I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have without the wisdom and common sense that I’ve found on your site. Don’t let it get you down that there are petty people out there who just want to rain on the party. There are a lot more of us out here that owe you a great big dept of gratitude. Thanks for everything you’ve shared.

I sometimes go off to Google to look up things like Forward Motion and Vision just to see what people are saying. And do you know what they say?

That Holly Lisle’s site, her workshop, and the effort she has put into helping others is incredible, helpful, and a wonderful gift.

Hundreds and hundreds of them.

(Yeah, well, I’d like to see my name associated with Forward Motion and Vision more often, but at least people like them!)

Try looking up the name of any of the people involved in this other group and see if they do as well.

I suspect what you have really hit is envy, Holly.

You’re calling for the moral high ground (and doing it in pretty suspect language, so I suspect what you’re actually looking for is a flamewar). NOT naming names and NOT accusing anyone of being an asshole (while skipping the ever-tempting opportunity to provide proof that some of them are assholes, admittedly) IS the moral high ground. Restraint, amigo. Restraint.

I am not interested in sending the folks who like me or my work over to a site where people generally don’t. What would happen is that some people would feel obliged to defend me and would post comments to those who don’t like me. This would be followed by those who don’t like me flaming those who do (and in all likelihood coming over here and screaming bloody murder about me sending people over there).

I don’t need to be defended. I’m entirely capable of recognizing hostility and dislike and both overt and veiled insult, and entirely capable of walking away.

It would be heresay if I named names but didn’t provide proof. If I do a general rant about creepy people, though, it’s just commentary.

I can’t say this is a thankless job—it isn’t. It’s a job where praise can be effusive and occasionally overwhelming. Unlike motherhood and registered nursing, the other two careers I pursued or continue to pursue, however, nearly everything happens in public, both praise and criticism. You get both of those in any job, and you’ll invariably receive a mix of deserved and undeserved cheers and boos.

It can be tempting to believe all the good stuff and to blow off all the bad stuff. Being Tao about the whole experience is harder, and for all that I focus on taking the Tao perspective, I did not come into the world viewing life through the Taoist lens (I’m naturally type A, decidedly on the aggressive side, with an unfortunate tendency toward /a/r/g/u/m/e/n/t/ debate that even after years and years of effort has not been entirely tamed). The way of water does not come easily to me. But I’m working on it.

Which brings me back around to my point. Finding those hostile folks took me off guard. I’ve been around this track a bunch of times before, though, (and my opinionated personality made me a nice, big target, so I’ve taken plenty of hits on the way) and while poison darts still hurt, I’ve developed a pretty thick hide and some immunity. So, after about an hour of being angry and hurt, I realized that nothing they said changed anything.

People who are just getting started generally haven’t, and finding yourself publicly shredded can, the first few times, be devastating—to the point, in at least one case that I know of, and surely a few cases that I don’t, of causing someone who was making good headway in writing to give up on her dreams and just walk away.

I’m not in any danger of giving up and walking away because people who don’t know me, don’t like me and say nasty things about me. Some of you, I suspect, are getting close to achieving the “pro” step on your dream sheet, though, and you need to realize that the poison darts fly pretty thick around the chute where the new pros are released into the wild.

Watch your backs. Shake it off. Keep running. Don’t be another casualty of hostile intent.

People like that are the same kind of people who shun heavy metal for being ‘simple’, when in fact, like you’re writing, it is anything but.

There ought to be a sock that takes care of that.

I figured it was worth damn near everything, so I took that advice to heart and packed up my car and moved to San Diego (a city I’ve always loved) a few months later and have since finished three more books and attended Clarion last year and a couple of big cons this year. So I just wanted to say thanks for helping me find the courage to follow the writing path, and for all the wonderful articles on that site that helped when I really needed it. I don’t have anything out yet, but I will. Soon.

I was hoping I’d get to tell you in person after I saw you were coming out to San Diego, but alas, it’s not meant to be. Someday, hopefully. Talyn is here on my counter, and I can’t wait to read it.