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Philbin has shown up again at Shocklines. With Philcon approaching in November, Philbin is attempting to cozy up to people in an attempt to persuade them to nominate him for a Philip K. Dick Award. Previously in Dagstine’s forum, now vanished, at Horrorworld, Dagstine and Philbin were both going on and on about both the Hugo Awards and the Philip K. Dick Awards. Both awards are among the most prestigious in speculative fiction. Daggy wanted a fan Hugo and Philbin wanted a Philip K. Dick Award. At that time, Daggy mentioned that he intended to try and make it to Philcon.
How Philbin, notorious for writing noxious fiction filled with disgusting imagery, can believe that his work is as good as that of the previous winners and nominees is a study in infantile shit-fetishistic behavior patterns of the entitlement generation.
Insulting and offending the reader will not gain him an award in anything except poo smearing.
Writers are free to write what they wish. Editors are free to buy what they wish. AND READERS ARE FREE TO TELL BOTH THE WRITER AND THE EDITOR TO EAT SHIT AND DIE and refuse to give them awards they do not deserve. This especially holds true for fan voted awards.
Kody Boye offered a very well-expressed analysis of what was wrong with Philbin’s book. He did so politely. Dagstine is trying to discredit Kody’s analysis with some very hardcore abusiveness.
In case Matt finally gets out the snippers<img src=”
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Alternative Reads posted the following Review
Then a review appeared at Shocklines
Both of them mostly positive.
John, one of my ex’s, decided to get snarky again and posted a comment on the Shockline’s thread. He’s gone back to shoving Aidan Kelly in my face again in private. You’d think since we’ve been broken up for more than a decade, John would just stop doing this.
Postscript: I bumped this one up in hopes that the person who posted the review at Shocklines will come forward and admit to it. It’s a gorgeous review. It should actually be obvious that I did not write it because the reviewer went out of their way to use a race name from my books. That’s something I would never have done. And I have never posted things with alts.
I know that I have spoken out about his before, but I’m going to take another swing at it.
In its heyday, Shocklines was a fun place to post and read. There was a huge presence among the professionals in the community. Advice was solid, discussion was lively and thought provoking.
Even before Matt gave up his store, it was on a downward spiral. The first symptoms of it were Matt’s banning of some of the most popular people on his board, including Brian Keene. I was banned briefly. Dan and Susan were banned. Those are just the ones that come immediately to mind.
I used to have long exchanges with Angeline Hawkes and others on Shocklines. I miss those.
Matt did not stock books wisely. He purchased copies of books by nearly all (if not all) the self-publishered authors who posted to his board, including Pacione. He did this regardless of quality. He ended up with a huge stockpile of books he could not sell.
I don’t know what came of this, but at one point Matt had expressed a desire to become a literary agent representing horror. Was one of the reasons he turned so sour a discovery that no one worth their salt wanted to be represented by him?
So now the store is technically gone, although Matt is still trying to rid himself of that huge collection of unreadable material. Horror Mall, a much more pleasant place to talk, has an active forum and a bookstore. They have picked up where Matt left off and made a go of it. They are all the things that Matt is not and never was (when you really think about it) and they know that the authors are the draw.
Matt allows snarky comments from people like Dagstine, PassieAnnie, and Phleabitten. He’s either blind or partial to them. Possibly a combination of both. He seems to be the only person who does not see what is going on and fails to make the connections.
Remember the old adage:
You can fool some of the people all of the time.
You can fool all of the people some of the time.
But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Guess what, Matt? It’s catching up to you.
Matt at Shocklines deleted my comment that the cover to Phobia magazine was ugly. He said I was insulting the publication. He also issued me a warning.
matt:
from: Shocklines to: cussedness subject: Re: Re: Re: Hello
Coming onto someone’s thread where they’re proud about a publication and saying “that’s ugly. I would never buy it.” is disrespectful. It also doesn’t help the artist in know what you don’t like.
If don’t like something, offer constructive criticism. Again, you wouldn’t want someone to come on talking about your fiction and simply say “Your fiction sucks. I would never buy it.” You would want them to explain what they don’t like and why they don’t like it , while still being respectful of the work you put iinto it.
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From: cussedness
To:Shocklines
Sent:July 17, 2008, 7:00 am
I don’t see that as an insult. I do think that it is ugly. That’s a subjective statement of opinion and was never intended as an insult. There was no name calling and no belittling there. Had I said that I thought it was “disgusting” as I have elsewhere, that would have been insulting. Ugly is a very mild word, Matt. Calling something ugly is not equivalent to putting up nazi images.
I think that much of what goes on is a matter of degree. There are far worse things going on on your board these days than one person seeing an image as ugly. Having done two semesters as an art major when I was younger, I could have ripped it apart inch by inch starting with contrast and composition. I have often felt that it is covers like this that account for the low sales figures of many horror novels and the current prejudice by the larger publishing industry against horror. But I chose not to go that far and let it become truly insulting.
By and large, low key covers sell better than covers like that one. You can see that by the types of covers that the majors are currently using for the horror novels they bring out.
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From: Shocklines
To:cussedness
Sent:July 17, 2008, 6:49 am
I’ve removed every post you’ve asked me to. But on the Phobia thread, you then not only posted a direct insult to a cover someone was posting that they were proud of, but then tried to derail the conversation.
It’s fine to not like the cover — but post your thoughts in a respectful manner that remembers that people put their time and love into it. You would want someone to treat your work the same, even if they didn’t like it. It’s okay not to like it – but always use respect when posting.
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From: cussedness
To:Shocklines
Sent:July 16, 2008, 5:27 am
Matt, Philbin is using images to insult people. I find the Nazi image he posted to the Cognitive Dissonance thread to be personally offensive. My father’s family fled Nazi Germany when he was a boy because my grandmother was Jewish. Can you do something about this?
Matt, at Shocklines, deleted all of the posts except for a tiny few. Of course, all of mine are gone.
