White Cat Drowning

In the past, I've made clear my complaints about White Scat Publications, and nothing has changed my opinion. Just some hours ago, I received an email from Dora Badger, which reveals some troubling news about the publication. I'm going to share a sizable chunk of it here since it's already plastered all over Facebook, and the more who know about it, the better.

This email is to inform you that effective immediately, I will no longer be working for WCP/SDP in any capacity and that, to the best of my knowledge, Nightfall Magazine will not be published. 

Here's what I know:

-Payments to authors who contributed to magazines under the WCP umbrella (Blue Shift and Conjurings) have not been made within the contracted time.

-There is no actual plan in place to produce the remaining WCP magazines (Blue Shift & Conjurings #2, Nightfall & Dark Intent #s 1 & 2) currently under contract.

-Some physical copies of Conjurings #1 have gone out to purchasers. Other buyers have been waiting for some time. Physical copies of this magazine do exist and I don't know what is holding up shipment.

-Physical copies of Blue Shift #1 are not going out to people who purchase them. I don't know if physical copies exist.

Here's what I don't know:

-Whether Mr. Moore still plans to pay any White Cat contributors.

-If Mr. Moore has any actual, actionable plan to put out any publications at all over the next 18 months (I do believe he is still planning to produce a cookbook that was slated to be published in December of this year...that is the only item on which I have seen any movement  - except for Alamo Rising, which was effectively finished before things began going downhill - in six weeks).

Here's what I have heard from a very reliable source:

-Mr. Moore was sick for a time, but his illness was neither as long nor as devastating as he led me to believe.

-Mr. Moore and WCP/SDP are in dire financial straits.

-While Mr. Moore hopes to find a way out of this mess, there is no plan in place to do so and no real indication that one will be developed in the foreseeable future.

Please believe that delivering this news isn't easy. It is still possible that Mr. Moore does intend to move forward with Nightfall and with the other magazines, and to fulfill his obligations to pay the contributors. However, over the past several weeks Mr. Moore has completely ignored any requests I have sent for information or assurance. The fact that people who have bought copies of recent publications are not receiving them is extremely troubling to me. There have been other issues as well, which I will not go into here. 

The point is, I no longer have any confidence that WCP can do right by you or that they will provide adequate customer service to readers. Rather than ask you to wait for a year (or more!) while things at WCP are brought back under control, I have made the decision to step down and relay the information that I have to you so if you choose to shop your stories around elsewhere you may do so before markets close for the holidays.

This means my story, "Stone Within," co-written with Rez, won't be published with White Scat. It's a bummer, seeing as I went through quite a few markets to finally find a home for this story, but better that I get it out before the cat has finally drowned. On the brighter side, there have been new dark fiction markets popping up lately, so there's hope I'll be able to place the story in their, hopefully more capable, hands.

I also don't have a whole lot of faith that I'll ever see a penny for my TSW review in Conjurings. Live 'n learn, I guess.

I salute Dora's efforts during this whole fiasco, and for all the crap she probably had to put up with. White Scat wasn't deserving of her.

White Scat: you were a piece of shit publication. May your editor-in-chief get his head out of his ass.