Neal Litherland

[60bagsoftrash]

Occasionally I log back into the DMS forums just to see what manner of clusterfuckery is happening, and I think I've found the most annoying person ever: Neal Litherland. He trolls for blog traffic and has "author" on his business cards. Here are a couple of examples of his posts in the general forum:

"The longer I've been an author, the more and more I see the depiction of women and of gender issues in popular fiction as a severely screwed-up machine. Rape is one of the bigger problems that I feel we writers should face up to, and that we all need to take efforts to treat it with the respect it deserves. For those who want to know more, it was the subject of the latest "Notes From the Editor's Desk" on my blog the Literary Mercenary.

What do you think we can and should do about this problem?

(blog link)"

and

"I know there are at least a few of us here who have the word "author" on our business cards. You know those questions that people just keep asking you, no matter where you go or who you're talking to? You know those awkward statements that make you just want to choke the life out of the general public when they equate your career choice to the late-night, angsty jottings in Internet journals? Well, here's a collection of awkward statements I hope that you, and especially I, don't have to hear next time we try to explain what it is we do to people who don't know.

(blog link)"

For the record, he writes erotic fiction.

[Devil_youknow]

[60bagsoftrash]

He also referred to "the person who's manuscript I'm editing" and used "penultimate" to mean "very ultimate." And his bio says he's been "a professional writer for his entire literary career."

I...just...can't...