I hope Gabe continues to write and think about SF, even if he says he is “out of it.” Regardless of administration/leadership quirks he may have, he is undoubtedly one of the best writers I’ve ever met (online only though, sadly), and has had the most impact on my own writing than anyone else, outside of a few long-dead writers.

I understand that a lot of people have anger. I hope someday forgiveness comes. We are a small group of artists who have a lot to say. I feel sorry about the people who lost money and time, and the breaking of trust. That’s hard to earn back.

I only rarely say this, but: you’re a self-important idiot.

Cheers,

Jeff

As to what is going on now, I only ‘know’ what I’ve read here and on JonathonM’s various sites. So what he has done certainly looks bad (and I’m saying ‘looks’ because I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes). If half of what I’ve read is true and accurately reflects what happened, he has more than a bit of amends to make.

The outrage over the business matter does puzzle me, though. While it is true that people do make business deals based on just a handshake, they are very selective in who they make deals with. Prior to shaking hands, they evaluate the likelihood that the other person will have both the capability, the intent and the determination to complete their part of the deal. For example, I don’t think that a diamond merchant from the jewelry district is going to give me a $10 million diamond just based on a handshake, no matter how much he thinks that I intend to pay him for it in the future. Gabe’s personal situation is well known to anyone in the community, at least to anyone who has been reading his blog. So it is hard for me to understand why people are so upset when the totally expected occurs – he can neither complete the project nor return the money. And to publically grouse about it reflects just as badly on the complainer as on Gabe, in my opinion.

But that is as much as I’m going to say, because I don’t think that critically analyzing people in this way on the internet is proper (and maybe I’ve already written too much). Given the imperfections of the media, it is more likely to shed fur than to shed light. There has already been far too many things discussed in a public forum that should have been done privately. Nobody ends up looking good in these situations.

–

Phil

There’s personal misfortune of the “I got a chronic illness” type and personal misfortune of the “I was an asshole and people shit on me” type. Again, by his own admission, much of his “misfortune” has occured because he was a flighty asshole.

This is all classic selfish behavior stuff: tearing down forums where other people have formed communities, clearing out projects that other people are involved in without consulting them. It’s burning other people’s bridges. Unless it turns out he’s seriously mentally ill, I don’t see any excuse for that except aforementioned flighty selfishness.

And at least if we find out he’s mentally ill, it’ll all make a lot more sense.

In fact, if these healing energies had been breathed earlier, I wouldn’t have sent in one of my books to Scalpel for review.

But hey, maybe it still will be reviewed, right !?!

Wouldn’t that involve being in spec fic in the first place?

Jeff