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There’s been a lot of discussion following yesterday’s post about Topeka decriminalizing domestic battery, as well as some new information. The most important update would be the fact that the DA’s office will once again resume prosecuting domestic violence cases.

This doesn’t undo the damage already done, nor does it change the fact that both the city and the DA’s office endangered lives with their political games, but I’m relieved that the DA has made this choice.

Here are some of the other points that came up in various discussions yesterday, along with my thoughts.

Topeka didn’t decriminalize anything.

• Topeka used to have a law stating that domestic violence was a crime. They removed that law.
• It’s true that Kansas state law still lists domestic violence as a crime, but the city’s refusal to prosecute meant any such cases had to be prosecuted by the district attorney … who until yesterday evening was refusing to do so, which resulted in at least 18 suspects being turned away or freed without charges, including at least one who was promptly arrested again for committing the exact same crime.

Domestic violence cases are very hard to prosecute, and even harder to win.

• This is true. Does the fact that something is difficult now mean we shouldn’t do it?
• Sending the message that you don’t take domestic violence seriously is going to make it a hell of a lot harder for victims to trust you and work with you.

The DA stopped prosecuting misdemeanors as a response to budget cuts which crippled his office. The city was just protecting itself from a sudden influx of cases it wasn’t prepared to handle.

• This does explain the DA’s “demand” for $350,000 to begin prosecuting misdemeanors again, including domestic violence.
• Interestingly enough, there’s apparently “an item in the Shawnee County budget … that doles out $200,000 for golf course irrigation.” Good to know where our priorities are.
• So basically, victims of domestic violence became a political football being tossed back and forth between the city and the DA’s office, both of whom claimed to be unable to prosecute those cases.
• I wonder if the city of Topeka sees the DA’s decision to go back to prosecuting these cases as a victory, and vindication of their strategy?

Why the hell is domestic battery only a misdemeanor anyway?

• I’m guessing because it’s a crime that disproportionately affects women.
• From a NY Daily News story about this issue, Claudine Dombrowski’s partner “once beat her in the head with a crowbar and sent her to the hospital with two broken wrists and 24 stitches in what was labeled a ‘misdemeanor’ domestic abuse case…”

Kansas sucks!

• Admittedly, it’s been 20 years since I was in Kansas, but it didn’t strike me as sucking more or less than any other state.
• Topeka isn’t the only place where politicians are playing dumbass games and losing their minds over budget issues.

I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but–

• Don’t. Just don’t. Not here, not about this.
• It’s one thing to try to look at both sides of an issue. It’s another to turn it into a game.

ETA: The vote was held last night. Topeka, Kansas has decriminalized domestic violence.

“Domestic violence still remains a crime under state law which is why the move will now force the DA to prosecute these smaller cases despite budget claims. At the meeting, advocates of victims of domestic violence were quick to point out that already several individuals arrested on domestic violence calls had been released without charges because no new cases are being accepted…”

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Topeka, Kansas has taken a rather unusual approach to trying to deal with budget woes. According to the Topeka Capital Journal, Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor has simply stopped prosecuting cases of domestic battery in Topeka. Now the city council is considering changes to the Uniform Public Offense Code developed by the League of Kansas Municipalities, “changes which would include repealing the part of the code that bans domestic battery.”

Mayor Bill Bunten says the city does take domestic violence seriously. From the International Business Times, “He said the question is not whether domestic violence offenders should be prosecuted, but who — the city or the county — should pay for it, adding that anyone who thinks domestic battery will go unpunished in Topeka is ‘dead wrong.'”

Of course, that same article also points out that, “Shawnee County has already turned back 30 domestic violence cases since it stopped prosecuting the crime on Sept. 8. Moreover, 16 people have been arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery charges and then released from county jail after charges were not filed.”

To review:

1. We take domestic violence very seriously.
2. So seriously that we’ve stopped prosecuting it.
3. So seriously that we’re trying to legalize it.

Apparently D.A. Taylor has offered to review all domestic violence cases … in exchange for a one-time payment of $350,000 from the city.

Am I reading that correctly? Are you essentially holding domestic violence victims hostage as part of your budget negotiating strategy?

In addition to being despicable, this doesn’t even make financial sense. The CDC estimates that violence by an intimate partner costs this country more than 5.8 billion dollars annually.

Topeka, Kansas has a population of around 122,000 people, roughly .04% of the United States’ 300,000,000 people. So assuming I’m running these numbers right, Topeka’s share of that 5.8 billion dollars comes out to just over $2.3 million.

To the folks behind this mess, congratulations! You not only fail as decent human beings, you also suck at math.

Resources:

• Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten – Includes contact information
• Shawnee County Commissioners – Includes contact information
• National Domestic Violence Hotline
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Some of you have seen this particular mess by now. For anyone unfamiliar with Writer Beware, they are “the public face of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Committee on Writing Scams.” This group has provided invaluable information on how to avoid the scammers and the bottom-feeders for as long as I’ve been writing. Ann Crispin, Victoria Strauss, and Richard White volunteer countless hours in order to track, document, and share information on writing scams and pitfalls. Their blog should be required reading for pretty much anyone hoping to make a career in this business.

The Write Agenda is “a group of individuals, writers, want-to-be authors and inquisitive wordsmiths that have become ‘literally’ numb from reading the numerous author help related blog posts.” This group provides invaluable information on that time Victoria Strauss used the f-word on her Facebook page. This site should be required reading for pretty much anyone hoping to be a bottom-feeding douchebag.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to approach this post. I could point to Writer Beware’s rather thorough and well-documented pawnage of TWA, or their screenshots page where they build a strong case as to who’s behind the TWA site. I could bemoan the fact that I’ve apparently been slacking on my watchdog duties, as I’ve failed to make TWA’s Boycott List. I could stare incredulously at the fact that TWA wants to hold a book burning…

But the more I read, the more fascinated I became. I only have an undergraduate degree in psychology, but I’m intrigued by the unhealthy levels of obsession, vindictiveness, and self-importance displayed by the anonymous minds at TWA. It’s like watching an angry, poo-flinging monkey who believes he’s Rambo.

TWA is also behind the BadReads site (they share the same Contact page/form), where they “proactively engage in boycott campaigns,” and triumphantly share such damning evidence as the fact that one of Ann Crispin’s books once had an Amazon ranking of 100,351!

Take that, Ann “A.C.” Crispin, Oppressor of Douchebags! Revenge is a dish best served cold. It is very cold in bizarre blog posts that few people actually read…

Eventually, as I clicked through page after page of TWA’s attacks, my anger gave way to disbelieving giggles, and then the giggles faded into pity. I found myself staring in amazement at the sheer volume of posts, imagining the countless hours these individuals have spent going after Strauss, Crispin, and other industry watchdogs. (And they seem to be adding to their enemies lists almost daily.)

It’s sad.  Devoting so much of one’s life to such obsessive, rabid hate … I don’t want to make fun of them anymore. But as they seem to be pouring even more time and energy into their efforts, I do think it’s important for authors, readers, and others involved with the publishing industry to be aware of them.

In the meantime, my thanks to the volunteers at Writer Beware and elsewhere, who have helped me and countless other authors over the years.

Writer Beware: Blog & Facebook
Ann Crispin: Twitter & Facebook
Victoria Strauss: Twitter & Facebook
Richard White: Twitter

I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words about Flit, and to those of you who shared your own pet stories. It was very much appreciated.

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I admit it. I was a Kim Possible fanboy, and I’ve become an equally devoted follower of Phineas and Ferb. Both shows have their flaws, but overall, I love ’em.

Kim Possible was about a crime-fighting cheerleader, her goofy sidekick and his pet naked mole rat, and supervillains that ranged from the mad scientist to the monkey kung fu master to Ricardo Montalban.

Phineas & Ferb is about two stepbrothers who build implausibly awesome inventions, everything from space ships to roller coasters to teleportation portals. In the meantime, their pet platypus sneaks out to fight a would-be supervillain determined to rule the tri-state area. Also, there are musical numbers.

Both shows are smart, well-written, self-aware, and fun. Both shows treat viewers with respect instead of talking down to kids or adults. I routinely quote Phineas and Ferb and get their songs stuck in my head. At one point Kim Possible had Michael Freaking Dorn guest-star as a superevolved naked mole rat from the future!

After several seasons, both shows did something risky. They changed things.

At the end of a Kim Possible special, Kim starts dating her sidekick/partner Ron. Instead of the tired old “Will they or won’t they?” storyline that drags out for far too long (I’m looking at you, Castle!), the writers simply decided that they would. There was actual smooching.

Phineas and Ferb just released a movie called Across the Second Dimension, wherein our heroes discover their pet platypus Perry’s secret identity as Agent P, crime-fighter for the OWCA (Organization Without a Cool Acronym). Perry had successfully hidden his double-life for the entire show, but now he got to team up with his humans, and it was awesome. Both for seeing how well they worked together, and for random lines like, “Wait a minute, I just realized you could have been changing your own litter pan this whole time! Oh, this is not over!”

Spoiler time! More

As some of you already know, my book Libriomancer is scheduled to come out in August of next year.

But that’s not all! DAW has confirmed that they’ll be releasing The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer, an omnibus edition of my three goblin books, in July of 2012.

Woo hoo! Jig’s getting his own omnibus! And it’s coming out right before Libriomancer, meaning I should have two new books on the shelves next summer.

This makes me happy in so many ways. I love that DAW is continuing to show so much faith in me, in my new books and my old. I love that Jig and Smudge will get the chance to find some new readers. And it’s pretty cool that I’ll finally have my very own doorstopper-sized fantasy book 🙂

To celebrate the Goblinbus news, have a pic of Smudge throwing up his legs in arachnid victory!

Have a great weekend, all!

I’ll occasionally look through the site logs to see what keyword searches brought people to my web page. Some are predictable (my name, book titles, etc.) Others are rather bizarre.

It’s interesting to see how many search queries I get looking for specific blog posts I’ve done. There were also a fair number of questions people had typed into Google or other search engines. And since I had a little time last night, I figured what the heck, let’s answer some of these!

“what font is used on the goblin cover?”

Rhapsodie Swash Caps.

 “what are the chances of writing a best selling first book?”

That depends very much on how good a book you write.

“what is the difference between a arc and release copies?”

An ARC is an Advance Review Copy, a bound book which generally has not gone through final proofreading, meaning there may be typos. It may or may not have cover art. ARCs are generally sent out in advance of a book’s release in order to generate early reviews, buzz, and other publicity.

“where can fan fiction be found?”

I recommend the internet.

“why doesn’t she leave?”

There’s no single answer to that question, but I’ve written about it some here.

“why doesn’t she leave jim hines?”

Some days I wonder that myself. I think it’s because she’s a very patient, kind, and tolerant woman, which helps to explain why we’ve made it this far and will be celebrating our 8th anniversary in a few weeks.

“how much do short stories sell for?”

It depends. I generally make 5-6 cents/word for my short fiction these days. Best short story sale ever brought in $2000, but that only happened once.

“how much does a fantasy author make?”

Depends on the fantasy author. It ranges from nothing up to approximately one bajillion dollars (J. K. Rowling).

“party famale wheth woman xhamester?”

WTF? What I really want to know is how this query led someone to my site. Or maybe I’m happier not knowing…

“jig the goblin torrent?”

No. You came to the author’s website to get a torrented version of his work? ::Thwap::

“who is neil gaiman’s agent?”

Merrilee Heifetz.

“how much do first novels earn?”

Check out Tobias Buckell’s study here. (This gives average advances for first novels, but some first novels earn out their advance, meaning the author makes more money over the life of that book.)

“do readers like big novels?”

Yes.

“grisham self-published a time to kill?”

No, he did not.

“whos awesome?”

You’re awesome!