Webcam video of The Sword Princess.

I decided to do a webcam video of the first half of Chapter One of The Sword Princess: Cathene's Journey for those who were asking for a snippet. It is the only part that I will do even though you don't get to meet the main character - Cathene at all.


Cathene is not your typical everyday young woman. For the last seven years, she has been a slave to the woman who raised her after her father vanished in the middle of the night. Little did she know that the sword she found in her pasture will bring change to her life and to her identity.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mdT6cLvb00

I also did a Q & A of the story itself as well.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgH2MakKyJY

I hope you enjoy both videos concerning my current work in progress. I need to get back to writing so off I go.

Beth

Facebook does nothing to help people who are being harassed.

By another user beyond telling them to block that user. Excuse me? Blocking that user will not help at all. The blocked user will make a new account and use that to continue their harassment of that person.
I have a friend who does artwork and posts them on Facebook. One of her artwork is of a nonsexual nude and it was removed because some jerk was offended or was stalking her waiting for her to post something that they could report. She now has to censor her light nude artwork which makes it look like it is a lot more naked than she originally posted. So people might assume it is far more naked than she intended it to be, they'll report the photo and she won't be able to show Facebook staffers the uncensored version to show how nude it really is because they won't ask to see the uncensored version, they'll go off on the report and delete the photo itself without giving the accused the chance to defend their artwork.
Which really sucks as their reporting methods are not like that of other sites, which allows you to give more information on the report, so they can get into a deeper investigation concerning the report. What they have up is pathetic to say the least. Like they don't really want to do an investigation on the report that they get, they will either come back with this which I tend to get the most of when I report a profile that usually would be of a fake Facebook employee claiming to be their Online Lottery Agent: Thanks for your report - you did the right thing by letting us know about this. After reviewing the profile you reported, we've decided to follow up with the account owner directly. When we think a profile may be fake or pretending to be someone else, we ask them to confirm their identity. If we see something on a profile that goes against the Facebook Community Standards, we will remove it. We appreciate your help in keeping Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone.
You would think that they would remove the fake account since it is making people assume that there is an Online Lottery that Facebook holds but doesn't make it public but a private lottery. But if you are not aware of the scams that are out there, you will be scammed by that as the agent would tell you that you need to pay this amount in fee to get your lottery winnings, you never should pay any money to get your winnings. The first time I did a report like that, the profiles of both people in question were removed. Now after that, Facebook either ignored the fact that the profiles that I report are scammers posing as employees of Facebook. Yes, that is true, they allowed the profiles to remain up and yes, I know that is factual as I go to another account that I have access to, to double check the account of the scammer and they're still up, as the scammer blocks me from seeing their page. Also, if I get any friend requests from military men and they're not who they are as I would ask them questions which would make them state that is the wrong rank for me as that is another branch of the military's rank.
But back to the main topic, Facebook will only tell you to block someone if they're harassing you. They will not remove the harasser from Facebook, even if you reported them over and over again. They also make it very hard to give more information on the harasser, by not giving you a box that allows you to give more information concerning the report.
Facebook is good at some things but not so in other places. Their staffers either don't want to really investigate a report, they'll send a canned letter in response and not do a thing about it. Even if it is two kids hanging by their necks from a rope, they will not remove the person who posted the original photo or remove the photo itself. Claims it is not in violation of our Community Standards. Excuse me? Two children being shown hung like meat is not in violation of your Community Standards is unbelievable stupid! Any website that has a report button on users' page and they get a report about that user, they have a box for additional information to give the staffers, but not Facebook, they act like the weak report of what is given is enough to deal with it. If you really want a good re pore with your customers or members, you need to be able to give a good, in-depth report on a rule violator, to assist the staff with the report as they might not need to do much in researching the rule violator as the reporting person has given them enough information to look up and find the information needed to either remove the violator for the rule violation if it is one too many or let them remain but mainly inform them not to violate another rule or find themselves suspended from the site for a week or two. But Facebook doesn't do anything on harassers, just telling the one who is being harassed to block the person. Harassers being blocked like that will not just go away, they'll create another handle to return to continue with their harassment of the person. One day, Facebook will be faced with a lawsuit from people who are being harassed by other people and they've been informed about the harassment only to be told to block the person and yet it continues and Facebook does squat about it, even after being informed about it.
It will happen one day and when it does, Facebook will have to have a better way of handling reports from people who are being harassed by fellow Facebook members.

Jem and The Holograms Live Action Movie review.

I will state this, right off the bat. I am a big fan of the cartoon Jem and The Holograms that was on the air from 1985 to 1988. The cartoon starred a young adult by the name of Jerrica Benton, her sister Kimber, their adopted sisters Aja and Shana, who run Starlight House for orphan girls, which gets help from Starlight Music till Jerrica and Kimber's dad Emmett suddenly dies and his co-partner of the Starlight Music Eric Raymond took over the music company that Emmett got for his wife Jacqui, who was a talented singer who ended up dying in a plane crash before her husband Emmett died. Jerrica becomes Jem via a hologram done by a computer that her father Emmett created and from there, 'Jem' helps get Starlight Music under Jerrica's full control after ousting Eric Raymond from the company.

Now the Live Action movie that was done in 2015, Jem and The Hologram. The premise of that movie is a small-town girl Jerrica lives an unexceptional life till a video that she did launches her into a new life which starts to threaten her connection with her sister and foster sisters. Can she overcome it and become a great singer?

The Director Jon M. Cho filtered into this movie which I thought was stupid, videos from other people on YouTube, pulling away from the storyline itself. Even in the middle of one of the songs, you are yanked from the scene to a video from YouTube. Beyond that, the mere fact that he doesn't rewrite the five first episodes which reveals everything from The Misfits to how Jerrica becomes Jem. He basically recreates the origins of Jerrica/Jem and everyone else connected to the original cartoon beyond the names. There isn't any Starlight girls. Even Synergy was changed. Rio was even changed from who he was to being the son of Erica Raymond and not the long time boyfriend of Jerrica and the true owner of Starlight Music. Maybe that is why the whole movie bombed. He diverted from the original and made his own movie or that they used a different script writer than bring the original writers of the cartoon to write the script, they might have made the script 100% better and maybe that would get more fans to come and bring their kids back to another showing of it but the die hard fans of Jem spread the word to make the movie bomb as it didn't go with what everyone wanted to see the original characters on the big screen redoing the beginning of the cartoon series or at least something close to it and no one really wanted to see it with all the other way better movies that was released at that time.

I do believe that the songs that they did for this movie is the only good thing from the movie itself. Some of the make up that they did for the characters was really good like this one. Some of the make up for Jem and the other Holograms was good and something that they would do. I do like that Jem had flatter hair than before in the cartoon series.

The songs that they sing like Youngblood, the way I was, hit me up, I'm still here and We got heart.
Youngblood
The way I was.
Hit Me Up.
We got heart.
I'm still here.

Now, the original songs that came from the cartoon never made it into the live action movie, which would be great to hear them in the movie but I guess Hasbro couldn't let them go or something about copyright concerning them is why they had to do new songs. But out of everything, the songs that they did is the only good thing that came from this Live Action movie version of Jem and The Holograms and the thing is I liked the songs even if they were very original and they did sound like what Jem and The Holograms would sing.
And only in the middle of the ending credits do you finally see the Misfits, which leads you into believing that we might get another movie but sadly, I doubt that will happen as this movie bombed in the theatres and by how it looks it ain't a DVD hit either.

I would recommend reading fanfiction based on Jem and The Holograms cartoon as some of the stories there are better than what we got on the big screen like for example - Jem and The Holograms the real movie. (log in required to read.)
But the reason why the movie failed is because it didn't live up to what everyone wanted to see. We wanted to see Jem/Jerrica, Aja, Kimber, Shana, the Starlight girls, Rio, the Misfits and the rest of the characters, not characters who had their names but wasn't the same.

Anyways, thank you for reading this and tell me what you think.

Losing your mother before Mother's Day.

To those children and adults who have lost their mothers the day before Mother's Day, that is the hardest death you will contend with. No one wants to lose their mothers. Especially not before the day that celebrates our beloved Mothers - the mothers who wiped our tears from our faces when we were sad, shared our joys, our triumphs, our losses. She, our beloved mother never taught us how to cope with losing her.

We were able to cope with the losses of everything else but not her. She who birthed us, never taught us how to live without her. We always depended on her for everything from advice on relationships to helping us raise our children, but she never taught us how to handle losing her.

I lost my mother to cancer on May 12, 2012. I, freely admit, that I am a momma's girl. I loved and adored my mother. I never expected to lose her to cancer the day before Mother's Day. The pain that I felt losing her the day before Mother's Day was overwhelmingly hard. I was among family members on Mother's Day, but I wanted not to be there to celebrate Mother's Day as my mother was no longer there and everyone was smiling and happy, but for me. I was miserable. My heart ached with heartache that no child should ever bare in their lifetime.

Every Hallmark Mother's Day card commercial or seeing a happy scene with a mother of any kind to hearing a song that speaks of loss or love, pains my heart even more as the days, weeks and months and years gone by. I can barely handle listening to Oh Holy Night as that was my mother's favorite Christmas carol. Once, I was able to handle hearing it, but now, I actually had to leave the holiday bag line because of my heartache when I heard Oh Holy Night being played and then the line started to get really fast and I got backed up and started to lose control over my emotions.

I told no one on the line that I was hurting emotionally during that moment, I lied to everyone about my tears that I was crying because of the song, it was mainly because the song is . . . was my mother's favorite Christmas song. But the thing is, every time May 12th comes around, my heartache grows bigger each year as I get older, the more I need my mother by my side and I don't have her because she's gone.

People say you only have one mother. I say, treasure your mother, for one day, she might not be there anymore to give you helpful advice about love, relationships, how to handle your children or just to talk about your day. I wish that I had my mom right now as I have so much to ask of her that I never really was able to ask her before.

But losing your mother the day before Mother's Day, and celebrating that day, is never easy as your heart is crying in pain. No matter how your heart is grieving, as long as you remember the love that your mother gave you will be enough to start the healing process but the ache will remain when the sun rises.

eBook authors are authors too!

An eBook author Elizabeth York had posted a status message on her Facebook page about 18 hours ago, which highlights the need for Amazon to make all eBook purchases nonrefundable.
This is the status message that she posted:
Wow! I am completely speechless. I had seen one of the books purchased were returned and then I noticed more... Didn't think anything of it until I got a email. I don't even know how to reply.
"Ms. York, I wanted to tell you that your books are above par and you should be proud. I was able to read them all, but sadly I returned them all because they range from $0.99 to $2.99 and that is just too much for me to spend on a ebook. Can you please make all your books in the future free so that I do not have to return it?"
Sadly, we do not know who this reader is, so we can call them out on their blatant disrespect for eBook authors and report them to Amazon.com for abusing the return system. But they may state that they were able to refund the money to the buyer as they were unhappy with their purchase. Excuse me, Amazon.com, but don't you have a non refundable policy on applications like computer systems and the stuff like that? And yet, you don't have it for the eBooks that you sell on your site?
It is time for Amazon.com to start closing that refund length for eBooks from 7 days to 1 day since it would make the 'reader' really intended on buying the eBook. Seven days is way too long and it leads to abuse which people are doing and the authors are getting shafted by it.
Amazon has their frequent returner algorithm to prevent pirates from stealing books but they tend to overlook that if you put a time limit of being able to return the eBooks, the readers will have to decide if they want to keep the book or return it. But they would have known what the eBook is about by the preview chapter, they have no real reason not to keep the eBook.
The price that Elizabeth York priced her eBooks at is really good and fair price for an eBook.
The readers must understand that we, authors, may make writing look easy but the thing is, it can take years for a single book to be finished or as long as a month or two to be done. We work hard at writing and then there is the process of editing and finding the perfect cover and fonts for our books and then figure which format to put our books into - hard cover, soft cover, eBook format or audio format and then, we chose the price of either $0.99 to $19.99 for hard cover books.
Please do not treat us, eBook Authors, as we're not worth the money you spend on buying our books and tell us to give you our books free of charge, would you like to go to your job and your boss tell you to work overtime for the next two weeks and at the end of those two weeks and you look at your paycheck to find nothing in there, that is what you do to the authors when you return a book, we don't get a paycheck for our hard work. Every book you buy from us, a child is getting her school supplies bought for the new school year or keeping food on the table or the lights and the roof over their heads. So please think about where the money will be going towards before you think to return the eBook.
If you support authors of any style of book formats from soft cover, hard cover, audio books and eBooks, please sign this petition to help close the refund gap at Amazon.com - Stop the return thefts of eBooks.

Where is the child physiologist, who claimed it was hurtful?

To smack or punish your child is at now?

Where is this child physiologist, who proclaimed on TV the dangers of damaging your child's ego by spanking them and is he or she happy with the end result of his or her smackdown on punishing your child when they misbehave?

I bet that person has changed their tune to promoting spanks and punishing children when they misbehave as that person caused the era of non punished, misbehaving children, who now, in their young adult years feel entitled to get whatever they want because they were not taught how to respect their elders.

And it is all this child physiologist's fault for promoting the era of not wanting to spank or punish your child for misbehaving because it could damage their egos! Well, fuck you asshole! You just created an era of young adults who has no respect for anyone because they were not taught how to behave in public cause you claimed it hurt their egos if they were punished or smacked!



That is so very much true, the lack of punishing the children has led to a generation of young adults who think if they cry or whine long enough, they will get what they want from people, give me everything that I want for free. I expect that once they become parents themselves and their children start misbehaving like they did growing up. I can see them doing what their parents didn't do with them - punish their child when they do bad or misbehave, so they know how to be a respectable young adult when they get older and not someone like them.

Hopefully, that will happen with the next generation of children.
But that child physiologist, probably doesn't even really believe that their comments back in the 90's had created this generation of I want this or I cry entitled young adults at all. Unfortunately, he or she did.

Holiday becomes a thieves' joy.

A friend of mine posted on facebook a post about two strange things happened to him at his mother's house. A man wearing an Army jacket who looked creepy, no teeth and had a look of being freshly out of Meth look sneaking around his mother's car and a nice looking lady showing up at the door.
The first one acted surprised by my friend appearing swiftly at his mother's running car and asked, "Is this where TT and Bones live?"
My friend told him no. The guy left the drive way and went down the street. He turned off the car as he was getting the frost off the windows.
No more than a few hours later, a nice looking lady shows up at the door and asks, "Is this Emily's house?"
My friend said no and the lady walked away.
He thinks nothing odd about the two strange visits he got this day.
I told him to call the cops and give them the descriptions of both people. They're looking for easy targets to rob.
He thinks that the lady was legitimate, but he's not 100% sure. He thinks he should on the guy but neither of them did anything wrong.
I told him take it from a former caser (I was just like that woman would go up to houses asking if Sally was there and when the lady or man of the house would say no, even though how brief a look I got inside the house or around the house, I would mark the house a yes perfect to rob or no skip it), they were casing your mom's place and who knows they might have decided that your mom's place is a perfect place to rob. Call them even with the holiday season, people are looking for easy targets like your mom's house.
Be on the safe side, and call the cops and report it. Go ask your mom's neighbors if they got approached by someone asking if this was so and so's house or approached their vehicle. If they all say yes, tell them all to report suspicious activity done by these two people. Who knows, you might be able to get them to catch these two before they break in and rob someone of their valuables or their own lives in their homes.

Needless to state, my friend did neither.

But the facts are clear, the guy wearing the Army jacket was going to probably steal my friend's mother's car, which my friend prevented by running out when he did, the woman coming to the door, well, my friend is not sure if she was casing his mother's home or not, so he thinks nothing odd about that.

With the holidays fast approaching in another 19 days, thieves are casing people's homes to see which one is ripe for the harvest of their belongings and if the homeowner is there, the homeowner might be killed during the robbery. Whenever someone approaches your home and you don't know them and you see them coming. Go out immediately but look like you're heading out with your cell phone out, don't wait till they come to the door to answer it. Approaching them and without alerting them to anything wrong, try to snap pictures of the person. They may ask if this house belongs to Emily or someone else and when you say no, they would turn and walk away. Follow them to the street and if they get into a vehicle, snap pictures of the vehicle too. Go back inside and use your landline to call the police to report someone strange visiting your home and you fear it may be a person casing your home to rob from it.
Go to your neighbors and ask them if they saw anyone come to their door asking if this was so and so's home and when the homeowner says no, the person walks away. Tell them to call the police and report it to them as the person is possibly casing the neighborhood seeking an easy house to break in and rob.
Also, when you take out your trash after Christmas, leave the big ticket items in your garage and wait till the trash man to come if possible and take it out to them personally, so the thieves don't write down your address as having a new big screen TV or some big ticket item that they would want to steal.
Be aware of strangers showing up at your door around the Holidays.
Keep safe.

Christmas bag line at work.

At my job, we have our Christmas party, along with our holiday bonuses which is funded by a huge Christmas Holiday bags that is sent to two different states' prisons - this year I have been on the line unlike the last two lines, when I haven't been on it very often as I ended up getting sick and had to miss days.

This time, I've been on both the fast line and slower line, which they started to do for this year. I was at the sealing of the bags for both lines, in the middle of both lines and only at the beginning of the slow line, which I hope to be on this coming Monday.

The first set of bags that went out was good, not a lot of items went into them so we got that done within a good amount of time. Our next set of bags, well, we had miscommunications on both lines which resulted in twenty skids being held back as they all need to be redone, which I believe was done today by those who were asked to come in today to finish that refixing job up.

We have only a week and a day to get the rest of the skids done and sent out. I hope we get them all done in time as we didn't last time.

Trouble with stray horses.

This was an old article that I had written and never published, back in 2009.

This deals with horse slaughter and the horses that no one wants.

Trouble with stray horses.

The horses that are now in need is those who are being abandoned by their owners because horse slaughter is banned here in America. Now there are too many horses and with the ecomony the way it is, people are dumping perfectly healthy or sick horses in places hoping that they would go wild. What they are doing is causing a bigger headache for everyone else. If you cannot sell your horse and you have tried lowering your price, consider putting them down humanely instead of dumping them off at locations where you think they would adapt, these horses are not wild horses, these horses are once your friend and now you think abandoning them in the woods and the plains would help them? No, it doesn't help them, it hurts them more than you know.

If you can afford a cup of coffee at Starbucks or a carton of cigarettes every week and then you cry about how much horse feed is, maybe you should stop buying those cups of coffee at Starbucks or those cartons of cigarettes and watch how much money you save by doing that. And if you don't want to give up your precious cups of burnt coffee at Starbucks or your cancer sticks, then you do not deserve to have horses!

Guess what I gave up for my horses! My 24 cans of soda that I would buy every three days for good in 2005, I saved over two hundred dollars in two months. I decided to no longer drink any soda at all. I saved enough money to feed and take my horses to the vet and have their hooves done. The money I saved now goes for my horses.

If you want to keep your horses, you have to give up something like drinking $5 cups of coffee, $3 sodas or a $33 carton of smokes and put the money you would have spent on that into a jar and at the end of the month, count how much money you have saved and then add up everything you give to your horses in food for one month and you probably have in that jar enough for a month and a half of food for your horses.

But if you cannot afford to keep your horses and you do not want to give up your coffee, soda, or smokes, you might as well sell them. If they wouldn't go for the price you set, consider lowering your price to where they would sell or find a rescue that will take them in to rehome them.

But do not trailer them to the woods and release them thinking that they will do better in the wild than with you, that is chicken sh*t of you. They do not deserve to be dumped off like rubbish, they loved you and you loved them, give them to someone who wants them either by leasing them to them or selling them, but for the love of God, do not abandon them anywhere. They deserve better than that!

I saved a throwaway horse who was 28 years old and was destined for a bullet in his head. This guy was that throwaway horse. I kept him alive till he was 35 years old before I had to say farewell to him. This old horse loved me because I cared for him and I gave him my love. I didn't dump him and let him live his life in the wild. I took him in and cared for him till the day he died.

These two photos are of the throwaway horse at age 28. He may have been old but he was well loved by me.

This is his gravestone that I got for him after his death at age 35.

I miss you Red!

BreyerFest Memories from 2001.

This was in July of 2001, the last year that I went to BreyerFest, it is the annual gathering of Breyer Model Horse fans each year at the last weekend of July in Lexington, KY at the Kentucky Horse Park personally. I had already gone through the store to get my special runs for that year. I got what I wanted and didn't really need my other two tickets. While I was standing in line waiting to pick up the celebration models, I was chatting with couple girls who were trying to figure out the time on their watch as they had just arrived at the park.

I said hang on I'll get the time, and flipped open my phone and called my dad who was parked nearby and asked him the time. I gave the time to the girls and one of the girls cried out we missed the ticket line for the 10:30 to 11:00am! The time was 11:10am.

I was sorry for the girls as they only had one tent ticket and they missed their chance. I had two tickets for other times that day. I pulled them both out and said here use mine. They looked at me shocked that I was going to give them my tickets and they said so too. I told them I already got what I wanted from the tent and these were just going to waste. They were so excited that they hugged me both. I don't know who they are or what they got from the tent but I was very glad that I was able to make their BreyerFest that much more memorable by my gift of my last two tent tickets.

And that is one of my BreyerFest memories that truly stand out beyond my first one with my late brother David in 1999.

My underwear issues have been solved.

Back in March 1st, I complained about what the underwear company Just My Size did with their underwear. Well, a friend told me to look online for underwear companies - well it took me no more than five minutes to find that the place I get my pants and shorts from Woman Within was the company I needed to get my underwear from.

They had what I wanted and liked! Satin underwear that went above my waist, not where they hit my hips and that's it. They had waist huggers not just hip huggers which showed off your belly button, but the type that hid your belly button.

I'm talking underwear of old days like back in the 80's and 90's.

This is what they look like.

The first size I got was size 15, I went for that size since that was what I was going for in Just My Size if they didn't quit making them. Well, the size was too big for me by a long shot, so I returned it for a smaller size, size 11. When I got it back about a week later, I tried it on and hoped that it fit, which it ended up doing perfectly. The panties didn't ride up or bite into my legs anymore. They were perfect!

About three weeks after I got them, I ordered two more so I would not have to wash each pair over and over again as I change underwear every time I shower. I have not been disappointed in the underwear or the company that I now get them from. I no longer look in the underwear department for my underwear as I just go online to get them now.

I highly recommend Woman Within's underwear, pants and shorts for your clothing needs. The returns and exchanges are smooth as silk and the people are great to talk with and they are totally understanding.

What have the underwear companies done to their sizes?

Yeah, in this blog, I'm going to touch on underwear that us ladies wear.
Men, if you do not wish to read this, please pass it by.

For the last two years, I've been wearing the same size 13 underwear from Jenny's Just My Size. I have gotten more packages of size 13 underwear from Jenny's Just My Size at Wal Mart, two more to add to my declining amount of underwear. I have three underwear left from three dozen undies. The reason why? They were all size 10 which I wore since 1998, but no longer fit my waist, hips or butt. I tossed them out in 2007 and got size 12 in Jenny's JMS till the year 2012 when I noticed that size 12's no longer fit me comfortably anymore they were extremely snug to where if I sat down, they would split or rub my legs till they were red and sore, mainly they would rub me red and sore. So I get the size up which is size 13.

I go about opening my new undies, flap them to get the wrinkles out and to check them all out to make sure that there are no rips, tears or any other defect that they may have missed. I place them on my bed and I immediately know that there is a big difference to the sizes. They say that they're a size 13 for people sized 30. That's what it says on the packages. I wear pants size 30. I'm not thin or lightly chubby, but I weigh around 267 pounds. Yes, I am a heavy woman, not proud of my weight but that's a topic for another time. I looked at the underwear on my bedspread and I know something is off in the sizes. I grab one of my three underwear that I know fits me comfortably. I lay it down on the bed and then placed one of the new pairs on top of it for size comparison. I immediately know right then and there that what I have in my hands is not size 13 underwear, but a misprinted set of size 10 underwear. Each one is given the size test to find that each one from both new packages are not size 13 but size 10. There is like about two inches of fabric missing from each one. I repackage them and return them to Wal Mart and tell them that they are returned for being two sizes too small as they claim that they are size 13, when they are not as I wear a size 13 and they do not fit me comfortably but extremely tight to where I cannot sit without ripping them open.

I have decided to go to a size 14 since that might give me the right size as I do not want to go to the specialty bra and underwear stores as they will charge you $40 for one single underwear. I don't want to buy almost three hundred dollars worth of underwear only to have about 7 pairs of underwear. That's a car payment and at least a tank of gas!

I just learned that Jenny's Just My Size is now discontinuing the underwear that I have loved for the last twenty some years. I might just have to take apart one of my underwear that I like add about four inches all around and sow my own underwear myself. The one thing that I do not like about that option is that I don't have a sewing machine nor do I know how to sow by using a sewing machine or by needle and thread. I guess the bottom line is that I better start learning how to.

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.