AUTHORS BEHAVING BADLY | Adam Gaffen
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i feel like we should talk about how he portrayed a queer woman, specifically *pansexual*, as A) a sexual predator, and B) a promiscuous sex demon.
But are we also saying that pansexual and queer characters are only allowed to be good, or presented in certain roles?
@@setitheredcap2677 they very clearly are not saying that
@@setitheredcap2677 I'm going to assume this comment is in good faith and so I will respond in accordance to that. Hypersexualization of characters who are attracted to multiple genders is a very harmful, very common stereotype. I'm not pansexual but for a time I identified as such. I remember feeling pressured to be sexually attracted to everyone, even if I wasn't, because that's what portrayals like this teach. I felt If I didn't feel attraction to everyone, then I must be faking my sexuality, when in reality I was exploring my identity.
You can have sexually fluid character who engage in stereotypes, however I'm also allowed to call out these stereotypes when I see them. Having sex is in no way a negative trait (imo) but if your gonna pander to queer women, maybe don't represent them as sexually deviant predators. They can be flawed individuals in ways that don't harm the LGBTQ+ community.
@@bizbat
I'm not saying his personal intentions are good, or his execution, but overall, I don't think judging characters of books based on real world morals is always realistic. It's not up to anyone to write your life story in a book. So, no queer character can ever be evil or do morally wrong things? It reminds me of readers who criticise authors for writing about certain events in their book, as if they're not allowed a world where that happens.
Queer people can be evil. Pedofiles, murderers, etc. Obviously, no, most aren't like that and I can understand the harm of depicting minorities that way, but as long as they're not justifying those actions, why can't a queer person be a predator? I very much doubt a succubus would care much for consent.
As a queer writer myself, I want to represent minorities in strong empowered ways, but not every character will be like that. I was raped by a gay man. Is writing a gay rapist therefore inherently outlawed because it may upset or hurt the movement.
It's a story. There are no limits. Jefferey Darmer was gay, but nobody penalises us for his actions. If this author is writing every queer person that way, or insinuating such, that's obviously wrong. But simply writing a queer character as one is not.
People need to stop gatekeeping writers.
But isn't it weird to even use the term "pansexual" in the first place when by her (his? the author's) own admission, the character only sleeps with people as part of their job? Like, that has nothing to do with who they're ATTRACTED to. That's like saying a female sex worker who gets paid to film sexual encounters with other female sex workers, but who is attracted only to men in her personal life, is "a lesbian, but not by choice". Unless I'm missing something here. It feels like more of this guy just throwing around lingo he read on LGBTQ+ social media without knowing what it even means.
How boring does your life have to be to catfish through books
He can't get a date any other way so might as well. Trickery and manipulation is the best way to get a girlfriend, right? 🙃
ah yes, exactly the kind of sapphic content i'd want to read: a sex demon and a TEENAGE BOY
Like WHAT WAS HE THINKING
WHATTTT
@@dumbysoup9011 There are gayer and more respectable hentai than this
Sounds like a fetish he wanted to make money off of
If a disabled person wants to refer to themselves as handicapped, that's fine. It's not okay for a disabled person to call another disabled person that without knowing that they are OK with it, and it is never okay for an abled person to use it. Especially if they are pretending to be a marginalized person and using the term to falsely claim that they are disabled.
What do we think about the term "socially handicapped"? I have heard it many times, and people have called me that... but I wouldn't consider myself disabled? I have severe anxiety that limit me in my day to day life, but I wouldn't use that word to describe myself... but like, others call me (and others) socially handicapped. Who has a right to reclaim it?
One time I got so fed up by it that I said "So what if I'm "socially handicapped"? What does that mean to you?" (Paraphrasing because English is not my first language). Was I in the wrong there? Because I still lowkey feel bad about it.
@@SammyLammy1Dhandicapped is just saying the word disabled, so if you wouldnt call yourself socially disabled, you shouldnt say socially handicapped. handicapped as a word was created to avoid saying disabled, the same as "special needs" and "differently abled", its just trying to treat disabled like a bad word.
social anxiety can absolutely be disabling! and its not a bad thing to be disabled! and if social anxiety is effecting your day to day life, that is kind of, by definition, disability.
and just to be clear, i dont think youre a bad person or anything for saying it, its a little messy when you dont know the ins and outs, especially when its not your first language and when everyone has been calling you that!
@thieleaf2640 yeah exactly. The reason I don't use disabled to describe myself isn't because I think it's "bad" to be disabled, I just feel like by calling myself disabled, I would take resources from others who need it more?
Interesting, in my first language, handicapped is the bad word, and we say "funktionsvariation" (variation of function, if translated directly) instead. So, in my experience, most people who use handicapped use it as an insult. Especially towards people with social disabilities or neuro divergences. I hope I spelled the last part correctly. Otherwise, I'll edit it.
Edit: neurodiversity. I am sorry I always spell that one wrong :(
@@SammyLammy1D it doesnt take resources just to call yourself disabled! i know it can seem that way, but really its just a description. ^^
neurodivergance was right! neurodiversity is the mix of people with different brains, and neurodivergance is the word for people who arent neurotypical. (its so messy! so many words!) but your spelling was right both ways!
@@thieleaf_the_shelf_dragonThanks for explaining it like that, I didn’t know. Although, I don’t think I’ve referred to people as handicapped before, just disabled really.
Writing under a pen name of another gender is one thing, but concocting a whole PERSON??? It sounds like he was afraid of catching flack for writing sapphic romance as a cishet man, but his "solution" was ten times worse!
I think it was probably more nefarious than that. A straight man, fetishizing queer women, doesn't enter women's spaces without wanting something to get off too. I'd be surprised if there's not a woman who has a story about "AC" sending flirtatious-->sexual messages to her.
exactly! i cant even get mad at cishet men writing sapphic romances bcuz a lot of cishet women do the same with mlm romances. but when it goes this far just so he can force himself into queer women's spaces, it gets uncomfortable and weird
@mollypop6887I mean there are a lot of AFAB non-men writing MLM under pen names to sound less femme as well. (Not counting transmascs and trans men like Aiden Thomas since, you know, he IS MLM himself). Many/most are in the community, and I've heard a lot of MLM fanfic authors who have come to realize later on that they're transmasc (in fact, I fall in that category, and I believe it's even a plot point in the book Dead Collections) so I hate to call anyone out on it but it's definitely not ONLY white cis men.
Slightly off topic, but as a pansexual the whole “making a demon pan since she sleeps with whoever her assignment is” rubs me the wrong way.
Agreed. It feels so much like fetishization. Either she’s actually pan or she’s sleeping with genders she doesn’t enjoy sleeping with for the sake of her job. Both could be fine if the story was well written, but the way it’s described feels like it’s just there for the sex appeal and not to delve into the character.
him pretending to be a lesbian and then turning around in an interview and saying that lesbians resent bi and pan women is so weird in a way i can't even put into words bit it feels GROSS
He's right though!!! I'm afraid to even say I'm bi in front of a lesbian because I might cause her to go on a misandry-fueled (and semi-misogynistic-fueled) tirade.
@@Twat_Dirtuhhh that's not a very justifiable fear tbh...most lesbians aren't going to b hateful towards u bc ur bi lmao
Like twatdirt said he is technically right but WHO ARE YOU TO BE TALKING SIR????? YOU ARENT EVEN A CIS WOMAN LET ALONE A BI ONE 😭
@@Twat_Dirtironically I'm a lesbian and afraid to say that in front of bi people because half the time they try to convince me that i just need to "open up" and "stop being so exclusive"
@@Twat_Dirt Hey there, I know this is a bit of an old comment but it does kinda hurt lesbians when you say stuff like that. I've faced lesbophobia from bi people, but I'd never say I'm afraid to be a lesbian around them, because that's a gross generalization of a group that already has it rough. I really hope you've grown since then and have realized that the strongest thing for all wlw to do is to stand together and not tear each other down. ❤
“That’s certainly a choice.” I disagree. It’s not a choice. It’s many, many, many, MANY terrible choices in succession. It’s a layer cake of bullshit.
You make an excellent point but now I want cake to eat my feelings
@@ReadswithRachel I just had pancakes for dinner. Better than Adam Gaffen’s bullshit surprise.
A severe and continuous lapse in judgment, some may say
when he says his demon character is pan but not by choice I think he means like it's only for her job, she wouldn't be pan if it weren't demanded of her which is just very concerning? especially since her work is comparable to sex work
also it seems like he's using this persona and co-opting progressive language just to write sapphic women fucking men without recieving any flack (there's definitely biphobia within sapphic spaces but when a man is writing in this way I'm thinking it's fetishism of bi women)
it's giving p*rn addict and the fantasy of turning a lesbian woman 'straight' by really good straight s*x, the typical thing men say to lesbian women when they turn them down 'you just haven't had my d yet'. And there is obv the prostitution element that gives this story a r*pey twist- as I said its giving p-addict.
This is wild. I know Adam. I met him as a fellow author in conventions in Colorado. I read the first book in the Cassidy Chronicles and disliked it a lot. I have a whole rant review about that garbage pile. Then I see him for another round of the convention circuit where he told me he was the editor of Finding Faith and begged me to take a copy to review. I feel so used. what the hell. I'm sure I'll be seeing him again this round of conventions and I do not know how I will be able to see him after learning all of this. I'm horrified.
...Does he write/talk creepy in any way?
Another chalk up of Things I Still Can't Believe Need to Be Said in 2023 Jesus Christ. Queer Woman is not a RPG class you can just pick.
God damn mid-maxing sapphics
jesus...I get making a pen name but a whole damn person and just betraying friends and people you work with.
exactly!
Rachel asking the real questions: Is the cat real or not??
We demand answers! Is there a cat?
The cat is neither real nor not real until someone observes it or the lack of it 😂
@@KestrelDC This comment triggers conflicting emotions in me. I hate you for making that joke but also you're my hero.
The thing that bothers me the most about all this is that he did this to effectively get a 'fresh start' - he portrayed himself as an up-and-coming queer woman to get eyes on his books, which effectively took opportunities away from ACTUAL queer women breaking onto the scene. That is just so beyond shitty and I hope he realises the seriousness of stealing opportunities from marginalized writers.
I am so horrified by what he has done. He was a friend and I thought a decent person. I published him in one of my anthologies and I'll be taking his story out. The things I've read. He talked to another woman as AC about pegging his wife, and there are a ton of other sexual things. There's also a million self-congratulatory posts between him and AC about each other. I've also lost track of how many people he referred his publishing services to as AC. It's sick.
Jesus Christ how disgusting. But again, as a lesbian who is on dating sites, I’m not at all surprised. Men like this are utter creeps.
YIKES
sounds like this sex talk turned him on. creep
What gets me is that there are works out there - like Sunstone - that are sapphic stories by AMAB male authors and actually loved by a lot of queer women I know. It can be harder to promote, but if you can write something the audience can connect to, you really don't need to hide behind this kind of fake identity. It's embarrassing.
yeah sunstone slaps. that man is a man who Gets It.
Sorry but I have a dumb question. What does AMAB mean?
@@horrorfanatic6990 assigned male at birth
@@salorarainriver7278 thank you!!! I was trying to figure it out and hurt my head ☺️ you’re the best.
True!! Seth Dickinson and Iori Miyazawa are also notable examples of well received and loved amab authors writing wlw literature.
the use of "totes" would have my spidey senses tingling IMMEDIATELY
every time rachel uploads i get cozy and prepare to hear niche author drama about people ive never heard of in my life
*writes note* “don’t make up fake persona to sell books to marginalized communities”. Got it! 👍🏽
Trying to be civil but honestly I am so angry. What really got me is the fact he had the audacity to cosplay as a member of a marginalized community and then go on to critique that community in an interview. As if he has any right at all to be a part of our intracommunity discussions. It just feels so unbelievably disrespectful. It's punching down masquerading as constructive discussion.
It’s people who have never been in a minority, pretending to be in a minority whenever it suits them. It happens time and time again throughout history. He always has to be the victim or will pretend to be a person in a minority so he can say it’s ok “because he’s one of you!” It’s never ok to fake being in a marginalized group just trying to survive in a world of hate, while knowing you have never been any position like that and probably never will.
Also, in case anyone was wondering, "handicapped" is a pretty unpopular term in the disabled community and is not generally considered appropriate for use by abled people, especially for implicitly equating non-disability-related conditions/ways of being like gender to disability like this weirdo did.
Thanks for the clarification! :)
As someone who is legally blind, non binary and Bi, who used to use crutches, to hear someone who seems not only able bodied but is actually a MAN, I'm disgusted honestly
Prime copypasta material.
The cat was the author all along
my guy, the western roman empire (you know, the bit with actual *rome* in it?) had been dust for a good 500 years by 952 AD, it takes a single google search to find this out - i guess there's a reason his catfish persona taught english and not history
Eh, there was still a Roman Empire in Constantinople, but I SERIOUSLY doubt he did any study on 10th century Greece.
Why is it that when Romance novelist go bad they go super bat crazy bad? Murder, faking their own death, and oh yes and this bag of crazy. . . Why?
The alleged murderer was a childrens book author 😂 unless there’s another one that’s a romance author I missed
@@schuylergeery-zink1923 yeah a romance novelist murdered her husband. Nancy Brody, they even wrote a book titled 'How to Murder Your Husband'.
Adam Gaffen as AC Talks more about being a lesbian than actual lesbians. Haha.
Especially if his character came out at 13 in my experience the longer people are out the less it comes up.
For some reason this whole thing reminds me of terves being like “what if men pretend to be trans women to invade women’s spaces” & like. No. They just do that without the trans step. In fact, it’s much easier without the trans step. They are just doing that.
They do it with and without it.
Absolutely. And I love "terves" as plural for terfs lol. Also LOVE your Monkey Penny icon!!
how is it easier without the trans step? he could have just put on a wig and lipstick, called himself a woman and he could have continued to write smut about a woman getting r*ped and sleeping with minors. he could hve just identified himself that way. how could anyone fight him on this identify? it was actually stupid of him to keep his 'male' persona. but he kept it i guess because he wanted to still be seen as a male author to some. he wanted to use the female author identity to push his male author books. in the end, he was more proud of those accomplishments. he wanted to be known as the male author, not the fake woman identify. he wasn't really trans and he couldn't give up his real identify even if it meant he would have had less trouble.
@@dau__I'm going to assume you meant that argument in good faith, so I'll explain.
1. The reason most men won't do that is because they are unwilling to deal with transphobia in order to get what they want. Trans women are subject to a lot of hatred and mockery, so attaching your real life name and identity to being trans (especially if you don't pass) not only is dangerous in some cases, but also is an extremely easy identity to break apart. Because unless he pretends to be trans around EVERYONE, then he'll tell his family and friends what's up. And then at any point, they can reveal him.
2. That wouldn't change the creepy way he wrote about sapphic women. Even if an actual trans woman wrote about sapphic women that way, she'd be called out. That's like saying "what if a cis woman used the fact that she was a cis woman to walk into a woman's bathroom and harass people?" That's illegal, whether a trans or cis woman, trans or cis male does it. Him being a trans woman would not fix the problems people have with his books.
3. We DO NOT have to fight him on his identity, to call him out for his bad behavior. Bad behavior is bad behavior. If a man pretended to be a trans woman but all he did throughout his life was just chill and do things normally, then that's not a problem. Just perplexing. If a man pretends to be a trans woman and does horrible things, we don't have to say "well that's actually a man". No, because you can just call out those horrible things instead. See how it works?
4. We can still call out privilege, even in a trans woman. A trans woman who didn't come out for a long time probably grew up with male privilege and it might've affected the way she interacts with women. Even cis women have internalized misogyny, why not trans women? Like with the Cait Corrain situation, Cait was nonbinary. I saw a lot of people, even Cindy, call them a white woman specifically. Although I do wish more people were respectful of Cait's pronouns and identity, the fact that they are white meant that they were subject to the same racism and blind spots that white women have. But they didn't get away with it just because they were nonbinary.
So all in all, this idea that just being trans gets you a pass for creepy behavior is not founded in reality. Being trans actually gets you more death threats, more danger from strangers who perceive you as a threat, more groomer accusations than you'll need for a lifetime, and your rights taken away. Why would men bother to be trans to do creepy shit? Trans people have been killed and not taken seriously for thousands of years in the countries that would end up colonizing this world, and men haven't had to pretend to be trans to assault or harass women that WHOLE time. They just made laws to allow themselves to assault women and put themselves in positions of power and told women they're not equal to men. Pretending to be trans is equal to giving up their dominating force over women--their manhood.
@@ettaetta439 a thorough and thoughtful response, thanks for this
Well, I knew for sure he wasn’t riding Buffy fanfiction on any websites as a teenager. He’s 50, which is two years younger than I am. There were no websites when he was a teenager. I only got to use Internet when I got to college and it was just Bulletin, boards and code. If you didn’t know how to get somewhere on your own, you couldn’t get there. And the Buffy the vampire slayer movie didn’t come out until 1992. I don’t remember when the TV show came out, but it was much later. Angel was in the early 2000s around the turn of the century I think.
The TV show came out in 1997. So yeah, he definitely wasn't writing Buffy fanfic on nonexistent websites in the 80s for a show that hadn't come out yet.
@@purplesapphire3542 In the 80s, there was Usenet and there was fanfiction on Usenet. Buffy wasn't out, but if you had University access to BBSes or you had a dial up modem at home, you had access to all kinds of fiction.
Not that this makes his story any more real, but internet fanfiction is not a 90s kid thing.
My favourite use of a pen name is Iain Banks, who also wrote under the name Iain M Banks. He used the "different" names to write different genres
😂
This story itself sounds like the plot of a novel. Not a good novel, but a novel.
I can't help but feel like this was some sort of fetish or even trying to set up some horrible situation. Like, he actively looked for contact to young female sapphic people. Preferably disabled, because thanks to social barriers, disabled people tend to be more vulnerable to abuse. Who knows what he would have done if not found out.
100% my first thought. and then when we saw the opening excerpt of this character who is 'pansexual for work' essentially getting f•cked by a dude...hmm how very convenient! this doesn't just feel like someone who wants to avoid the flack of having his identity questioned re: his right to write certain narratives. this feels like a straight cis man wants to f•ck queer women/folks and found a weird little loophole for rp.
I understand women posing as male authors to garner more recognition, but this dude just straight up sucks.
Yeah he does 💯
I know a cozy mystery author who is a man but writes with a female pen-name because female cozy mystery authors do better. I feel like he gets a pass because he's, well, writing cozy mystery and not doing weird wish fulfillment stuff and he's pretty open online about it being a pen name. Series is the Cat in the Stacks, by the way.
@@TelenTerroryeah that’s not bad at all, i understand why he would do it. His intentions aren’t insidious
Or the opposite of a normal, sane male writer with a female pen-name. There is a real barrier in some genres where audiences will never consider buying a man's book as well.
@@HadenBlake yeah exactly
I'm honestly amazed this doesn't happen more often in indie and self- publishing. This happens constantly in a lot of fandom circles, where someone will catfish as a marginalized identity to give themselves more credibility and often to shut down criticism of offensive portrayals of marginalized groups and sensitive issues. I guess I sort of thought with how messy romance publishing particularly seems to be, this phenomenon would have cropped up here before. Honestly it gives me some hope that this dude was identified and shut down relatively quickly.
Your comment reminded me of the whole HIVLiving scandal on Tumblr, where a white, cis, able-bodied straight (?) girl from the US pretended to be a disabled, trans, WLW/sapphic WOC who was a survivor of sex trafficking...for, of all things, Hamilton the Musical fanfic. It was fucking wild.
@@miavanlunden-cd1hs DUDE I was just about to bring up HIVliving. I've never had tumblr but I just watched Strange Aeons' video on it and holy shit that story was wild.
It probably does- it's just a question of getting caught
It happens, the instances are just quickly forgotten. I'm surprised that in this discussion about a privileged person pretending to be a marginalized romance author for different kinds of nefarious gains Santino Hassell hasn't been brought up, that was a big thing 6 years ago.
Re: snakes or spiders, it entirely depends on what kind. I’d rather be in a room of ball pythons than black widows, but I’d also take a room of tarantulas over a room of king cobras
This is a good point!
I grew up in an area replete with both black widows and rattlesnakes. I got bitten by a black widow once (as an adult) and it was painful and annoying for about 3 weeks. Rattlers warn you, and they generally take off, but it's more dangerous if they actually do attack. Could I have the room with corn snakes please?
If I was the model I would definitely be furious that my image was being used 😡
The exact kinda shit that boils my blood. Predatory men like him are *always* finding ways to get access to us and I'm extremely tired.
So apparently men aren’t content to just catfish us on dating websites anymore. FML. As someone who is trying to get my own novel published, I should not have to compete with sweaty man children. Dude is my dad’s age.
... As an author in this genre that uses a pen name, I'm so completely blown away by this insidious bs. As a member of the community, I'm disgusted. And as a woman, I'm completely creeped out. One man's ability to create so many negative reactions in me is sadly not unheard of in this space.
I just wanna know if the cat is real. I don't know what to believe about this world anymore. 😕
I don’t really hang out with the main sapphic community that much because I hang out with mostly by BIPOC sapphic authors and that’s a very small sample size. But the moment I heard about this, my mouth drop to the ground! it’s not having a pen name that bothers me is not a man writing sapphic books that bother me. Because I am a trans masc person writing sapphic books but it’s a dedication of this man and the depth of the story that he spun. That is what bothers me.
And after all that, Rachel had to remind us of “kissing the coronavirus” 🤢 I still ❤ you Rachel. Just never again remember the coronavirus series. LOL
I fucking love the 🐍 vs 🕷️rant!!! So right, snakes over spiders 100%, tho if it was tiny spiders versus big ass murder snakes, then the spiders, because shoe beats spiders.
Ok but murder snakes may not attack, tiny spiders will 100% crawl all over you and bite you even if you don't antagonize
@@bats550 If the spiders are tiny they most likely will not have mouth parts capable of penetrating human skin. It might even be a 100% guarantee that they won’t, but I’m not an entomologist, so unlike some authors of cringey books, won’t make an uneducated guess.
This is 1000% correct. Plus snakeses is cutesessss...
@@bats550spiders do not bite without provocation!!!!
@@multipleSpiders ...I don't trust this based on your username lol
It's like he read a wikipedia article called "queer women" and used it as his persona outline.
This was such a weird situation for me as a previous subscriber to both author newsletters. He NEVER mentioned an association to Adam in an AC newsletter or vice versa. When the "apology" email was sent out to AC Adams' subscribers, I was at a loss & you were honestly the first person I wanted to ask WTF because I have no social media but knew something had to be popping off somewhere. I replied to the email, though, asking for clarification & whether the AC Adams books would remain available. He replied without clarifying what was happening but "assured" me that no books would be taken down. Later the same day of his apology email he sent a follow-up introducing himself as a pen name for Adam Gaffen. The Adam Gaffen newsletter did not send anything to it's subscribers explaining the AC Adams pen name or situation. That's when you know something is sus & I've unsubscribed from both email lists after reading Jae's blog & also hearing from J. Scott Coatsworth about all of this last week. I honestly feel like other authors in this space have bent over backwards trying to make up for their bring fooled by this man & I love that generosity from them, but it is truly for Adam to make the amends. I don't think he can or should come back from this. He has selfishly damaged & used this space & just needs to leave it. Despite receiving free ebooks for signing up for both pen name newsletters, I've yet to read them & don't know if I will now. I'm curious, especially with them currently being 1 started on Goodreads in the fallout of this, but have better things on my TBR.
Sidenote: Jae's Advent Calendars & sapphic bingo are great events. I 100% recommend signing up for her emails & participating in her events because she is very much & sincerely about community for both authors & readers.I
Additional sidenote: I follow several authors who publish under 1 or more pennames & most of them openly disclose that & let you know this is what I wrote here/there if you want to subscribe or unsubscribe from that content. That's how it should be done, in my opinion. If you're not openly disclosing a link between one author profile & another that are both you, it's usually not just for funzies. You're wanting to hide something in hopes of profiting from something else.
I was wondering if Adam was closet trans at first. Nah, he's literally doing the thing transphobes say about 'roleplaying as a woman'. As in, the woman he's playing as is his own original character with her own backstory and identity different to his.. Weird
If he likes playing a woman character he should quit this bs and just get into drag smh!! (tbc that would be a good thing)
That was what I was kinda hoping was the case because it's the only non-insidious explanation I could think of. But yeahhh, wishful thinking I guess. 🙃
@@kyliedroidsame
Indeed - like in that case, why would that not come up in private conversations? It's a lot easier than the weird shit he did instead of just having a pen name like a ton of honest authors. Sadly this reads completely like a cis het man who fetishizes queer women.
Literally thought the same thing; here’s a dude actually doing what all the TERFs are claiming trans women do, where is their outrage?
The appropriation of both identity and identity specific language was purposeful, calculated, and horrid.
Why are people.
A QUESTION THAT NEEDS ANSWERED
Why are.
Why.
Wh
"IS THE CAT REAL OR NOT" thank you for asking the important questions 🙏
I love Rachel's 'IS THE CAT REAL?!' energy.
He’s local to me and I bought his book and put it down right away bc I hated it and he told me about AC and even told me he was a queer man, which is also a lie. Wild to find out all of this from a video!!! Working with friends to get him barred from local cons for this
In general, I think it's okay to use a pen name of the opposite gender. If you are a man writing romance and you want to try a pen name, sure, but at least come clean about it properly when asked and be transparent to your colleagues in the writing community. Don't concoct an absurd charade around being marginalized, good god!
It wasn’t just a pen name, it was a fictional identity that he used when corresponding with “himself” publicly, and used “her” to promote his own business services (fraudulently). Once you start to engage in problematic behavior using that pen name identity as well you should be able to be held accountable for your actions. It’s complicated
I love the advice of having a gender neutral pen name and the cat as a profile picture. And just not really making a big point out of gender. I don't have a problem with men writing saphic fiction; people can write what they want to write. Some won't read it, and that's fine; others will be interested as long as they like the prose itself.
The detailed bio and interviews come off as so patronizing - like "Oh look at me I'm such a good author I can do some research on how other authors in this field talk, write a fictional bio, and people will think it's real! It's like, Art. wow." That's just taking advantage of people approaching his work in good faith.
I've been following this since it hit the Sapphic book club, but I didn't realize until your video that I actually started reading one of the books published under his own name once and couldn't get past the first few pages of his awful world building (and forced friends to read those pages so I had company in ranting about how bad it was). So that's the cherry on top. Terrible person, reeeeally terrible writing.
I am an active reader in this niche little community! I love Jae's work and everything, I completely missed this since I've been off twitter and god this is wild. Have you heard of Magnolia Robbins? she's another sapphic author in this community who lied about having several illnesses and scammed people through a gofundme and has been trying to write under different names lately
As someone who is a lesbian, the comment about the biphobia really made me feel weird. This is a cishet man. Talking about the biphobia in the lesbian community. While pretending to be a lesbian, aka someone who is actually affected by the biphobia in the lesbian community. What the fuck.
That is so creepy and has red flags all over it.
This isn’t using a pen name this is actually making a pen person. A fake ID what sort of weirdo do you have to be to pretend to be someone else like this.
Bonkers.
Great video. I have no idea why people like this guy behave the way they do but it at least it makes for good Rachel material!
whats so silly is that if the sapphic story was any good, people would read it regardless of his gender and orientation. Travis Baldtree who wrote Legends and Lattes comes to mind.
13:28 Omg not the having his co-author pay him as the editor!
Truly he put in so much work for this "pen name." Which imo really shows his true intention wasn't to have a pen name, but to trick people
The whole rant about Pride month is a huge red flag, and so frustrating. It's worse than straight folks who think it's nothing but spectacle. Pride events are, for some people, the only space in which they feel safe being out, but its history is to commemorate the Stonewall riots where queer folks, especially Trans women and lesbians of color, took a stand against being shamed and abused by the law. The parades and festivals can be fun, but his whole weird rant about hating Pride month screams "I have no idea what this is actually about; please give me attention."
Also, writing a character who's forced to be with multiple genders against her will "pansexual" is _super_ gross.
It would have made sense as a rant if it was about something like rainbow capitalism, which is something some queer people do get annoyed about it and like it would be nice to not need pride, to just be, but I don't think a lot of queer people in 2023, in the current climate would be ranting about not wanting pride to be a thing the way he's done it.
This is wild. Like... how does this happen? Did he plan it all along? Did it build up to this insanity? It sounds to me like he planned it from the beginning. Is there any crossover between his fans and his made up persona fans? Because I feel like his fans should know what a pos he truly is.
pulls out popcorn
Ah, my favorite series is back with another installment.
I remember when I was like, 14, I would make up fake personas online because I was a bored kid. But the fact that a full-grown adult would create a fake persona to pose as a new Own Voices sapphic writer and SELL PEOPLE his writing under fraudulent premises is just beyond messed up. He's nothing more than a scammer.
i've watched a bunch of "authors behaving badly" vids but this one takes the cake of What The Hell Was This Author Thinking?!
like, oh my god? the hubris of white cishet men... thank goodness he was called out. god.
(btw i finally subscribed after a few weeks of seeing your vids but forgetting to sub ^^" love your vids and outlook on book stuff, it's really hard for me to get into reading but maybe i'll finally be motivated enough to check out some books cos of ya!)
Like JKR who poses as a male for books she writes but somehow has an issue with other people doing it
Hold up imma pose as male really quick... *flexes in front of the mirror in my binder *
I think you mean to say that she poses as a man, but has an issue with other people BEING men.
Whatever Joanne uses as a pseudonym, she will always seem to identify as a woman who causes infighting- even in her writing, hating all forms of women and yet claiming to be pro-woman.
That woman is made of double standards
11:52 physically disabled lesbian here and oh boy is it ever! marginalized is a much better word. one’s gender is not an impairment in itself, but rather the impairment comes from it being used as an axis for marginalization. also as a psa to anyone reading this, don’t use the word cr*pple when referring to being disabled, impaired, or marginalized by something. that word is specifically about physical disability (especially impaired lower limb function) and has been used to justify our deaths and imprisonment.
This is so horrifying. I've never heard of this guy nor his catfishing identity before your video (thankfully), but it's gut-wrenching to think about all people that were fooled and used by him. When you read out his interview answer about Pride month and the lesbian community, I felt physical disgust. For a cis-het man to enter our space in a disguise and speak as if he's an authority is so violating.
I've barely seen the thumbnail and I'm already pissed I hate it here
11:00 okay what? I think he’s saying that her job is to seduce any and all humans and therefore she *has* to be pansexual, but that’s a complete misunderstanding of what sexual identity is. You can sleep with a man and still be a lesbian because it’s not about who your intimate with, it’s about whether you find them attractive. If your seducing a man for example, not because your attracted to them or for personal reasons, but because it’s an assignment, then that does not mean you have to have a sexual identity that includes men. You can still easily be a lesbian for example. This is just such an ignorant thing for him to have said in the interview I literally can’t process it 🤦♀️
As a proud queer woman myself, I have never written Buffy fan fiction.
*nervously shoves literal boxes of X-Files fan fiction back under my bed*
First of all, Rachel, I have to say that I love your disclaimer at the start of the video, about urging your audience to NOT harass anyone. That happens far too often these days, and it's nice to see someone with a wide audience like you have to leave others alone, no matter what they do.
Second of all, as an amateur writer myself who has a pen name I use on a fan fiction site that no one I know in real life goes to, as far as I know, I'm all for authors using pen names if they want to. I don't care why an author would use one, and it's totally fine and understandable to me. Sometimes a writer wants to write in a genre they don't normally write in, and they use a different name in order to establish a new audience &/or so that their old audience doesn't react strangely, or what have you. Sometimes, like you said, it's for privacy reasons. There could be any number of reasons why. It's fine. It's been done for centuries and will continue to happen. It's no big deal.
The problem, though, is when someone does something like in this video - pretend to be a whole other person and try to pass that fake identity off as real, especially if they're going to try to belong to a different community altogether. It's just not right. If he wanted to use the second identity's name as just a pseudonym, fine. No problem. But he should never taken it as far as he did. That was just wrong and he hurt and insulted a lot of people by doing so.
lol "is the cat real or not?!" , your humor just gets me every time.
This reminds me a lot of the situation with Josh Lanyon in the mlm book community. She even wrote an entire book on how to write m/m fiction.
Thank you so much for doing this. It’s beyond disgraceful what he has done, but seeing so many in our community rally together to make sure that as many people as possible know the truth is fantastic.
This is the most man-written-woman that a man has ever written.
We should have called Neve from Catfish on him. Showed up at his side door that he never uses. Let him come out of the back door and say, "I'm AC Adams" and Neve and other guy just look shocked and slowly ask, "So, you're...a lesbian professor?" and he goes "Kinda?"
I'm glad the spider room thing was a red flag for not just me. Only a serial killer wound choose that.
I'm watching this with a Maine Coon cat on my lap. He's kind of peach coloured. Thank you for another jaw-dropping author story!
“They don’t even have legs. Red flag” I know u meant it’s a red flag that he said spiders over snakes but out of context that quote makes me laugh so much, like we’re trying to cancel snakes 😭
I had an orange Maine Coon cat growing up, so I can confirm that a Maine Coon cat can be orange..... which is probably the only possible truth in this whole screwed up situation. What a piece of work!!!!
Idk I feel like he went onto lesbian safespaces to learn from them (ive been to a lot) and theres even discord servers specifically for lesbian and sapphic writers so im scared he was trying to learn from us to make his narrative 😨
What in the LARP? It's a gsh darn pen name, not a DND campaign where the loot is lesbians
"Who knows about the cat!"
I'm sorry but that cracked me up so much 😂
I find it wild that in the year of or lord 2023, someone as clear a communicator as you are need to remind people NOT TO HARRASS THE PEOPLE YOU TALK ABOUT. I am so sorry queen. Thank you for your work cuz your a real one
Every time one of these videos revives me - but in like, a bad way
even if he didn't reveal himself, posts and interview answers sound pretty suspect. like you'd think an author who is sapphic would take time to write a pride month post, edit it, maybe rewrite it a couple times, maybe talk about how grateful the author is about being safe and in a happy relationship. the post you cited just sounded like a bad first draft but i guess it is supposed to be a rant
Hey, Rachel! Just a quick tip for dyslexia - it can be helpful to copy and paste text in order to change it to a more readable color/font. Thanks for another banger of a vid!
I feel like a snake would take revenge if I tried to fight back. A spider would probably run away (except those huntsman... 💀)
hi, just an FYI: if a disabled person self-identifies as handicapped it’s fine, however they identify themselves is fine. as a disabled person, FOR ME, handicapped is better than “hindered.” that felt awful to hear. a definite ick as the kids say.
disabled isn’t a bad word. handicapped has been reclaimed by some. follow the disabled person’s lead. ♥️🖤✊🏾
*source:* disabled person; chronic illness x disability advocate.
I just found your channel last night and have been binging it. May I never show up in this series and may you humble me severely if I deserve it. Cheers! ❤
I feel like we are on a video call and youre giving me all the tea. I love it, wish you would do 🍃🍃 book reviews again 😂
When there are pictures and a description like "skeptic, professor, pagan," that is not a pen name, that is his OC.
Rachel doing the lords work out here exposing all of these authors ❤
I have finished my binge of authors behaving badly and this is such an important part of the book side of TH-cam (this one in particular like the way he portrayed his pan character like???). I love how much information and research you’ve put into this series to make people aware (the Cassandra Clare episodes were my absolute favorites and this is coming from someone who had no knowledge of her antics and had read all her books as a kid/teen).
I feel like one day we’ll get one of these on T*mi Ad*yemi as there are whispers about how she’s an incredibly mean person to people she works with (and other authors that are not on the same level as her) and will speak about diversity, but her actions are quite “the one seat at the table is my seat” which as someone who is biracial is disheartening. Her example feels like one where it’ll take years and years until people officially speak out about her, but she’s now one of those authors where I see smoke so I’ll just avoid even before everyone confirms there’s a fire for now.
Queer romance fiction is a fascinating area for me when it comes to people who identify of one gender writing about romance of a different gender altogether. More than once, I've seen cis gay men take issue with "m/m romance" written by women called "gay romance". Many of the authors use gender neutral names with vague author bios. As an aside, having read a few of the popular ones, I can say "That's not how that works." Author authenticity is crucial here. Maybe Adam will come out a trans. Who's to say. Just be honest with your readers.
I’ve seen this too. There seems to be a niche for women writing and reading men together in a similar way that there’s a niche of hetero men liking the idea of women together. Quite tricky :-/
it's odd though, as far as i'm aware there aren't many/any widely popular wlw romances written by men, but i can think of a ton of mlm romances written by women. maybe that's just because more romance authors are women?
@@mothma_am Alexis Hall came out with a couple books this year that could be called sapphic: one is an f/nbi historical, and the other is an f/f fantasy. Despite the name, he’s transparent about being a queer man, although he’s otherwise pretty private about his life, proving privacy and transparency aren’t mutually exclusive for authors. Alexis did get his start with mlm, but his big mainstream titles run the gamut of many different queer pairings.
@@cakt1991 oh interesting, i haven't heard of him before. are his books any good?
@@mothma_am I really like them, and he writes across multiple genres, in addition to writing across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, so there’s something for pretty much everyone. I particularly recommend his historicals, Something Fabulous (m/m) and A Lady for a Duke (m/f with a trans female lead), and his contemporary Boyfriend Material duology (m/m). One of the publishers he works with is also in the process of reprinting some of his older stuff he did with an indie publisher; the first of those, Glitterland (m/m), is really good. I also read the original version of another book from that same period, For Real (m/m with BDSM) a while ago, and that’s probably my favorite of his work of all time. I *think* that one will possibly be reprinted, but the original is also available online to purchase in print and ebook.
I just hope this man gets some therapy, he needs it
Okay I loved the callout of the snakes vs spiders question, so entertaining and I 100% agree with your argument
I mean I think he obviously did this because he thought it would make his books more marketable, but I almost feel like there is a certain audacity where he just wanted to try his hand at roleplaying as women essential to see if he could pull it off and to test his writing skill in that way. like to the point of making "AC Adams" a character itself that he was writing for. It's like how writers research certain professions, etc, for their characters and he really went "wow women like wine, huh? I could use that." he was already writing sapphic characters into his books, so he really thought he could pull it off.
"Well, it's true that you're not pan by choice, you just... *are*" god darn, and I thought it was all about not wanting to be like other gays/s
I'm just...ok....yeah. Speechless