Day 146: Scam Targeting Writers

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 146: Scam Targeting Writers

There’s a long list of things that tick me off and somewhere on that list, you would find … scammers, especially scammers who target writers.

One such scammer is Amy E. who one fine day decided to start flooding my inbox with messages such as: do you want to be a writer? Do you want to sell more books? Do you want to be a bestselling author?

I knew right away that I was dealing with a scammer as nobody can make you a bestselling author. To become a bestselling author, you have to write something, a literary agent has to accept it, a talented editor has to make the work better, a publisher has to publish it and a marketing team has to bring it to the attention of readers.

Now if Amy E. were a bestselling author or even an author for that matter, her offer of advice would carry some weight, but she’s a nobody.

If I were to get a chance to address Amy E. I would say … Do you know what Ernest Hemingway, James Patterson, and J.K. Rowling had in common? Each of them had an idea, sat down, opened a book, took a pen and started writing. 

At the time, Hemingway had no idea he would become one of the most respected authors of our time; Patterson didn’t have a clue that he would be listed in the Guinness World Record book with the most New York Times bestsellers; while Rowling would have been baffled if she had known that little Harry Potter would make her one of the richest people in England.

If those people were to offer advice to writers I would be the first to take a front-row seat, but Amy E. … who is Amy E. and why would I take writing advice from someone who isn’t published, who isn’t even a writer?

Her advice to writers to get their work noticed is:

·          Join local writer groups

·          Online critique groups

·          Facebook groups

·          RWA (if you’re a romance author)

·          Bloggers;

·          Websites dedicated to authors and their crafts.

Is this the best she can come up with? I typed in Google “How to get my writing noticed” and within seconds I received 209,000,000 results. My guess is that Amy did the same. She prowled Google, gathered information on how to write and get writing work noticed and then passes it off as her own advice. Shame on you Amy, while this is not exactly plagiarism, it’s highly unethical, especially if you’re charging for this advice.

For those who already have written something, Amy offers a review of their work. For a standard review, she charges $250, for a rush review $325. I have news for Amy … most writers are broke and can ill afford $25 for a review, let alone $250. Besides, have a look on Amazon, there are tons of reviews there all written by readers FOR FREE.

Some people just have no scruples. They’re looking for a way to make money and any means will do. A few might fall for her scam and end up disappointed, others – especially those who have been around the block a few times – will shake their head and think ‘Nice one Amy, but try again’, which no doubt she will. After all, if one scam doesn’t work, try another.

As for me, one good thing came out of Amy’s worthless babble … it got me out of my slump. Ever since Gabriel’s passing I hadn’t written one word. As you can see I’m out of that slump.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 74: Looking back on 2017

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 74: Looking back on 2017

The year is drawing to an end and if you’re like me you’re thinking back on all that’s happened over the past months. All in all, I think it was a rather uneventful year, but let’s have a look how 2017 treated me.

January

The year had hardly started and I was down on my luck already. I was nearly knocked down by a car and not once but three times. The first time by a driver of a Mercedes who was reversing without looking in his rearview mirror. The second time by an SUV who was in such a hurry to slip into traffic that he paid no attention to me. The third time by a Toyota who slid across the zebra path.

February

In February nothing happened, except that someone took one of my stories about a cat and included it in her cat anthology. Some people seem to think that it’s okay to help themselves to other people’s work.

March

In March I was threatened with legal action. I had written an in-debt review of Contena, a site where freelance writers can find all kinds of writing gigs. Before (almost) joining I had done research about the site and found nothing but good reviews. This itself seemed fishy to me. If something is too good to be true, it usually is. I found a number of flaws with the site and listed them in my review. Within a matter of days, Kevin (the founder of the site) sent me a rather nasty email and threaned legal action. So that’s why there are no negative reviews of Contena to be found. Anyone who has anything but praise for the site gets threatened. My biggest problem with Contena was that members have to pay $99 per month for the site's services. There are plenty of other writing sites around and none of them charges their members one cent.

April

In April a pair of finches came to have a look at our balcony. Shortly afterward, Mr. and Mrs. Finch started making a nest. For days they flew back and forth with twigs and pieces of fluff and when the nest was finished, Mrs. Finch took up residence and over the course of six days deposited six eggs. What amazed me the most was the patience of Mrs. Finch who sat on her eggs for hours on end without moving.

May

In May the chicks hatched and fought for space within their nest. We followed their growth with interest. Every time when the parents weren’t around, we went out and took a peek at the young ones who were nothing more than six little balls of fluff.

June

June saw planting season. The time when we make our way to the Home Depot nursery and buy flowers. As a rule, I always choose petunias because I know they are non-toxic to cats.

At the end of June the six little balls of fluff who were now properly feathered birds flew off. The remarkable thing was, as soon as they left our balcony they were joined – in mid-flight – by one of the parents who guided them to the rest of the family.

July

In July, we started looking for a new place to live. I contacted an estate agent and the first property ad he sent us was a hit. From the outside, the house didn’t look like much, but inside the whole place was renovated and was just perfect. The advertised price was perfect too, just $159,000. As it turned out, the estate agent had made a mistake though, the price was not $159,000 but $1,159,000. Needless to say, our interest went from hot to ice cold.

August

In August, I started this 365 creative writing prompts project. Some posts are current events, some are memories, every now and then I vent about something or another, and when I find nothing to write about I turn to my cats for inspiration.

September

In September nothing happened, absolutely nothing. The only thing worth mentioning was that I read ‘The Alchemist’. This book had a huge advertising campaign, quite a few people were talking about the book so eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I bought the book. And it wasn’t bad, it was an enjoyable read. But to make such a hoopla about it … no, I didn’t think the story was that good.

October

The same applies to ‘Origin’ by Dan Brown. A much-anticipated book, a huge promotional campaign, but the book itself … a bit of a disappointment. Very well written of course, very engaging, but Dan Brown’s theory about how life started on earth … no, not something I agree with. I have all Dan Brown’s books and I dare say, ‘Origin’ is my least favorite.

October also saw the start of the #metoo campaign, started by Alyssa Milano and followed by a number of other sluts. When looking at pictures of these women, I very much question their motives. I don’t doubt that they were, at some point, harassed by men but then what woman hasn’t been. I daresay that every single woman at one time or another has been on the receiving end of harassment. But to make such a big deal of it. Just take a look at the pictures of these so-called victims and then draw your own conclusions.

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-38-look-no-underwear

November

In November, I tackled quite a few issues. Rather than writing it all again I’ll give you the subjects along with the links.

Discrimination – old vs. young

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-55-discrimination-old-vs-young

Children and electronics

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-55-children-and-electronics

Does Deodorant increase the risk of breast cancer

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-59-does-deodorant-increase-the-risk-of-breast-cancer

What’s the difference between a turkey and a tiger

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-60-whats-the-difference-between-a-tiger-and-a-turkey

The dangers of parabens

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-61-the-dangers-of-parabens

Online Christmas shopping

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-62-online-christmas-shopping

December

On December 6^th one of our beloved cats, Mickey, passed away. I noticed that his breathing was labored. I suspected a cold and took him to the vet for medication. As it turned out he had congestive heart failure. Treatment would have cost thousands of dollars and would have been very painful for Mickey. I loved Mickey too much to put him through this and so I decided to let him go and cross Rainbow Bridge.

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/day-66-rest-in-peace-mickey-2007-2017

And so, that’s it. Christmas has passed, New Year’s is upon us and tomorrow 2017 will be history. We can only wait and wonder what 2018 will bring.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 51: Book review – The Break by Marian Keyes

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 51: Book review – The Break by Marian Keyes

With Marian Keyes’ books, you never know what you’re going to get. Some books are great, especially ‘The woman who stole my life’ and ‘The brightest star in the sky’, others are downright disappointing, such as ‘The mystery of Mercy Close’ and ‘Lucy Sullivan is getting married.’

And then there’s Marian Keyes’ latest book … ‘The Break’. With ‘The Break’ she really dropped the ball. It’s not just disappointing, it is so far below level, one can’t even see the level anymore. It’s like her publisher wanted a new manuscript from her, she had zero inspiration, so she wrote about herself and her family.

The main character is Amy, a short, slightly overweight woman, with an obsession with makeup and shoes. Just like Marian.

The story of ‘The Break’ is that Amy’s husband Hugh wants a six-month break from their marriage to go whoring around South-East Asia. Of course, he doesn’t say that, he says that he needs to find himself and that he wants to go backpacking. But if it was about hiking and backpacking he had on his mind, he could do that in Switzerland, Alaska or Greenland. But no, he’s going to South-East Asia.

He states that he still loves his wife and that he will come back, but for now, he wants complete physical and sexual freedom and nothing and nobody can stop him.

This brushed me up the wrong way from the start. What woman in her right mind would stand for this? I can tell you one thing, if my husband informed me that he wanted a six-month break from our marriage, to visit South-East Asia with free sexual reign, I would tell him he could go and not bother coming back.

Not only is it bad enough that he could sleep with anything on two legs, but who knows what kind of diseases he would come home with. And I would have to welcome him back in my bed … OH HELL NO!!! This is something Marian Keyes didn’t think of. She lives in a world where Aids and other STDs don’t exist.

When I got to page 87, I did something I've never done ... I skipped to the end to see if Amy takes her cheating husband back. If Amy, during the course of Hugh's six-month absence, hooked up with another guy and decided to give her cheating husband the boot, I would have finished the book, I would have continued reading. But no, he comes back, he promises to never do it again, and like a good little girl, she takes the bastard back.

Please, give me a break. Is that how Marian Keyes sees the modern woman … as a complete idiot? Maybe she is, but I wonder how many women would stand for such betrayal with or without sexually transmitted diseases?

As for the writing style of ‘The Break’ … the critics claim that the book is witty, full of laughs and wisecracks. Really? I found Marian Keyes’ wisecracks downright silly.

Here’s the thing … if one occasionally makes a joke it’s funny. If everything is turned into a joke, it gets annoying. I can best compare it to food. You might like fresh fries, ice cream, or cheesecake, but if you had to eat these foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, chances are you would soon tire of them.

The critics aside, let see what Marian Keyes readers have to say about ‘The Break’. There are those who rave about the story, but I tend to agree more with these reviews:

Only got about halfway through and couldn't go on. The main character is too much of a doormat for me.

I have loved all her books until this one. Her books are usually full of warmth and humor, but they were entirely missing in this one. She fills her stories with lovable quirky characters but in this one they are quirky without being lovable (or even likeable). Amy is shallow, immature, whiny, complaining, self-centered, self-pitying and manipulative. Most of Keyes' characters have been young people however in this book Amy is 44 but acts like she's still 20. Hugh's story would have been much more interesting. I hope Keyes isn't starting another series about a family - no one in this one was worth reading more about.

I usually enjoy Marian Keyes novels but this one just irritated from the start. I thought the premise of the book was ridiculous and Amy's reaction unbelievable. Very little happens and I was left feeling that I just wanted to give her a good talking too. I also felt that the other characters could have been developed more as they were way more interesting that dull Amy and duller Hugh. 

This last review sums it up perfectly.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Into the Water – Paula Hawkins promotes pet cruelty

Just about every pet lover has heard of the spay/neuter program to control the pet population. Not Paula Hawkins though, she thinks it better to kill the poor animal.

In her latest book ‘Into the Water’, Paula Hawkins mentions a pregnant tabby cat. A man who sees the cat thinks (and I quote Paula Hawkins) … ‘I’ll have to do something about that’.

He doesn’t wait for the cat to give birth and then take her to the vet to be spayed though, no he kills her. For cat lovers everywhere I’ll spare you the details.

This is very upsetting. Whether you have a cat, a dog, a bunny or another animal, killing an animal because of a pregnancy can never be justified. Every country has veterinarians and several governments sponsor the spay/neuter program.

Paula Hawkins is no doubt an educated woman, who has enjoyed success with her published books, but apparently, she has not heard of the spay/neuter program. In 'Into the Water' she has a cat killed in a barbaric way?

Why bring a cat into the story in the first place? It has nothing to do with it.

The New York Times gives this book a good review, but read the reviews of readers and the picture changes.

21% of readers on Amazon give ‘Into the Water’ a 1-star review. This is what readers have to say.

This book defies all the intuitiveness of a good mystery. The characters and timelines are so confusing that any mounting suspense from a clearer, more linear narrative is lost. I had to constantly re-think who was who and when was when. I am not sure that the lack of clarity was not an attempt to try to make the storyline more interesting. At any rate, I rarely feel moved to write a review but this book was a waste of time and money. I started skimming as best I could in hopes that it would improve but it never got better.

I had really high hopes for this book since I've been seeing it raved about all over the internet lately. I did like Girl on the Train, so I decided to give this a try. I'm not sure if my expectations were too high, but I did NOT like this book. I've read a lot of books that are narrated by alternating characters, but this was ridiculous. At least 10 different characters back and forth back and forth, hard to keep up with. The entire book was just all over the place. The big "twist' of the book wasn't very shocking. Just overall disappointing.

Unfortunately this book had me rolling my eyes, cringing and laughing out loud in places. I'm surprised it made it to print in this state. Told from ten perspectives, all two dimensional, unlikeable and identical (except for the odd bit of swearing from a couple of characters), countless pages which should have been cut and clunky narrative devices. A huge disappointment.

Where is the real Paula Hawkins. this is a lot of gibberish. confusing characters and totally plodding.

Sorry, looked forward to this, but quit halfway due to too many characters, no guide to who they are or who they're talking about (coz they're not engaged in any actions), it's a struggle to follow which timeframe each chapter is in.

As for me, I’ll never read another book by Paula Hawkins again. Any author who promotes pet cruelty doesn’t deserve to be selling books.

2016 in review

Happy New Year everyone. 2016 is finally over and 2017 has just began. Did you make any resolutions? I didn’t because resolutions rarely stick. On January 1^st we all have good intentions but by the end of the month, by the end of the week or even on January 2^nd those plans are abandoned.

I did, however, hear an appealing statement. I watched the movie “New Year’s Eve” on New Year’s Eve and there someone said ... “What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” … well, I knew what I would do, do you? I’m going to finish a manuscript. It’s been a year in the making, every day (or just about) I plan to write, but too many distractions get in the way. So, this year I plan on getting less distracted, write more and type the words “The End” on that manuscript.

Personally, I’m not the least bit sorry to see the end 2016. It was a bad year, the worst ever. Let me give you a quick run through …

January

Dieter (my son) was arrested for assaulting a subway station official. All that happened was that Dieter’s shoulder bumped into the guy’s shoulder, but he made a big deal about it and thus Dieter got arrested and charged.

February

Chanel, our 13-year-old cat got sick and was diagnosed with kidney disease. She was put on a special diet, she got a little better, but we knew she lived on borrowed time.

March

Chanel passed away, or as I like to think of it, crossed Rainbow Bridge.

April

Nothing happened, or if it did, I’ve forgotten.

May

The charges against Dieter were dropped. After the assault charges we went through months of anxiety and had to fork out $5,000 on a retainer fee for a lawyer, but when the case went to court, the subway station official had a change of heart of dropped the charges.

Also in May I had a bit of an accident. A tin of pineapple fell on my foot. It hurt like hell and it took weeks to heal but fortunately nothing was broken.

June

Shortly after an annual mammogram, I received a call that a lump was found in my right breast. More anxiety as I first had to wait for the biopsy and then the result of the lab. When I eventually got the results I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

July

I had surgery. The lump was cut out and some lymph nodes were removed to determine if the cancer had spread. Fortunately, that was not the case.

August

Charlotte had to be taken to the vet. She was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. She got antibiotics and soon got better.

September

I started radiation. Every day, for 16 days, I had to go to the Princess Margaret hospital for treatment.

October

I finished the radiation treatment and was officially declared as a cancer survivor.

November

I developed a boil. It started out as something barely bigger than a pimple, but it grew to the size of a cherry. When it didn’t go away by itself as hoped I had to go see a doctor. He suggested antibiotics or surgery. Since I’m a big believer of cutting things out that don’t belong in a body, I opted for surgery. The doctor warned me that the anesthetic would be very painful. This sounded strange to me as an anesthetic usually don’t hurt, but in this case, it did. Holy crap did it hurt, it was like to boil caught fire. After that it was smooth sailing, the surgery was completely painless.

Also in November I lost two friends. The first due to a difference of opinion, the second after my Facebook account was hacked.

December

An uneventful month, just the way I like it.

And so now it’s January 1^st. Do you wonder what the year has in store for us? All we can basically do is keep breathing in and out and hope for the best.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Love the Bright Foreigner - Book Review

 The story starts off alright. Ann Grange is suddenly widowed and her whole world falls apart.

After a year of grieving, and with the help of a friend, she returns to the land of the living and does so with determination. She opts for a new hairdo, new makeup and new clothes.

Thanks to her new look comes a new found confidence. A confidence that makes her an independent woman, rather than the pathetic sidekick she was when her husband was alive.

In a museum she meets Alex, a Greek, who sweeps her off her feet.

If Burgh wanted to sketch Alex as appealing, she failed horribly. Right from that first meeting, it’s clear that Alex is an asshole. It’s his way or the highway. Still, Ann (who he insists on calling Anna) falls for his charms hook, line and sinker.

A whirlwind romance follows, during which Alex reveals himself as not only an asshole, but an asshole with a temper.

At this point I started to wonder what Ann sees in him. He’s self-centered, super arrogant, flies off the handle when he encounters resistance, and unreasonably possessive.

To be fair to him, he knows that he’s an asshole, that he’s self-centered, arrogant, and possessive. And while he’s insanely jealous, he admits that she doesn’t have to expect fidelity from him. He will continue to sleep around if it suits him.

Once again I started to wonder just how tolerant Ann is. What woman would agree to have her man on the loose like a dog in heat, while he practically has her on a leash?

I also wondered if his money had anything to do with it. She states that money is not important, but Ann went from being rich to being VERY rich. Would she have felt the same if her beloved was a bank teller, an accountant or an insurance salesman with an average salary?

The story went horribly wrong about halfway in the book where Burch makes a colossal mistake. 

When Ann complains to her 27-year-old daughter Fay that Alex is too dominating, Fay boldly states that all women secretly want to be dominated.

Really? All women want to be dominated? This certainly was news to me. I for one most certainly do not want to be dominated and I know quite a few women who feel the same.

Very strange for Fay to make such a statement, as she is a successful business woman herself. Makes you wonder if a dominating male had to say to her “Quit your career and stay home to clean my house, cook my meals and polish my shoes” how such an order would have been greeted.

Next big surprise, after the wedding, Ann finds herself pregnant. This was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. This woman is in her 40s, her twin children are 27 and now she’s expecting a baby! Has the woman ever heard of birth control? At her age it’s just plain stupid to get knocked up.

All in all, a disappointing book. It made me wonder where the Anita Burgh was who defended women’s rights and gay rights in “The Broken Gate” and “The Heart’s Citadel”. Since her book “Lottery” was also a disappointment, I’ll think twice before buying another book from Burgh.

Eat, Pray, Shove

After seeing the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” (a few times), I got curious about the book.

Some told me it was good, but not as good as the movie, some said the book was a disappointment, while others still loved the movie but downright hated the book.

With so many different opinions, I wanted to compare for myself.

The first thing I noticed was that Liz’s four months in Italy seemed weak. Having a thorough knowledge of Italy, in particular of Rome and Naples, I found the writer’s description of the cities amateurish. Almost as if she had researched the cities online, rather than actually spending time there.

Her description of the ashram and her spiritual journey in India I found fascinating, although it bothered me that she continuously grieved over her failed marriage. 

As a happily divorced woman myself, I can understand that she mourned lost love when she first separated from her husband, but she divorced the guy for heaven sake. If she loved him that much, she should have stayed with him. 

Still, I continued reading. That is until I got to the deep meditation part. I found it a little hard to swallow that Liz’s one and a half hour of pray singing every morning at the crack of dawn helped her nephew, who was thousands of miles away, sleep better. But okay, I could get past that.

What I couldn’t get past, and what I thought was complete baloney was her statement that she had seen God, been with God, even been inside God. That did it for me. I had enough of this and abandoned the book.

Now it so happened that a few days later I met Amid, a young Indian man from Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta. 

Ever curious about other countries, their customs and their people, we got to talking and I asked Amid if India  was as poor and desolate as some stories led on.

“Not at all,” he chuckled. “India is a thriving country with beautiful architecture, many businesses and young entrepreneurs, luxury homes and exotic cars such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti and of course Porsche.”

One topic led to another and I asked if he had ever been to an ashram. Amid shook his head, an ashram was not his cup of tea. He knew about them of course, but he wasn’t keen on them.

“They’re for people who want to get closer to God, right?” I asked him.

“Ashrams are for rich people who want to get closer to God,” he corrected me.

“And the poor people?” I asked.

Amid shrugged. “They have to find God elsewhere on their own.”

He was familiar with Elizabeth Gilbert’s story, “Eat, Pray, Love” and had nothing good to say about it. He loved the movie and he loved Julia Roberts’ performance, but the book he classified as absolute rubbish. 

According to Amed, Gilbert romanticized the ashram experience and exaggerated shamelessly. He classified her as an attention seeker who had but one goal … to have her story published and would have gone to any lengths to do so.

I tend to agree with him. Some parts of the book were good, but Gilbert went a little too far, thus turning an educational story into a bunch of nonsense.

What bothered me about this author is that nobody can reach her. Plenty of bestselling authors have a “contact me” button on their website and a page on Facebook. They encourage their readers to get in touch with them and are happy to hear from them. 

Not Gilbert. She can’t be reached through her website and neither can anyone send her a message via Facebook. 

What is Gilbert so afraid of? 

After reading a few reviews on Amazon, I found a lengthy one of Lynne701 that hit the nail on the head. Rather than copying the whole review, I’ll limit myself to merely mentioning Lynne’s second last paragraph which states:

My biggest problem with this tome is that this 30-something woman basically is looking for applause for running off for a year, ostensibly supported by a $200K book advance, to "find God." I'm sure millions of women would love to leave their everyday lives and travel the world to do nothing but self-analyze. If she had done volunteer work, I may have felt differently. If she went through some real hardship, I could sympathize. But she was in an incompatible marriage, then dumped by the guy she left her husband for. She should perhaps speak to those battling life-threatening diseases, or raising children alone, or taking care of an elderly parent, or worried about where their next meal is coming from.

Lynne's review was appropriately titled "Eat, Pray, Shove".