i just heard about this whole ITW awards stink. check out the lipstick chronicles and sandrablabber for more details.
WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY:
Yes, i was a judge for the ITW awards. I'm proud of ITW, and i'm proud to have been a judge for best hardcover thriller of the year. My team was FANTASTIC. We worked so well together and I'm proud of all of them. Shortly after the finalists were announced some people were horrifed to find there were no women nominees. Here was my response to that issue:
"I was one of the judges in the best novel category, and I can say we would love to have seen a female on our list. We chose the books we thought were best whether they were written by a man or a woman. I'm not sure what the numbers were as far as
male/female entries. I remember before all the books were in I did a count and had less
than a handful of female entries. By the end I would guess maybe 15% were written by women."
About Me
- anne frasier
- Anne Frasier, USA Today bestselling author of Hush, Sleep Tight, Play Dead, Pale Immortal, and Garden of Darkness, has been recognized with numerous awards including the RITA and Daphne du Maurier for romantic suspense. Publishers Weekly says Frasier "has perfected the art of making a reader's skin crawl." The Minneapolis Star Tribune calls her a "master." She divides her time between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
32 comments:
Holy cow! Who, when, why--huh? I must investigate. But without even reading anything, I know your details and I stand by your side on the issue. =)
Anne, I've experienced the same thing, where people I haven't met have made judgments, had little chit-chats, in some cases sent out hateful emails. And often with misinformation that, if they'd come to me directly, they could have gotten clarification on.
I still get upset about it, but I've decided not to lose sleep over people who won't respond to my emails to try to clear the air.
I didn't like the accusation that it was you who talked - I don't know where that came from.
But thanks for the referral, and I hope that the furor calms down a bit. You had a good reason for withdrawing, and while it's important for us to remember this is the ITW's first year and there will be kinks to work out, it's also important to remember that writers have to choose where to spend their promotion dollars carefully. I completely respect your decision, and I look forward to a bigger and better Thrillerfest next year and cures the hiccups.
kelly, thanks! lol! i think this person has somehow turned one thing into something else. " well, if she would cancel out of the conference at the last minute, then she's probably also do this."
sandra, i keep deleting things! i decided to be the adult here when i realized i was doing exactly what she was doing. i tried to get to the bottom of that accusation, but have had no luck. she seemed to mean exactly what i thought she meant, but had no foundation for it. i think for some people it's easier to focus frustration on people you don't know and make those people the enemy.
Anne, you rock. I stopped reading the thread at TLC pretty early yesterday when that whole topic was just heating up. I really hate it when a discussion devolves into rude-o comments. Anyway, I went back this evening & had to laugh 'cause it just seemed so unbelievable. Whatever. It's a drag that instead of "hmm, what's going on here?" it turned into this crazy poo flinging mess. Dunno what it's worth, but I'm sorry someone made such thinly veiled and unfounded accusations about your ethics. That totally sucks & I just don't buy it. I still think you rock and I'm still bummed you won't be there next week - though I'm sure you're doubly glad you cancelled now.
Do you want me to delete my comment?
Looks like I missed all the fun.
angie: thanks so much. ((((hug))))
yeah, i was just catching up on the whole thing and thought i must have misunderstood at first. :D
and yes -- i was just thinking wow, glad i'm missing out on that.
sandra, i think that's fine. thanks for asking.
sorry, emeraldcite! just the usual shit stirring. :D
i'm a shit-stirring magnet.
Damn! I missed all the fun.
Well, considering the post at TLC, and some of the things said there about the ethics of the judges I can take a guess at what this post was about.
This whole thing is goddamn stupid. I'm so sorry that your ethics were called into question by someone who decided to run off at the mouth.
Okay, I just went and read 90 comments worth of debate and I don't get how this commentor connected a certain author to something else being debated entirely. And to make those allegations is down right rude and not to mention unethical to talk about someone behind her back when she is not even there to defend herself. Argh! That ticks me off because this certain author is a good person, and who the heck does the commentopr think she is to point fingers on something that isn't true??? Yes, I'm being vague, but who the heck cares.
stephen, yeah, i was just reading along, thinking how did i miss all of this -- and wow. i really thought i must have misunderstood.
kelly, i know! i don't get it either. i can't come close to connecting the dots.
I don't think there are any dots to connect. The whole controversy feels like a carpet bombing run. Hit everything indiscriminately.
Some slick smart bombs went back the other way, though.
Bombs aren't good, that's for sure. I'm loving the blog BTW.
apparently i pissed some people off by dropping out of the conference because of the last-minute book problem. apparently some people think that was a crappy thing for me to do. i don't see how my lack of attendance has anything to do with judging -- that's the connection i can't find. two completely different things. i'd never planned to go to the awards ceremony. i was trying to justify the expense and cut cost every way i could, and the ceremony was another 80 bucks i think. i hadn't planned to even stay saturday night until i ended up on a sunday panel.
hi kay!
thanks for dropping by. :)
Remember how I said something good would come out of not going? I think avoiding all this garbage is one of those good things. FL is probably looking pretty good right now. Nice review of PI over at Rasp. Latte, BTW. Looking forward to reading it!
I guess soap operas can never just stay on TV. Life is difficult enough. Why do people make more shit to swim through?
angie, i'd forgotten that! you were so right!
three big, unexpected things happen with the conference; 1) couldn't use my frequent flyer miles 2) the sunday panel -- another night's stay 3) no books. for me those are pretty clear signs. some people would say they mean nothing, but i get really nervous when i push something like that.
i loved stacie's review at rasp. latte!
emeraldcite: i need hip waders!
See what happens when you volunteer? You get hosed, every time.
Rock on, Anne! :)
no shit!
thanks, joe. i've really appreciated your common sense these past two days.
Anne, it looks like some people are equating (i) your decision not to go to the conference with (ii) an accusation that you are the "disgruntled" judge who did not like the nomination results.
I believe you've clearly stated two things:
1) For specific and understandable reasons, you decided not to attend conference.
2) YOU ARE NOT the so-called "disgrunted" judge. You did NOT release the names of books under consideration.
Two different issues, folks. Don't mate them. Anne is catching a whole lotta flack for someone else.
thanks, jason!
i'm not even sure there is anybody else.
without some kind of proof, i refuse to believe that any ITW judge breached anything.
this can't be about getting blog traffic, can it? i would so hate to think that's what all this nastiness is about, but i'll bet a couple of places got a lot of hits today.
You can't control what other people think and say about you, only your response. And you have responded to these ridiculous accusations in the proper manner. It says a lot about your character. :)
Jeff's right. It's amazing how much damage gossip, anonymous quotes, innuendo, and twisted words can cause. But all you can really do is continue to handle yourself as an adult and a professional. The truth will come out. Maybe not as fast as you would like, but it will happen.
jeff and angie -- thanks. i think i slipped a little this evening though.
i have been in touch with some people who seem to think the elaine viet quotes are complete lies that she fabricated simply to make ITW look bad. which is what i've been saying and tried to point out to a certain person last night. don't repeat this crap as truth. and certainly don't hang it around my neck.
If you said nothing, they'd still find something to bitch about. Ignore the negativity and keep on keeping on. People are never satisfied.
tanya, you're right.
this is an reminder of why i quit hanging around with writers for several years. to avoid this type of thing because it does always happen, and it happens when you're minding your own business.
there is no way to avoid it.
this was just an act of pettiness of this person's part. she was mad about one thing and took the opportunity to try to connect me to this other crap.
i saved everything in a file -- blogs posts and emails because i have grounds for a suit. i'd never do anything like that, but if this doesn't stop i might have to think about it.
and back to the gender issue. would a man pull something like this? no. men don't do this kind of thing.
I hope you see this as an unfortunate anomaly, Anne. Surely all writers aren't in the habit of slamming each other like this. It's been a rotten few days, lots of anger, poor logic & jumping to conclusions. And oh yeah, not actually reading carefully what has been written. Yuck. But not everyone is petty or vindictive. So I'm hoping you don't take your ball and go home, 'cause that would suck. As for me, I'm getting back to the thing I need to be doing...finishing up that damn draft! That's what it's really about, isn't it?
angie, unfortunately this kind of thing goes along with the writing world. i've only experienced it...i think this would be the third time in 20 years. but when it happens it has the potential to do some serious career damage -- especially now with blogging. i do continually question the wisdom of having a blog, but i haven't given up on it yet. and yeah, it should be about writing! i haven't gotten a damn thing done!
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