Making lists, checking them twice.

This post has existed in draft form for…well, yikes, almost two full years. Something came to light yesterday, that made me come back to it. And you, lucky readers, get to read my thoughts.

As I’ve mentioned before here and elsewhere, I do have a list of authors who, in my opinion, behave badly.¹  And, since my time, emotional labor, energy, and money, are limited, I quite simply refuse to even try their work. It’s still, at least in this small area, a free country.

By the same token, I have a much, much, much longer list of incredible people who are authors who will always get my support.

Ellora’s Cave: last gasp?

(See updates at end)

It’s been just over two years since Ellora’s Cave sued Dear Author and Jane Litte/Jen Frederick, over “The Curious Case of Ellora’s Cave.”

For those not in the know, that piece was based mostly (I’d say, 90 to 95%), on public records–from liens placed on the company by Ohio/Akron, to published pieces on traditional media, to the CEO’s own communications with authors, editors, and other employees, and with Jane Litte/Jen Frederick herself.

Still, Jaid Black/Tina Engler didn’t much like what the piece said about her, and so, a lawsuit for defamation was filed in late September 2014.

Between then and now, shit happened. And more shit happened. And then the suit was settled.

Update on the Dear Author/Jane Litte Defense fund

Back in March of this year, when Jane Litte revealed that she is also author Jen Frederick, some people who donated to the Dear Author defense fund were quite vocal about how the fund should never have been created to begin with, what with Jane being “rich.”

At the time, I waxed on and on about why it shouldn’t fall on Jane’s shoulders alone to stand up to a vexatious lawsuit.

People have the right to feel whatever the hell they want, about whatever the fuck they want to, but since Sarah Wendell (or perhaps it was Jane herself, that part is not clear) updated the fund page today, I want to post some quick numbers, and then leave it to my readers to decide whether it’s reasonable to expect any single person to shoulder the cost of a lawsuit designed to intimidate people and shut them up.

A few not-so-brief thoughts (EC v DA)

So DA and EC settled. Well. Huh. #notchilled

— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan) October 22, 2015

So.

That happened.

And #notchilled basically exploded.

For any of my readers who are not aware, erotic romance/erotica publisher Ellora’s Cave filed a defamation suit against the blog Dear Author, and the blog’s founder and owner, Jane Litte aka Jen Frederick.

The basis for the lawsuit is the publication, back in September of 2014, of The Curious Case of Ellora’s Cave. If you have a few days to spare, there are a number of interesting posts written about the case in the intervening thirteen (ye gads!) months. You can find links to quite a few of those at the bottom of this post. (Please note that I have continued to add new links at the end, particularly to Courtney Milan’s and Deirdre Saoirse Moen’s posts explaining some of the legal stuff in layman terms.)