damn - it just came down. well, i've posted a screenshot below. click on it for a bigger version.
this is a live page (for however long it stays up) that LINKS TO MY HOMEPAGE. my homepage, which LINKS TO THE LITKICKS BOOK. this is how one of litkicks staff treats its writers who are trying to promote their book. all the bob holmans and nprs and local newspapers who have plugged jamelah's blog or the litkicks book - and now this is how she's linking to a site which is also trying to plug the same book - the book that contains writing by these writers she published but so obviously hates.
i'm posting this not in anger or spite. frankly, i dont care what too many people think of me - stopped worrying about that a while ago.
i'm posting this because 1. i know i'd never get it thru the censors at lk, 2. i feel it deserves to be seen.
one of the conceits by litkicks staff, and by this i mean, in general, jamelah, is that staff decisions on what gets posted are based upon literary/editorial/community needs. underlying that is something that more than one person has seen to be a pretty transparent disdain for some writers. the reason for the disdain isnt always clear, but its existence has been obvious to the writers, if not to the rest of the staff.
litkicks puts on a pretty face, but underneath is something like jealousy or just meanness that overwhelms good intentions. this is why litkicks has, in many people's opinions, become irrelevent - recycling the same questions and ideas over and over again. "other" thinkers, whether it be in politics, literature or just attitude, are dismissed, usually because a conflict is created between staff and writer that leads to staff making decisions about posts based ostensibly about the writing when, actually, the decisions are about the writer. so the writing is lost because someone doesnt like someone else.
until now, i had no proof of this, now i do. for me, litkicks is, unfortunately, pretty dead. has been for some time. since signing off from the site, however, i've read with levi and caryn, and felt good about it. i have nothing against levi or caryn - altho it would have been nice had levi believed me 6 months ago when my writing was being needlessly fucked around with - but, even then it was obvious who was doing the fucking around, and i never really held it against him, even tho we disagreed pretty strongly.
no matter - i dont have time for a constant forum anymore these days, my writing is taking much of my time, and thats a better thing. even tho i dont come around even here anymore, it's good to have it as a forum for this, and i appreciate that.
i would imagine that litkicks is dead for many here. for some, maybe not. for many, perhaps, seeing something like this isnt going to mean anything. but if it does give one person who was banned from that site some degree of satisfaction to see that, indeed, the bullshit reasons were really just a mask for some unexplained personal hatred, thats enough. i think it deserves to be put out there - particularly for those of you who still feel that litkicks gets a bad rap from trolls, or always treated you nice (as if thats enough), or that the suspicions of this hatred were just paranoia.
cheers,
firsty & pel
pel (horseface) is a better writer than me, but she doesnt have a site up yet or a book out yet. to come. 
