Search This Blog

Monday, May 27, 2013

Setting matters straight

Several have presumed that the Watch Tower Society some how supports this project or that they feed us information. This is our own personal project. It is not sponsored by, approved by, or otherwise supported by the Watch Tower Society.

They do not feed us information. We have written or emailed them five or six time over the course of our current project, usually to ask a specific question. Most often their answer has been, "We don't know" or "We don't have that." They have sent us exactly seven pages of photocopy, some of it material we already had. In point of fact there were only three pages we did not have. We appreciate receiving that much. But, that is all we have received from them. It is wrong to suggest on a public forum or in private that they are a secret voice of support behind this project.

The research is ours. Outside help comes from interested individuals who read this or the private blog. Some of them are Jehovah's Witnesses, some Bible Students and a couple are educators who have a historian's interest. None of them are part of the official Watch Tower staff. All the conclusions we draw are our own. We are not writing a polemic; we're writing history. If there prove to be mistakes in the book, we are to blame. If we take  you places you've never been, show you history you've never seen, the praise is ours too.

A recent forum post says that Mr. Schulz is using a pen name. He is not. I write as Rachael de Vienne, and that is a pen name, an extract from a much longer personal name. That is my name, just not my first or last name. I teach and I raise children and goats.

Mr. Schulz did not write scripts for a television show. He wrote childrens' stories. They are all out of print. He used a pen name for those. They aren't relevant to the history we write.

Our next book must stand or fall on its merits. Either it is sound, well-researched history, or it is not. It does not matter who our ancestors were or who our living relations may be. Some of them are not praise-worthy people anyway.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems to me that if your e-mail details were deleted, it would do wonders for your peace of mind and blood pressure.

Written in a caring sort of way...

Sha'el, Princess of Pixies said...

I'm not stressed and my blood pressure seems fine. This was in response to a well-meant but slightly uninformed post elsewhere.

I like the poster "bunches." But we did need to fix stuff.

Anonymous said...

'Twas a gemeral, non-specific comment - but pleased to hear you're 'in the pink'.

roberto said...

Dear Anonymous,
I am the author of the article posted in a popular forum two days ago with nearly 4.000 members. After reading the post “Setting Matters Straight” (yesterday) I modified the article and deleted personal details immediately. I didn’t justify myself with a single word. Now, the article is right. I continue to follow both the public and the private blogs with the same interest and admiration for the authors. All the matter was cleared in private with few words.

Sha'el, Princess of Pixies said...

Roberto,

I don't think anon was scolding you. And I'm not. you're a good friend and fun. And if you got it a little wrong, you were stilly being helpful. I appreciate that.