One Big Happy Family - Group Hug!

[Steve Allan]

Now, is it just me or do crimewriters seem to be really nice? OK, this isn't some sappy post that I'm typing with tears in my eyes; this is actually started by a nasty e-mail a friend of mine received. He's not a crime fiction guy, but he did publish a story on ThugLit, which prompted someone (El Douche Bag Extraordinaire) to e-mail him saying how he's ruining crime fiction by publishing in a genre that he doesn't normally and he should stick to his own genres, etc., etc.

So, does this type of attitude and behavior embarrass you as a crimewriter as much as it embarrasses me?

[I. J. Parker]

All the crime/mystery writers I've met have been extraordinarily nice. The sort of thing you describe just isn't like them. It sounds more like what you get occasionally on the internet because someone has a private axe to grind or wants to spread some vitriolic stuff because he/she has never succeeded at getting anything published. Tell your friend to ignore it.
By the way, the very fact of publishing lays all of us open to this sort of thing. It is too easy to attack strangers on the web.

[Jack Getze]

I'm new at this, but in six conventions and half a dozen other venues this year, the crime writers I met were friendly, nice, and helpful--every one. It's made me want to become part of the community.

[Anne Frasier]

sounds like somebody needs a group ass-kickin'.

[Pepper Smith]

Ooooh, a particularly nasty variety of internet denizen, known as a Troll. I'd ignore him. Doesn't matter where you go or what you do, someone out there is going to try to make you feel bad for succeeding.

Since crime fiction readers tend to be smart, and crime fiction writers have to be just a bit smarter in able to outwit them, I think most of us are above that sort of behavior. On average, trolls tend to be young men who think incredibly highly of themselves and apparently have nothing better to do than run around all over the web pooping on people. Acknowledging them only seems to encourage them.

[Laura Root]

troll or axe to grind? who knows. but either way the point is utter bolleaux. good crime writing is good crime writing, whether its author is Ken Bruen or the Dalai Llama.

[Stephen Blackmoore]

So far they've all been really cool. Of course, the ones I've actually met in person were all drunk as well. But that's okay. I was too.

[Steve Allan]

You're probably drunk right now.

[Stephen Blackmoore]

Hah! Shows what you know. I'm speedballing.

[David Terrenoire]

With the exception of a drunk from Los Angeles, everyone I've met or corresponded with has been genuinely decent and generous. I am grateful that so many of them consider me a colleague and friend.

With the exception of that drunk from LA.

Tell your friend to ignore the critics, especially the anonymous ones. Even Mother Teresa had her campfire pissed upon by Christopher Hitchins. Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all.

[Steve Allan]

I have to give the douche bag credit, he didn't comment anonymously.

And yes, I read God is Not Great, Mother Teresa wasn't the only one he pissed on.

[Stephen Blackmoore]

Yeah, you gotta watch out for those fuckers from Los Angeles.

[David Terrenoire]

Fucking poets. They fuck up everything.