Althouse: "In October 2020, a post on indie romance author Susan Meachen’s Facebook page, allegedly written by her daughter, announced that Meachen had tragically died by suicide..."

January 5, 2023

"In October 2020, a post on indie romance author Susan Meachen’s Facebook page, allegedly written by her daughter, announced that Meachen had tragically died by suicide..."

"... a month earlier. This news was followed by more posts from Meachen’s 'daughter' (on Meachen’s account) in the author’s private writers group, The Ward, suggesting her mother took her own life because her peers in the online indie book community bullied her. In light of this horrible news, authors and online friends helped fund Meachen’s funeral, created an anti-bullying anthology in her memory, and offered to help her daughter edit her mother’s final book, free of charge. On Monday—over two years later—Meachen’s account posted something new in The Ward. This time, it was Susan saying she’s actually been alive this whole time."

From "Novelist Appears to Announce She's Alive 2 Years After Faking Suicide: 'Let the Fun Begin'/'I debated on how to do this a million times,' Susan Meachen recently wrote on her Facebook page" (Jezebel).

36 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...: "On Monday—over two years later—Meachen’s account posted something new in The Ward. This time, it was Susan saying she’s actually been alive this whole time."

This is why ChapGPT is so scary. You've got live kids using it to fool teachers already now. If I was a member of the group, I would use personally-known information and ask for proof-of-life.; 1/5/23, 10:26 AM
Jim Gust said...: Now I can't believe everything I read on the internet any more.

I expect that Meachen's interactions with the government and credit bureaus would be affected during the two year hiatus from life. Did she keep paying her taxes?; 1/5/23, 10:31 AM
Yancey Ward said...: What's next- the reappearance of Francisco Franco?; 1/5/23, 10:32 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I read Mark Twain's novel Tom Sawyer when I was about 12 years old. I still remember loving the part where Tom sneaked into his own funeral and then revealed himself to be alive there.; 1/5/23, 10:35 AM
rehajm said...: They should kill her, right?; 1/5/23, 10:37 AM
mikee said...: Maybe she was just misplaced for a couple years.; 1/5/23, 10:43 AM
Owen said...: The wonderful thing about the Interwebz is that you can put your crazy out there for everybody to enjoy.; 1/5/23, 10:46 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Awkward.; 1/5/23, 10:53 AM
Joe Smith said...: Maybe she just wanted to witness her own funeral a la Tom Sawyer...; 1/5/23, 10:58 AM
Dave Begley said...: Fraud. Sick fraud. Jail is required.; 1/5/23, 11:16 AM
Mark said...: tragically died by suicide

Why the passive language "died"? Why not accurately say "tragically killed herself," which is the very definition of suicide (self-killing)?

Call it what it is. Killing. Maybe that will lead fewer people to do it.; 1/5/23, 11:25 AM
Carol said...: "Died" isn't passive. Geeze.; 1/5/23, 11:35 AM
Temujin said...: Kids say the darndest things.; 1/5/23, 11:42 AM
MadisonMan said...: The solution when an attention-seeker tries a new tactic should always be the same: Ignore!; 1/5/23, 11:49 AM
Owen said...: So, thinking more about this...did her action amount to self-cancellation? A fictive suicide in the real world but a very real one in the fictive one. Like theater, except the audience doesn't know it's make-believe and you withhold the reveal for some arbitrary length of time. Nothing in the agreed script tells you when, if ever, you should return to earth. Or claw your way out of the digital lime-pit.

What a trip. Taken at others' expense.

Shorter version: asshole move.; 1/5/23, 11:53 AM
Christopher B said...: Mark said...

Why the passive language "died"? Why not accurately say "tragically killed herself," which is the very definition of suicide (self-killing)?

Call it what it is. Killing. Maybe that will lead fewer people to do it.

Tell me you don't even try to read and comprehend Prof Althouse's postings with saying you skipped right to the comment box to bloviate.; 1/5/23, 11:54 AM
Josephbleau said...: I wonder if she voted while she was dead, this may be the first prosecutable case.; 1/5/23, 11:55 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Why is this news?; 1/5/23, 12:01 PM
traditionalguy said...: She done made a fool out of us. Is she a Fauci?; 1/5/23, 12:13 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: She might as well have posted, "Remember when I pretended to be my daughter and posted that I was dead? Well, psych!"; 1/5/23, 12:14 PM
Joe Smith said...: Jezebel? One of the biggest piece of shit websites in existence, and that says a lot.; 1/5/23, 12:22 PM
tim maguire said...: rehajm said...They should kill her, right?

If they’d killed her before she came out as still alive, it probably would have been easy to get away with.; 1/5/23, 1:26 PM
Penguins loose said...: Unless they are a biologist, how does someone really know if another person is dead or alive? Take me for instance. I claim to be alive, but absence the opinion of a biologist, how is my family to know for sure?

They are starting to be suspicious.; 1/5/23, 2:00 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I just saw it in Jezebel first. Many news outlets are reporting this story: here.; 1/5/23, 2:05 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'I just saw it in Jezebel first. Many news outlets are reporting this story: here.'

I remember them from when they were owned by Gawker and Gawker tried to destroy Hulk Hogan and they piled on.

So happy that Peter Thiel bankrupted Gawker and went after Jezebel as well.

Jezebel is an incredibly unserious 'news' site.

Do they report true stories? Sure.

But their spin is all misogyny all the time.; 1/5/23, 2:50 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: The reason I ask, "why is this news?" is that it's not difficult to be an indie novelist. Anyone can do it. I can vouch for this because I did it. It's an expensive hobby.

Looking at Meachen's books on Amazon right now, even with all this free publicity and being on Kindle Unlimited... sales are not good.

You can read the sales rank in the product description. Sales rank is essentially a measure of how long it's been since a copy of the book was sold. It's highly sensitive to a large number of sales in a short period... and that hasn't happened. My guess, based on experience, is that sales were never high, remained at near zero for a long time (years), and a few copies have been sold recently. Sales rank in the long term is influenced by total sales, so books which sold well in the past but haven't sold a copy for several months retain more sales rank than books which never sold many copies.

I have a book with a similar release date as one of her books with a similar sales rank, and I haven't sold a copy since April.

So, nobody is reading her books (or mine!). Why, then, is this news? They might as well write a story about anyone who fakes their death on the internet. Because that's rare.

There's nothing special about authors except the level of narcissism necessary to delude ourselves that anyone wants to read what we write. Keep that in mind!; 1/5/23, 3:26 PM
Bill Peschel said...: I'm an indie writer and publisher and active on a lot of forums, and I've never heard of her or her "suicide."

I just checked Wikipedia, which does have guidelines for whether a person is "notable," (hint, I'm not). She's not there either.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe already covered her lack of Amazon sales.

So if an asshole farts in a forest and no one's there to smell it, does she still stink?; 1/5/23, 3:44 PM
Iman said...: Meachen didn’t kill herself.; 1/5/23, 3:45 PM
mccullough said...: Believe All Women; 1/5/23, 3:52 PM
Charlie said...: The buried lede here is that......Jezebel is still running! Who knew?; 1/5/23, 5:21 PM
madAsHell said...: So if an asshole farts in a forest and no one's there to smell it, does she still stink?

I'm guessing that you are not writing romance novels.; 1/5/23, 8:10 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: Meachen and Tonks might have had an interesting collaboration. Too late now.; 1/5/23, 8:47 PM
Rollo said...: The trick is to disappear forever -- leave your car in the desert or in the jungle or on a deserted seacoast or on the moors or near a famous bridge -- and them start writing again under another name, not to be half-assed about it.; 1/5/23, 9:03 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: For me, the link produced this wonderful error message, the funniest thing I’ve read all day:

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The Lambda function associated with the CloudFront distribution is invalid or doesn't have the required permissions. We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner.
If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront)
Request ID: EllVR6G1GpURAIduuB-jkEVhhffweaZniliGbf2qehS3G2yCc1HEjg==; 1/5/23, 10:28 PM
loudogblog said...: She is such an A-hole.; 1/5/23, 10:59 PM
Nobody said...: Tell me you don't even try to read and comprehend Prof Althouse's postings with saying you skipped right to the comment box to bloviate.

Oh...I try to make sense out of Alt house's frequently obtuse and convoluted posts...is it poorly constructed writing? I think so, but perhaps that is the draw for most? Remember, lawyers lie and hide pertinent facts to make their agenda viable. Obfuscation as a product feature.; 1/6/23, 8:50 AM