#to be completely clear: i will not be further discussing the dd vegetarianism gossip

[terriwriting]

(Crossposted from Dreamwidth)

Diane Duane is a vegetarian.

This is a harmless example of the sort of gossip I heard years ago, when I was more involved in volunteering at conventions than I am now. Other non-harmless bits of gossip include: Author A is a mean drunk; Author B and Author C use conventions to hook up away from their respective spouses; Author D hasn't written in years, and all their recent works are ghostwritten; Author E is a dimwit who can't manage their own household accounts.

Neil Gaiman can't be trusted around young women.

This rumour was told to me with the same tone of authority as the rumour about Diane Duane. She had health problems, you see. So if she was ever a guest at a con where I happened to be working, I should make sure to mention to the organizers that she really needed a vegetarian option.

As it turns out, the rumour about Diane Duane is half true. She has written about her IBS at least on Tumblr, possibly in a few other places. Which is why I'm willing to share the rumour. I don't know if the person I got the rumour from years ago had heard it from someone else, or if someone in the chain of rumour-mongering heard part of a slightly different rumour and decided that Diane Duane should be a vegetarian for her own good. Maybe she ate a salad and complained about her stomach in front of the wrong person. It's a harmless example of the sort of gossip you hear when you're an insider, or useful to insiders.

The rumour about Neil Gaiman turned out to be true. By his own statements on the matter, it's true. Neil Gaiman can't be trusted around young women.

I heard the rumour after about five years of work. I'd joined a writing group, volunteered at a couple of local conventions, volunteered at a couple of larger cons, worked my way up from moving tables and chairs to coordinating which room got what audiovisual equipment when. I went from being an outsider to being someone who was invited to hang out with authors and agents at after-parties. And after five years of work, I got to be somebody who could be warned that Neil Gaiman needed to be kept away from young women.

And that you had to provide a vegetarian option for Diane. Poor girl. Sensitive digestion and all.

The rumour about Neil Gaiman turned out to be not harmless. But it was told to me in the exact same tone as Diane Duane is a vegetarian. I heard the rumour about Diane Duane once, and it never came up again. I heard the rumour about Neil Gaiman once, and it never came up again. I heard lots of rumours once.

I don't hear rumours anymore. I haven't volunteered for a convention in decades. I still attend a few, but they're for different blocs of fandom than I used to be in, and I don't see many of the same people at them. I'm sure there are creeps and abusers and predators at these conventions, but I'm not one of the special people who gets to protect myself from them. I'm not an insider anymore.

It took over twenty years for the rumour about Neil Gaiman to turn into a bomb exploding under multiple fandoms and franchises. I can't stop wondering about the next bomb that con organizers are trying to hide.

But at least the next Diane Duane will get their vegetarian option, thanks to the whisper network. If the right person hears the rumour at the right time.