I woke up to an e-mail from someone working at Tor. My correspondent begged that I not say anything that could lead to his/her/its identification, for fear of retaliation, but provided details that allowed me to confirm his/her/its identity and position there. A certain amount of ‘inside info’ was provided, and I’m promised more such information from a second correspondent later today.
This isn’t by any means the same as an official communication from either Tor or Macmillan, but it’s intensely interesting nonetheless, and may have a bearing on my future decisions. I’ll put up an article this evening with whatever I can share that won’t identify my sources. Let’s just say that if the information provided so far is correct, there appears to be a fair amount of sturm und drang in Tor’s upper echelons right now, and things are being shaken up to a considerable degree. This is not being greeted with unalloyed sorrow lower down the food chain there, where a soupçon of schadenfreude is helping the medicine go down.
Watch this space . . .
Peter
I'll have my popcorn ready! 😀
Yes! "I'll be baack."
Here's hoping Tor/Macmillan are "shaking things up," and in a positive direction.
Disagreement over politics – and even a willingness to argue them – is one thing.
Openly expressing contempt for anyone who doesn't agree with you, especially when they happen to be your clients, customers and authors (!) is something quite different…and there's a bunch of people over at Tor and Tor.com who crossed that line a long time ago. And Irene Gallo isn't even the worst offender over there, by far.
That said, whatever happens to Gallo (and/or PNH, Liz Bourke, etc.), I'm thinking John C. Wright's days as a Tor author are numbered, especially after the way he was treated in the Tom Doherty apology thread over at Tor.com. (And especially if Gallo and some of her like-minded fellows are shown the door.) It started with accusations of homophobia by the Torcommers and quickly escalated to the point of anti-Christianity, with a side order of "payback" for our daring to criticize Gallo.
For that matter, I'm wondering how much longer Brandon Sanderson will last over there, absent some major changes in Tor's editorial staff. Didn't he face some nasty accusations of being anti-gay a few years ago, based on his being LDS?
–Wes S.
Given the reddit posts from another claimed employee that said that the company stands with Gallo, I'm taking all backchannel leaks with a grain of salt. We'll see what Macmillian and Tor actually do.
Very interesting
Watching with great anticipation,
I am.
Peter, as an aside to the actual issue, I haven't heard the term "sturm und drang" since 1963, when a very nice yet very demanding university professor, Dr. Doshe, used it in a mathematics class. He spoke with a *very* heavy German accent and immediately after exiting at the end of session, some of us gathered in a "what did he say?" flock. Nobody knew and only a handful were interested/concerned enough to pursue the matter, lest we miss an apparently obscure mathematical term.
Two or three days later, having scoured the text and a couple of others for any term that might match what we thought we heard and found nothing close, I was elected to ask the professor to repeat what we thought we heard and to explain its mathematical meaning.
He was puzzled at first as I, and then others, we were pronouncing what we *thought* we had heard. When he realized what it actually was, he laughed a soft laugh and kindly explained that we might forgive his accented speech and use of terms well known to him but not necessarily to us, followed by an explanation of the term's meaning.
We had a good laugh, forgot about the unnecessary research in the books, and from that point on, there seemed to be an even better relationship between Dr. Doshe and many of us in the class. It is a nice memory to have.
I hope there is considerable "sturm und drang" against the SJWs that are denigrating Tor books. Hopefully it will mean a housecleaning takes place. A much needed housecleaning.