Help, help, I’m being threatened! And by the SFWA South-Central Regional Director, no less. At 3:30 AM, I was returning from a late night out with Silvio and the boys when I noticed literally hundreds of entries coming from a site belonging to leading science fiction author and international cross-dressing star Jim Hines. Naturally, being the secure and self-confident image of modern masculinity, I immediately hastened to scour his site for every reference to me.
Imagine the horror and fear that struck me when I read the following:
lee_martindale wrote:
Feb. 1st, 2013 04:19 pm (UTC)
Ah, yes. Mr. Beale. When I decided to run for re-election as SFWA South-Central Regional Director, someone asked me what I would do if Mr. Beale won the Presidential election. I replied, “Ask my friends to start a bail fund.”
Naturally, I was panic-stricken by the violent implications of the Regional Director’s threat. After I got off the phone with the local police, Homeland Security, the FBI, and Interpol, and managed to compose myself following an intense round of aromatherapy, some yoga exercises, and about a gallon of green tea, I posted the following in the Questions for Candidates section of the SFWA Forum:
Two questions for Lee Martindale: It was brought to my attention that
yesterday, you wrote the following on SFWA member Jim Hines’s web site: “When
I decided to run for re-election as SFWA South-Central Regional
Director, someone asked me what I would do if Mr. Beale won the
Presidential election. I replied, “Ask my friends to start a bail
fund.””
1. What did you mean by indicating that you would need a bail fund in the event of my election as SFWA President?(1)
2. Do you believe that threatening criminal activity and violence is appropriate for an officer of the SFWA Board?
I note that this is the second implication of violence an SFWA member
has directed towards me since I declared my candidacy. Two open
questions for everyone else:
1. Are these implied threats of criminality and/or violence acceptable behavior on the part of SFWA members, and in the case of Ms Martindale, current Board members?
2. Should Ms Martindale resign her position and terminate her candidacy due to her implied threats of criminal activity?
I find it hard to see how I, or any other elected SFWA official, could be
expected to work in a productive manner with Ms Martindale in the
knowledge that she may resort to criminal activity and physical violence
over a mere difference of opinion.
(1) Ms Martindale explained that she was, in fact, implying violence,
although she claimed that she only meant violence of the self-defensive
variety.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Bane.