Whatever happened to the Merc. Lackey stalkers?
Shane Stezelberger
If this is a completely taboo subject, please call me on it.
But I am inordinately curious about the whole Mercedes Lackey soap
opera, with the death threats and the alleged fisticuffs and the
psycho true believers.
What exactly happened? Did the handcuffing incident at DragonCon
actually occur? Was there really a Blacksburg Connection? Is there
something intrinsic to her fiction that causes superfans to go nuts,
or do all modern heroic fantasy authors suffer similar slings/arrows?
*Did* any fans really go nuts?
Again, please ignore this if I am being rude. The Blacksburg angle
intrigues me.
--
Shane Stezelberger
sstezel at erols dot kom
Laurel, MD
Eloise Beltz-Decker
> If this is a completely taboo subject, please call me on it.
>
> But I am inordinately curious about the whole Mercedes Lackey soap
> opera, with the death threats and the alleged fisticuffs and the
> psycho true believers.
>
> What exactly happened? Did the handcuffing incident at DragonCon
> actually occur? Was there really a Blacksburg Connection? Is there
> something intrinsic to her fiction that causes superfans to go nuts,
> or do all modern heroic fantasy authors suffer similar slings/arrows?
> *Did* any fans really go nuts?
Well, I'm interested too ... I read something on a website once,
years ago, that was supposedly by Ms. Lackey herself, on the subject. I
had been asking around why there weren't any further Diana Tregarde books,
and was pointed at this explanation. Not that it's particularly unbiased,
of course, but at least it was her side. Anyone have the link handy? That
was three email hosts ago for me, alas.
--
Eloise Beltz-Decker + elo...@ripco.com + http://www.ripco.com/~eloise
Vespasian's banquets were extremely old-fashioned:
the waitresses kept their clothes on and he never poisoned the food.
- Lindsey Davis, _Silver_Pigs_
Colette Reap
>
>If this is a completely taboo subject, please call me on it.
>
>But I am inordinately curious about the whole Mercedes Lackey soap
>opera, with the death threats and the alleged fisticuffs and the
>psycho true believers.
>
>What exactly happened? Did the handcuffing incident at DragonCon
>actually occur? Was there really a Blacksburg Connection? Is there
>something intrinsic to her fiction that causes superfans to go nuts,
>or do all modern heroic fantasy authors suffer similar slings/arrows?
>*Did* any fans really go nuts?
The following excerpt, from an interview with eluki bes shahar, is
taken from this website:
http://connectionsjournal.com/files/archives/interviews/ekie.html
c - Who is stalking Mercedes Lackey - Christian weirdos or Pagan
weirdos? Over-zealous fans?
e - Pseudo-Pagan wackos. It's pretty complicated. She produced a
position statement about the stuff once, which is probably still
somewhere out on the Net. But as near as I can figure it, the problem
goes like this: somewhere out there are a bunch of people who think
she was telling the flat-out literal truth about the Guardians of the
Path. (Hint: she wasn't.) These people have decided that they
themselves are Guardians of the Path. (Hint: they aren't) Next (and
here is where I get hopelessly confused) they have decided that poor
Misty is the leader of a "young Turks" party in the Guardians who are
trying to overthrow the established order (Like she'd be spending all
her time writing if she was that powerful a wizard). I'm not sure how
they get from there to wanting to do her grievous bodily harm, but at
DragonCon in Atlanta last year (which she attended) these people made
a serious attempt on her and beat one of her bodyguards up pretty
badly. Now she doesn't go to conventions. Period.
<end quote>
As far as I can tell, this interview took place in 1998.
--
Colette
* "2002: A Discworld Odyssey" * http://www.dwcon.org/ *
* August 16th-19th, 2002 * Email: in...@dwcon.org *
David T. Bilek
wrote:
>sst...@erols.com (Shane Stezelberger) wrote:
>
>>
>>If this is a completely taboo subject, please call me on it.
>>
>>But I am inordinately curious about the whole Mercedes Lackey soap
>>opera, with the death threats and the alleged fisticuffs and the
>>psycho true believers.
>>
>>What exactly happened? Did the handcuffing incident at DragonCon
>>actually occur? Was there really a Blacksburg Connection? Is there
>>something intrinsic to her fiction that causes superfans to go nuts,
>>or do all modern heroic fantasy authors suffer similar slings/arrows?
>>*Did* any fans really go nuts?
>
>The following excerpt, from an interview with eluki bes shahar, is
>taken from this website:
>http://connectionsjournal.com/files/archives/interviews/ekie.html
*snip*
Except that the "attack" on one of her bodyguards ("Pony" White) has
been pretty comprehensively demolished. No medical records, no police
report, no court records, etc.
The available evidence, when I looked into it a year or two ago, all
pointed to Lackey and some associates having some kind of paranoid
fantasy. It all may still be around on google... there was a lot of
discussion on alt.fandom.cons for one.
http://people.atl.mediaone.net/pellaz/misty.html
just as a start.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=7tnevk%24ih6%241%40saltmine.radix.net
is a post from our own Laura Burchard here in rasff about a year ago.
Same conclusion.
-David
Marilee J. Layman
wrote:
>I'm not sure how
>they get from there to wanting to do her grievous bodily harm, but at
>DragonCon in Atlanta last year (which she attended) these people made
>a serious attempt on her and beat one of her bodyguards up pretty
>badly.
Didn't happen. We went quite thoroughly into this at the time, maybe
in alt.fandom.cons rather than here, but there was no attempt on her
and her bodyguard. I think her paranoia has taken over.
--
Marilee J. Layman
Bali Sterling Beads at Wholesale
http://www.basicbali.com
Colette Reap
>On Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:33:58 +0100, Colette Reap <col...@lspace.org>
>wrote:
>
>>I'm not sure how
>>they get from there to wanting to do her grievous bodily harm, but at
>>DragonCon in Atlanta last year (which she attended) these people made
>>a serious attempt on her and beat one of her bodyguards up pretty
>>badly.
>
>Didn't happen. We went quite thoroughly into this at the time, maybe
>in alt.fandom.cons rather than here, but there was no attempt on her
>and her bodyguard. I think her paranoia has taken over.
Interesting. Presumably then, the lady I was quoting was reporting
hearsay/UL, although she seems to be quite categoric about it. It
might also explain why her's was the only reference I could find to
the alleged incident. My apologies.
Rick Keir
(David T. Bilek) wrote:
> The available evidence, when I looked into it a year or two ago, all
> pointed to Lackey and some associates having some kind of paranoid
> fantasy. It all may still be around on google... there was a lot of
> discussion on alt.fandom.cons for one.
>
> http://people.atl.mediaone.net/pellaz/misty.html
>
> just as a start.
>
> http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=7tnevk%24ih6%241%40saltmine.radix.net
>
> is a post from our own Laura Burchard here in rasff about a year ago.
> Same conclusion.
There are two postings at Firebirdarts.com, "The Last Straw"
and "The Camel's Back", with her story. Some web references to
them are invalid, as Firebird appears to have reorganized the
site, but as of today they're at:
http://firebirdarts.com/mlackey/1mlstraw.shtml
and
http://firebirdarts.com/mlackey/1mlback.shtml
Read them and judge for yourself. The letters blame, variously,
deranged fans, pagans, former friends, and SCA household members, as
well as an unnamed person involved in a custody case who we are told
murdered his daughter, tried to kill his ex-wife, stalked
Lackey and Dixon, and then committed suicide.
In a weird turn of events, the "Ask Misty" section of the site now
asserts that there will be a new Diana Tregarde appearance in
"Spirits White as Lightning", despite the people who think the
guardians are real.
Go figure.
mike weber
typed
>Interesting. Presumably then, the lady I was quoting was reporting
>hearsay/UL, although she seems to be quite categoric about it. It
>might also explain why her's was the only reference I could find to
>the alleged incident. My apologies.
>
I know a number of people who subscribe fully to the Official ML
version; some of them were at the DixieTrek and DragonCon where the
alleged events allegedly eventuated.
I don't know anyone who actually Saw It; they're all quoting other
fans or ML herself.
--
"Life's a game where they're bound to beat you, and time's a
trick they can turn to cheat you -- and we only waste it
anyway, that's the hell of it..." -- Paul Williams
<mike weber> kras...@mindspring.com>
Book Reviews & More -- http://electronictiger.com
Marilee J. Layman
wrote:
>Marilee J. Layman <mjla...@erols.com> wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:33:58 +0100, Colette Reap <col...@lspace.org>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>I'm not sure how
>>>they get from there to wanting to do her grievous bodily harm, but at
>>>DragonCon in Atlanta last year (which she attended) these people made
>>>a serious attempt on her and beat one of her bodyguards up pretty
>>>badly.
>>
>>Didn't happen. We went quite thoroughly into this at the time, maybe
>>in alt.fandom.cons rather than here, but there was no attempt on her
>>and her bodyguard. I think her paranoia has taken over.
>
>Interesting. Presumably then, the lady I was quoting was reporting
>hearsay/UL, although she seems to be quite categoric about it. It
>might also explain why her's was the only reference I could find to
>the alleged incident. My apologies.
>
I suspect eluki is a friend of Misty's and believed what she said.
There should be a long thread in DejaGoo about this, where people
check police records and hotel security records, etc.
David T. Bilek
<mjla...@erols.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:47:44 +0100, Colette Reap <col...@lspace.org>
>wrote:
>
>>Marilee J. Layman <mjla...@erols.com> wrote:
>>
>>>On Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:33:58 +0100, Colette Reap <col...@lspace.org>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>I'm not sure how
>>>>they get from there to wanting to do her grievous bodily harm, but at
>>>>DragonCon in Atlanta last year (which she attended) these people made
>>>>a serious attempt on her and beat one of her bodyguards up pretty
>>>>badly.
>>>
>>>Didn't happen. We went quite thoroughly into this at the time, maybe
>>>in alt.fandom.cons rather than here, but there was no attempt on her
>>>and her bodyguard. I think her paranoia has taken over.
>>
>>Interesting. Presumably then, the lady I was quoting was reporting
>>hearsay/UL, although she seems to be quite categoric about it. It
>>might also explain why her's was the only reference I could find to
>>the alleged incident. My apologies.
>>
>I suspect eluki is a friend of Misty's and believed what she said.
>There should be a long thread in DejaGoo about this, where people
>check police records and hotel security records, etc.
>
I referred to that thread in my post on the subject. I remember it
very well, and it convinced me that there was nothing but paranoia
happening.
But I can't for the life of me find it on google. Very odd.
-David
Marilee J. Layman
wrote:
It's more than one thread, and it was on alt.fandom.cons.
Let's see if I can put them more or less in starting order:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=19970630041300.AAA23642%40ladder02.news.aol.com
This one starts out complaining about how Lackey behaved at Dragoncon.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=5pupbd%24k0j%40mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net
This one has someone defending Lackey and then people starting to pick
the story apart. I suppose it's possible that there's some slight
truth to her story, but so much of it has been proven to be false that
it's hard to say for sure.
Colette Reap
Thanks for the urls. I will go away and read.
Harry Payne
<rdk...@facstaff.wisc.edu> writes
>In a weird turn of events, the "Ask Misty" section of the site now
>asserts that there will be a new Diana Tregarde appearance in
>"Spirits White as Lightning", despite the people who think the
>guardians are real.
Read that: looks like she's trying to bury Tregarde in her Cute Elves
and Fast Cars scenario. Shame; the Tregarde novels were among her best-
written works (possibly back when she had an editor who stood up to her
and told her to cut the crap out) and I'm annoyed that I'll never know
what happened after the last one ended on a cliff-hanger. Still, as the
Masked Man said, "Get used to disappointment".
--
Harry
David G. Bell
<MhM9eJAy...@menageri.tele2.co.uk>
Ha...@menageri.org.uk "Harry Payne" wrote:
Had there been new Tregarde novels in the works, the Dragoncon stories
could have been interpreted as a badly-done publicity stunt.
--
David G. Bell -- Farmer, SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.
The singer who is no longer, and no shorter, than he was last week. He's
about the same length in his stocking moolies.
Shane Stezelberger
("David G. Bell") wrote:
>Had there been new Tregarde novels in the works, the Dragoncon stories
>could have been interpreted as a badly-done publicity stunt.
They certainly got *my* attention, and I was merely a lurker.
...but a lurker always on the lookout to quash any slander against his
beloved alma mater :-)
Ut Prosim,