Not a good agent Royal Gillette - Con Artist!

One of my e-mail groups spoke about agents. I had to say something about my own personal experience with one and why I'm now going to the self-publishing side of things. This will be a long story to tell.

It was 1996, I read the ads in Writer's Digest and found a literary agency called Sunrise Literary Group searching for unpublished writers. They wanted three chapters, I sent in three chapters of my The Storyteller's Tale. I got word from them about a week and half later, they couldn't take me on but their friend and associate Royal Gillette read over the chapters and he was interested in becoming my agent, here's his info.
So I called him up and spoke with him with my father by my side. He loved the story and said that I had a real good chance of getting it published. We agreed and he said (this should have been our red flag) he needed $1,500 to become my agent. I'm like I need to see some authors books that you have gotten published. He rattled off some names - fake names of book titles and authors.
We went to our local bookstore and asked for the book titles and authors to find no one by that name or book titles in their book shelf on their computers. We called him up and told him what we found. He came up with the smaller stores wouldn't have them yet as they're in the big stores. We believed that and we sent the money, not once did we use our search engines for him and the books he had said.
A few days, I got the contract and signed it, sent it back to him. He did tell me that he sent my manuscript off to Del Ray by Fed Ex, but when I called them and asked if an agent by the name of Royal Gillette sent anything to them by Fed Ex, the lady on the phone said no, never heard of him before. I thanked her and told my dad what she said. My dad told me to call Royal. I did but got only his answering machine. I left a message stating I need to talk to you urgently about my book. He didn't call me back for at least three days. I told him that I had called Del Ray to make sure that the manuscript got to them, they said that they never got anything from you. You said that they were interested. He came back with well, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing there. They have the manuscript and we're in contact about it. Just hang tight, Beth. I'll call you when we get the news.
After that, I never got anything from him about any rejections or acceptances till January of the following year, stating that he was moving closer to New York City to get closer to the big publishers and if your contracts expire during the move, when we are settled in our new building, we will renew them.
I never got anything back, so I put his name into the search engine and found several people who had him as an agent and every single one of them got asked money first and then the contract and then they heard nothing from him and they found out that he was a con artist. I was devastated by this information. I sent him a letter demanding an explanation of the claims from these other clients of his claiming that he just ripped them off of their money and their time in searching for an agent who was not a con. My letter was returned unknown recipient. I sent another letter to the company I got him from, same thing happened.
I had spent a year not searching for an agent because I thought I had one, when all I had was a con artist.
The first red flag on this was that he asked for money upfront - no agents get money up front, they get their money from the royalties that come from your book being sold and published.
The second red flag was that the authors and the books they wrote never existed at all - when your bookstore says there is no one by that name or the book, you need to get to your computer and put them into your search engines. I didn't find anything on the authors or the books Royal had told me that he got published.
I got conned as did my father who believed his cons. I lost $1,500 to this person and a year of searching for an agent.
The moral of this is when they ask for money upfront and the authors and books that they say do not come up in any searches, run as far as you can, they are not legit agents.

Cheaters never win.

For the most part they don't, but they can try.

A friend of mine held a poll of a group of ten original characters created by ten people to find out which one would be drawn with her original character from the Transformers fandom. This one girl, who I will call Sue, decided that she would stack the deck against everyone else and win the honor of having her character drawn by my friend. Sue did a journal post on her account telling everyone to go vote for her character to win this polling contest. Now, that is not cheating, but none of the other entries did that, except for Sue. To really stack the deck to where she would win, she created up to seven fake accounts all to vote for her character to win, which she did but because the seven accounts were found to be fakes and that Sue had intentionally told every one of her friends and watchers to vote for her instead of telling them to vote for the one who deserves it more and that she doesn't care if it isn't her who wins, for there might be other contests from her. My friend figured it all out and called her out on it and revealed her for being a cheat.

To which Sue, basically said that's how the politicians do it. True, some do cheat and win, but for the most part, they do give people a good reason to vote for them, but the moment she created seven fake accounts and within minutes of joining the site, vote in my friend's poll voting for Sue's character to win, which they did, that was when she became a cheater. My friend disqualified her for cheating and put the second place person as the winner. She posted a journal about it and Sue whined about really wanting to have her character drawn with my friend's character. But the thing is, Sue did it the wrong way, instead of creating those seven fake accounts and made a journal encouraging her friends to vote for her. She should have just asked my friend if she could promote the contest on her page in a journal to get everyone to vote for who should get it and did it fair and square, but she would rather cheat than do it legit.

Cheaters think that they can win, but in the end, they will lose as someone would see what they are doing and spill the beans on them. So don't cheat at what you are doing, it will always end up being bad for you.

Where oh where are the beta readers gone?

Over the past decade, I have had a lot of beta readers. Almost all of them have dumped me after doing about three to four chapters of my stories. I had really good ones that I liked, just up and vanish on me without a word to those who I also liked would lie to my face stating that real life is being hard for them at the moment and that they need to pull back and focus on that for a while (which I found for the most part to be nothing but lies).

I accept that and then later, on the same writing message group on Yahoo, I get a message from my now departed beta reader asking for new work, when he or she had real life issues pop up and suddenly, they're asking for new work. I go in and state that so and so beta reader will drop you three chapters into the work, with the claim of real life problems popped up and they can't finish editing my work. They end up getting questions posted on the group why did they drop an editing job when it was not finished. The person never answered the questions and quickly removed themselves from the group itself.

I never took on another beta reader after that, which was back in 2006. I never took a beta reader to work on my stories because they tend to dump me soon after getting to the third chapter and have to create lies to get out of working on my stories. I really love getting my stories edited to where I can get them ready for publication.

I do have one beta reader that I really like a lot and I cannot wait till she gets to the next chapters of my story as I am doing at least three edits and rewrites of each chapter before I move onto the next chapter. I hope this one doesn't leave me as I really like her a lot.

I present to you for your reading pleasure....

I did some rewrites of the beginning of Chapter Three of Warrior Princess. I kept the old version as I think I will probably rewrite it to fit how the story is flowing with more dialogue than scenery, probably flesh out the character more.

So here is the old version of Chapter Three.

Tarisn woke to the smell of wet grass and dirt. She raised herself up seeing that she still had hold of the sword that she had brought into the gate that it had created along with her flute case. She looked around to find herself in a strange area, nothing like the forest around her home. Her first thought was - is there enough oxygen in this planet for her to breathe in as she looked at the fauna that surrounded her. She realized that the air was cleaner and it had enough oxygen to support her. Tarisn rolled herself over to where she could stand without problems as she looked around to find no one was around, just forest. She walked away from the spot she landed at trying to figure out where exactly was she. She glanced at the sword. I hope you can lead me to whoever opened that gate or maybe I’ll wake up from this dream and find myself on the floor of my bed.

And now, I present to you the newer version of Chapter Three of Warrior Princess.

Aderyn stepped from her hut over looking the huts as a group of men and women sat around the fire. One of them was stirring the kettle over the fire, she looked up and smiled. “Morning Aderyn, come have some broth,”
“Morning Amelia,” Aderyn said, with a smile on her face. “But I cannot for I need to be elsewhere at this moment.”
“Very well, we shall keep it warm for you if you return before we start making our noon meal.” Amelia turned her attention back to the broth as the sorceress walked towards the group.
“Rhiannon, we need to go now,” Aderyn spoke as she looked at the woman.
“Why and where?” Rhiannon asked, as she stood up from the log.
“I will explain on the way,” Aderyn stated, as she looked at the bag by her feet. “Did you get what I asked you to gather?”
“Yes,”
“Good,” Aderyn replied. “Did he bother you about it?”
“No,” Rhiannon said. “He hasn't emerged from his hut since she was captured,”
“Good.”
“I don't know why you asked me to get clothes from Tatyana's hut for,” As she bent down to pick the bag of clothes up.
“You will see when we get there,” Aderyn replied. “Now, we need to hurry.”
“Hurry to where?” Rhiannon asked, as they hurried out of camp and into the woods, heading for where Rhiannon not know.

I'm thinking about blending the old version in with the new version after maybe a rewrite of the scene to flesh it out more. But what do you think of the beginning of both versions, which one suits the beginning of the chapter better? The old one or the new version?

Thanks.

I really love getting comments.

About my chapter bits that I put up. For one thing, it helps the author to grow as a writer if people would comment on their posts, either saying I like how you are taking the characters in or I think you need to rewrite this scene better as it doesn't sound right anymore.

Some people may not like posting chapter bits up, but I do. As it helps me grow as a writer and you can never tell who will give you an idea that changes the chapter totally around for the better.

Just a heads up, I'll be posting a tidbit of the start of chapter Three of my original story Warrior Princess with two versions of the start of that chapter. I want to know which version is better for the chapter.

Thanks and have fun writing.

Don't you even bloody listen! Rant time!

Thirteen hours ago, I posted a status message on my Facebook account this message:

My ‪#‎writing‬ goal for this weekend is to get one chapter done on both ‪#‎Warrior_Princess‬ and ‪#‎AttackofToadegaBay‬ stories. Can I do it? Maybe.

Well, five of my friends, doesn't 'see' it that way. Since 10:04am this morning, they have been calling me and now they text message me just a moment ago stating 'I need you', 'I really need you' and other text messages.

I'm trying my hardest to get two chapters on both of my stories done, but when you ignore the fact that I am trying to write all weekend long, calling me or texting me saying I need you is a form of harassment and a sign of you being co-dependent and the thing is I am a loner by nature. I hate being bothered when I clearly stated that I want to be alone! And seriously, at this time I want to be left ALONE!, so I could write my two chapters to two of my stories! I wouldn't have minded if I had said I had done it, I got two chapters on both of my writing projects done this weekend. But I made no comment on my Facebook account as of yet, really I shouldn't even be writing this rant blog right now but seriously, the constant fucking calls is pissing me off to where I have put my phone on vibrate and placed it where I cannot see it nor hear it vibrating when a call goes off, so I can write in peace.

Seriously, people! When someone says on their Facebook account I will be doing this (writing, painting or something that they want to be able to do by themselves) all weekend, don't assume that on Saturday morning that you can bother them about things, they are busy the entire weekend, unless they say I did it! I got whatever I was doing this weekend finished today! You do not call or text them and demand that they listen to you whine about something or that they want to come over and spend time with you to which you have to go get dressed, go drive to their location, pick them up and bring them to your home only to repeat those steps minus the getting dressed part at the end of the day.

So, I have no problem in ignoring the phone calls or the text messages right now as I am doing something other than paying attention to some needy person at the moment - it is called writing and I am hoping to get my original stories finished to where I can send them to my beta reader and get them ready to be published by next year.

Am I wrong to be so cold to them or am I doing the right thing since they clearly do not realize that I do not want to be bothered at this moment?

Min wage rant.

When someone says go get a better job to you, you really feel angry at that person for not knowing that you've been spending days to weeks to months in search for that better job. The only ones that you can find are flipping burgers or making burritos for fast food places and not the job you trained for and you state you have student loans to pay off and you're barely making anything to survive on and you're in line to get food stamps to help put food on your table.
That is the day, when the minimum wage of $7.35 is no longer a good wage to have and that it needs to be 9.50 an hour as it will help put food on the table and for those people who has student loans, they are struggling to pay off as they have degrees for a high paying jobs are not there anymore. They are struggling to put food in their bellies, means they are not able to pay off their loans cause the pay they bring in is so little.
Seriously, when you can not live on $7.35 an hour, that is when the min wage needs to be higher or get another job to go with the job you already have.
People might have to get one or more jobs, in order, just to survive living on the min wages of $7.35 an hour. Just to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table and gas for their vehicles and then add onto that student loans or a car loan which could zap a month's paycheck.
People are struggling to make a living and yet, the companies like McDonalds are claiming that if the min wage is raised to say $9.75 an hour will cause them to raise the price of the food are hoping that scare tactic will scare people off of demanding a higher min wage because it could raise the price of their product to keep them with a profit instead of making their employees have a better wage to work with. I see more unhappy smiles from employees of McDonalds than I do at other places. They want a higher wage but McDonalds is being hard headed about giving it to them and so is the rest of the US as they claim oh we'll have to raise the price of the food or the other finished products. But if you cannot live on $7.35 an hour, then how can you afford to not to demand a higher wage and not get it because the company is afraid to cut their own profit to make the lives of their employees better?
Do you think we should suffer having a low min wage while the CEOs' of all these companies are basically getting thousands of dollars in their pocket and we the employees are basically suffering to make enough to survive? Wouldn't the CEOs remember when they were once working at min wage jobs too before they made it to the top and now they're comfy and now saying that the min wage stays as it because it will take money from their bottom line, bottom line of what - their profit?
I don't think so, I think they're scared to give any of their profits to the employees.

My driving rules.

These are my driving rules and these are what I now seriously follow.

1. Don't speed. If the speed limit is 65mph, you stay at 65 or 60mph.
2. Don't assume a cop won't catch you speeding. (Thank you to BJ Blankenbeker)
3. Always keep your eyes on the road.
4. Keep your cell phone in your purse and not on your ear.
5. NO TEXTING while driving.
6. Keep distractions to a min.
7. Before you start driving, make sure that everything that you want on at the right temp is done before you begin to drive.
8. If you feel sleepy, go to a restaurant or a gas station and get something to eat and maybe just walk around to wake yourself up, don't continue to drive.
9. Don't road rage.
10. If you get into an accident, call for the police and don't admit anything as in I'm sorry, let the police deal with it.
11. Don't tailgate anyone, not even the semi's.
12. Don't cross bridges that are flooded.
13. When it rains, don't speed, slow down.
14. Don't chase after police vehicles.

Those are my driving rules that I follow. If you have any tips that I should add to my list, let me know.

Winter driving tips.

These are my tips for winter driving.
People may say that my tips are limited to one season as winter will bring different driving hazards each year. True, but the tips will work regardless of the winter season.
My winter driving tips are as follows.
1. Drive slower than you normally would. Normal speed would be 40mph on the highway. Normal gravel road speed would be 10 to 15 mph. Slow and steady speed will be good on icy roads or even snow covered roads.
2. If you start to skid, turn your wheel with the skid, not against it. If the skid is on the right, turn your wheel to the right as your tires will go in that direction and it will help get you out of the skid and it is the same on the left.
3. Good tires.
4. If you get stuck, don't panic and try to get out of the ditch yourself. Take a deep breath and call for a tow truck.
5. Let your family or friends know when to expect you at their place, so they know to start looking for you if you are late.
6. Do Not use your cell phone while you are driving on icy or snow covered roads, you need your full concentration on your driving and the roads.
7. Don't talk to your passengers while you are driving on icy or snow covered roads. Concentration is needed.
8. Always check the weather reports before you go driving as you might not want to drive while it is sleeting or snowing.
9. When driving in snow, low beams are needed to keep you from being in a white-out conditions.
10. When you come upon a snow plow, stay back 60 feet, don't tailgate them as they cannot see you riding their backends.
11. Drive safely, arrive alive.

I hope you like my winter driving tips and if you have your own to add, feel free to add them.