Letters From the Labyrinth 392

Ymunkoke: The Ballad of Patrick S. Tomlinson

Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly email newsletter for fans, friends, and family.

And this…

…is Patrick S. Tomlinson.

Patrick is an AirBnB host, a failed stand-up comedian, and a midlist science-fiction writer whose career is in decline. He first came to my attention a year or so ago, when some friends who are prominent science-fiction writers, editors, and publishers (and who I won’t name here because they wish to avoid his nonsense) mentioned him to me. Patrick alleges that he is being “targeted by a cyber criminal death cult” and is “in fear for his life and the lives of his family members” and has been Swatted “over 50 times”.

Swatting, for those not familiar with the term, involves bad actors placing a bogus emergency services call targeting their victim in order to provoke a police response. I myself was the target of a swatting event about four years ago. Someone from Canada called my local emergency services and said I was armed and threatening to harm myself. Our local police know that I own several registered firearms. I’m friendly with several of them. But a call is a call. At the time, I was driving home from a nearby convenience store to pick up cat food. Mary called me, upset. The police were there in full tactical gear. The sergeant instructed her to tell me to pull into the driveway and obey the commands. As I neared the house, I saw that they’d set up a staging area. I pulled into the driveway, with my window down, and kept both hands clearly visible. When they instructed me to exit the vehicle, I did. When they detained me and checked me over, I let them. And when it was over and I was cleared, they explained what had happened. I do not blame our local police department for this. They have no choice but to respond to emergency calls. To expect them to not respond to an emergency call is lunacy. Was it unnerving? Of course. You try having a phalanx of heavily armed police officers at your home and tell me you’re not a little unnerved. But imagine if I’d been black, or lived in an urban setting, rather than rural Pennsylvania? Or, if you want an example from the other side of the spectrum, imagine if I’d had a big old Don’t Tread On Me flag flying outside the house. Imagine just how horribly wrong it could have gone in any of those situations.

To be clear, Patrick S. Tomlinson has certainly been swatted. There is video evidence of at least one such altercation in which Patrick (whose name I’m going to shorten to Rick from here on out just to avoid typing ‘Patrick’ continually) is belligerent with the responding officers and appears to take a swing at one of them. A search of public records and publicly available information provides several other officer responses at his address, along with more benign welfare checks (where a responding officer leaves a card to let the occupant know they were there). To the best of my knowledge, there is no record of “over 50 swatting attempts”, but he has indeed been swatted more than once. What’s curious is that, to date, there has been no evidence (to the best of my knowledge) to back up his claimed number, other than news articles about him. Those news articles echo his claims, but their source for the claims is Rick himself. No further fact-checking seems to have taken place, other than a few cursory checks. But whether it’s once or fifty, swatting is still horrible.

Which brings me back to my author, editor, and publisher friends from the science-fiction community. They had each encountered Rick at various times — GenCon, CONvergence, and other conventions and professional gatherings. Their reactions ranged from bemusement to annoyance. They all agreed that it was terrible that he had been swatted and harassed. And it IS terrible. But they also agreed that he had the power to stop much of it from occurring. “I don’t want to victim blame,” said one, “but he almost seems to seek them out. He’s a weird guy.”

Curious, I read a few news stories and checked his social media. Sure enough, there were countless people harassing him, which is terrible. But even more curious, rather than simply blocking them, Rick engaged with them. He spends most days obsessively responding and replying to every single troll, admonishing them to “Enjoy prison” or telling them their “life is already over” or that they are “mentally ill” and should “Seek. Help.” Further, he seems to regularly check the few accounts that he has blocked, and replies to them, as well. When people obtained his publicly available phone number and began texting him and crank-calling him, rather than change the number and make it private, he engaged with them via phone for at least a year.

None of this seemed like the behavior of a man who is in fear for his life. What’s happening to him is terrible. I can’t stress that enough. But, as others have said, he refuses to take even the most rudimentary steps to shield himself or his loved ones.

His trolls weren’t the only people he responds to. Here are some examples of how he speaks to other people — people who are not trolls. People who are often women.

I know that our society seems to be fragmenting, but speaking to anyone like this — particularly women — is inexcusable. “Rape is the most mild punishment you deserve” is a repugnant thing to say to anyone. The harassment he’s endured is wrong. But so is this. And keep in mind, it’s being said by a guy who alleges he’s being “stalked by a criminal cyber cult” and claims he is in fear for his life. So, I wonder aloud again, has he considered maybe not barging into conversations like some hypertensive Kool-Aid Man? Maybe people are reacting to that vitriol in kind?

Recently, the target of his rage has been literary agent Leslie Varney. Here is a collage of the harassment he has directed at her.

There are hundreds more, but I don’t have the bandwidth in this newsletter to post screenshots of them all. But File 770’s Mike Glyer (one of the most fair and dependable fandom journalists in a seemingly ever shrinking pool) comments that Rick has been privately smearing Leslie, as well.

Other folks have stepped forward this week with their own stories of harassment by Rick, as well. Again, NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE CONNECTED TO THE HARRASSMENT HE HAS ENDURED.

About a year ago, when I opined online that swatting sucks, and maybe he should stop engaging with the people harassing him, Rick told me to reach out. So I did. I called his publicly available number and he gave me a half hour long TED Talk. About the only thing I managed to say during his pompous filibuster was “Have you ever considered just blocking them?”

When the call was over, I was very much of the opinion that it's horrible that Rick has been swatted and harassed, and I feel badly for his loved ones, but he seems inclined not to take the simplest of steps to prevent it. I was also of the opinion that he is very much the guy from those screenshots above. And he is also the guy from this police report, which, to the best of my knowledge, is a publicly available document.

According to that police report, Patrick S. Tomlinson once threatened to kill his then wife and their child.

Rick is mad this week because a stranger tagged me in a Tweet with Jon Del Arroz (a far-Right loon who I blocked years ago). Here are the screenshots. Rick’s since been telling the public that I “pal around with white supremacists” and that I am “burning books”, none of which is true, but none of which is worth suing him over, since he has nothing of value. Like Nickolaus Pacione, Bradley Snow, and all the others before him, Rick wanted my attention. I have given it to him. And later this week, when I finish up the canned food drive for the homeless shelter that Rick’s recent bout of idiocy inspired, I’ll go back to blocking and ignoring him.

Maybe he should try doing that sometime, too.

Former President Obama is, of course, in th habit of mailing signed books to Nazis.

And John Fetterman is known for taking (terrible) selfies with Nazis.

Rick Tomlinson has been harassed, and that is wrong. In my opinion, rather than taking any steps to prevent further harassment, he has instead used his victimization to gain social clout, and as a shield to harass others. He speaks terribly to women and, according to a police report, once threatened to murder his former wife and child. Those things are also wrong.

When people show you who they are, believe them.

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Updates On Other Stuff:

If you were one of the DEAD FORMAT backers who selected the Brian Keene Tour, I emailed you this week. Please check your email. We’re now in the process of setting up tour dates. (And as far as the movie goes, we’re in casting mode).

Lifetime Subscriber shipments begin going out next Wednesday. They will not all go out at once, as these are big boxes.

Commissioned Lost Level Stories: Still working on these. As soon as Dezm gets me my edits on BENEATH THE LOST LEVEL, and I can finish editing it and turn it in, the rest of my calendar for this year reads: “Lost Level stories and Gwendy script”. All of them should be finished by Christmas Day.

Work this week involved approving production files for the paperback and eBook editions of LOVE AND HATE IN THE TIME OF COVID: SELECTED NONFICTION 2015 - 2022. The signed limited edition hardcover can still be purchased here, but I’d act quick because I think there’s less than a dozen copies left.

I also approved the cover for the audiobook edition of EARTHWORM GODS: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD — which completes the trilogy in audio, finally. Want to see it?

Cover is by David Dodd, without the use of A.I., because screw A.I.

The audiobook versions of EARTHWORM GODS are available Audible and Apple. And the audiobook versions of EARTHWORM GODS II: DELUGE are also available on Audible and Apple.

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A new episode of HOW TO SURVIVE 2025 — a new podcast I cohost with Dacia M. Arnold and Jim Cobb — is live. It’s free to listen to.

Mindset (Part 2 of 2): Everyone talks about how to survive a disaster, but what about surviving the aftermath? Be it financial devastation, the loss of personal property, or the mental and emotional toll of PTSD, anxiety, or grief, you need skills to see you and your loved ones through it. Jim, Dacia, and Brian discuss.

Listen free via: Web Browser ~ Spotify ~ iHeartRadio ~ Apple ~ Amazon/Audible ~ YouTube ~ Podbean ~ Player FM

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One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about Vortex in the six months we’ve been open is recommending books to readers — finding out what their tastes are and then finding them something they’ll enjoy. The best way to do this is to ask “Why do you like to read?” and then recommend someone who is stylistically similar, or who writes about similar themes or situations.

I’ve been mulling over an attempt at a generational reading guide for Horror fiction. Something of a "If you liked this author, you'll probably like this newer author". It’s in no way complete or ready for publication, but here are a few notes from my Moleskine:

Wrath James White / Daniel J. Volpe
Richard Laymon / Wile E. Young
Stephen King / Jonathan Janz
Brian Hodge / Ian Rogers
Jack Ketchum / Kristopher Triana
Edward Lee / Aron Beauregard
Mary SanGiovanni / Hailey Piper
J.F. Gonzalez / Wesley Southard
Tom Piccirilli / Laurel Hightower
Charlee Jacob / R.J. Joseph
John Langan / Todd Keisling
Nick Mamatas / Stephen Kozeniewski
Clive Barker / Eric LaRocca
Jeff Strand / Grady Hendrix
Ruby Jean Jensen / Somer Canon
William Schoell / Hunter Shea
Monica J. O’Rourke / Samantha Kolesnik
Bryan Smith / C.J. Leede
Bentley Little / Adam Cesare
Mark McLaughlin / Anton Cancre
David J. Schow / Aaron Dries
John Skipp / Justin Lutz
Ramsey Campbell (post HPL) / A.C. Wise
Brian Hodge / Ian Rodgers
Weston Ochse / John Lynch
Rex Miller / Duncan Ralston
Robert W. Chambers / Michael Cisco
Joe R. Lansdale / Stephen Graham Jones

(I feel conflicted on these last two, because I’d argue SGJ and Cisco are of our generation, but also, obviously, their popularity has exploded these last few years, much like Paul Tremblay’s, so for many readers, they’re considered “new”.

Anyway, like I said, a work in progress, but the start of something I think might be useful to folks.

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That does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday. Be kind to each other.

— Brian Keene