From Mark Rothman:
Okay, I guess I feel the need to defend myself.
First, I never asked Bruce to link his website to my blog, merely to check it out for himself.
I wouldn't, in a million years, have expected him to give me a link. That would require a magnanimity that I never thought he was capable of.
I sent PM's to all of you because I felt I had a right to, as none of you are owned outright by Bruce, and I had what I considered to be a well earned access to you through all the time I spent playing the Initials game with you. I do not consider it poaching.
Bruce has reminded me many times of how many hits he gets here all the time. I can't imagine I'd make a dent in his stats.
I know that many of you liked the game, and might welcome the opportunity to play it again on a fairly regular basis. And I extend that invitation to Bruce as well.
I thought if I posted my invitation here, it wouldn't stay up for long.
Through some key endorsements, (Leonard Maltin, Mark Evanier Ken Levine),my hit numbers have become quite impressive. Getting the twelve or so extra people I'd get from here really doesn't make much difference. I thought you had the right to find me, and play Initials if you have missed it.
As far as ego, I plead guilty. Very guilty. And my ego has grown exponentially with the growing success of my blog. As has Bruce's. The kind of mail and comments I've been getting would turn anybody's head. Yes, my ego has become more and more unbridled. But I'm much more of a specialist than Bruce. My ego is all about my work. I admit it. I'm far more egotistical about my work than he is. I think he is much more egotistical in general, although, at the rate I'm going, I might get there too. At the moment, if there were an Ego Olympics, I would definitely take the Gold in one event. And Bruce would at least medal in the Decathlon.
Until now, I have never tried to trash Bruce in public, and wouldn't do it now, if he didn't take public umbrage at me. In fact one of the posts on my blog praises him and "Planet X", because he deserves it. And he neglected to mention that I'm a big fan of his books. I wasn't going after him on that score. I was actually alluding to someone else. The only thing I needled him about, without referring to him by name, was the notes on his blog. I've tried to keep all this private, and would have been happy if it stayed that way. I didn't out him. He outed himself. Bruce and I are friends, but sometimes it's been a rocky road. One reader mentioned that he thought I was being unfair to Ira Gershwin. If he'd read more thoroughly, he'd have realized that it was a joke.
If this post doesn't survive very long, so be it.
If necessary, it will surface somewhere else. I don't know if you heard, but I have a pretty successful blog.
