Another blind item landed in my inbox, and each one is more interesting than the next. You like the blind items? Hate them with a burning, itchy passion? Let me know.
On to the item of limited vision:
This NYT Author’s deviltry won’t come as any surprise to many of her colleagues, as sources say she’s not made many friends in the way of authors, reviewers, or, according to some fans who attended a recent weekend, members of her own fanbase.
The scene: a restaurant, a relatively mellow mealtime during a recent conference. The Author is chatting and, given the gradual increase in volume, possibly arguing with her companions when the waitress approaches to take their order. The Author doesn’t stop her conversation, and waitress is standing, waiting, ignored, for some time. One of the companions at the table invites The Author kindly to relax a moment so the waitress can take their orders.
Commence ruckus at the table: loud crashing and smashing noises and even louder “Goddammit!” as she stands up. By this time, the restaurant is silent and staring, but the still quiet does not give The Author any pause. She hollers at her companions that she will not relax, and that this brash companion has no business telling The Author what to do. The Author then makes her way quickly out of the restaurant.
The waitress, who was understandably shocked and a little embarrassed, tells our source of this fury-tale that The Author’s companions made attempts to apologize on The Author’s behalf and begged that the waitress excuse The Author’s rudeness. But The Author overhears this smoothing-over and bellows from the doorway to a very attentive audience of both her own party and everyone else at every other table in the restaurant that no one should dare apologize on her behalf. Then, The Author departs.
The audience is silent, until a curtain of conversation descends upon every table, each person uttering a variation of, “Did you see that?”
When someone it simply acting out in public in a manner that is unacceptable and rude, I don’t think there is any reason not to simply name names. That said…
I don’t mind blind items. I am a sucker for delicious gossip. And a well constructed blind item is an invitation to solve a puzzle. It should have a few well placed (but not too obvious) words scattered amongst the narrative that the discerning reader would pick out, put together and voila! come up with the person in question.
In this one, for instance, the words “deviltry”, “brash”, and “fury” stand out for me. This leads me to believe that the writer writes Paranormal romance. However since Paranormal isn’t my cup of tea, I can’t even begin to guess. I do read LKH, but since I’ve never thought of her as a romance novelist and the words that jumped out at me don’t seem to fit her stories, I never seriously considered her.
When we will this site go back to book reviews and ferrit hotties?
I’m not all fangirl about my favourite authors and doubt I could pick them out of a line up, never mind recognize their behaviours.
So book reviews and snark, please!
I’m with Seeley on this one. It smacks of Entertainment Tonight when there haven’t been any new Britney sightings…
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but I would rather know who is the author this time—she threw the very public tantrum, she can live with people knowing about it.
Funny you should ask.
I was in the restaurant at the time. And the F-bomb was dropped – very loudly – as said author left the room. The place came to a stand still.
As someone who couldn’t get through her book, I found the whole thing (besides terribly embarrasing for her companions and the waitress) delicious!
And no, not LKH
I’m not good at puzzles—someone, anyone, please stop the merciless teasing and put a name to go with the unbelievable behaviour.
Robin, while I can understand anyone having explosions in public over something that pretty much explodes in your face while you are in public, I wonder if it is completely stupid/illogical/naïve of me to think that if your scenario was close to the mark, then the author in question would
A) have calmed down eventually;
B) remembered her public tantrum and regretted it;
C) decided to come clean about it.
Mind you, I’m not asking for names and gory details, but something along the lines of “I made an ass of myself publicly at *date and place* due to some extremely distressing events of a personal nature. My apologies to all those who were subjected to the spectacle I made of myself. I hope it’ll never happen again.”
How crazy am I? Let me have it, please.
[spamfoiler: could69—-really? I could?????? 😀 ]
I was thinking a little more on this last bit of your statement/question, Sarah—I don’t know about the writing community as a whole, but certainly I think a genre or sub-genre can be painted with a negative brush depending on the behavior of an author/authors. I recall back in chick lit’s heyday, when it was the genre du jour and at its very height, you had books like Nanny Diaries and Bergdorf Blondes as prime examples of the genre—certainly, among the most publicized of the genre—and Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus and Plum Sykes were getting huge press because of the nature of the books and their provenance and acting like absolute bints in the process. And to top it off, the books weren’t all that good. Of course, they’re laughing all the way to the bank, while anyone who wrote chick lit at the time had to be faced with “oh, you write those pink books.”
And of course, anything that’s negative or laughable about a genre, and the press and/or public is going to glom onto it immediately and it has the unfortunate tendency to become the standard for the genre as a whole, at least, for a period of time. It’s exceedingly unfair and I hate it like burning, but it’s the nature of the beast.
I wouldn’t miss blind items if they stopped. I haven’t liked everthing at this site, but unsubstantiated rumours about teen crotch shots was the first time I had a truly negative reaction to the content.
I’ll also agree about the font and will also mention I also liked having comments pop in a separate window. My first thought on seeing the new site and that lead article on eateries was that SBTB had undergone or was starting some unholy transformation as part of promoting their book or as a response to the higher profile they might have because of their part in some recent romance firestorms.
It wasn’t clear to me that the incident in question here (as opposed to *there*) was connected to any professional event or context, which to me changes its terms (both as gossip and in regard to implications). If the author simply made a public ass of herself *as a private person* then I don’t think she owes a public apology at all, beyond those she directly affected like the waitress and those at her table. If there was some professional context here, though, I’d be more inclined to see a public statement, a mea culpa of sorts, something that might win some points back.
As a reader, I need a pretty convincing pattern of behavior from a wide variety of players to detect this kind of tarnish. Like I think the public perception of epubs has been negatively affected by the repeated issues cropping up over a good amount of time. But I don’t see any subgenre as characterized by particular author behavior. I’d have to see repeated similar behaviors over a good while before I jumped to the macro level with these incidents. That doesn’t mean I don’t unfairly lump authors together at times, but it’s not usually an issue of community behavior (it tends to run along the lines of viewpoint most often).
Hmmmm. Tammy? You couldn’t finish her book? As in she’s only got one? Or maybe she’s only famous for one?
I’d say Margaret Mitchell, but she’s dead.
AHA! It’s that Harper Lee! She’s causing scenes again? (Happy Birthday to her, btw)
Robin, I think a lot of readers of a genre probably follow your line of reasoning. I was thinking more of the general public, who might not be as familiar with an overall genre or sub-genre and when something attains the kind of mass-popularity that something like Nanny Diaries or Bergdorf Blondes did, tend to take their cues from what they’re seeing/hearing/reading in the media. Which makes those battles we’re constantly fighting, to get the general public to take our genre seriously, that much more difficult.
Blind Item Readr: More than one book.
Robin: this event was in a public context. I think SB Sarah said it was at a “recent conference.”
I wonder, Barb, how much the public notices or takes note of this kind of stuff. But honestly, most of the cranky stuff that happens insider the genre, industry, and community bugs me more because it smacks to me of an imbalance between taking things too seriously, and not taking other things seriously enough. Like readers who write negative Amazon reviews are tracked down and harangued by some authors, but other authors who have been shown to be plagiarists are defended and continue to be published (and I know there are contrary examples of bad reader behavior, as well). Sometimes it feels like we’re all down the rabbit hole, as either Alice or the Queen.
Thanks, Tilly; it was unclear to me whether the incident occurred in the context of the conference or at a restaurant after hours, so to speak.
I meant to say more clearly that this stuff bugs me because of how it reflects *internally* more than *externally*—how I’m less worried about public perceptions than I am about how the genre and industry represents itself *to itself* in other words.
I thought LKH at first simply because her history of nasty behavior. She hasn’t been kind and generous to her readership to say the least. So seeing her lash out in public would not surprise me.
And really and truly an authors actions, in the real world AND in blogs, WILL AND CAN AND DO reflect on their sales and whether or not people will buy them. Maybe not for every reader but for some it will either fuel the readership or cut it off. For example I never ever ever ever read Nora Roberts. I admired her as a writer and I also admired her attitude and poise. I felt she really made being an author a classy job. And her writing and her knowledge of her craft was reflected in her outward appearances and actions. So that made me pick up a book or two.
The opposite is true for LKH. I eagerly bought her books and when I had questions found an unresponsive abusive personality at the other end. That made me unresponsive in buying her books.
It’s a symbiotic relationship. What the author puts out, BEYOND the words, the author will get back. And likewise for the reader. Be nasty and you’ll get nastiness in return.
Argh! Forgot to uncheck the “notify me of follow-up comments” box and came home to 48 emails. Ouch. Would be nice if the default on that was off instead of on.
Now that I’ve thought about this some more, I still want to know who it was, but my puppy has the runs and that’s taking up valuable googling time. Just thought you all should know.
Oh crap! My last three blog posts on Myspace were:
Are sex toys your friends?
Sex and Sandwiches – Or what did you put in your mouth?
Booty Pops and Bottoms Up …truth in advertising
Have I become more trouble than I’m worth before I even got a decent start? At least only my Myspace friends can view them. And here I mistakenly thought I was “on†to something with my big jump in traffic. Now I’ll probably be on the Author’s Behaving Badly list. Oh well, I did aspire to make the “listsâ€.
Brit – who has a headache now…thank you very much
Personally, I find these blind items rather boring. I’m not “in the know” enough to have a clue about who these things refer to, so I don’t really care. It reminds me of being in school when someone would say, “I’ve got a secret,” and then not tell you because it made them feel cool. I know that’s not the intent here – but it still takes away my enjoyment from your site.
Plus, getting angry in a restaurant or doing junior high-ish stuff with a camera isn’t that interesting.
For me this feels kind of like high school too, except that it’s the part where all the popular girls run in a clique and the rest of us are deliberately excluded because we aren’t cool enough. In this case the clique is the industry and I’m the one who just loves reading books and reading stuff that talks about books.
C’est la vie, I hated high school because I wasn’t one of the “in” girls there either.
I’m a little ashamed to say I love Authors Behaving Badly stories, mostly because I am evil and like to point and laugh. That said, if I ever make an ass of myself, you’re all welcome to point and laugh heartily. And you can even include my name in your point-and-laugh post.
To me, there’s a crucial difference from high school, which is that there seems to be strong disagreement about who does and doesn’t constitute a clique. For example, I think sometimes that some readers see some authors as a powerful “clique,” but those authors see the readers as the powerful clique. In other words, those we see as “inside” themselves feel outside (and not as powerful as they are ascribed to be) and vice versa. It’s a very interesting dynamic, and sometimes really frustrating.
To be clear, I wasn’t talking about the blogosphere itself, but about blind items to do with the industry specifically. I do think it’s an interesting dynamic. And I think it’s very, very cool that overall almost all authors are fun, interesting, and gracious, willing to give of their time on these and other boards.
I have had more fun and laughed more since discovering SBTB than I have in years.
I also love gossip. Many of the items fly right past me regarding who and why, but it’s almost always entertaining, and it’s always good fodder for my own fiction. Also, it’s useful as filler for between-review and between-really-interesting-commentary items. It’s nice to see the site being updated daily, even if not every entry blows my skirts up.
And it’s nice to be reassured that I’m not the only one surrounded by ass-headed children masquerading as adults.
So, keep it coming.
A day without Britney on the tabloid covers makes the angels cry.
I don’t know why, but I keep thinking J. R. Ward. I know her sailorish vocabulary rivals mine. Of course, it’s been a while since she bought me a beer, so I’m not familiar with her recent behavioral quirks.
Heh.
Well, I guess the obvious answer to that is they see what’s readily available and they follow what appears to be populist convention without question. It’s variations on a theme of the Oprah effect, is how I tend to think of it. How many people, within context, would have known of James Frey if she hadn’t chosen him as her book club selection? Or would have even liked the book, if she hadn’t raved about it? And if the book hadn’t achieved such cult of personality status, prompting even more reviews and interviews and public exposure, etc. would the Smoking Gun have been prompted to dig a little deeper into this guy’s background and story?
Then… and this is where things get interesting, to me. After it was exposed that he was a class-A bullshitter, the fact that Oprah defended him, kept a lot of people on his side, until she then turned on him like a rabid pit bull because her own public profile was suffering somewhat.
During all of this, I saw very little in the way of individuals forming their own opinions of Frey and his work, but rather, a following of the masses.
Obviously, any Oprah example is an extreme, because she has a beyond remarkable influence over product popularity, but it was the best way I could think of to illustrate what I was trying to say.
Can’t argue with you there. Makes me crazy, both as a writer and a reader.
This reminds me of that joke from Kathy Griffith where she says that every pound Oprah gains is a gift from Jesus.
duh, I mean Kathy Griffin.
Kind of like Miley Cyrus?
I understand what you’re saying, though. I think that some of this is just inevitable, and that for every item like a tantrum-ing actor or author in the restaurant there’s an item like the Cassie Edwards copying—that is, if you do away with what some consider scurrilous gossip (not SAYING anything is scurrilous gossip, just saying that some people think some stuff is) you do away with the incidents that are of importance to discuss. Of which the Frey thing is one, IMO, especially with the more current examples of publishers pushing fiction books as memoirs, sometimes consciously. I mean, how do you decide what should and shouldn’t be discussed when some of these issues really need to be aired and debated? God knows I wince at a lot of what I read online these days, but I don’t always know where to draw the line (although I personally dislike ad hominem attacks for sport). And btw, I REALLY hated the way Oprah turned on Frey.
Yes, I love y’all but the Blind items about the conference seem a little stale now. (No issue with the teen crotch turned armpit incident as it was “of the moment”.) And I would dearly love more reviews. I don’t think Candy has mentioned any of Lisa Kleypas’ contemporaries and I thought the second one was really good (in comparison to her first) and you’ve never done Shanon Mckenna. Shame on you. She’s written some crazy ass books people and I’d love to know what you’d have to say about it. (The latest one is almost surreal—clit scratching of half-naked servers and child slave traders…just…wha?)
But but! I’m glad this post is here if only so I could get the link to the Wilder & Jacobs incident. How sad & hilarious. Wasn’t Jacobs the same author who came over here insisting that a lawsuit against a publisher is private business? LOL. Oh, dear. Romance publishing what are we to do with you?
I enjoy gossip in the short term, and it can certainly drive web traffic, but I think the gain is likely to be transient. From a business-blogging perspective, I think the cons probably outweigh the pros:
Pro: Gossip generates web traffic.
Con: Gossip is available at a lot of different places.
Con: Gossip generates an emotional response, and emotional responses can turn sour and bite you on the ass, to mix metaphors. Gleeful Reader on a day Author X is gossiped about becomes Irate Boycotter when Author Y gets her turn.
Con: Juicy gossip isn’t always available. If readers who want reviews and industry news fall away, traffic can really suffer when there’s no good gossip.
Con: I’m guessing that reviews and news generate more reciprocity in terms of blog promotion. If my book or site is mentioned, I’m more likely to link to SB, as are my friends and fans (assuming I get some of the latter). Whereas people who come for the gossip probably mostly come here and comment. I think that means i’s good for traffic but not so good for search-engine ranking.
Con: There are only so many bestselling authors. They’re the most visible and therefore the most likely to generate gossip tidbits. Pissed off fans could flame the pants off you and make everyone too uncomfortable to come by. Also, people might not be as motivated to advertise their books on a site if it generates bad feelings/is controversial. Traffic is validating, but ads are what generate da monies.
Anti-spam word: include54. I hope I didn’t list that many cons.
*SNORT*
Anything I’m liable to say about Miley is going to begin with “Suck it up, Buttercup.” I mean, she was already on record as saying she loved the photograph and it she was thrilled it wasn’t skanky, now all of a sudden she’s embarrassed? *pauses to throw flag*
However, going back to things that are important to discuss—absolutely the Frey thing is important, especially in light of the recent events like Peggy Seltzer and Misha DeFonseca. For me, as both reader and writer, it’s actually a really interesting topic to tackle, with respect to publishing as a business rather than the promotion of an art form, since in the case of both Frey and Seltzer, they had attempted to sell their books as fiction and it didn’t fly because it’s not what the publisher felt the public would want. (Or in publisher speak, “I don’t know what to do with this” as a novel, but if it’s a memoir, they then have a platform. *rollingeyesforever*)
Yes, this is me being a geek—sorry. *g*
How it happened? Absolutely. The minute it became clear that the majority of the book was a fabrication, she should have slapped his wrist and issued an apology to her fans/readers of the Book Club choices. But that whole phoning into Larry King and supporting the “essential truth” of the book? WTF? Come on, Oprah. What was that about?
Of course, Nan Talese isn’t blameless here either, given that she says the incident hasn’t changed how she handles memoirs, which to me implies, she’d publish it again, given her druthers.
Honestly, it’s enough to make a girl weep some days.
I don’t care who it is- I love seeing and or hearing about people behaving assily and getting called on it.
Blind item or not…
Count me among those who feel slightly excluded and would prefer to see names (I’m just so bad at riddles and would rather not have to speculate and
‘accuse/assume’ the wrong person).
I am definitely one of those readers who will stop buying books when author behavior is not to my taste. I stopped giving my hard earned cash to Coulter when she basically said that she didn’t give a rat’s ass about her romance readers, now that she was writing suspense, since they had already financed her million dollar mansion. Not that much of a loss because her new stuff stinks anyway.
I do regret Deborah Smith. I really liked her books, but after the stuff she wrote about Cassiegate and then some other opinions of hers I saw online, I’d never fork over any of my money to her ever again.
I’d stopped reading Crusie since I didn’t care much for the direction she was going in (slapstick ain’t my thing), but after seeing her blog and what she has to say there (in reaction to Cassiegate and in general), I won’t buy her again either. I just don’t dig snobs and hypocrites.
I stopped reading Robert S Sawyer because reading his mailing list made me realize that I didn’t care for his attitudes at all.
I love interacting with authors, but on occasion I wish I’d never found the interwebs, since I obviously cannot separate the author from the work and have had to ‘give up’ some books I would most likely have enjoyed hugely if the author behavior hadn’t gotten in the way.
Conversely for me that doesn’t work the other way. 🙂 I won’t like a book just because I like the author… which does seem kinda unfair… grin
Don’t know if there are many folks like me or not, but considering that once upon a time I used to buy all these authors new upon release in pb or HC, there is at least a little impact.
I’m ambivalent about these Blind Items. They’re fun, juicy gossip… and I do enjoy me some of that.
But I will echo sentiments expressed earlier in the comments: If everyone jumps to the conclusion that it’s Person A, and really, it’s actually Person B (or C, D, E, F, G, etc)… it could end up being unfairly damaging to Person A’s reputation, depending on how far the (unaccurate) gossip spreads.
PS It’s not Ward.
Silver James – “the Case of the Masquerading Vajayjay (Ooooh…I see a whole new line of Nancy Drew meets the Gossip Girls books here)”
Oh lordy, I just about died of the giggles!
I’m so-so on the gossip/blind items issue. I enjoy a little, but if I read too much I start to feel a bit squicky, not to mention that I never know who the heck y’all are talking about. I lift my rock and go “Wha—Huh?”
I never could keep up with the here and now in the world of gossip. *Sighs*
What I do love about the blind items on this site are not so much the gossipy bits themselves, but the discussions they generate. This is the only site where I often enjoy reading all the comments just as much as the blog posts because of the insightful, intelligent, and often downright hysterical input from everyone else. So even if I don’t pass the “Wha—Huh?” part of the post, I enjoy reading the ensuing discussions.
I don’t know who the heck the actual post was about, but the comments from all the authors here are a good indicator of how well other professionals in the industry conduct themselves. It just kinda negates the bad behavior of the other, in my opinion.
So thanks y’all. 🙂
To Tilly W: If it’s not Ward and it’s not LKH, is it an author who has previously behaved badly, or is it someone we wouldn’t automatically think of?
Well, I’m with Growlycub. I have definitely stopped buying books by some authors that have ticked me off by their behavior ( Dailey, Coulter, LKH come to mind right off).
And while I think it’s fun to speculate ( in my mind- not out loud) who could have been so…well… crass, I can see the reasoning in not making that name public.
I mean- perhaps something personally tragic happened right before dinner- and she just lost control? ( yes, I know- I’m a optimist!).
What she needs is for a friend to sit her down in PRIVATE and explain to her that her behavior is not beneficial for her career. ‘Cause if it does get out who she is?
NOT.GOOD.AT.ALL.