Actually, Gaston, it is.
If you pay careful attention to Brian's style, he never simply says "I failed". What he does is he cherry picks an example, and the proceeds to give a laundry list of reasons why that thing happened.
Look at his long post: in that thread he begins by acknowledging that he has not paid royalties. Great! Only, he then goes on to give a long list of reasons as to why that really was not his fault; there was nothing he could have done. Ie: what this really means is, "I have no way to deny I have not paid my authors, but I shouldn't be faulted for that."
But I have been solely responsible for the communication which has not happened, and while the stresses accruing from a multitude of events corresponding at once in 2006 was great, that does not free me from responsibility and I will continue to pursue remedies.
This sounds so reasonable, doesn't it? But what does it mean? What failures of communication, *exactly*? After all, Brian still maintains that he was the victim of a hatchet-job in 2006 re: WMAW. You will note that I mentioned by student David Peck had written him over 22 emails. I left out the website scripting and database management done by Roger Siggs, or the emails from Nicole Allen. Then there were the DOZENS of unanswered emails over a period of months from instructors. Remember,
that was why I contacted Brian; he was not responding to anyone. And that was all I did - I cornered him and told him that he had not lived up to any of the target dates, had not replied to any emails, was not providing answers, and the only answer he had provided - "wait until after Pennsic" - was not tenable for an international event.
Based on the above quote, he should now be at peace with this being his fault, right? Let's look at Mr. Price's response again:
5) Finally, during 2006, Mr. Mele and other members of the Chicago Swordplay Guild refused to participate in our joint WMAW/Schola Saint George Symposium held here in DFW. There was a great deal of ugliness written and posted about the organization of the event and predictions of a dire failure, which highlighted the very ugliest side of WMA politics. To be completely frank, this assault on the event given the many hours of coordination, production and the thousands of dollars fronted for it really threw me for a mental loop, and I resolved at that time to transition out of the WMA and possibly out of "sword stuff" altogether. This noise extended far beyond the event itself and I have to believe also contributed to slowing sales of books.
In other words, he instead accuses me of defaming himself and the event, and that this somehow "contributed to slowing sales of books", which is patently absurd.
The 'failures of communication are my fault' may *still* seem reasonable to some, until we remind everyone what we are talking about, to whit:
1. Brian failed to send his authors not only their royalty statements, but their sales accounting,
which he was contractually obligated to do, twice per year.
2. Brian failed to send this information after repeated phone calls and emails.
3. Brian failed to send his authors additional copies of their own books -
as he was contractually obligated to do- despite repeated emails and calls.
4. Brian failed to notify two of his authors that he had sold the German language rights to their books -
as he was contractually obligated to do- and has just now revealed that he did so in an arrangement that itself violated Chivalry Bookshelf's contract.
5. Brian failed to notify his distributors, both in the US (Midpoint) and the UK (Greenhill) of title availability, reprints, etc, (say it with me now) -
as he was contractually obligated to do; which was a large part of what actually damaged repeat sales, contrary to his claims to the contrary. How do I know? Because I was there and spoke directly to Midpoint and Michael Leventhal.
I have only touched on the CB issues in these five points. But notice that he mentions
none of these things in his "acknowledgment" of responsibility. And the issues that he does mention, he does so to show, at length, why they were not his fault, just as he conveniently ignores the issues of what really happened with WMAW 2006, and instead writes a vague, unsubstantiated grievance with myself and my school.
This is not an "acknowledgment of responsibility", Gaston, it is use of a logical fallacy called the "appeal to sympathy", and Brian uses it well. I know - he used it on me on and off for six years. It is not an honest acknowledgment of fault; it is a diversion. This is typical of Axis 2 disorders; they do not take blame directly, because they *cannot*; to do so brings the entire house of cards that is their carefully constructed self-image crashing down.
Whether Brian himself has such a disorder or not, I have no idea. Buthe uses the same defensive tactics as a classic, toxic narcissist - he projects the fault on others, he accuses people of conspiracy, he rationalizes his actions and he offers placating words when directly confronted that
sound conciliatory, until you analyze them and realize that they don't actually apply to any specific action. Much like a politician's stump speech, they hit certain emotional notes, but have no specifics.
Gaston, I *get* it: you really, really, *really* want to find some way to at least partially defend Brian. Been there, done that - FOR YEARS. So has Christian, so has Vitus, so has Talbot. Sounds like so has Chris Gilman. This is a man who stayed in my home, I in his, and launched his press with my help and using my contacts in the WMA community to establish an early roster of authors. We took business trips together, planned events together, ran tournaments together. Like Talbot, I have some amazing memories of staying up way too late, laughing until my sides split, and I remember Brian's encouragement while I was recovering from my spinal cord injury.
But toddlers are incredibly fun to watch and play with, too. Yet as St Paul wrote,
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. The problem is, when it comes to doing what is right and paying one's debts, even to their own detriment, Brian has not. As he told me directly, he "will not jeopardize my family's standard of living for anyone". So be it - but then he should have a 9-5 job and not be a business owner. Owning a business is scary, and you often have to pay everyone else and then wonder where the money for your bills is coming from. It is is the work for grown men and women, not toddlers.
