The lovely Mrs. Correia requested that I avoid the internet as much as possible this weekend, so I’ve got a ton of comments and messages to go through. So bullet points!

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Somebody make sure this bit gets back to GRRM. He wanted to know if he could have input on SP4 nominees. Not my call, talk to Kate. She’s in charge next year and I don’t know what she’s going to do. However, I’m guessing that since Brad just took suggestions on his blog for things that were worthy, quality works that would normally not have a chance of getting nominated, from authors who were normally ignored, and your suggestions fit that, then sure. Suggest away.

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The replacements were announced for the authors who dropped out. I’ve not read Three Body Problem yet but I’ve heard good things about it. A Single Samurai is a great story. Because I am apparently required to state the obvious, I encourage everyone to read all of the works and vote for what they think is the best.

Amusing side note, I was told Vox Day loved Three Body Problem, and the only reason it wasn’t on his RP was that he hadn’t read it in time… So quick, nobody tell the angry guilt by association mob. 🙂

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During all this controversy, I’ve had detractors attack me for things people say in my blog comments. I replied that I don’t mess with the comments. I don’t “massage”, “kitten”, or “disemvowel”. I don’t remove posts just because I disagree with them. I let people argue freely. And in all the years of doing this I’ve only blocked a handful of trolls and crazy people.

Apparently the trolls and crazy people took that as a challenge, and I got a bunch of “I’m a huge Corriea fan (some of them couldn’t even spell my name right) and SP supporter (who has never posted here before) and racial slur, racial slur, racial slur, threats against authors we disagree with, racial slur, racial slur! (seriously, it was like they were trying to channel Boyd Crowder). Yay Sad Puppies.”

I’m sure they thought this was a clever trap, either Correia approves these posts showing his supporters are huge flaming nutterbutters, or he’s a hypocrite who does moderate comments. But that thing about normally not blocking people? Yeah, that’s my personal attempt at allowing free speech, not a suicide pact. Blocked, dumb asses. Sheesh. This isn’t rocket science.

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Apparently there were a bunch more stupid articles and news reports this weekend, still running with the angry straight white men, anti-diversity slate angle. I don’t even bother reading them anymore. It is all the same script. I didn’t even know Popular Science was still around.

In the interest of full disclosure, none of the hit pieces tried to talk to us, but NPR’s On The Media did try to reach out. They sent me an email, they wanted to speak on the phone to gather info, but it was on a day when I was running around the wilds of Yard Moose Mountain and I missed their call. I sent them an apology the next morning.

I haven’t listened, but I heard they brought in professional outrage monger Arthur Chu to explain everything. Ha! But to be fair, they at least tried.

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Now this week, I can either keep repeating myself, or I can get back to work. Despite the best attempts to destroy my reputation a bunch of people still want to give me large sums of money for writing stuff, so work it is.