses?
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The reaction of the victim is not what’s relevant in determining if something is a crime.
Looks like this guy hasn’t crossed the Dunning-Kruger threshold just yet.
So I looked up Dunning-Kruger. Hunh. It’s Trump,
Sure is. Hadn’t really thought about it until you pointed it out. The Dunning-Kruger threshold is my term for when you get good enough to have a sense of self-awareness, at which point you look at what you’ve done so far and recoil in horror. Some people never reach it, especially when they are constantly being reassured that they’re doing just fine.
I writ some in colege and higschool, but it weren’t as good as yourins. But what the hey I’ll throw me hat in the rink and offer any help ya need.
“I tried. I tried just like you said. But the guy…he just cut me out.”
“Did you use your nice words?”
“I did. I really d…well, I guess not. I suppose I came off a bit strident there. Not the proper words at all.”
“Well, it can’t be helped. You tried, and that’s the important thing. It was a silly idea, at any rate. He’s got the Patreon now, and it’s probably best to keep you my little secret anyway. Now, take a look at this third paragraph here and punch it up for me. I just don’t think I’m getting the idea across…”
:reads: “All right, I see the problem. Here’s how you fix it, Miz Willis…”
For the record, it’s a full moon today.
As George W. Bush reportedly said after Trump’s inaugural speech, “That was some weird šhìŧ.”
See, I would have asked for a summary of his top five writing tips just for šhìŧš and giggles. It would probably be the equivalent of the guys who tell indie film creators that their stories would be better if only they would have female nudity scenes in their films.
Peter David: There are days sometimes I think publicizing my email was a mistake.
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Luigi Novi: It wasn’t. Responding to the troll, however, certainly was.
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David K.M. Klaus: This is bullying, with vicious and violent intent.
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Luigi Novi: What “violent” intent?
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David, K.M. Klaus: It’s an attempt to bully, bullying stems from viciousness, it’s emotionally violent to just insult someone you’ve never met because they’re a quasi-public figure.
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Luigi Novi: There is no such thing as “emotionally violent”.
Luigi Novi: I mean you no disrespect, but if you think there is no such thing as someone or a group being “emotionally violent”, I suspect you’ve never been a target of deliberate bullying.