It is not a matter of avoiding criticism of someone who may happent to be one's acquaintance or friend. That is not the case here. Charlotte Zeepvat is an acquaiintance of mine. I thinnk highly of her work. But I am irked to no end by her ridiculos use of the Grand Prince/Princess title, which even according to the Imperial Foreign Minister's diplomatic guide is incorrect. I also do not accept her take on KR particularly when she has stated that because he had children he was not gay. People who know very little about human sexuality should not make statements of the kind.
In the past I have disagreed with statements made by other authors, like Greg King, Penny Wilson, Marlen Koenig and yes even Coryne Hall. All I consider at the very least friends, if not very good acquaintances.
The point here is the way in which criticism is metted out by some of our fellow posters...critisim which goes beyond disagreeing with someone's take and lands into a flat out vendetta style attack and open blasting of someone's efforts to research, write and publish a book. In years past I described these sort of critics as nothing more than "bitter" rocking chair writers, who can barely write their signature on a check and yet blast away at someone who has undertaken the endeavour to write a full book or an article. And you know what, the more I see this the more I am convinced that rocking chair authors are safely ensconced in their realm of criticism and will never get off their lazy behind and actually share something positive, illuminating and intersting with the rest of us.
Surely, there will be many in this discussion who are going to reply to my post with vitriol and even a personal attack. However, as someone who has authored more than 50 articles, authored three books, and coauthored two, somene who has published six books now, I have a stake in this. I also have developed a rather thick skin when it comes to unkind and uncivil attacks and always mention so to those adventurous people like Coryne Hall, who actually dare to sit down and write more than a ripping of someone else's work.
All in all...books include mistakes. Yes they do, even mine. Marlene has already accepted the same. We are not perfect. What makes us different from rocking chair writers is that we dare put our thoughts to paper in a positive manner, that we share with the reading world what we've researched and studied, that we care enough about this topic of ours to publish our findings. And if someone doesn't like it, or takes exception to my words, well tampis, but entre nous I am simply sickened by these personal attacks on hardworking authors which are tinged, in some cases, with faintly covered envy.
There...I've said enough!
Arturo Beéche
PS: To all those of you who emailed and urged that I reply to this, thanks, I share your opinion and here it is posted...enjoy reading and relishishing the avalanche that is about to rain on me.
