I am currently evaluating the future of this site, given recent events. Smithland was created in 1998 and has been hosted, maintained and expanded by myself at no cost to Guy at any point. I am proud to have provided the world with a consistent and accurate source of information for Guy and his work and would like to continue this. The site has expanded considerably over the years and there are many other additions that I have planned, some of which are partially completed already.

A year ago Guy put me in touch with Clifford Marker whose company had just lost its web developer. I was happy to become involved with Telco Web and agreed to lend this site to Clifford to act as an initial portfolio to publicise his company. He hosted the site at a new url of guynsmith.com which was entirely logical and within my plans anyway. This worked well and Telco Web has expanded, through my work and that of others.

Because of this success, Clifford has embarked on a few projects in collaboration with Guy that bode very well for the future. He has financed an e-commerce store, though implemented it poorly. He has also published a new Guy N Smith horror novel, something that fans have been waiting for years to see.

However a year of working with Clifford has been eye opening. He is interested only in making money for himself at the expense of his employees and his clients. He has repeatedly asked me to perform illegal acts against his clients and his potential customers, which I have refused to do. He has not paid me for my work that I have done for Telco, even though I am due a considerable sum for creating and maintaining a number of websites.

Finally, Clifford has now deleted this site from guynsmith.com, deliberately at a time when I was in the USA and away from my source code, and despite that he had no right or permission to do so. He has replaced it with what is little more than a commercial for his own company and with no respect for Guy's name, work or reputation. I have resigned from Telco on principle over this issue.

The main problem now facing this site is that guynsmith.com is owned by Telco Web and as such I have no power over it. All the publicity that both Guy and I have done over the last year has been to push the guynsmith.com url, publicity that is not easily undone. I now face a stark choice for the future.

Should I bow out of the equation entirely and remove six years of my work from the web? Or should I register a new url and start publicity from scratch to ensure the future survival of this site?

Unfortunately I see both options as damaging for Guy and his reputation. If I remove this site, nowhere on the web will contain an accurate bibliography, a substantial set of cover images, fan stories from past issues of Graveyard Rendezvous or samples from and information about Black Hill Books publications. If I continue with the site, there will be a war that threatens friendships and confuses fans.

Currently this site is complete and fully functional, though of course very few people now know it is here. I will mull over all of this and make a decision in the next few weeks. Watch this space.

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Sat 1 Mar