Scribbles and Bits

This month's patron poll was neck-and-neck, but the winner was a transcription of the appellate court cases from Multiple Personality And Dissociation, 1791-1992: A Complete Bibliography, Second Edition by Carole Goettman, George B. Greaves, and Philip M. Coons, published by The Sidran Press in 1994. I'm working on transcribing the rest of the book, correcting the OCR errors (and the book's innate typos) along the way.

You can support my work (and get yourself extra power at the polls!) by pledging at LiberaPay or Patreon!

( Content warning for every horrible possible thing you can imagine someone going to court over, including suicide, rape, torture of children, gruesome serial murder, cult leading, and mail theft. )

Sneak: While fiddling with archive practice, I was going through the archives of HOPEorg, a little "alternatives" coalition group that I saw ads for in Kinship magazine from 2001. I just needed to check how bad the linkrot was, so I started clicking. How many pages could there be on a Web 1.0 site, I thought?

Here I am hours later, feeling like I sank to the bottom of a terrible well. So, here's a little thing about H.O.P.E. I feel like two quotes sums it up pretty well:

"Our purpose is to improve things for alternatives, by creating and providing resources for them, networking with both alternatives and mainstream society to improve relations, and to keep an eye out and get involved in activism when it is needed" (H.O.P.E., 2001, April 22b, paragraph 3).

"Below is a list of offenses which are against HOPE policy. [...]
5.) Failure to Destroy Paperwork
7.) Making Public Statements About HOPE without Authorization
14.) Unnecessary/Excessive Use of Violence
39.) Endangerment of Life" (2000, April 26)

( Why are we like this? I know why, but why? )

Okay, this has happened enough times that I feel like it might prove useful.

Since I finished the Cultiples series, ex-followers of Panopticon's groups have been coming forward to speak to me.  There's been a decent few of them, and I thought it might be best for them to have a centralized place to share their stories, link-dump, and otherwise talk with each other, if they so desire.  Anon comments are turned on, and also screened, so that none will appear unless I specifically say so; if you want your words unscreened, just say so, otherwise they will remain hidden.  I will keep the comments moderated.

Panopticon has my blog staked out, and they may retaliate.  Be aware.

I will also use this as a centralized post to note those folks who have already come forward and stated they're okay with being public:

• Pigeon, Panopticon's former roommate's testimony. (And here's the thread where they said they were okay with it being public.) (EDIT: tumblr purged the post, so here is the archived version.)

Please steal my Cultiples books!  Download, rehost, and spread as you will.  I can't be silenced if the books are no longer in my possession!  Currently, you can get them in the following places:

• Google Drive (all three books, the two appendix/sources files, or one lump 100 MB download)
• Library Genesis (just the three books)
• Archive.org (100MB lump download of everything)

( Series Blurb )

( Individual book covers and blurbs. )


Comments disabled for obvious reasons.

Hey guys!  Well, it's been an exciting few days, so let me catch you up to speed!

1. Draven tried to get me thrown out of Flamecon.  Failed miserably.
2. Draven slapped me with bogus legal threats to try and get the Fandom Cults of Draven kicked off the Internet.  Still duking that out.  For the interim, if you want an ebook copy of The Fandom Cults of Draven, contact me privately.
3. Somebody posted my photo and Flamecon location on tumblr and told folks to come beat me up.
4. My friends and colleagues helped me report the threats to Flamecon, who took it seriously and rallied to me.
5. Despite all of the above, I managed to make pretty decent money, and I didn't cry in front of the customers (just on my friends).  Go me!
6. I sold out of the Draven trashbook print run.  May print more out of sheer spite.  I mean, for fuck's sake, if I'm going to get threats of violence and legal bullshit, I might as well get paid for all my goddamn trouble!
7. I finished the rough draft of the Panopticon write-up and sent it to my editor pals.  Yeah, that thing is getting done.

Considering the sheer unadulterated insanity of the past week, we're holding up better than expected.  Oh, don't get me wrong, being threatened with violence at your workplace is scary, no matter how bullshit you're sure the threat is, but mostly, I am PISSED.  Seriously, who do y'all think I am, Steven King?  HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU THINK EVEN READ MY BOOKS?  You're fucking telling folks to beat my ass at Flamecon over a book that maybe a dozen people have read, tops!  I mean, Jesus Christ, y'all!

Especially since you little fuckers are just proving my goddamn point.  Threatening to beat my ass doesn't actually do anything but scare me.  It doesn't protect future "victims" from me (if we are in fact going on the idea that I'm out to get folks), it doesn't protect past ones.  It's completely counter-productive!  It rallies folks to me because when you threaten to beat up artists for making a book, YOU LOOK LIKE BAD GUYS!  And it also strengthens my conviction that I need to talk about these things, because sensible, decent people don't respond to defamation with BEATING THREATS.  Like, how do y'all not know this?  Plus I'm now super-incentivized to make a huge ruckus so at least if I'm found stabbed in the face at Comic Con, folks will have an inkling WHY and know who to arrest.

Dumbasses.

Comments and messages are locked to access-only until everything is cleaned up.  Also, I scrubbed my friend's list; nothing personal, but considering the week I've had, I don't really feel like opening myself up to people.

EDIT (9/5/2018): The tumblr post has been taken down, so as proof that it happened, here is the screencap. Also, you can now purchase the ebook version of the Draven book through my Patreon, using the $15 filter. For the paper book, you still have to contact me privately or see me at an event.

EDIT 7/11/18: This post has been made public, as the more we've learned about Gallifreyan Tradition, the more disturbing the group becomes.

( This is cut text for those who'd like to skip intra-system conflict. )

This is the first part of story of our experiences as the penpal of Tristan Grey, the system that is currently in jail for kidnapping and raping teenage girls. (His legal name is Desiree Hamm, and that is how the newspapers referred to him, but since nobody in the system went by that name and Tristan seems to be the one who did the crimes, I will call him by that name.)

NOTE: I do not know if Tristan's activity qualifies as a 'little tin cult.' Details are sparse on the ground; all I have to go on are fourteen letters, eight newspaper articles, and a few pages of court documents. I am listing it under this tag because it's in the general wheelhouse of plurals (or people claiming to be plural) using religion and online activity to control and hurt vulnerable people. Just this time, it's shamanism, rather than fandom.
( Read more... )