I started writing my first book for a small publishing company, a fantasy novel set in their personal setting.

Little did I realize they’d try to get me blacklisted from my day job for being Christian.

The author world is cutthroat and disturbed. Let this thread be a warning 1/

I’d never written a book before so I spent time learning. Communicated with them about their setting in a program called Evernote (this will be important for later) where we could share documents I needed to understand their world I was writing in.

Started the book. 2/

The 2016 election hit. They went hardcore anti-Trump, but I ignored it. I was apolitical at the time.

Trump won. They lost their minds. Started posting specifically anti-Christian messages all over the place. VERY specifically anti-Christian. Rabid hate kind of stuff. 3/

I sent them a message and said hey, don’t know if this got missed, I’m a Christian. Hope we’re good. I love you guys, glad we’re working together.

Didn’t expect the explosion that was coming my way. 4/

They wrote back and said I was incapable of love, being a Christian. That my working in mental health as a Christian meant I was a danger to my patients and they felt the need to report me to every state agency as a dangerous threat. That they were considering starting that up 5/

They didn’t explicitly ban me from the publisher for my faith, the potential discrimination apprently scared them is my guess. Instead they told me Evernote was their safe space (their words) and I was not to contact them there in the program we used for me to write for them. 6/

The setting I was writing in, THEIR SETTING, as a favor for them to help expand their world and their publishing company.

And gusss what, we’d never settled on a royalty split because, hey, we were friends and I didn’t know what I was doing. But I guess they sure did. 7/

They’d also spent months talkin personally with me about their mental health struggles as I checked in on them and tried to encourage them. Helped them with free labor on their main series. Spread the word about their books. Helped them network.

Not real love though, I guess. 8/

So I made the decision to leave their company. Resigned gracefully and thanked them for their teaching up to that point. I said no hard feelings.

Got a short reply threatening me with legal action if I ever shared any behind-the-scenes world building stuff from their setting. 9/

I made contact with @RealNickCole shortly after that when I learned he’s been blacklisted from a major publisher for the same fanatical politics reasons. He showed me the ropes on how to publish myself and not rely on dangerous lunatics who want to bury me. 10/

So here I am today, with 10 published novels, about to publish book 11, and writing book 17.

It’s been a hard road. More people have tried to take me down in the interim. All have failed. Thanks be to God. 11/

If you’re thinking of being an author or joining ANY field with dangerous lunatics working to gatekeep and punish any who don’t kneel to the cult, know that you’re not alone.

And if you want to join in thumbing our noses at them, check out my Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burritoavenger/gideon-ira-in-castle-bloodghast