Image borrowed from PacioneTracker

Horrid Writer has been on the warpath again, making baseless accusations against a number of members of the Horror Writer's Association. This time around, he accused Angeline Hawkes, her husband Chris Fulbright, Brian Keene, and Mary Sangiovanni of e-pirating his fiction, thus ruining his book sales. These people have all been quite nice to me at one time or another, and I have the utmost respect for them both as writers, and as people. Frankly, I don't think they give a rat's patoot about Horrid Writer, and anything he writes. Mary actually graduated from the university from which I got my Master's degree--and she's the biggest sweetie.

They are all real writers, who can outsell his aggregate sales from the past 14 years with a single novel. No doubt being permanently banned from the HWA recently has something to do with his ire, yet he dredges up old grievances. His second most recent rant brought up a comment that someone left him over a year ago suggesting that he needed to work on his writing and get an editor. Hoo boy, did that piss off the Horrid Writer! It was perfectly true, but truth is beside the point with this particular guy.

I was introduced to a story of his called Insect about a year and a half ago. I thought it was poorly written, and said as much. Among my complaints with all of his writing are:

• Incorrect spelling (such as a favorite he misuses in more than one story--"dosing off" instead of "dozing off.") He obviously doesn't think the spelling is incorrect, since he won't correct it, even after it's been pointed out to him.

• He slaughters all rules of English grammar, changing tenses repeatedly within the same sentence.

• Poor sentence construction that's convoluted to the point of being extremely difficult to read.

• Pretentiously worded sentences, as if he were incorporating new vocabulary words he just learned. It's a distraction, and the convoluted descriptions add nothing to the story.

Here's a sample of the Horrid Writer's work, called Sober.

Horrid Writer is self-published at Lulu.com. It's not even a publisher; it's merely a POD vanity printer. If I wanted to throw together a book of family photos, and design a cover for it, Lulu.com would print it, if anyone ordered it. Horrid Writer doesn't even spring for an ISBN. POD isn't necessarily a bad option for a writer just getting started, but Lulu.com isn't the way to go to be taken seriously.

He's been writing for 14 years, yet he can't get a real publisher to take on his work. LiveJournal doesn't consider him a real writer, because he self publishes. His usual m.o. is to write a short story or two, then solicit contest entries from unsuspecting college students who know nothing about publishing. He charges a fee to even read their stories, then selects a few for publication in an anthology. Since the anthologies don't sell, he can't even afford to pay his writers for their work. When the contributors don't get paid, they refuse to work with him again, so he goes off to recruit more unsuspecting college students for his next anthology.

He badly needs an editor. Of course, he ignores all the red and green squigglies in MS Word--and my god, his stuff must look like a Christmas tree unless he's disabled the default spelling and grammar feature.

Here's a review of Sober from Carolyn8 at FictionPress:

"did you...take down my review? you know, i think you did! so...i'm the 'lesbo whore' (once again, btw, i'm not a lesbian), and you're the one taking down perfectly legitimate reviews to your work...right then. glad we got that straightened out. so i'll post it here again, as people have every right to know what i think of your work and the side of yourself you choose to present to fp.n. you shouldn't be here if you can't take some well-deserved criticism. can't take the heat, get out of the goddamned kitchen. so here it is again:

"okay, first i need to say this:you. CANNOT. write. effectively.

i'm sorry, would you mind explaining to me what the HELL the first sentence was intended to be?! i'll perhaps read the rest after i can wade through the mess of...whatever the hell you call that crap. un-fucking-believable. and yes, i swear. deal. i'll try to read some of your other stuff...though i just read 'the fanfic writer' (never been more insulted in my life, btw) and absolutely could not stand the writing. you need a beta-reader rather badly. better yet, you need to learn how to write.

ok...now to comment on your bio. my general impression is this: GOOD GOD, MAN! where/who/what the hell do you think you are?? fp.n is NOT a place where people come to brag, it is not a place to talk endlessly about yourself, it is not a place to insult others as if you are better than them...let me assure you, you're not. i mean, my god, a PICTURE of yourself!! you're probably (read: hopefully) the only one to EVER have sunk that low! and a bio is NOT MEANT TO BE SO GODDAMNED LONG!! you should not be here to brag about what you've been paid for or which clubs you have undeserving memberships of. nobody gives a shit. you say you've been compared to all those writers...again, who gives?? you're only displaying your overblown ego here. and i didn't know there were so many OTHER published writers who sucked so badly! they'd have to, if they were like you...

oh god...i just visited your website. i can't believe you've been writing for over 14 years...and you're still writing like a 5-year-old. are you one of those people that thinks they're smart, simply because they have large vocabularies? big fucking deal. so you can parrot, except for the fact that you have no sense of grammar. and your site is unbelievably poorly formatted. i could do a better job, and i barely know how a computer works.

you also need an ego deflation. i'll perform it now, for free, considering the desperate need. so you write...so fucking what? guess what...SO DO I!! and i'm fifteen years old, and i'm part of a writing group of other 14-to-16-year-olds, and WE ALL WRITE BETTER THAN YOU DO! so does the majority of the child-and-teenage population! tolerance can do a great deal to improve someone's writing, you know. you should try it. the punctuation errors...GODS, THE PUNCTUATION ERRORS!! SAVE ME!

i must, however, thank you from the bottom of my heart, for you have never (at least, not that i saw) referred to what you do as 'art'. thank you ever so much for proving that there is sanity left in the world.

so with that said, i am off to r&r your other works, if i can bear it! funfun! note the sarcasm...i shall be sure to add you to my author alerts and favourite authors, as well as emailing your link to all my friends, and we shall dance and laugh and flame, and you shall burn in your own personal, self-constructed hell!

with as much love as you deserve,she-who-is-half-your-age-and-has-infinitely-more-talent

p.s. please feel free to email me with any comments at all, there's plenty more ranting to be done...i just can't remember it all right now, as the insipid drivel you insist on referring to as 'literature' has seeped into my brain and is slowly corroding it from the inside. you know, you really have a 'knack' for first sentences of a piece! they leave an impression, alright...who the hell uses the word 'vast' TWICE in the same sentence?"

and there is my review. no need to thank me, just doing my job. and i'll KEEP doing it as long as you see fit to take it down. i worked hard on that review, and i do NOT take kindly to being snubbed in such a manner.

but hey, at least i got a chance to fix my spelling mistakes!

ta!"

Amen, Carolyn. Horrid Writer has a history of deleting any reviews of his work that don't fawn all over him. He also has a history of harrassing people who leave negative comments. So that you have an idea, based solely on my remarks about Insect, which I made on my own Xanga blog in May 2005, he's told me to:

• get "nut cancer"

• drink bleach

• get hit by a car

• die "you cunt"

Every once in awhile, he tries on a new phrase for size, and uses it like a verbal nervous tic. Lately, he's been accusing people of being unprofessional when they suggest he get an editor. He got kicked out of the HWA permanently for going on a rampage on its forum, dissing a number of well respected authors in his blind jealous rage. Pot, may I introduce Kettle? Kettle--Pot.

If anyone's being unprofessional, it's Horrid Writer, not any member of the HWA. How professional is to call people cunts, and hope they get nut cancer? How many hermaphrodites are there, anyway? This guy would have you believe that all his detractors are either gay, lesbian, bi, trannies, or hermaphrodites. Please. He obviously has issues with his own sexuality. Grow up, Horrid. Dropping out of two year community college doesn't make you brilliant. And you've got to be the only person out there who brags about his 79 IQ as if it were the equivalent of a B- or C+. Unless it's well over 100, it's probably best not made known.