Author: Tracy Johnson
Date:   11-20-09 00:21

Just wanted to apologize for my use of foul language on this board. It was disrespectful. Just lost my temper with a certain poster.

Anyway, everyone on here has been very supportive, for the most part. As Frank suggested, I'm taking that and disregarding the rest. Truly regretful that I let someone I believe to be ignorant, someone who doesn't know me from Adam's housecat, cause me to lose my cool.

Night, gang.

Author: Author Pendragin
Date:   11-20-09 00:44

It happens to the best people Tracy. Everyone has bad days, and a lot of people use profanity on this board. I understand that you're problem was in the way that you responded, so I am glad that, because of that, you are humble enough to set right something you felt was wrong. It was a sensitive issue being dealt with and some folks could have treaded softer. I think for the good of your manuscript that taking Frank's suggestion is best. In completing your memoirs you may help someone going through the same thing.

Author: Frank Baron
Date:   11-20-09 01:50

Tracy, I hadn't revisited that thread in a day or so and I see it was polluted. I'm going to re-post here what I wrote there:

Tracy, you haven't been around long enough to learn about LilyWhite.

Writers.net is her last refuge. As one of the internet's most vile trolls, she's been banned from every writer's site on the net except this one. She vomits bile through her keyboard. She's a coward who hides behind her nicknames and her proxy servers.

Don't give serious consideration to any of the words she pukes. Nobody else here does.

Author: Marianne Mihkelson
Date:   11-20-09 04:17

Tracy, good on you for apologizing. Gives me faith that this can be kept as a place to discuss writing without digressing to personal disputes.

I've been away for a while, so I went back and read the thread. At first it made me upset that your exerpt and some people's interpretation of it touched off such a torrent of reactions and debate. Then I realized something. The best books are the ones that make people think, that spark discussions, that put you in the situation and ask you "how would you react". I think you should be thankful for all those emotionally charged responses you got, because it shows that there will be a lot of interest in your book.

I have to say though, that the title "Dirty Genes" really doesn't grab me. I'm no good with titles, so I don't have a better alternative for you. All I know is that unless I really liked the cover I probably wouldn't pick it up. From reading all your exerpts, though, I would definitely read your book.

Author: Cindy Kay
Date:   11-20-09 08:08

Tracy,

I like Dirty Genes.

Have you tracked down good real-world critique group? Probably be best for you to find a devoted group who can really get inside what you're trying to do with your writing. My critique group is invaluable.

Sorry I fell into the debate. I knew L was worthless to engage, but I hadn't realized J was so desperate. Lessons learned. Hope you look back on that and get some ideas that will be helpful in the book. It's gonna be great. Hard to read, I suspect, but your voice and writing will give it the flair a reader needs to handle the tough stuff.

Author: Tracy Johnson
Date:   11-20-09 08:40

God, Frank, so glad you enlightened me on this Lily chick(?) Feel like a real sucker now, having fallen onto her hook. Ah, it happens ...

And thank you for telling me that I can write. Means more than you could ever know....

Have a beautiful day, Frank.

Author: Tracy Johnson
Date:   11-20-09 08:43

Author, thanks for your gentleness. You sound like such a sweetheart. Bet you drive the girls around you crazy (in a good way!)

Author: Tracy Johnson
Date:   11-20-09 08:54

Cindy,

Happy to see you floatin' around here this fine mornin'. Was wonderin' where all my new friends were last night when this Lily chick was waving around her broken beer bottle! Funny, the more she continued posting, the more evident it became to me that she was "unstable," to keep it polite. Which, of course, is why almost no one jumped in. You all knew she was nuts.

Dirty Genes just seems like such a perfect title for a book that has the genetic disease Huntington's as its running theme. I do love word play.

As far as writing groups (critique groups) Cindy, I have spent literally hours searching for such a thing in this town. Even resorting to placing an ad in the local paper trying to start one. No responses whatsoever. Zip. Sucks big time because I would thrive in such a setting. And am so envious that you are part of a group like this. Lucky ducky, you are, Cindy girl.

Author: Rogue Mutt
Date:   11-20-09 08:57

You should go over to the new, unmoderated Political Chat forum and cuss up a storm on Lily's latest racist spiel. Venting is good for the soul. ;-)

Author: John Oberon
Date:   11-20-09 09:00

I like the sound and play of Dirty Genes, if Huntington's a primary theme of the book.

Cindy,

By "J" do you mean me? Because I'm unaware of any desperation on my part.

Author: Tracy Johnson
Date:   11-20-09 09:19

Marianne, (How lucky are you, to be named after a Leonard Cohen song?!) your words were needed more this morning than my cup of coffee. Because of my long term issues with self-esteem, I derail so easily from things, particularly writing. You helped get me back on track. If I were in Nepal right now, I'd give you the biggest hug.

Sucks that you don't like "Dirty Genes!" I've been thinkin' it was the greatest thing since sliced bread ... (lol)... definitely not married to it though.

K, Miss Marianne, off to smoke and write this morning. Hope you're doing wonderfully on the other side of this world!

Author: Lily
Date:   11-20-09 15:27

"I'm going to re-post here what I wrote there"

(LOL) So am I.(ROFL)

"Poor old Frank he's been boiling over with bile ever since I exposed him as a paedophile. Two very nasty incidents involving his stepsons. His wife divorced him, of course. It's all a matter of public record. So it doesn't surprise me that a piece of human garbage like him would empathise with a drunken, vicious, foul-mouthed slut that couldn't write a coherent shopping list let alone a *best seller.* Two of a kind. Pathetic. Oh and by the way, Tracey, it's a criminal offence to make threats, didn't you know that?


Cheers


Do carry on"

Author: Lily
Date:   11-20-09 15:37

BTW, Tracey, I've emailed these two threads with your comments highlighted to Elle Magazine.

Cheers

Author: Tracy Johnson
Date:   11-20-09 15:48

Yaaawn, God, sorry .... uh, I haven't freelanced in over five years. Knock yourself out.

Author: Lily
Date:   11-20-09 15:59

"Yaaawn, God, sorry .... uh, I haven't freelanced in over five years"

(LOL) I doubt you ever "freelanced" anything but your sorry old body. Ick.

Author: julius christensen
Date:   11-20-09 16:16

Tracy I love your 'voice'. The excerpt had me hankering for more and I would buy your book! I also congratulate you on your courage. I struggled with several chapters of my memoir however I got through it with support from family and friends. You do not need comments such as the one above from L. Rise above her noise and fly to a peaceful spot and KEEP Writing. I wish you buckets of joy.

Author: Kate B.
Date:   11-20-09 16:20

Is it too late to comment on the writing? I didn't want to post on the other thread because I didn't think you would check in there.

FWIW, I think that your opening line should be "It wasn’t a good summer for vulnerable girls in New York" and the sentences that came after. It's compelling and makes me ask, "Why not?" which keeps me reading. The earlier parts I found more confusing because I didn't recognize the dialect right away and it isn't until the MC is dancing naked that I get a clear mental picture of anything.

I also didn't get that it was a rape. Though, I'm not sure what you've described (in my mind) isn't more powerful. To me, it's a young woman who hates herself enough to allow herself to be used this way. I think if you clean up the images a little bit more (and absolutely include the bit about the scabs and bruises from self-mutilation) it's something that should ring familiar to a lot of women. Personally, I knew several girls in high school who reacted to abuse at home with a promiscuous search for love. And, when people relate to a thing, it's powerful writing. In my opinion.

Good luck with this. I'm sorry if this was your first post on this forum.

Author: Sam Fletcher
Date:   11-20-09 16:45

Tracy,

You were right to apologize, not because you we're necessarily in the wrong, but because an apology shows a kindness of spirit and an empathy for someone who has been hurt. You showed the quality of who you are by apologizing and Lily showed the quality of who she is by refusing to do so.

I've learned, over the last couple of years, that it's best to ignore mean-spirited, baiting criticism. The person on the other end of that comment doesn't care about anything but winning the debate. They will cheat, lie, slander and mock the things you hold dear in order to put you in your place.

I don't know Lily well enough to know how far she will go in an argument but I suspect that there isn't much of anything that is off limits for her. So, refuse to see her comments, refuse to be perturbed by them and refused to be goaded into replying.

There are times when I will fight back but only when some great principle is at stake. I choose my battles carefully and believe that you will learn to do the same.

Author: C. M. Avanti
Date:   11-20-09 16:49

I liked the writing....tho I thought the dialect could go. Sure this was rape, the intoxiccated can't consent. Addiction is a sickeness, no doubt in my mind....bein there, done that, walk a mile in my nikes. Good luck with this one Trace

Author: Lily
Date:   11-20-09 17:18

"You showed the quality of who you are by apologizing and Lily showed the quality of who she is by refusing to do so."

Duh? I have nothing to apologise for. I replied to a controversy over whether Tracey was a drunken whore. I suggested that she wasn't. That her behaviour had qualified her as a drunken slut, rather than a whore, because she didn't appear to charge the men she partied with. Here are my exact words:

"Any woman who gets herself sloshed, strips naked, and dances around a group of males cannot dignify what is bound to happen as *rape.* Gimme a break. Here is the direct quote: "I pirouette around for them, butt naked, like some blind ballerina,"

You were not a drunken "whore," Tracey, unless you charged them a buck a fvck, or whatever, but you were certainly a drunken slut. Blaming incidents in your childhood for these life choices that YOU made is futile and dishonest."

And this was Tracey's response:

"Fearless enough that if you ever called me a "drunken slut" to my face, you would needs years of plastic surgery to ever venture out in public again. @!#$ you, you narrow-minded, holier-than-thou *****."

Author: julius christensen
Date:   11-21-09 00:23

Lily, what did you expect the response from Tracy to be? I have to question your sense of compassion but more than that, the byline to the initial post should have been enough for you to realise this brave girl was not looking for anything other than a critique of her writing. I sincerely hope you never have to face adversity in your life, as others have had to with theirs, and if you ever do I hope you find some support to help you through which is what all survivors of abuse need.

Author: Gary Kessler
Date:   11-21-09 00:28

Oh, Lily's not a real person. Just some gamester's play toy for getting a rise out of other posters. Just pretend "she" isn't even in the room--or play a little bit with "her." Lily gets all puffed up and incoherent when folks bounce "her" around a bit. Good for "her," though. Sits at the computer all day; doesn't get near enough exercise. :)

Author: Lily
Date:   11-21-09 00:38

"Lily gets all puffed up and incoherent when folks bounce "her" around a bit"

It's your posts that are getting more and more incoherent, Gary. Been tippling a bit have we? Yikes I'd hate to have to live in your nasty skin with all that frustration just oozing from it. Ick.

Author: Author Pendragin
Date:   11-21-09 00:43

Kessler vs Lily, Round 11 :) Seriously, how long is this going to go on?

Author: Gary Kessler
Date:   11-21-09 01:04

Beats me. What time does England close down?

Author: Marianne Mihkelson
Date:   11-21-09 02:50

Well, most people like your title, so don't go by what I said. Whenever it does come out, I will be in line to read it.
Take care.

Author: Battle Angel
Date:   11-23-09 11:06

"Sure this was rape, the intoxiccated can't consent."

The men were intoxicated as well. So, are you saying it is illegal for drunk people to have sex?

Being drunk is no excuse for bad bahavior. By women or men. If it were, then drunk drivers wouldn't be responsible when they kill someone.

The author herself has admitted she wasn't writing a rape scene.