I disown my story

[renwrite]

I am Renee Y. Brown and I would like to publicly declare that I disown the story now up on the front page known as The Second Amendment Solution. A Randomized Sample Study of Non-Conforming Citizens in the Aftermath of Instantaneous and Incremental Applications from ‘The Second Amendment Solution but as it is now it makes no logical sense; the editor has removed the "from" and replaced with it a short dash which makes the entire sentence no longer a sentence; it is just a run-on sentence without a subject. The editor removed the entire preface to the story which makes the story incomprehensible; she removed the entire reason for the story, the entire frame, the entire logic of the story. The preface is supposed to be at the beginning and goes like this: (Volunteer subject #5864. Gender, age, location of subject protected to maintain ongoing viability and effectiveness of counter-“Solution” measures.)
Data collected by independent non-affiliated members of the National University-in-Exile Project.

Optional essay, subject #5864
***

In other words, the story is supposed to be an "academic study" of the effects of applying the 'Second Amendment Solution' to national politics which is political assassination. The story is NOT just a character rambling on for NO reason to NO ONE, it's a statement to an interviewer for the purposes of the study. I have asked staff members to remove the story.

The statement "we can always use the the Second Amendment Solution" is an actual statement recently made by a far-right woman running for Congress in reference to a question about Harry Reid, the House Speaker. In other words she was saying "just assassinate him." That was the inspiration for the story.

This makes me incredibly sad to have to say all this, as I had so much hope for this publication, it almost seemed like the answer to my dreams. It really makes me want to cry because I thought this publication would be different, that they would actually LISTEN to their authors and work with their authors as promised.

I am so sick of editors who think that just because somebody gave them that title that they know better than the author of the work and that they have to mess up that work, change things and delete things just because that's their idea of what an editor does. no, sorry, that is NOT what an editor does; an editor is supposed to make a work better.

Renee Y. Brown

[The Late Mitchell Warren]

Renee, publishing is an interactive process in which you must communicate with your editor regarding your vision. All of our authors have complete control as to how their story is displayed. In the past, some authors have had disagreements with how we display their pieces and we have resolved those misunderstandings.

To me, it sounds like you have made up your mind that you don't want to work with us. The story is gone, and you are free to submit it elsewhere.

[renwrite]

Dear Mr. The Late Mitchell Warren,

If somebody had TOLD me that you all were willing to restore the story, I NEVER would have asked for it to be taken down. I assumed that because I was getting no answer to my emails, that this was just another "my way or the highway" publication. NOBODY told me anything about restoring my story, NOBODY answered my emails; so it is not ME who didn't communicate, it is whoever edited my story. I made every attempt to contact that person or anyone who could answer my questions, but I got NO RESPONSE. Communication goes both ways, it has to, or it's NOT communication, it's just talking to yourself, and that's how I felt, like I was talking to myself. I had NO IDEA that the editors were willing to work with an author on the final draft and presentation of the story, like I said, if I'd known that, if somebody had communicated that to me, there would never have been a problem. It was an extremely simple fix, but how do I know you're willing to do it if you don't TELL ME? This was all completely avoidable if someone had just TOLD me. That's why I think it was way too soon to publish my story, I still don't know what the hierarchy is with you all, who's in charge, who outranks who, who has the final say, etc. It's my army brain kicking in I guess; if you don't know a person's rank, you don't know how you should address them, you don't know how much authority they have, so you don't know how you should deal with them. I'm not even sure who edited my story. At first I thought it was grainnerhuad, so I sent all my questions to her, but she never specifically said she was NOT the editor, so I had no idea who edited the story. I guessed that maybe it was Karla, so I sent emails to her, but got no response. I even tried to email you but I guess I didn't have the right email address or something because it didn't send. So if you, Karla and G. are the hierarchy, the total staff here, then I absolutely DID communicate (or in your case tried to) with everyone on the staff that I knew of. I just wanted someone to tell my WHY the preface of the story got removed, and I just wanted to ask if it could be restored. That's all I wanted, but NOBODY answered. I NEVER even had the slightest thought of NOT wanting to work with you all, in fact I welcomed the process with all my heart, but I was disappointed when my emails were not answered, so I thought that you all did not want to work with me!

If I want to know something, I WILL ask a question, but if no one addresses that question, then I'm stuck with not knowing; and that's exactly what happened, I DID NOT KNOW what your policy is regarding the actual publishing presentation of an author's work. I only asked the story to be removed because I was totally in the dark about what was or wasn't going on. In other words, I removed it out of ignorance. I actually felt like crying as I wrote that email last night saying I disowned the story, because I thought that finally I'd found a true "home" for me and my work that in 15 years of submitting fiction I'd never even come close to; I am used to editors who think they know it all and who won't budge, won't even discuss with the author the changes they made, so the idea of editors actually working with authors and letting them have the final say is astonishing to me. I apologize for being so harsh and mean-spirited, and I apologize to anyone and everyone who may have felt insulted or any other negative emotion. I take back my "dis-ownership" of the story and apologize for the nasty email and if I could take that back, I would. I hope I'm not "disbarred" from this site but if I am I understand fully.
Thanks so very, very much,
Renee

[The Late Mitchell Warren]

Renee, I've decided to edit your original letter, taking away from some of the personal attacks. I did this because (A) you seemed as if you regretted saying them and (B) because it hurt our feelings. At the same time, I am leaving some parts of the letter so the editors can understand how you feel and what your complaint was.

Karla and Grainne are out of town this weekend so they might not have ever seen your complaint in the first place. If there is ever an issue again contact me at [e-mail]. I definitely understand that writers are very emotional when it comes to altering their babies. I'm a writer myself. Let's all take a breather and then maybe we can work together again.

You are definitely not "banned' from the site.

[renwrite]

Thank you. I am so, so sorry that I hurt anybody's feelings; that was totally uncalled for. So I massively apologize for that. I realize now that I completely overreacted. Being so aggressively defensive has really nothing to do with the writing and everything to do with my background, which if I got into that it would turn into a book and people would say, "ah, come on, you're making that up," but I'm not. Suffice to say it's 'not a pretty picture.'

I would like to be able to submit again, but will take a 'time out' for the present.
Thanks so much,
Renee