And now she has written a story for children called “The Delphi Oracle.” Now knowing what her personality is truely like, I’d hate for any child to read one of her books…I’d sooner have them read Stephen King’s work…at least he doesn’t have one of those “author-is-a-psycho” reputations, and really does seem to appreciate his fans…

After a quick google I found this information. I must say I’m appalled. I cannot believe an author would act that way toward a reviewer. I’m sure a negative review is not pleasant – but don’t “bite the hand that feeds you”. If that was not bad enough – sending an email “cease and desist”?????

I just wrote to Amazon requesting a refund for the purchase. I’m sure it won’t make a huge dent in the author’s pocket – but it my way of “voting with my feet”. I certainly will not purchase any more of her work until there is a public apology.

Holy Mother of God. I am a professional book reviewer who just received one of VL’s ARCs for review. I idly Googled her name to see what else she had written.

I had no idea what kind of mess I could have stepped into, until I read this and the related threads.

Zoinks! Now I’m terrified.

The way she spoke about you and your critiques, she made it sound as if you had personally attacked her, as a person, the way she actually did you. I wish now i’d seen for myself, but I read her blog late at night, so didn’t have that much time to go scrolling around the internet, and as she had always acted kindly to me before (first answered an e-mail years ago when she was new), I trusted her to be an actual, nice person. I am thinking her ego grew too fast for her decency.

I think I might have a little insight into the way she thinks–and frankly, this is kind of frightening–on her rant against my last comment to her, she indicated that basically a person could do anything they wanted–even acts of evil–during their life time because they would face NO Judgement beyond this world. She didn’t word it quite that way, but if she really believes that, then what is to prompt her to better her behavior if she thinks she won’t be punished for her actions? In fact, while alive, a person doesn’t have to feel regret or remorse towards the people they have injured.

Am I saying her behavior is acceptable? Absolutely not. But editors have enough to do without also having to be babysitters. Do we bang our heads against our desk when we hear about things like this? You betcha. Can we do anything other than perhaps put them on the black list when contract renewal time comes up? Nope.

And a professional editor would never endorse an idea like this to her other authors. Never.

First let me go on record with saying that Charity is my hero. Having contacted many authors and publishing companies about getting full series on audio for people who have learning or reading disabilities like my wife, I have seen mostly good with a few folks acting rather nasty although none as nasty as VL did.The fact that Charity took a stand when she was frightened showed alot of courage and heart at a time where alot of folks in this world dont. Ive said it in private and Im saying it in public. Now as to the spike and pike thing. I may not be an authour but I do make,customize and sell spears,swords,kives etc. A Pike is a type of spear atleast 7 feet long and extending to around 18 feet. Sitting on one of these was a death called impalement (think Vlad Tepes). A spike is a piece of metal anywhere from a 1/4 of an inch long to around 6 inches long…painful yes…rarely fatal. There is a world of difference between the two folks….in ANY veresion of english.

When I said you were bullying, I wasn’t talking about what you said about Laurie (the spike thing), I was talking about your comments to Shirley (including the “any decent person” comment).

However, it's disingenuous for Shirley and Beverly to pretend that saying someone can go sit on a spike is bullying, and they are no doubt perfectly aware of this. They're trying to deflect from the basic flaws in Shirley's original claim.

Don’t die of shock, but I’m about to agree with you again.

Generally speaking, from what I’ve seen, Shirely isn’t usually afraid of pissing people off, and seems to revel in these online dramas, so I have to say, I for one am very surprised by her nice-girls-don’t/woe is VL stance.

I honestly think Shirley takes pride in being the dissenting voice amongst the masses. Not necessarily a bad thing, as long as she actually believes what she’s saying.

Going back to VL, she deserves everything she gets, and the more people learn about her antics, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

A spike is not a tack (we call them tacks too) – a spike is any short, sharp pointy thing, even on a graph.

However, it’s disingenuous for Shirley and Beverly to pretend that saying someone can go sit on a spike is bullying, and they are no doubt perfectly aware of this. They’re trying to deflect from the basic flaws in Shirley’s original claim.

It wasn’t until after this blog that I decided to see what her thoughts were (if any) on my last blog, and that’s when I saw her reaction. I tell you what, after that, I decided to distance myself and attempted to remove my e-mail from her website.

And to think, that for days, I felt guilty for hurting her feelings and causing her to think I was judging her…and now I find out about all this…

Again, good luck to you CheriDee and others that have been harrassed. My only advice in the future, and I guess I am preaching to the choir, but let our words always be kind and civil, even in a critique, so if others come against us, they will have no grounds to accuse of of malice.

Night all.

Author’s death ruled an “act of God”

I feel for Butterscotch, CheriDee, and Marta. Bad enough to be attacked, but it seems extra awful to have come from a writer you liked.