So, a fun thing happened. Phoenix became a bestseller (top 100 in a category) on Amazon.

Highest slot was #46 in Science Fiction Adventure.

So, how did that happen?

Well, it’s a bit of a long story (be prepared for a very long blog post), but the short version is: I got accused of plagiarism by two different Internet Trolls, several people came out of the woodwork to defend me, and thanks to the resulting exposure on social media, the sales went through the roof.

Now, as a disclaimer, I don’t encourage people to deliberately go out and taunt the Internet Trolls. Only people like Larry Correia have the skill (and finesse) to do that. But, the moral of the story is: don’t let the Internet Trolls get you down, because you can make their bad comments work for you, and put money in your pocket.

All this got started when I made a throwaway comment on a post (someone I follow also follows this poster, so the comment and the original showed up in my Twitter feed) regarding the ongoing legal troubles of one Patrick Tomlinson.

Now, to be perfectly fair to the Unstealthy Dork (as I learned he was called in the middle of this four-day-long kerfuffle), I didn’t notice that he’d been tagged in the original post when I commented on it. I should have, but I guess I just was scrolling through Twitter and saw an update on this, and just clicked and went with it. Looking back on it, I should have probably reconsidered before doing that, as his tag was in the original post, but after the events of this week, I can’t say I’m sorry.

My comment was actually fairly mild compared to most of the others. I didn’t call Tomlinson any names, I didn’t use any swear words, and I had forgotten about it for about a day before I saw the explosion of my Twitter notifications and went back to see what the hell was going on.

Cue that Jackie Singh character, defending Tomlinson, and apparently performing a black ritual to summon him to defend his honor against me, the nameless nobody:

I guess saying that someone is “uninteresting” is a deathly insult to the folks who make their meager living harassing other folks on social media.

That one thread escalated into real “cyberbullying,” but not by me against Tomlinson. It was the other way around. His sycophant actually went out, found my blog, scrolled through the whole picture section, and found this, and even took the trouble to change the caption:

My initial reaction after being made fun of with my own picture and accused of an intellectual property crime was basically “what the ever-livin’-hell is going on here?” Then I got my feelings hurt, and was ready to trash my whole social media presence.

After a bit of self-reflection and several angry texts to Husband, I decided to go with the “you are boring, and you can’t hurt me” tactic instead of trying to nuke them from orbit.

Fortunately, I also had backup regarding the plagiarism accusation:

There are several screenshots in that thread, too, and I’ll put them all together, as close to chronological order as I can. I was staying out of it, and letting Husband and my publisher do most of the troll-slapping.

That last one (where I muted him) is missing a few prior comments (I know, shame on me, I thought I got the whole thing), but all I did was say that he did indeed lose the lawsuit, and posted a picture of the public record court judgment that had “paid” listed next to the amount and his name, along with the date.

But how that equates to it NOT being “a fine” is beyond me. Stay tuned in this same epically long post for more information on how Tomlinson can “choose what words mean,” and no, I’m not even joking.

Paolinelli had the best finisher, though:

So, Tomlinson decided to shut up after that. I was watching, and taking screenshots (because if you get blocked by a troll, and comment on it elsewhere, then they can unblock you and call you a liar; yes, I learned that the hard way a while back). I might need an entire external backup drive just for all these screenshots, but it’s worth it.

Meanwhile, Paolinelli and Tuscany Bay Books decided to use this guy as a marketing campaign:

At which point, even though he SAID we were just mean liars, and didn’t know anything, and so forth and so on, Unstealthy Dork decides to come over to my thread (when I quoted and shared the above) and continue beating the dead horse:

So . . . me commenting on a public court case and its result is “accusing” him of something? Gee, I had no idea. And, as you can see from the thread, he didn’t say the cover was “derivative.” He said flat-out it was “ripped off.”

Had some pretty good reactions to the sale post, too:

And thus began the saga of pathetic insults and abuse from Tomlinson, where he basically recycled the exact same material over and over and over again, ad infinitum.

See below for all of it in its glory.

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Throughout this whole thing, I was wondering where his followers were. Whenever Larry Correia slaps down a troll on the internet, his fans come out of the woodwork to laugh and participate. Supposedly, Tomlinson has more than double the number of Larry’s followers.

So, my big question was, where were they? We only got one, and it was the original girl who started this whole thing:

After I posted the screenshot of some of Tomlinson’s past internet vitriol, that was when the girl blocked me, which is why that last picture has “unable to view this Tweet” on it. Shortly after that, she blocked Husband, too.

But she was the only one defending him, which seemed odd, considering his follower count. I suppose that makes them all bots, which kind of figures.

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Meanwhile, this whole thing is getting shared everywhere, and my sales and Amazon rankings are going up. Then something happened that I can now check off my bucket list: Larry Correia shared a post to promote my book.

This whole thing had me crying at the computer, reading the comments, because after seeing all the nastiness on Twitter, this was such a relief. Larry has such a huge fan base, this alone would help my book sales more than Tomlinson ever did with his meanness.

So, of course, some jerk decided to come along and spoil it.

Turns out, the original artist for the Red Rising cover I was accused of stealing (Charles Brock) somehow found this, not only on Larry’s thread, but on the Tuscany Bay Books thread as well. He did the exact same thing in both locations, which was very strange to me. It seemed like he’d been deliberately sent over here by Tomlinson, even though he denied knowing the guy. We’ll probably never know whether he was lying or not, and it doesn’t matter, because the result was the same.

This was on the Tuscany Bay post:

And this was the result of his EXACT SAME TACTIC over on Larry’s wall:

Once again, Paolinelli with the shutdown win. This guy even had more, but I had to use Husband’s account to see all of it, as I’d blocked him after that (yes, I know, I should have gone with the “you can’t hurt me, you’re a troll” tactic, but by this point, I’d basically had enough of being accused of stealing). So, the rest of Chuck’s vitriol was limited to childish insults, for which Larry’s followers slapped him hard enough to make his grandchildren’s ears ring (this starts immediately after I said I was done with his garbage; that he should make an official complaint or shut up). Even Larry personally weighed in on this one, and not even THAT shut him up.

Once again, there are a lot of repeats, especially towards the bottom, but after a while, it was getting hard to keep track of who said what on which sub-thread, and then it got worse after I blocked Chuck. But you get the idea. No real accusations, backtracking all the time for “I never accused you of anything, but I’m still going to call you a liar and a cheater and an asshole.”

And as usual, Paolinelli with the win.

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Then it was time for a victory lap. After all the above garbage, my publisher told me exactly what the results were, using the Amazon rankings for the book. Thanks to Larry and his fans, I made it up to #46 in Science Fiction Adventure, and Paolinelli of course shared that around.

All the credit goes to Richard Paolinelli, and Larry Correia and his fans. I was the one about to just abandon social media entirely; they are the ones who were able to turn a couple of jerks and their insults into a very positive result: now my book has a new cover, and I sold more in those few days than I had since I first published the book.

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There is one last chapter here, though. If you’re happy on social media, and you share that, someone will come out of the woodwork to make you feel bad, prove to you that you really SHOULDN’T be happy, or that your happiness makes you a gullible dork.

Matt Gallagher, from Upstream Reviews, also weighed in on the drama, and his article on it is here. I got as far as “fate’s favorite pinata” and lost it, I was laughing so hard. So, now you know where this commentary started.

Back on Twitter, I was trying to keep to my “you can’t hurt me” attitude, and after the Upstream Reviews article, this was the result:

Once again, he had nothing to say but his usual drivel, and not even getting made fun of for using the “enjoy prison, stalker” insult over an dover, along with calling me “child,” could give him a hint to give up or go away. You don’t like me? Use the “block” function (while it lasts, at least). I also NEVER accused him. My only commentary was on the court case.

I couldn’t understand why he didn’t just block me. He’d already done it to Richard Paolinelli, and in a couple more Tweets, he’d do it to Matthew, for much less cause than I’d given him. I received a lot of confirmation over the next few days that Tomlinson is meaner to women on social media than men, which seems true based on what happened here. Either that, or he thinks I’m more of a target, and didn’t bother blocking me because he wasn’t scared of me, but was too big of a coward to take on Paolinelli and Husband.

My favorite part (and oh, how I wish I’d done what I’d wanted to at the time), was how he seemed to think that an “insult” had to be also false, and that his insistence that “these are just facts” was sufficient to prove he wasn’t a liar. I wish I’d posted a screenshot of the definition of “insult” and let him stew in that a while, but alas, I muted the conversation.

Which didn’t help, he was back on a separate thread soon afterwards (don’t worry, that “misogynistic” comment has a sequel, stay tuned):

This is when it started getting a lot more views from strangers, and a lot more commentary, and a lot more meanness.

Told you the “misogyny” comment would come back. This is when someone else showed a perfect example of how this isn’t Tomlinson’s first rodeo, and the commentary by others who know what he’s like is just priceless.

This is where it gets uglier than usual. Apologies for the formatting, especially on that second picture. The “Do Tell” gif is mine, and I was asking him why I wasn’t “winning”:

This thread got separated out into a couple of others, so here are the other two, one with TBB and Paolinelli, and one with Husband:

This one is my favorite, just because he had to reach so very VERY far for those insults. I mean, come on. “Gamergate” and “incel”?

Yes. This idiot managed to call my HUSBAND an “involuntary celibate.”

People. We have two kids. I guess he is actually one of those who “doesn’t know how that happens.”

The “air quotes” referenced are in the first pic above, where he calls Paolinelli a “publisher”.

The result of this was that Tomlinson blocked me, Paolinelli, Tuscany Bay Books, AND Husband (and in Husband’s case, it only took that one question). Once again, he proves he can’t stand up to men; he just enjoys picking on women with low follower counts, the ones he thinks he can intimidate.

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There is a point to this long post, and it isn’t just slamming Tomlinson. This is the first time this has happened to me, and the scale of it reached well beyond what I had expected. Between my publisher and Larry Correia, this thread and the related ones got so many eyeballs on it, my Twitter feed was exploding for days on end.

Some of the commentary after the fact made the whole thing worthwhile. People telling me they bought the book, one even with a picture of it when he got it in the mail. People promising to leave reviews, and even more slaps for Tomlinson. These are the best ones (and no, this wasn’t all of it):

I saved those for last, because they’re the reason for all this. I’d be lying is I said I wish this hadn’t happened (I sold more books this week than I had since it was published back in January, by several orders of magnitude), but a small part of me wishes it had been more positive, and not because a few people were being assholes on the internet.

I still get to laugh all the way to the bank, while singing Brad Paisley’s song, and that’s great. But, being a Catholic, sometimes it bothered me that I was saying things like this to the man. Of course, then I start to wonder if my own behavior rose to the level of “cyberbullying” that Little Miss Jackie accused me of.

I remembered something my mother told me back in high school (which was Hell On Earth for me): just because you’re Catholic doesn’t mean you have to lay down and volunteer as a doormat for anybody.”

That’s true. In all these screenshots, I never once wandered out to Tomlinson’s own wall or posts or whatever Twitter wants to call it. I never tagged him in anything (although several other commentors did, and I commented there). Other than “poor baby,” I never called him any names (although I will admit to using his title of “Unstealthy Dork” after the fact, mostly to keep from getting him to unblock me and come back for Round . . . what would that be, five or so? I didn’t want his name to show up in a search and draw his eye), used any swear words, or wished him any harm.

I muted several conversations to turn off his vitriol (the internet equivalent of walking away, I’d say), and contrary to his accusations, I never once told a lie about him, or accused him of doing anything other than lying about me and my book cover (which could be proven to be true; the reason I screenshot everything I could).

I still don’t wish him any harm. he’s obviously mentally disturbed about something, and several theories about why were floating around in other threads. I wondered if he fixated on me out of everyone in that original thread because I have a very slight resemblance to his ex-wife (not enough to make it uncanny; just barely). Other people said it was because I was a woman, and he goes after women more than men. Others said because I had a low follower count, he assumed I’d be easy pickings. Someone else said his mom used to tell him “don’t let the idiots win,” which was why he kept coming back for more, over and over and over again.

We’ll probably never know the reason why, and it matters less than the result. The point is: HE KEPT COMING BACK FOR MORE. Over and over again, he was still there, more and more and more. Even when he wasn’t specifically tagged, he’d show up anyway, and continue the same “stalker,” child,” “enjoy prison” nonsense.

I’m not his doormat.

I suppose I could have just blocked him at the outset, but unfortunately, that is seen by most internet trolls as giving up, conceding the field, and admitting that they were right all along. I was NOT about to give him the satisfaction. All that would do is make it worse.

So, finally, he gave up and blocked me instead. According to one above screenshot (please, I’m not going back to look for it, I’ve spent too many hours today scrolling through the interminable pictures), he is still abusing me after blocking me, knowing he can get away with it.

Have at it, dude. If I really WAS a stalker, or that mean, I WOULD go after him. I’m not. He can say whatever he wants on his side of the internet, and I’ll stay over here on mine, cashing the royalty check he earned for me.

As my old boss used to say: “you go to hell for lyin’ same as you do for stealin’ and killin’.” If that’s how he wants to spend his time on Earth, he’s welcome to it.

BUT . . .

He does NOT get to come over here to my side and treat me like that. I will not lay down for him to walk on me. I am not a doormat. Sometimes, the only way to get a bully to stop is to MAKE HIM STOP.

Which is exactly what happened.

Considering I sort of wear my Catholicism on my sleeve in the public eye, it seemed only fair to explain what I was trying to do. On the surface, it might seem like I was “picking on him,” or “bullying him.” That’s not it.

It reminds me of a story that Durnick the Blacksmith told in The Belgariad. He was explaining the appropriate use of strength to young Garion. He was the apprentice to the blacksmith in his village, which meant he was taller, stronger, and more fit than the other boys his age. Of course, one of them kept egging him on, so Durnick ignored him. This other boy kept going. Durnick ignored him, over and over and over again. Until the day he finally lost his temper, and beat the living daylights out of that bully.

His point to Garion was that, if he’d stood up for himself earlier, maybe it wouldn’t have escalated o that point, where the bully was hurt badly in an angry fistfight with the blacksmith’s apprentice. But either way, his point was that there was only one way to stop the bully.

There’s no fistfighting on social media. Husband couldn’t have demanded that Tomlinson meet him outside, hand him his ass on a plate, and call it done (although I’d have paid money to see that). That’s the problem with internet bullies. The only place to engage them is on the internet, where they can hide behind a screen or behind a Twitter block.

Nobody should have to be a doormat for an internet bully. Stand up for yourself. Don’t let anyone cancel you, tell you you’re not good enough, or make you surrender and nuke your own social media accounts. Those accounts, as much as I hate them most days, just made me a fairly decent chunk of money, and there’s no arguing with success.

Especially today, when you can get canceled just because you “didn’t write it their way,” or because you called a character “black” instead of “African American,” or you didn’t have a sufficient number of flaming homosexual characters in your story, the Internet Trolls have this bullying down to an art form, and it’s there to make you surrender. They know they can’t win a real argument. So they try to convince you that YOU are the one with the problem. YOU are the “liar.” YOU are the “cyberbully.” YOU are the one who’s “fucking gullible.”

Don’t take it. One thing people like that can’t stand is being mocked, as this whole thread proved (go back to the pictures and count the number of times Tomlinson actually answered anything I put to him, compared to the number of times he changed the subject and just went back to flinging poo like a monkey). You mock them enough, eventually they will leave you alone.

Be like Durnick. Don’t go out and deliberately wave a red flag in front of people, and invite that garbage. THAT isn’t charitable. As I said, I simply didn’t notice that he’d been tagged in that original post about his court judgement payoff. I won’t make that mistake again. But, once he decided that I was his next victim, I had few other choices but to prove he’d made a mistake.

I am not his doormat.

Don’t let the bullies intimidate you. They’ll say anything, do anything for clicks, affirmation, and that rush of power they get when they think they’ve beaten you. It’s easier to do online, but it’s the same old human story. Every bully from the dawn of time has acted exactly like this; we just have different tools at our disposal. And once the bully realizes he’s bit off more than he can chew, he slinks away.

Just don’t forget that, the next time you see a Tomlinson or a Singh picking on some stranger on the internet. I had so many people rush to my defense, for which I am extremely grateful. Do the same when it isn’t you. Bullies only go after the weak, and if you’re not weak, you can stand between them and their target.

We can only hope that eventually, Tomlinson and people like him learn their lesson, and correct their own behavior. Like any spoiled child, if they don’t see the RESULTS of their own behavior, they will never learn.

Well, there are the results. I doubt very much this particular Troll has learned anything from it, but now, he’s no longer my problem.

It’s not about winning for its own sake. It’s about standing up to the bullies.

And yes, it’s about making money. 🙂