A literary agent who rejected a query from someone claiming to be a writer was stalked online and attacked in real life.
Here are the tweets about this awful incident:
This makes me ill and again emphasizes that you should guard your privacy as much as possible these days.
I never understood why people would announce their location online to everyone via Twitter and FourSquare. Or even announce that they were going on vacation.
Everyone called me paranoid for that — but would you have liked to have been in her position?
It just takes one determined nutbag to alter your life for the worse — forever.
Good luck, Pam. And good for your dog!
Additional:
Authors Behaving Badly: The attack on Pam van Hylckama
Literary agent victim of alleged assault by rejected author
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
I”m absolutely outraged by this! I hope Pam will be OK and not just physically. Bruises heal, but the fear? That’s a lot harder to manage. People should just quit writing if they can’t take the rejection.
What makes it even weirder is that anyone can self-publish, so why get upset over an agent turning down a query?
Reblogged this on Artistikem and commented:
I’m reblogging this because it must be done.
I believe myself a very savvy Internet user, even to the point of someone calling me Lisbeth Salander because of the things I’m able to find about people just by Googling them. This is an example of what can happen to you, yes you, if you’re using social media in a way that exposes your personal information.
Believe me, if it’s out there, someone will see/use it. And it can be as ugly as this.
Wow…I’ve heard of people getting upset about rejections, but not like THAT.
It’s down to celebrity culture. Everybody wants to be famous. Reject ’em and they get mad. In this case, crazy mad. Dumb ass. Writing was never the way to become a celebrity. Not many celeb writers compared to other entertainment channels.
And yeah, don’t announce your whereabouts on social networks – unless you WANT people to find you and you ready with a .44 … come to think of it I might start announcing my whereabouts ;-)
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WOW! This is crazy!!! And I agree with you! I’m wary about what I post on social media about where I’m going in real time for this very reason. People are out of control.