#HaleNo Review Black Out Link Round Up

In light of the major issue of Kathleen Hale’s stalking as mentioned in today’s Friday Discussion, many reviewers are having a #HaleNo Review Black Out until October 27th which I initially saw proposed by Jane of Dear Author (I do not know if the idea originated with her, though)

This is something we support, not least of which because this is the result of actions like Ms. Hale’s being accepted will result in: the silence of review blogs and the death of critical, informative reviewing. After all, very few of us are actually making any kind of living at this - and few are willing to engage in an unpaid activity (especially one that can be a lot of work) that will bring obsessive and angry people to their homes and their family.

Of course, Fangs for the Fantasy runs on a schedule - and at present that schedule doesn’t include book reviews on Thursdays or during the weekend - the blackout rather falls in our dark period. So, instead of a book review today we are putting out a link round up of various blogs talking about the Hale stalking because we shouldn’t just chalk this up to another case of author drama and return to business as normal

Dear Author’s On the Importance of Pseudonymous Activity nicely sums up the whole facts of the issue

Smart Bitches’ The Choices of Kathleen Hale

Jenny Trout’s DON’T DO THIS EVER (An Advice Column For Writers): “Stalking The Hands That Feed You” edition

Love in the Margins also has an excellent Link Roundup

Bibliodaze: An Open Letter to Kathleen Hale & Guardian Books: Stalking Is Not Okay

Bookthingo’s excellent Storify: What happens when The Guardian lets an author gloat about stalking a blogger which also captures the reaction to Ms. Hale’s stalking which is, in many ways, as scary as the stalking itself.

Jim. C. Hines: Victim or Perpetrator?

The Dead Writer’s Society IS KATHLEEN HALE A “JOURNALIST”? #HALENO

Bookbinge: “Catfish”, “Doxx”, and “Stalk” – What You Need To Know About Kathleen Hale #HaleNo

Laura Pohl: The latest scandal on the book community – Kathleen Hale, the stalking and the inexistent response to her actions

Elfswood: Poisoning the Well: Kathleen Hale's Attempt to Justify her Stalking

Again from Dear Author - Poisoning the Well. How Ms. Hale’s actions hurt all in the book community, authors as well

Vacuousminx: The rising costs of membership in the booktalk community

There is also a petition to have Goodreads improve its privacy settings

Love in the Margins: Class and Privilege: The Listen Linda Edition

We do not know the various writer’s histories nor can we guarantee that other posts on these sites won’t be problematic

Kathleen Hale: Stalking and a Community Problem

Anyone who has been on the internet for the last few days must have been aware of the Kathleen Hale stalking drama. If you are not fully aware, here are some excellent posts on the matter

Dear Author’s On the Importance of Pseudonymous Activity

Smart Bitches’ The Choices of Kathleen Hale

Jenny Trout’s DON’T DO THIS EVER (An Advice Column For Writers): “Stalking The Hands That Feed You” edition

Love in the Margins also has an excellent Link Roundup

So I don’t want to repeat what has already been said excellently in so many other places - but I do want to say we have a problem.

It’s very tempting to consider this all happened because Ms. Hale is a deeply unpleasant and, frankly, scary woman - which is not inaccurate. It’s also tempting to think that she got the profile she did because she is very well connected - which isn’t unlikely. It’s also tempting to think that it doesn’t take much to set off some stalkers - sometimes the slightest thing can lead a stalker to building up a rather terrifying elaborate fantasy.

It’s tempting, and reassuring, to decide that this is a “one off.” Except, it’s already clear that it isn’t. And, in some ways more worrying than these frightening stalkers themselves, we’re also seeing consent and approval for their actions. It’s not a “one off” (or a “two off” or how ever many off it turns out to be) when these actions are praised and celebrated by so many in our community.

That isn’t worrying - that is frightening. It is frightening that fans and authors respond to this report of outright stalking and made excuses for it - or openly praised it.

What have we become? And how much further will we take this?

This culture of attacking reviewers for criticism has been developing for a while - of which STGRB is perhaps the most visible manifestation of it. And yes, we must draw a direct link between Ms. Hale’s stalking and the wide acceptance of her actions if not directly to that group then certainly to the attitude that spawned them, not least of which because Ms. Hale herself referred to them. When STGRB first caused so much outrage with their campaigns against reviewers - including doxing, revealing reviewer’s names, addresses and work-places many of us spoke out against them - but equally there were many more willing to speak in favour of them and to their defence. There were many who were willing to join them in labelling negative reviews as “bullying” (a grossly offensive comparison that takes advantage of the high profile of vulnerable suicides that drew attention to bullying, especially of marginalised people) and in labelling criticism as “attack”. Authors like Anne Rice and Nathan Bransford spoke up in support of this characterisation, ignoring or tacitly accepting STGRB’s tactics (including doxxing and slandering reviewers with allegations of them being bad mothers, or having a drinking problem). News outlets like Huffpost Books further added credence to the idea that criticism was “bullying” and that the tactics of STGRB were either acceptable or negligible.