Edit December 9 2013:
We have received indisputable proof that Macallister Stone’s real name is Melodi Susanne Sherman as can be seen in this google cache of her WHOIS information. Also, and Absolute Write’s BBB page. The telephone numbers are the same. We have screenshots of all pages in case one or all go missing.
Now, whether or not Mac is also Lisa, well, we’ll leave that up to our readers to decide.
*************************************************
For all those who don’t know who Macallister Stone is, we featured her on our post, The Banning of Robin Sullivan where she banned Robin for making a point on an AW forum and backing it up with facts and figures. When she banned her, her ban message said:
As it turns out, the point that Robin made was correct and has been proven two years later since this all went down. So, basically, Mac banned her because she didn’t want to hear what Robin had to say.
Okay, so… why are we bringing this up? Because we just received a link to a site called The Write Agenda (who btw have an entire category dedicated to uncle Jimmy Boy) that has apparently discovered Macallister Stone’s real identity. The title of the post is Lisa L. Spangenberg: Fact or Fiction? The post starts off saying:
From a tip on Alexa: Lisa L. Spangenberg is the real admin and owner of Absolute Write, she runs the show and not the phony Macallister Stone. Note on her blog, and elsewhere, that she lives in Seattle area: http://about.me/lisaspangenberg
But when you learn of her husband, Michael Cohen (see proof below) who lives in Santa Monica, investigative searching takes you to:
http://ca.trace-calls.com/business/digital-medievalist-santa-monica-3107945011-id-645965-zb3k3oqlh
Well, what do you know! Lisa Spangenberg in Santa Monica. Yes, that’s her. The AW Big Cheese, hiding out in Santa Monica while pretending to be in Seattle. She notes a PO Box in Seattle area just for show. And we know Macallister Stone’s address is a storage place. Has anyone ever seen Macallister Stone? Has she ever attended a writer’s conference? No, and no. She has no real existence. There is one photograph associated with her name on , that’s it. There is a blog which stopped running years ago, probably because Lisa got tired of keeping it going. What better way to take the heat off oneself for lawsuits if people don’t know where you live, and don’t even know you are the real admin/owner of the site.
To read more, go to this link.
We thought this would be of interest to some of our site visitors who’ve been viciously attacked by Mac/Lisa in the past. If you have grounds for a lawsuit, now you know where to serve her papers.
Edit 10/8/2013:
We now have new evidence that Lisa L. Spangenberg is indeed Macallister Stone. In the screenshot below that we took from this site, Lisa is listed as being a sys admin of macallisterstone.com:
***********************************************************************************************
An addendum:
This just keeps getting better and better!
If you go to , you will see a few familiar names. First, the :
And then the people who are her “fans”:
Actually, one particular “fan” of interest:
If you check out Mac’s profile, you will again see some familiar names when you look at the (three of which on our Biggest Offenders list):
But wait! There’s more!
Check out Mac’s ratings/reviews of Lisa’s books, :
And :
And there you have it folks! If anyone asks you about the connection between Absolute Write and the GR bullies, this is it!
« Goodreads: A New Venue For Prostitution? Goodreads Premium Author Program »
Very helpful info.
Oh boy, she sounds more and more mentally unstable the more I see about her. It’s really sad. People like that need help and often won’t get it. It’s their fault they don’t get help, but it’s not their fault they have those issues, so it’s sad.
Are you sure that’s a woman in the picture? It looked like two guys raising a child. Maybe that’s why he/she/it goes by the unisex name of “MacAllister.” She’s really a guy in drag… or the other way around.
The site forgot to mention that Uncle Jimmy Boy (AKA the delusional James MacDonald) is a hack writer blow-hard who pretends to be a legit author on Absolute Write, all the while his rankings on Amazon are in the millions on a good day. Just like in the film industry, in the writing world there are lots of poser wanna-be’s. Sad thing is, some of the newer writers often drink MacDonald’s Kool-Aid at first… until they wake up and realize they’re dealing with a complete hack who knows nothing about writing.
Lisa L. Spangenberg also has an account on Goodreads. Proves the theory correct that most of the nastiest trolls on the Internet are failed writers.
Here’s the link:
Check out one of her “fans” (and who this particular “fan” follows):
Recognize any names?
Sock puppeting her own books to inflate the ratings? Isn’t that something BBA attacks other writers for?
Why yes, Peter! I believe it is!
But we always knew they were a pack of rabid, raging hypocrites, now didn’t we?
LMAO! Yes, we did.
I believe the sock-puppet-spawning, unsuccessful (ahem) writers ARE the GR bullies. I see too many similarities in both camps.
Agreed.
WOW! Lisa L. Spangenberg (MacAllister Stone) is following some of the worst bully offenders on the web. VERY telling!
Many authors are being attacked by their personal names, which feels, well, very personal. In the meantime, you have these rabid ghost trolls hiding like perverted cowards, while obsessively stalking/needlessly case building from behind the craven mask of anonymity.
Damn! Well said!
And this is nothing compared to what happens behind the scenes while the werebullies are plotting.
And isn’t it fascinating to see her highness Stacia Kane among them. Ironically, it’s a full moon tonight. One reason they go to AW is to promote themselves, another is to stir trouble.
Once again, thanks for calling attention to this.
Oh yeah, it didn’t surprise us at all to see Stacia there. Full moon, indeed.
I’m getting Deja vu here. Hold on …. McCallister Stone, AW, fake identity, Lisa Spangenberg, …. but where have I seen this before? ….. Something about a Gen with an X and a Welling mixed with A-man-duh. ……. It’ll come to me.
Anyhow, for a bunch of people claiming they have nothing to hide, they sure do hide a bunch of stuff. And these sock puppets, I mean, isn’t that what these bullies accuse all us of doing? Yet they never present proof like this.
Shout out to Goodreads Bully Nation: “This is what we call in the real world as EVI-DENCE!”
Question: Would it shock anyone if at some point it is discovered that Patrick Brown has a bully sock puppet on GR? …… Just asking.
LMAO! No, that wouldn’t be shocking at all.
That picture on Flickr is telling. Mac is supposed to be lesbian and yet she’s sitting there with her husband and child?
I think it was Blazin’ Saddlebags who said the picture looked like two men raising a baby. Yep, I’d have to concur!
I’m starting to see an interesting pattern, too, that we don’t see mentioned anywhere. I do think some of this bullying is for pure sport for some. For others it is just lunacy, or what they think is their quest. But I’m also seeing that a lot of these people/bullies seem to ban together in order to promote themselves. I’ve recently seen them enlist a book reviewer you have mentioned on this blog (not Jane Litte or anyone associated with dearauthor this time). And unless you know what’s going on behind the scenes, you have no idea what they are doing, and you think they are the sweetest most concerned people on the planet. When what they are really doing is promoting themselves and pushing their own agenda.
Which is why I think STGRB came onto the scene, to connect all the dots. They’re doing a damn fine job of it too. Without STGRB, we wouldn’t know about these things. We wouldn’t know that Angela Horn has a ton of socks. I myself have a dresser drawer full of socks, but even that collection falls short in comparison to AH’s socks. She has so many puppets, one would think she would start selling tickets for the show. Maybe team up with Jeff Dunham or something. LOL
We could be doing a better job, I think. It’s just that we haven’t had time recently to write about all the things we want to. We’ve been planning on creating a forum, too, but haven’t gotten around to it. Hopefully soon, we will have some time to get to these things after some of our people get back from vacay.
Recently came across more nasty work of the “Absolute Write” crowd. This is the letterI wrote to “Querytracker” where I found it. It’s an altered version of a complaint I wrote to the BBB about these people. The BBB couldn’t find them. They use false addresses.
Both Victoria Strauss and Lisa Spangenberg have recently stated their intentions not only to continue running the fabrication below, made by a genuiine psychotic. They do not respond to “cease and desist” orders or reasoning. So I’ll have to do things this way.
Tom
Dear Patrick, (Of querytracker)
Heacock agency, renamed Heacock-Hill Agency after the retirement of founder Rosalie Heacock Thompson, has been the victim of a vicious hoax for several years, purposely instigated by “Absolute Write” and/or “Writer Beware.” We have found also that these people make themselves unavailable even for questions from the BBB, to whom we complained, who couldn’t locate them for us.
If not creating totally false postings about quite honest businesses they wish to smear, they allow completely false postings from others to do that. The apparent motive, famously documented, by their member Ann Crispin: “the more lies we tell, the better off we are.” That was quoted to me personally by an individual to whom the “writer’s protector” Ms. Crispin spewed it at a BEA conference, and another version can be found at the Writer’s Weekly site, which does doublecheck its sources.
The “Absolute Write” or “Writer Beware” cult never checks its sources or contact the agency whom they allowed to be smeared by people who aren’t even writers. They seem to think it’s in their interests to allow fake postings about agencies. There are no legitimate complaints about Heacock or Heacock-Hill and there never have been.
I’ll provide a sample vicious smear from “Absolute Write” below. First, I want to show you a message from the person who sent it, who attempted to post this on my personal blog in May ’12. Please read carefully:
“Hey cocksucker boy. You want to go around and write your little PEE BOY SQUIRT OINKER BULLSHIT all over my stuff, go ahead. Nobody is bothering with it anyway in this economy. No money out there to speak of. Your PRECIOUS JEWS are doing exactly what they planned on doing and you’re kind and yourself are RETARDED enough to believe and GIVE IT to them. Go suck some more RICH JEWISH COCK, Dark. You’re a fucking JEW! You act like one. You do shitty little things like THIS for instance, just like they do. Thus, you are ONE OF THEM. You’re a no good COCKSUCKER HONORARY KIKE”
I have 39 such postings on my blog from Peter Wells, of Tucson, Arizona. Peter wrote the following for “Absolute Write,” which they’ve just made clear they plan to keep posting:
Submitted by Barney Kellman
More of how Tom Dark wins fans at every village hall. http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30642&page=10 05-11-2012, 11:53 PM #249 Bookie New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 5 Bookie is on a distinguished road Agree My experience with Tom Dark was very similar to what others have reported here. He enthusiastically acquired me as a client but was never able to sell my book. I was actually horrified to read his manic communications to prospective editors, and some times he even misrepresented my position in order to market my book. Worse, he wasted a lot of time calling me up at all hours to shoot the breeze for 2-3 hours at a time EACH DAY. None of these conversations were geared towards selling my book. Instead they were random musings about psychics, wars he was waging against various people, and his crusade against pedophiles. The long, rambing emails were too much to read–In fact, I stopped reading them after a while.
The above posting is entirely false and clearly of malicious intent. A detailed reply is available.
“Absolute Write” has been publishing false, intentionally defamatory and vicious libel of Heacock Literary Agency and Heacock Hill Agency and me since January 2009. We have no client named “Barney Kellman” nor would any of our clients write anything remotely like this. All of us have a deep mutual respect and intimate regard for each other. Particularly egregious is the false claim of “misrepresenting” anything or anyone.
Yet this “Absolute Write” cult insists on posting denigrating lies by people who have nothing to do with this Agency, no knowledge of it and no business spattering us or anyone else with lies and venom.
“Absolute Write” makes no attempt whatever to check on the validity of the malicious postings they publicize. They present them to deceive prospective customers for their services to make themselves appear “protective.” This must be stopped, permanently.
We see how this has spread unchecked to sites run by highly unprofessional or incompetents that also refuse to check up on the malicious libels they’re serving to perpetrate. A lawsuit is time- taking and expensive. If we must get around to it eventually, we certainly will, and with the intent to simply get rid of these vicious, hypocritical people, very loudly.
Please, as a matter of integrity, as I see your posters are smearing us on the basis of lies from “Absolute Write,” post this on your site.
Sincerely.
Tom Dark
Heacock Hill Agency, LLC
About me:
http://www.colorado.edu/cwa/bios.html?id=83&year=2010
http://www.michaelmirasol.com/flipcritic/2010/05/ebertfest-day-3.html
http://ebertfest.com/thirteen/guests.html
What I think of Indian writers: http://expressbuzz.com/books/young-spunk-more-open-more-books/118980.html
It is really amazing how unprofessional they are. The site used to be good when it first started, but ever since Mac took over, it has really become a cesspit.
I’ve seen AW (under “Mac”) turn into a cesspool. I’ve seen many legit small presses torn to shreds and run out of business by those unethical people on the AW forum. I’ve seen indie authors (of which they have a huge bias against) lambasted and ridiculed at every turn. My many author friends, both traditionally and indie published, are running from that place in droves. It is generally believed to be run by hack writers now.
So glad you’re helping to show Absolute Write for what it really is, Tom. They’re a highly unprofessional bunch, to say the least. More and more authors and publishers are finding it hard to take them seriously.
Victoria Strauss is full of crap. And she’s becoming obsolete.
I thought it was illegal for someone to register a website under a fake name and address and that doing so would lead to automatic removal?
This is true. If you do, you are going against your registrar’s (or hosting company’s) rules and they can deny services. This is something Athena had to go through. When we first started this site, the bullies reported her name and address as fake. She had to go through this ridiculous process to prove that they were real. She eventually just privatized the account. And we aren’t even running a business with our site! Since Mac and co. are running a business, she could get in huge trouble for using someone else’s address (the storage company’s) and using a fake name.
A bit of background on the website that’s making these allegations (the short version: it’s not a reliable source).
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2011/10/agenda-of-write-agenda.html
Victoria, although I’m not fond of the company you keep, I’ve never seen any evidence of you bullying anyone. At least, not yet. I looked at the evidence showing that The Write Agenda used a one-star review as a weapon against an author they dislike. This is something STGRB has never encouraged or condoned even if the author is a known bully, so we’ve taken The Write Agenda off of our sidebar. The evidence they presented about Mac, however, is sound and will stay on our blog. We are not going to take sides in this apparent TWA-WB war. All we will do is look at the evidence and make a judgment based on that.
Hi. We warned Victoria Strauss in 2009 that certain fakers were putting up phony, libelous stuff. She and her cohort that imbecile MacDonald were so unresponsive I decided we’d have to wait. Our attorney told us to hold off. That site is worthless and the “professional” articles just make my eyes swim.
In 2012, somebody passed me the above libelous fabrication. If you have “never seen any evidence of Victoria bullying anyone” you just don’t want to. She cooked up a number of belittling tweets about it, as did certain of her imbecile friends.
Having to take legal action against spoiled rich kids like this, out to “justify their existences” — we’re beginning to suspect that’s what she is, as much of what she says is oddly disconnected from reality — is outrageous. If and when it comes to that, every single iota of resentment this entirely phony “authority” has created is going to be paid for.
I’ve already started.
I don’t care who or what “The Write Agenda” is, by the way. I’d already looked into these vicious little snot-noses before I came across them. What we found, matched. Ms. Strauss hypocritical squeeb merely makes excuses for not answering the questions it has brought up. While she thinks it’s a good idea to sneer at me and continue posting completely false and intentionally malicious fiction.
Oh, looky here: more evidence that Victoria Strauss is deliberately trying to impede my business. We have never had a true complaint in over 35 years. Yet Miz Strauss is displeased, and convincing people of one lie after another. That’s malicious libel, isn’t it?
Mike Winchell 30m
Want proof that #victoriastrauss is worth an elephant’s weight in gold? Well, here it is: she helped people avoid Tom Dark’s “services”
What “services” do you suppose she means? We’re a literary agency. We don’t do “services.”
I’ll occasionally draw “absolutewrite” ninnies onto my tweeter. Last night I heard from three different would-be young adult writers, all English teachers from the Syracuse area. They worried me about what has become of the education system.
From them I learned this: Victoria and her cronies, that would be Ann Crispin and Lisa Spangenberg and whoever else among the cult, are libeling me and my agency this way:
I’ve never got a client signed
I charge fees
Clients complain to absolute write about me
I’m a fraud
I’m a scam
It is somehow wrong of me to write “unsolicited” letters of complaint about the absolute write scammers, as they are “industry watchdogs.” Uh huh? To whom to I apply for permission to complain about scammers and libelers?
Amazing that Victoria would have her followers, very gullible people, so boldly spread these total lies.
It’s hard to describe how total these lies are.
It’s hard to get into a mind that would spread lies this way; it’s like mentally trying to climb into a full toilet with the lid down. Quite a squeeze and quite an odor. As I keep saying, these people are sociopaths. Oh! That reminds me. I’ll add that post in a moment.
Among the contracts I’ve negotiated so far, I apparently have the distinction of being the only literary agent who’s written the whole contract and the publisher accepted it as-was.
I am not, and never would be, bullied in to talking about my business because some sick entity like the literally self-unemployable novelist Vicky Strauss and her friends, who claim to be “industry watchdogs.” Besides, they’ll lie first and read later, if ever.
Trouble seems to follow Victoria Strauss for a reason. Just sayin’…
Fan fiction and pro fiction both have mobbing or bully circles. It’s hard to tell where real individuals exist or just single nutjobs with multiple socks. These people have circle jerks where they praise each other into a false sense of superiority. They will then attack anyone they see as a “big name” or popular writer. There are anti-erotic bully mobs, anti-fan fiction bully mobs, and probably lots of other variations.
While some of them do this for “fun” (what a sick mind they must have), I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were also using it for professional advancement. They should look up the laws surrounding syndicates before they become too comfortable in their little love circle.
I don’t know if you’ve posted about this but certain authors have been getting e-mails from GR asking if they are interested in an elite author program, which includes having certain reviews removed. The catch is the author has to pay to be part of the program. So, instead of cleaning up the act, Amazon is now making GR more corrupt, and for profit.
Wow! Protection racket much?
So Goodreads will have Angela Horn and others harangue the world about how insanely bad your books are and how horrifically bad your behavior is — but if you could see to it to grease Patrick Brown’s palms a bit, he’ll see what he can do about reigning the Horn Brigade in. Gee, thanks, Pat, you’re such a mensch.
LOL.
I never bothered with Goodreads, before this agency gig or after. Transparent fake praise for friends, trashing stuff they’re jealous of. Just as the Absolutewrite gang does… how can you have 60 glowing reviews and no sales at all? People can tell. They don’t want crap they know only their friends are praising.
Recently got back in touch with an old friend named Carla van Raay, of Perth. Been years. Carla had written a book, GOD’S CALLGIRL, about her life going from abused child to nun to massage parlor owner. Goodreads just spattered it. Post after post of disparagement.
That hadn’t stopped Carla’s book from having sold 475 thousand copies, I noticed.
I don’t think a good dose of bug spray would do these embittered problem children a bit of harm.
Well isn’t that interesting. So it’s officially turning into a protection racket.
Would you happen to have a screenshot of one of these emails?
No. I don’t have anything. I wish I did, and if I see something I’ll send.
We’ve heard about this from two other people. We’re going to be posting about it soon. We don’t have a screenshot of the emails but we have some shots of Patrick talking about a “Premium Author Account” that authors will have to pay for:
We also have a screenshot (sent to us by a GR author) of the page that outlines it. On the outline, it says that it will allow authors to choose which reviews they want to be top reviews. In other words, it will allow authors to bury unwanted reviews.
We were blown away when we heard about this. So instead of removing the trolls and their author-hating reviews from GR (like they should), they’re going to capitalize on it and make authors pay to have the troll reviews buried (or removed according to the emails that authors have received about this). Talk about corrupt!
I’m glad you discovered this mysterious woman’s identity. Maybe now, with her actual name revealed, she’ll tone down a bit. MacAllister Stone has been a real cyber bully for a good long time. Finally, it seems her outlandish antics are catching up with her. Lisa L. Spangenberg just doesn’t have much literary ring to it, though. I think Mac Stone’s more fitting. It’s a good name for a character in one of her speculative fiction “Coyote Wild” stories. Hey, “Coyote Wild” really published a lot of issues, didn’t it? Pretty much a one-hit wonder, yes it was. It was all smoke and mirrors to give Mac some credibility as an editor and publisher. She picked a few good ditties to lay down with, though. Of course, it doesn’t take much to weed out good from bad mss and she probably had somebody else performing for her.
The motivation for Lisa Spangenberg is obvious for anyone to see. She makes thousands in google and banner clickthrough ads, and with a Fox News/Salem Witch Hunt mentality, she’s assured of enough controversy and conflict to drive traffic from google to her site. In other words, there is no incentive for her to tame the beasts or behave fairly. The more drubbings and screechings, the better. Since she’s taken over, it’s all about money. For the hacks who hang out there, it’s all about book sales and a pathetic groping for some kind of prestige, however fleeting, i.e., Macdonald, Kane, Strauss, and the others.
We have to make them pay, not just yak yak about it all the time. Do a WHOIS on AW and you see a hoster in Texas. They are not the owners, just the hosters of AW. This is against the rules. We need to hit them in their vulnerable places. We need to stop them, or at least, make them hesitate when it comes to attacking and humiliating others.
“For the hacks who hang out there (at Absolute Write), it’s all about the book sales and a pathetic groping for some kind of prestige, however fleeting…”
So true, and well said.
I wonder if GR has run the whole–buy away fake reviews–by their lawyers. I’m pretty sure this would fall under extortion by liable. Or at least you would think so. If nothing else it might make a good legal point for a civil suit. Either way it’s a criminal offense and I’m pretty sure it’s a felony.
There was an interesting post by Jane Litte. She found books that had been plagiarized, gave examples, and it was all followed by a long comment thread. The books do look as if they’ve been plagiarized, which isn’t the issue I’m talking about. The issue is they mention in the comment thread how everyone will call them bullies now, which is ridiculous. No one is going to call them bullies for calling out plagiarism. They are going to call them bullies for all the other shit they’ve pulled in the past, from romfail to roasting authors who didn’t plagiarize. Clearly, they don’t get the concept of what a bully is. They know everything else, and they will tell you they do, but they just can’t grasp that bully thing.
They don’t get it. They’ll never get it. I hate plagiarists. I called them out on my blog (before the mob started using my words against me). Bullying has less to do with the content of what they say, than how and why they say it.
This is a good one. Some of you may know that “writer” Jim C. Hines immediately began smearing me in his little blog. Smearing a stranger about whom he still prefers to know nothing.
I looked around. I read a little of his goofy novel about burning spiders and such. I noticed a seriously Freudian typo in his autobio about having black belts in two “marital arts.” That, combined with his piddling income as a writer, two kids, a wife likely supporting the household while he plays footsie with girl fans (I spoke to a couple) make the “marital arts” battle quite likely. What would my friend S think of this fellow? I wrote her an e-mail. Here it is, and her reply the other day:
My friend S. is a fully trained Jungian Analyst, raised in Germany, educated at Wittgenstein, certified by Jung’s own Institute in Zurich, in practice at least 40 years by now. Without naming the vicious imbecile, I sent her this short description, saying nothing more, asking for a quick thumbnail opinion. Here’s Jim C. Hines just under his prickly skin:
On Jun 30, 2013, at 8:58 PM, Tom Dark wrote:
Say a man made up a story about a character (himself) who was stuck with a “burning spider” that caused mayhem wherever he went — he was stuck with carrying it around, and could not control it or keep it from setting things afire around him.
Say this man, in describing himself, was married, and also had earned black belts in “two different marital arts,” rather than martial arts… a “Freudian slip” if ever there was one.
What might one make of this, if one had to make something of it?
S replies:
Wow, Tom, what a story! This person would definitely be someone to stay away from. The spider in its non-cosmic form represents the darkest aspect of the [Jungian archetype] Great Mother. She entraps, poisons, paralyzes and sucks her victims dry. If this is combined with a loss of control and setting things on fire watch out!!!
Hope this helps.
S
(Later, S perused Jim Hines’ site herself and warned me in TWO e-mails that this person is in big trouble and would try to cause it for others. I thanked her. “Total loser” would have done as well.)
This Lisa Spangenberg or MacAllister Stone doesn’t have a Ph.D. Of course, I can’t say for sure, but her scholarship is so meager and lackluster that nobody should take this claim seriously. She hasn’t published anything of value in reputed scholarly periodicals. All she’s published has been on Internet blogs. And mostly, her Internet blogs. She’s had many. Everyone knows she’s a liar, a con, a manipulator, a slanderer and her entire web presence is one of an egregious, cowardly sock puppet. She should post her academic transcripts online if she makes the claim that she has a Master’s and a Doctorate. But she most likely won’t since her degrees are as phony as the pseudonym she’s been hiding behind for a long, long time.
I had an agent years ago who was new and inexperienced and this witch and her coven forced him out of business. They ran him so far down into the ground that he just gave up. I know how these assholes can be. Now Lisa Spangenberg is being forced to pay the piper. Don’t believe any of her claims. She’s a “bald-faced liar” and a certified pscycho.
When I was searching the ‘net to find out who these lying weasels at “Absolute Write” were, I came across a blog by a fellow who was just starting out as an agent whom they had been attacking. He was also a standup comedian. Was this the same fellow?
They also started attacking me just as I was getting started. I hadn’t been a standup comedian. I had a years-long vocation of getting people exposed, fired and put in jail — without spending any money on it. Scroll down toward the bottom of the comments on my “Writers, Beware Absolute Shit ‘Literary’ Scam” essay. You can google it by now. See what a guy credited me for all the way down in Costa Rica.
The reason these people even exist is because of “your” apathy, lacks of self-confidence and personal uncertainties. Clearing that up is step number one. But I can’t call every single person and try to wake them up. If we’re going to be rid of these human termites, everybody’s going to have to do … even just a little bit more… than complain to a website. I know for a fact certain editors at certain publishers are getting sick of these people.
Complain to the “SFWA” for one thing. Just copy some of these complaints to them, for instance. There’s a lot else.
I don’t want to name the agent. I understand he got out of the agenting biz 3 or 4 yrs. back. You’re right about taking drastic action against these people, though. Calling them on their baloney on websites probably won’t do much good. I don’t have much of an interest though. No dog in the fight, just part of the lynch mob.
Of course I don’t mean “lynch mob” in anything other than a verbal lashing sort of way. Nobody here wants to do any harm to anyone. Before these idiots get all whacked out about things, I just want to make it clear: I hope all AW’ers are happy and having a wonderful day! I hope you’re all constructively slandering others and kicking off wanna be writers from your site. Biz as usual, in other words.
I’ve suspected Lisa and Mac are the same person because the hateful language is the same with both of them. The man hating and abuse purposely directed at men is sickening too. Mac has gone as far as making male rape jokes. I am a male survivor of rape, so you don’t have to guess what I think of her. If this is true, it explains a lot
I’ve been told twice that my opinion didn’t matter on certain topics because of my gender. Lisa said it because men don’t read romance. I, however, was right and Lisa was wrong, so Mac sends me a private message telling me to stop waving my dick around.
I was also told that my gender made my opinion about a lesbian topic worthless, though I was again right and the poster thanked me for my comment.
It’s a shame that site is hers because it can be very helpful, but it isn’t worth being abused and bullied. If Lisa is Mac, then I take back what I said in my private message. Mac is not a vulgar abusive bully, Lisa is.
She’s a vile person. You’re right. The good information that can be found on the site isn’t worth the bullying.
The more I read about this woman, the more nauseated I become. Lisa, or Mac, or whatever the hell her name is, better watch out. It’s clear after reading the large number of posters here, along with numerous other sites, she’s really hated by a lot of people. Mr. Tom Dark doesn’t sound like anyone to mess with and it’s evident he’s planning to do more than just call Ms. X nasty names. I’m sure others feel the same. I’ll be watching for something brewing soon in the soup of civil law.
Yup. Do tell your friend he can find me at
Written by “Publisher W”, copied with permission from her at
The AW site goes down all the time and I have to wonder if it has something to do with how she treats people.
There is only problem with The Write Agenda’s assertion that Macallister Stone has never been at a writer’s conference. She has cooked at Viable Paradise. I never attended VB but that’s what various websites say.
I don’t like her or AW but I’m not 100% convinced of the evidence.
What did MacAllister Stone cook at Viable Paradise, goat’s head soup? It sounds like a good Medievalist recipe to me. I don’t believe anything “other websites” say about this creepy woman. The AW crew is notorious for their propagandistic BS. I wouldn’t put it past a slew of sock puppet bullies to set up sock puppet websites. I sounds logical and hardly far fetched. And even if MacAllister Stone and Lisa Spangenberg are two distinct individuals, they’re both crazy assholes. One’s as bad as the other, so we get a double dose of their misery, lies, and bedlam.
She’s so creepy and she has modded herself under a bunch of names and she bullies people and acts vulgar and nasty with all of them.
Looks like she was outed as Melodi Susanne Sherman, who connection to AbsoluteWrite is far stronger than Lisa Spangenberg.
This story reminds me so much of Miss Snark, years ago, who was the nastiest of nasty blogger. I think they eventually outed her, but she had to be one of the original lit bullies, and more than likely transformed herself into some other fake name. These lit bullies simply have nothing better to do, I’m convinced of that.
This blog covers the Mac Stone/Mel Sherman connection in more detail: http://absolutewrong.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/those-pesky-legalities.html