If you had asked me about Neil Gaiman before recent horrific news broke about his abusiveness, I would have said I was a fan.

Not a huge fan, but a fan. I liked The Sandman comics, liked Neverwhere, liked the movie adaptation of Stardust, liked some of his children’s books, liked the movie adaptation of Coraline, liked Neverwhere.

But even more than being a fan of his work, I was inspired by him. His prolific career. His advocacy for libraries. His ability to write in several different mediums, from comics to film to novels and short stories. Probably because I myself am NOT prolific but aspire to be, I’m inspired by those artists who ARE prolific: Bradbury, Andre Norton, Brandon Sanderson, Gaiman. And Gaiman’s brand of dark fairy-tale-esque fantasy suits my sensibilities quite a bit. I’ve never loved anything he wrote, but I definitely liked a lot of it, and even more importantly, I was inspired by it.

I can’t deny my inspiration, as much as it sickens me that I was inspired by such a creep.

The accusations against him are absolutely horrible and sickening. I don’t really have anything to add other than I hope his crimes are punished and his victims find healing.

But the accusations of plagiarism that Kristine Kathryn Rusch mentioned in her latest Patreon post were total news to me, and now I see that perhaps even the ways in which Gaiman’s work inspired me were a lie.

I have heard of Tanith Lee, but I haven’t read anything by her. Now I see that this negligence needs to be remedied ASAP. If Gaiman was stealing her ideas and her style this whole time, then I was getting inspiration from the wrong person. I should be reading Tanith Lee. I WILL be reading Tanith Lee.

And because she too was prolific, I have a new writer to admire.

Let Gaiman fade into shadow and infamy. Let him face both human and cosmic justice.

But let’s the rest of us go read some Tanith Lee.