jasonandrew | (no subject)

There’s been a lot of talk about the incident with Harlan Ellison and Connie Willis. My summery of the incident is simple. Don’t be an asshole to people. There’s a difference between being an asshole and being funny.

Speaking of which, something else has happened which I think maybe should be discussed. First, I’m the sort of guy that can get along with almost anyone. I rarely get into fights with people. I get along with the unlikeables for some reason. I think sometimes I collect lost souls. [Note: I will admit that the exception to this was a certain vampire LARP club I was in for a while where it was difficult for me to get along with some of the members.]

There are a ton of people that loath Nickolaus Pacione. While I have had friendly discussions with him, I can’t really blame anyone else for hating him as he’s a fairly unlikable guy. If you want to engage him in a flame war or make fun of him on your livejournal/forum, go ahead. If you hate him with the red hot passion of a thousand suns and it works for you, then great. There is still a guy that I can’t stand from the vampire LARP that I try to avoid.

I recently visited http://www.nakedsnakepress.com/. Naked Snake Press is going to publish one of his books and it appears that they have been getting harassing emails. Harassing Naked Snake Press because you don’t like Nickolaus Pacione is childish.

I’ve never read anything by him so I don’t know if he is a good writer or not. Maybe he is the worst writer ever as many claim and I’m sure he has poked enough bears to make people mad at him. Some of the complaints that I have heard say that Nickolaus is insulting, threatening, and he harasses people. I can’t and won’t defend that. However, I can point out that whoever is sending the harassing letters is insulting, threatening, and harassing Naked Snake Press. If you become the very thing you are fighting against, you lose.

Here is my story.

I started writing seriously a year ago after my wife encouraged me.

When I started, I didn’t know anyone. I found ralan.com and started sending out my stories. At first, it is very scary sending out your stories into the abyss. I edited several of my old stuff and started sending it out while writing new stories. One of the stories was “the Art of the Deal.” I love this story, but it is a bit of an albatross. It was the first sale I had ever made way back in the early 90s to Aberrations. It folded and it took me a while to realize it. I started sending it out to the big boys, but no one was interested in it. I saw a posting for Tabloid Purposes III on www.ralan.com and submitted it. I had never heard of Nickolaus Pacione. Six months later, I received a reply that he was accepting it, but that people really hated him and I should be warned. I pointed out that I had never heard of him and that he was likely exaggerating things.

And then I started seeing posts about him on live journal, in forums, and almost everywhere. I’ve only recently started networking and working my way up the ladder. The sheer amount of vile kind of surprised me. There’s even a “national I hate Nickolaus Pacione live journal post day.” And yet, when you act like an asshole to people, you can’t be surprised if they respond in kind. Nickolaus Pacione has been an asshole to people so I don’t really feel all that sorry for him.

Does that mean that Naked Snake Press deserves harassing emails? Am I going to get e-mails for submitting a trunk story for Tabloid Purposes III?

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What I meant with the Rapid Dog comment is that if you're being attacked by one, sometimes the only thing left to do is bite back. Asking it to sit and be a good boy doesn't always work.

And yes, people have tried walling him off. It never works. He continued to heckle and harrass Poppy Z. Brite, despite her silence, for no other reason than the subject matter of her work. After she lost everything in the Katria hurricaine, Nick still refused to lay down the gaulent. Instead of taking the high road for once, he littered his blogs with "clever" little joke about sending Poppy a lifejacket and a copy of 'Quakes & Storms". She eventually had to end her silence and threaten him with legal action.
Jean Loup-Benet made the mistake of asking why Nick would sell a book of his stories, when all of them were available for free on various fiction pages. Nick made a career of going after JLB, even going so far as to leave threatening calls to JLBs parents! Talking didn't work, but the C & D order certainly has.

Nick is routinely banned from message boards. His threads on places like Shocklines or Lulu tend to end with a lock or some other form of moderator intervention. He's was banned from posting HWA's message board. He was banned from "The Other Dark Place". He was banned from Gothic.net. It was suggested that he not make an appearance at "The Red Light District". And a lot of the posts that lead to these bannings usually start with someone not gushing over Pacione's latest bit of drivel.

Going back to the metaphor, if you bite a rabid dog, you get rabies.

Here is a quote from one of the people you suggested I look at:

http://www.xanga.com/ReynanSharani

"I'm edgy, hostile, tired of the shit, and certain that I am stuck with it until the day I die.

If I had a best-selling novel from one of the majors, I would gladly spend every penny of it and live in poverty for the rest of my existence, if by doing so I could get Pacione off my back so that I could have peace in my life without having to constantly look over my shoulder for him coming back after me again.

It's a shitty way to live. But he isn't giving me any choice."

You guys are surrendering power to him in this situation. Take ownership of your feelings and your reactions. Block his IP address and shut him out of your life. If he comments or posts something, just pretend his doesn’t exist.

If he calls your house and makes a threatening phone call, report him to the police and then let them handle it. Each time you guys have a Nick bashing day in live journal or freak out over something he says, you are validating everything he does in his mind. Poppy’s response is the correct one in this case. Every time he bashes someone, it just spreads their name around and helps them out.

"Going back to the metaphor, if you bite a rabid dog, you get rabies."

But sometimes it's your only defense and a necessary risk. It's easy to wax philosophical having never been on the receiving end of his attacks. It's not easy walling up and ignoring daily emails, blog entries, and phone calls. To quote Rambo: In order to stop a war sometimes you have to become war. Some people choose to take it to the law, others would rather lock horns.
In any event, we're kind of just spinning the tires here and I I've taken more than enough of your time with this. Plus, this turning into a philosophical debate on how to handle the situation, which was never my intention. I find myself trying to...turn you against him. And I don't want them. I just want to give people a clearer image. These are the things he says, these are the things he does. Here's my proof, do with it what you will. You have a good head on your shoulders and see this for what it is. That can't be said for everybody. And I'd rather a new writer know just what they're getting into with this guy.

-S-

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It's easy to wax philosophical having never been on the receiving end of his attacks.>>

That is very true. However, I have had this sort of thing before. I was involved in a LARP club called the Camarilla. I killed a character played by someone that had a higher up position. This person then made every attempt to annoy me and harass me. And while, he didn't use the exact tactics that Nick used, there was a quieter less obvious form of harassment.

I didn't attack him in response. I pointed out the obvious to people and let let people draw their own conclusions and he eventually got himself fired for being a dumbass.

<<I find myself trying to...turn you against him. And I don't want them. I just want to give people a clearer image.>

Yep, which is kind of a waste of time. To turn me against him, I'd have to be for him. I don't know him. I disagree with what he's doing and think it's toxic, but if someone wants to shoot their career in the head, that's up to him.

It looks like he has gone ahead and published Tabloid Purposes III as is so I'm not going to ever work with him again.

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