Just a bit more honest feedback. Not only honest, but also free of charge ….
If Ms Fraser does take a year off from work to write a novel, I hope she has considered arranging interim cover to make sure somebody keeps on top of her work and business while she is otherwise engaged, including managing the following:
Writing travel articles – although these could poss be deferred for a year tbh;
Running Edgeway Press – although is there anything further to do now the paper has been chosen and the launch party has taken place?
Writing the Submissions Guidelines – see above;
Podcasting – could maybe just keep the ‘coming soon’ message on the website for another year;
Unsilencing women – see above re EP, and in any case if these women have been silent thus far would it really harm them to shut up for another 365 days?
NCDV Ambassadorship – genuinely cannot fathom what this entails, so can’t advise on this one.
Talking about finding things unfathomable, still puzzled by the trolling allegations made by LF on SM. I’m wondering who she is talking about. It’s not the lovely Cleaning Ladies of Mumsnet because we only search for truth whilst maintaining our right to remain unsilenced. (REMAIN unsilenced Mumsnet).
The trolls, whoever they may be, have had many accusations hurled at them. The accusation about putting out LF’s private address into the public domain is easy to assess – if anybody put anything out there prior to the incorporation of EP it might be an issue. Anything following that date, not so much. Ms Fraser put it there herself. Getting cross about it on SM won’t change the facts on this one.
Other accusations are a bit more vague, including ‘damaging her family’, or damaging her ‘as a mother ‘etc. No specifics, but I can sympathise. I’ve suffered damage to me and my family through threats of violence, narrowly escaping being sprung on a dark lane by 2 threatening men, having seven tyre punctures within 3 or 4 months, most of which were caused by a lovely long nail. Never found out if it was sabotage, but if it was, whoever did it had wilfull disregard for the safety of me and my children. And on the day I was attending a family funeral, my bullies started digging up the retaining banking at the bottom of my garden with a mechanical digger. Just as I was about to set off.
Yet I never publicly called these people effing morons, cockroaches or any such slur. I mean, privately we had names for them all, including ‘Gadaffi’, ‘Shxt-for-brains’, ‘Colonel Pomparse’, ‘the Pope’, ‘Fork Handles’, ‘Farmergeddon’ and ‘Leering Half Wit’ (Red-Indian handle!) In public, I called them by their given names.
Liz is free to insult and slur these never-named individuals, but there are other ways to deal with these issues (especially if they are real). For example, when one of my bullies got in my face, called me a ‘f@cking crackpot’ and held a camera to film my reaction I gave him a smile and asked him if he was OK. It can be done, Liz. You can maintain the moral high ground. Calling people bitches and witches, effing morons, and liking a comment by somebody calling the ‘trolls’ (whoever they may be) ‘cockroaches’ is pretty cringey. Imho.
Wonder if there will ever be any specifics about the trolling, or if it will remain vague and unsubstantiated. It will be interesting to see.