In today’s Journal
* A New Phishing Scam
* A strange day
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
A New Phishing Scam
A couple of days ago I received a “media enquiry” from Rick Davis. He said he was on the editorial staff of True Life Magazine. He wrote
“One of your social media followers nominated you for an interview with our magazine and we would like to publish you in our next issue.
“We work with artists, models, musicians, entrepreneurs, influencers and people making an impact. We are very selective when choosing talent for publishing and we believe your brand is a great fit.
“If you would like to be interviewed and featured in our upcoming issue, Let us know immediately as we are closing out our selections for this publishing cycle, We wish you continued success and we look forward to your response. Thanks!”
So I looked for True Life Magazine online, and it was there, sort of. And I fell for it.
But when I received the interview questionaire via Google Docs and started answering their questions, I thought it looked a little odd.
The questions were very specific and an answer was “required” for each question. I’ve been interviewed numerous times and had never seen anything like it. Usually legitimate interviewers will give you considerable latitude with regards to which questions you will answer and how you answer them.
On about the third page, my suspicions were confirmed when they asked me to name three more “artists” I respect. I was also “required” to provide their email addresses, social media URLs, etc. I was not comfortable providing those details.
So at that point, finally, I closed the Google Doc, emailed the guy again and said I’d decided against answering his intrusive questions. I’m not the slightest bit surprised that I haven’t heard back.
Just be aware this thing is out there. I suspect it’s a phishing scam.
Yesterday I had a really strange day. I woke up late for one thing. I don’t know whether that threw off everything else, but I suffered a thankfully very rare day during which I wasn’t able to write fiction.
I struggled through a couple of hundred words, but was unable to get into the flow of the story. This is my definition of horror.
It wasn’t my critical mind taking over or anything like that. I just couldn’t get into the story—a story that previously was pulling me along—so I finally gave up and took the day off.
I find it odd and a little frightening that even after 60-some novels such a thing can happen. I regularly take a day or two off between novels, but very rarely take a day off while writing one. And when I do it’s always a necessary day off when I have to do something else. It’s never because I’m unable to access the story.
Anyway, this one might wrap as a short novel as early as today or tomorrow.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Reader Friday: Writers as Readers” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/06/reader-friday-writers-as-readers.html.
See “25 Authors Running Fantastic Book Promotions on Instagram” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/25-authors-running-fantastic-book-promotions-on-instagram/.
See “Selling online is easy. Getting noticed is tough.” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/selling-online-is-easy-getting-noticed-is-tough/.
See “7 Things You Might Not Know About Calvin and Hobbes” at https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53198/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-calvin-and-hobbes.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 540 words
Writing of WCGN: Assignment: Brownsville (novel)
Day 10… 3491 words. Total words to date…… 27372
Day 11… 4318 words. Total words to date…… 31690
Day 12… 2224 words. Total words to date…… 33914
Total fiction words for June……… 43497
Total fiction words for the year………… 497986
Total nonfiction words for June… 11640
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 117870
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 615856
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 9
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 62
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.