My Response to Joanne Harris #HaleNo

I don’t want any misunderstandings so I’m responding here where I can explain fully.

First of all, in my blog post titled ‘Authors vs. Reviewers – An Ongoing War? #HaleNo’ I quoted you verbatim with a link to a screenshot of the entire conversation so those quotes could be viewed in context. That conversation took place on Oct 22nd. ‘Authorgate’, the Tumblr post you’ve linked to, I haven’t seen before and is dated two days later.

Leafmarks Announce New Feature: Private Reviews #HaleNo

Leafmarks has once again responded lightning fast to the reviewing community’s desires, this time in the aftermath of the “Authors Stalking Reviewers” news.

Authors vs. Reviewers – An Ongoing War? #HaleNo

Notice the question mark at the end of the post title. It’s there because this is a widespread misconception that’s hurting reviewers. Authors such as Joanne Harris spouting “not all authors” while calling reviewers, like Blythe, trolls is infuriating. This ignorance of how the reading community works is astonishing. If authors are to pass judgement on something that affects their readers, they should educate themselves before commenting in a public sphere.

Sociopathy, Entitlement and Delusion #HaleNo

This is what you get when you type ‘sociopath’ and ‘entitlement’ into Google.

Kathleen Hale: Why Research Her Background? #HaleNo

“I think in my humble opinion that this is getting a little out of control. Why look through all of her articles for more ammo to call her crazy? The stalking is more than enough to hang her out to dry with. If these pieces had been written by someone else, I don’t think they’d be getting the same reaction.”

I’ve come across this sort of comment a few times.

Authors Stalking Reviewers: From intimidatory Kathleen Hale to violent Richard Brittain #HaleNo

Until now authors stalking reviewers had largely remained in cyber space rather than face-to-face. Kathleen Hale spent money finding the address a writer of a one-star review of Hale’s book, hired a car and landed on the doorstep of an understandably shocked and flabbergasted victim, who was then further victimised by Hale’s disturbingly vivid account of her obsessive and criminal actions in the Guardian which failed to remove identifying information.

Richard Brittain took this one giant leap further.