“If anyone wants to hear my side of the story, please feel free to get in touch, but I won’t be discussing it here.”

Cool. I’d love to hear your side of story. Maybe you could contact me at my #1 funtime website.

I’m a writer just like you … I don’t use pens though.
SaltyDroid´s last [type] ..Speaking of Spiders

When this first came out I said “I’m not going to touch that with a ten foot pole.” I also avoided forming much of an opinion about it. I never read MwP very much because, honestly, the in-your-face spirit annoyed me, and, in choosing to try more for print, their kind of writing wasn’t necessarily my own.

However, my opinion was formed for me in “James’” comment above. Go back and reread it.

An old Mexican revolutionary saying says “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” When you stop fighting, when you give in on the good fight, you take a knee.

I just visited FWJ yesterday for the first time in about a week, so this James debate is new to me. I read several blogs yesterday to try and educate myself about the situation. The one thing that I can’t get past is something that I think is getting drowned out in the debate over gender in the writing world. However unfair that dynamic is, are we now learning that writers should combat that issue by lying? James’ creator perpetuated a lie. There’s a difference between omission and misrepresentation. Deb doesn’t tell the FWJ community her son’s name, for example, because of obvious safety concerns. However, she’s still Deborah Ng from the East Coast, who is the female founder of FWJ. In other words, she is who she has said she is. (I think/hope.)

The nom de plume defense doesn’t work for me, either, because this is more than that. Writers write under nom de plumes, but I’ve yet to hear of a writer being interviewed or doing an appearance as their nom de plume personna unless it was a publicity appearance and the personna was a known part of that event or situation. This woman didn’t just write as James. She “became” James. I remember James being interviewed for FWJ more than once. This wasn’t presented as someone who was “an Elvis impersonator” of writing. I believed that James was a successful male writer offering his thoughts and expertise. Since many members of the FWJ community are female, I found ir great that James added to the male perspectives that are part of the FWJ dynamic. I Googled James Chartrand and found an on-line syllabus for a class that talked about “his” credentials at Men with Pens. The credentials may be legitimate, but there is no James Chartrand as a teacher for that class. If James did teach that class, then the students weren’t getting the male perspective that I bet some of them also thought that they were going to get.

This misrepresentation reminds me of another James from the literary world. James Frey of A Million Little Pieces fame. He misrepresented his story, and it bit Oprah in the butt. That young Harvard student plagiarized (another form of misrepresentation) and she rightly became the pariah of the literary world. That world is a tough one, no doubt about that, but I don’t like the message that seems to be being celebrated by some, “To get around that and become a success, just lie, because hey the world’s not fair.” That doesn’t help to fix the existing inequality issue. It just adds the issue of misrepresentation to the pile of problems.

Deb knows that I’ve had to think about posting this comment. I’ve been hesitant because the atmosphere in some areas of the blogosphere seems to be rather hostile to anyone who doesn’t give James a big high-five. Many may be OK with James’ choice of actions. That’s their right, but I think those that aren’t have a right to their feelings as well.

Given that, I remember years ago running a well respected online reading group. One of the members was a man who one day started insulting all the women on the group for reading romance novels. The words “Bon-bon eating horny housewives are the target market of all romance writers” came out, we banned him. He turned out to be a “she” who was doing an experiment to see how much information a woman would give a strange man online and now she really liked our group and wanted to be allowed back in. We wouldn’t have it.

For me, it wasn’t so much about the fact that she’d posed as a man, but that she felt the need to use our group for her little experiment and listed names on her blog. That’s where the line was crossed.

I just wanted to say thank you for doing the interview and giving us a glimpse behind the scene. I do like your new site and I feel you will have tons of success in the coming months. Keep on keeping on

Personally, I’m hoping it’ll be a three day wonder and then die down and everyone can go back to running thier respective businesses.

I know this is Deb’s post, and again,I’m not choosing sides, but I do want to say if you go to the millions of posts about this around the blogosphere and read comments everyone, there’s widespread speculation that James was being “outed.” I can’t say that these posts named Deb personally, but there was speculation this was so. I do understand her wanting to set the record straight on that one.

Having read both interviews it reminds me of a comment I made where I wondered out loud if anyone ever did an experiment by writing under the opposite gender, to find out if they would be treated differently in blogosphere. Having worked in the corporate world for many years and having dealt with the “glass ceiling”, I questioned if a glass ceiling also existed in blogosphere. I suspected it did.

I’m happy both you Deb, and James decided to “come out”. You’re both very talented women who needn’t hide your gender in order to gain recognition for your accomplishments. The particulars of how and why are none of my business. What warms my heart is knowing I have blogging “sisters” who have blazed the trail for many others and continue to make positive contributions to the internet. I wish you both all the best.

I see that as a positive from all of this.

I am sure that the “ex-Men” will show the world exactly what they can do with their respective shops.

No where can I find a reference to someone blaming Harry for outing James. So why the need for justification?

And this story is quite different to what James told me previously about how MwP began. Told me before all this blew up.

*scratches head in puzzlement*

@DebM: (you know, us Debs are going to have to start using numbers after our names!)Great question. It did get lonely. Every time an event rolled into town where I knew everyone would be there, it was tough.

I still went to the conferences. Went to Blog Expo the first year it ran here. Earlier this year I went to my first WordCamp. That was a trip. Turns out, I go to the registration desk and the woman says “Oh! You’re here! We’ve been waiting for you!”

Ok, the heart skipped a beat and I looked around to make sure she wasn’t talking to somebody else. Classic comedy moment if I ever saw one. I was the only one standing at the table. All I could think of was “Who told?”

Turns out,I was the 100th registrant.

I enjoy going to Cons. Now they’ll be even better.

I guess female bloggers, freelancer writers or whatever they are should start to prove the world wrong, that being females brings us fewer chances to have a better life. I even personally think that women can write better than men can sometimes.

I never thought that this gender-related issue has still been persisting even after decades since the first feminism wave rose. This would just land me on my next new post idea.

But just like Shakespeare said centuries ago, “What is a name?”. Name is just like a label on jar. Even if you stick “vinegar” on a beer jar, the beer remains beer, it doesn’t turn sour. I mean, name’s important but well… it’s not everything. What matters is what you can do for others.

Thanks for the great post, Deb! And for the other Deb, you go girl!

Put aside all the reader’s opinions, judgments, emotions and you come down to an amazing story to learn from. Just even that your site design made such a difference. And what it’s like to work under an opposite gender pseudonym. What it’s like to not have the face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) interaction. In my imagination I think that might feel kind of lonely. Were you ever able to go to conferences? Would love to hear more about all of that kind of stuff.

@Deb D: Fantastic site design at Sirius Graphix!

@Deb N: Great interview questions!

From Deb M

(had to do it)

Harry/Deb is a damn fine designer.

Professionally, it boils down to that.

Next!

I wasn’t here for the event that you’re talking about, but I’m not surprised either. Manners and common courtesy are things people tend to forget when dealing with one another in the virtual world.

Hopefully we’ll be able to close the curtain on this drama soon. It’s terribly time consuming for everyone involved. Thank you for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts.

And people will take sides, no matter what.

Just tired of drama. Even reading it is exhausting. So, kudos to you for doing what you had to do and hopefully it all dies down soon.

Deb N. Must think so too or she wouldn’t have posted Deb D.’s interview.