re: SWoodhams targetted harassment blogs 2024.12.19
My name is being dragged through the dirt by SWoodham, for several months she has been running an ongoing harassment and defamation campaign against me.
I have written this document to address the most recent points involved in the drama which SWoodham is creating and feeding off.
The best thing I can do is to ignore it. However, in the words of one observer "she is not only going after you, she is going after everyone around you too." And that is affecting me, my friends, the wider community.
The next best thing I can do is to point out where she is lying about things. I request people with intelligence to use it. There are two sides to every story. This is mine.
I do not want to get caught up in the toxicity of that doom-game. Nobody wins that - except for the people who thrive off drama. That is her motivation.
There are several points I feel unjustly criticized for, which she is using as leverage to manipulate people. Having a boogie-man to compare her moral righteousness with, to convince herself and others she is what she aspires to be, requires a boogie-man. I did not consent to that. I have done nothing amoral. I helped her career for six months. She blew it with me by lying. It would benefit any individuals who listen to her, to consider there are two sides to every story. I am being scapegoated.
Is my pride offended sufficiently to retaliate by justifying myself? I have been put in a position of defense, for her sense of empowerment. Well, this note exists, so there is that. It's not so much that her intimidation is affecting me other than she's a joke for the people who know what she is like.
Regarding her latest targeted blog in a series of targeted blogs.
1) she stands to financially gain from discrediting me, because she perceives the community project I started as a threat to her own project which is off the back of it. That is a huge component in why she is targeting me.
2) She actually gets off on this stuff. Its some sort of mental health issue. I recognized that when she told me I am "the manifestation of her dead grandmother who she is attempting to exorcise." How much of a threat that could be, I do not know. She has not backed off yet though.
3) An incident where Sylvia intimidated a woman to retract her offer for me to publish her story, because Sylvia believes the use of the word Sasquatch by a self-proclaimed native American was 'cultural appropriation'. I explained to Sylvia that if she is rejecting stories on the basis they are potentially offensive, we have morally to apply that same logic 'one rule for all' to all of the other stories too. At this time Sylvia flew off the handle and began lying by saying I had said things I had not said.
4) An incident where one of the writers was discussing a form of spiritism which happens to be my own religion also. Unfortunately that writer decided because of my skin colour it is offensive that I should know anything about spiritism sufficient to discuss multi-cultural similarities. Spiritism is multi-cultural, found in all cultures across the world, including my indigenous bloodline going back thousands of years to prehistory, as has been verified by archeological finds and the ongoing living culture alike. It is not exclusive property of one ethnic group. I feel I was the victim of somebody being racist, using their own skin colour to attempt to make out that I was racist. The only person who introduced skin colour was the writer who clearly has issues with that. I did not ever mention it at all until this paragraph. Sylvia has hyped this up to target me, as a part of her harassment campaign.
As far as cultural appropriation is concerned (points 3 and 4): please recognize that the following things were invented by White Men: the internet, cars, airplanes, trains, computers, mobile phones; those are White Male Culture. So if anyone comes at me with 'you have appropriated my culture'; I also have ancestors and trained as a spirit medium. You need to get a reality check. We are a global multi-culture now. Humanity is syncretic by default. This does not mean disrespect to any traditions.
5) the issue SWoodham has alleged SL Writers Project publishing a writer without their consent - as far as I know I do have that persons consent. They sat in my office, which has a sign above the door saying 'short story collection community publications', was given a description of what the project was about in chat, was given all the documents saying what it is about, how it works, etc. After this, the writer submitted a story. Later during the project, notification was sent regarding 'retractions' to all the authors before publication, in case any had changed their mind. The particular writer did not communicate at all. On the principle 'the last agreement is probably still ongoing', their work was published.
Screenshots of all this show clearly a legal meeting of minds occurred. I spoke with legal advisor - they confirmed I did nothing illegal as I have evidence to show accord on intent.
Question: why would they sit in my office and give me a story if their work was not to be involved in the collection? That is not my bad.
I have since spoken with the writer, sent them a writers copy of the book through the mail as a courtesy I offered to all the writers involved. I have offered to remove their story from the 2nd edition of the book. I have offered to replace it with a newer edit if they are unhappy with the previous edit, in the 2nd edition of the book. They have not replied at all about that, so it has at this time been left as it is.
Sly wanted to publish that writer exclusively. She's angry with me, she feels I robbed her of that. She's pressuring the writer, using them as a weapon against me.
This paragraph is another request to that writer, to contact me directly about the issue, instead of talking with SWoodham about a situation she is no longer involved with (the SL Writers Project). She was sacked from the SL Writers Project for professional misconduct, which has developed into a case of industrial espionage. She posted on her blog her intention to publish the SL Writers collection independently of it. Several of its writers have mentioned their negative opinion of her for doing that. I published the collection earlier than intended to legally safeguard everyone involved - which has very much annoyed SWoodham.
SWoodham has also proved she is faking evidence, for example by using chatGPT to re-write private messages between us - she sent me a copy of that to show me she is doing it. I responded by sending her a legal notification to cease and desist; which has aggravated her, which is in part why she has continued targeting me.
I do not want to get involved with her toxicity. She had me sucked in for six months before she showed her true colours. Thats when we fell out. SWoodham and I have different moral compasses. Mine says, listen to both sides of a story, understand where a person is coming from, and don't lie about them because that only makes things worse for everyone.
I urge anyone who has heard anything about any of this from SWoodham to contact me about it asap. Now, we have to wait and see what she does next. Will she continue persecuting me and manipulating people as part of her defamation and harassment campaign, or will she have the better nature, compassion and intellect to drop all of her grudges against me so we can both move on with our lives positively.
The SL Writers Project anthology is available for Kindle and print-on-demand from:
www.linktr.ee/SLWritersProject
snakeappletree 2024.12.19