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.)

I hate eating my words.

I. fucking. hate it.

Sometimes, however, there is little choice but to do so.

A quick timeline of my part of this growing quagmire.

On Tuesday March 24th, Jane Litte posted this letter to the Dear Author blog readership. In it, she came out as author Jen Frederick.

I was very, very, very surprised to learn this. I’m probably a proper imbecile, because it just never occurred to me. Did I mention I was surprised by this?

Other people apparently were a lot less shocked.

My first reaction was of glee, and my first comment in that thread reflected that.

Of course, the internet being what it is (i. e., full of people), vitriol towards Jane/Jen started flowing pretty damn quickly. At least some of it is, whatever the people dishing it out may say, sour grapes,¹ so I dismissed it immediately–consider the source and all that.

Of course, being the mouthy rabblerouser that I am, I also wanted to write my piece–posted on Wednesday March 25th–to expand upon that comment at Dear Author and jab at certain people at the same time.

Which meant reading a bit more.

I saw SLWendy’s post and it gave me some pause–an uncomfortable feeling, if you will, that I did not take the time to examine as closely as I should have. I saw Courtney Milan’s delayed reaction on twitter, and felt the same vague discomfort.

Still, I finished writing my post fairly late that night, feeling confident I knew enough to reiterate my original reaction and support of Jane/Jen in the face of the inevitable backlash. At that point I thought that a lot if not most of said backlash was a) still to come, and b) going to be baseless.

Here is where I start eating my words.

The grandmother of all plot twists!

Second update: I’m eating some of my words.

Update: I’m closing comments and mulling a few things before I post something else–probably tomorrow morning. To find out why, read this as the Passive Voice.

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If you read Dear Author regularly, this is not news for you.

If you don’t…well, prepare to go down the rabbit hole. (This is freaking long, even for me.)

Jane Litte, reader, reviewer and ‘mean girl’ extraordinaire, also happens to be a self published and traditionally published author of a number of books (all written in about two and a half years, apparently, some with another fairly well known author, Jessica Clare), who has enough success to put the whole “(something or other) best seller” under her author name–Jen Frederick.

Here’s my comment on that post (minus the editing error (i.e., “to all those people” *headdesk*)

The Year We Fell Down, by Sarina Bowen

I do not believe that I had heard about Sarina Bowen for more than perhaps a week before DAJane posted her (now famous) money back guarantee on this book. Of course, in the face of such enthusiasm, I immediately bought it and then…

Waited for a bit.

Which I regretted pretty much as soon as I started reading it, because it truly was all that–and then some.

But see, it’s new adult and told in first person and with alternating points of view.

As I wail loudly (and more often than I like to admit, these days), I don’t like NA or first person. I don’t like either of those things, not a bit.

I don’t, I don’t, I don’t!

Until, that is, a talented writer shows me how it’s done, and then I inhale three novels and one novella one after the other, barely pausing for things like work or sleep. (Fortunately, I mastered the art of one-handed eating, getting dressed, etc a very long time ago) (because of holding books, you pervs, get your minds out of the gutter)

Where was I? Ah, yes.

I bought it on DAJane’s recommendation, waited a month, inhaled it and then bought the next three books in the series the same day, and proceeded to binge on them. Which brings me to this review.

The Year We Fell Down, by Sarina Bowen

Oh my, the good book noises from this one were pretty epic. I loved both characters, despite the fact that this is NA–and very much NA, as the protagonists are both still in college. The novel starts on ‘move-in day’ in a fictional Ivy League college in Connecticut, from the point of view of our heroine, Corey.

It took me about three pages to be hopelessly into the story, Corey’s stupid ‘hope fairy’ be damned. By the time we met Hartley, half way through the first chapter, I was already all the way into the book, and I didn’t surface until the very last page.

Here’s the blurb, from the author’s website:

Guess who may be called in to testify? (EC v DA)

(Update at the bottom)

This is not a post, but a by gleeful and snarky Hah! you are karma’s bitch, you dick! drive-by.

Courtney Milan has a new, brief post on the few developments in the EC v DA defamation case this past week, wherein she explains the differences between a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgement (this came up here).

The one thing in there that makes me grin so hard my face hurts is this:

• if it comes to pass that, after Ellora’s Cave and company present their discoveries *snort* any time this century would be good, and
• if after Jane Litte and Dear Author ask for summary judgment,
• if is denied (big if, though) then
• the defendants get to call some witnesses

Who, do you think, would be first on that list? If you guessed “TiNut” on the very first try…well, it was an easy one, but you still get a cookie. And perhaps some popcorn.

Here is how the TiNut appears on that witness list:

On that denial to remand (EC v DA)

(Updated for the win! on 1/13/15)

There’s nothing here, but Courtney Milan posted the layperson translation of the document, and explained what we can expect to happen next.

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As an aside, I do wish people would stop engaging TiNut and encouraging her delusions. It clutters #notchilled unnecessarily, in my opinion.

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For those who missed it: I believe (opinion! protected speech!) that the egg is Tina Engler. Ergo, TiNut.

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And if you just joined us, this starts here (updated as of today)

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Update!

#notchilled if EC is flourishing with an excess of $ then how are there damages to recover from DA? Also, Pubnt sues *all* teh internetz

— Robyn Huffman (@Vinity2) January 13, 2015