Welcome, Mariah, and I think....
MariahJ said:
I have been lurking and gathering good info from the many here. One comment on whether this HB person is here or not, I have noticed some similarities to writing style and manner also of him and some here, but I wasn't going to say anything. Is this PA war that big? Is HB a PA employee or not?
....the bottom line is, the PA "war" is this big, and the person in question is not even worthy of further discussion - he's a literary pissant, and that's me being really nice about it.
Getting back to the PA war, I've spent time with more than one person here who has poured their hearts into writing something, only to find that they might as well have taken their work and tossed it into a Krispy Kreme doughnut machine. PA is simply a trip to nowhere. When I started writing, I had a couple of very nice published authors who greatly helped me out, they gave me good advice, and really helped build my confidence about what I was attempting to do (get published). When I asked what I could do in return for their kindness, they both told me, "Help any promising writer who happens to come along." Since there are tons of promising writers here, and PA preys on people like that, I feel like my way of helping them is to do anything I can to expose PA for what they are. I've personally watched writers at conferences and literary trade shows get embarrassed beyond measure on account of their association with PA, and that's a terrible thing to behold. PA treats their writers pretty much like pond scum, and they need to be the same as Tim McVeigh - gone.
Mariah, didn't mean to get so intense, just wanted to fully and honestly answer your questions. You'll enjoy it here at AW, lots of good info and good people to be found, and I hope you'll post more in the future.
P.S. Fellow denizens of AW, we have gone over 200,000 page views for this thread! Two hundred thousand! I had someone email me the other day and say they loved the info presented here and the fact that we're a wonderful "literary soap opera." Personally, I think ZaZ is the true drawing card for this thread, his quiet epistles of friendship, togetherness, and sobriety draw people in here like magnets....