Category: News

Writers: You are all well aware, I’m sure, about the many (far too many!) scams out there targeting writers, both published authors and especially aspiring writers. (If not, learn more at the wonderful Writer Beware blog.)

I received two scam emails within the past two days, one of which was frighteningly authentic, and the other one that was such a hilarious AI fail that I just have to share it.

But first, the really scary one. Lately scammers have been posing as editors, using very realistic emails to lure writers into responding with the hope of establishing a relationship with a top editor. Here’s the one I received just this week:

This is scary on many levels, the first of which is that Wendy McCurdy is a real person, and she actually is Editorial Director at Kensington. And this email, unlike the very obvious poorly written fakes, is quite polished (though definitely a bit on the overly formal side … until the “Keep being awesome” closing).

Of course, “Wendy’s” kind words about Floreana (thanks to AI) are alluring — this is usually what makes these emails so hard to resist — and the fact that “Wendy” would like to talk to either me or my agent makes her seem accessible and professional. 

Other than knowing that the real Wendy McCurdy would never send a random email like this, I noticed one red flag straight away: the British-English spelling of “programme,” which an American editor would never use. 

And, as always, writers (and everyone who gets random emails, for that matter) should check the sender’s email address — in this case, though the email appeared in my inbox to have come from “Wendy McCurdy,” a look at the email address revealed that it was, in fact, from wendymccurdy.kensington@aol.com. (If you visit the Kensington website, you’ll see that legitimate emails will come from accounts at kensingtonbooks.com — not a random AOL account.)

This scam is more realistic than many, and the ones writers should be all the more aware of … AI, unfortunately, does a very good job of making such scams feel very real. However, sometimes AI gets it hilariously wrong, as in this email I received the next day:

First of all, the email was too long to include here in its entirety — I imagine even the most hopeful and gullible writers wouldn’t be able to get through this — but most of all, it’s riddled with AI fails. For one, my first name is not Raymond; also, I haven’t written a book called MIDGES (and wouldn’t name a book after myself even if I was inexplicably tempted). And I don’t write in the horror genre at all (which is exactly where this email belongs).

The writer (a fake name from a gmail account) doesn’t ask for money straight up (they never do), and this is their pitch: “I’d like to run a Goodreads visibility audit on the book and show you where discovery may currently be getting lost. Would you like me to walk you through the Goodreads audit and the visibility gaps currently affecting the book?”

Needless to say, this ended up in my trash folder very quickly, after I enjoyed it a bit: I really did love learning how my nonexistent book has the “sheer sensory intensity” that “readers actively look for.”

Not all scams can be so blatantly unbelievable, so stay aware and be safe out there. And enjoy the funny scam emails when they come in. If nothing else, they provide us with the lovely comfort of knowing that AI is most definitely not going to take our writing jobs anytime soon.

I am so excited to welcome Floreana to the world!

This book was many years in the making, and I’ve had the joy of chatting about it with so many …

… including Melanie at Postcards & Places; check out my interview with her to learn more about the inspiration for Floreana (from the real-life human mysteries of the island to the Galápagos penguins), plus writing and traveling and more.

You can also learn about the stories behind Floreana and about my research for my first adventure in historical fiction in this essay on Necessary Fiction. Floreana, though very much about penguins, also involved a different kind of research — looking into an unsolved mystery from a century ago and sorting out who might’ve been responsible for the very mysterious happenings in the Galápagos back in the 1930s.

In other news, I’ll be talking about Floreana on JPR on December 2 at 9 a.m., and if you love books set on remote islands, check out my list of Seven Books about Islands and Isolation on The Nerd Daily.

I’m thrilled to have received wonderful reviews for Floreana … including a starred review from Library Journal, which calls Floreana “gripping and intriguing” and “highly recommended.” Publishers Weekly writes: “As Dore’s account sheds light on the mystery of the disappearances, Raymond reveals how both Mallory and Dore fail to escape their problems, even by crossing the globe. The result is an engrossing narrative of self-reckoning.”

And to learn a bit more about the book as well as the historical details of Floreana, check out Ed Battistella’s article and review in Ashland.news.

Finally, for anyone who is in Southern California or Southern Oregon, join me at an event! I’ll be at the Ashland Public Library on Tuesday, December 3, at 5 p.m. — at San Diego Writers Ink on Tuesday, December 10, at 6 p.m. — and at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido on Friday, December 13, at 4 p.m. I look forward to seeing you!

To learn more about the book and how to get a copy, click here. And for all of you in book clubs, you can contact me for a visit and get a book club kit here.

This startling subhead appeared in a recent Atlantic article about Antarctic travel, in a story that makes very good points about how and why travel to the last continent is becoming a lot less sustainable.

Earlier this year, I wrote a post asking: Have we reached the tipping point for Antarctic travel? I pointed out that when I went to Antarctica in 2004, there were about 20,000 tourists a year visiting the continent, and by the time My Last Continent was published in 2016, that number had doubled. This past season, that number reached more than 100,000.

In the eyes of many, we have indeed reached the tipping point. The Atlantic story is just one of several I’ve read lately highlighting concerns with tourism in Antarctica

I was so fortunate to have been able to see this majestic continent nearly two decades ago, and I’ve always responded to readers’ questions about Antarctic travel in a positive way, in part because it is hardly fair to discourage people to go when I myself have been there.

But I also believe that the continent has many other problems that need solving — and that travel to the continent can, in fact, inspire visitors to save what they are bound to fall in love with: the ice, the wildlife, the pristine wilderness that exists nowhere else on Earth.

While decades ago, the human impact of travelers in Antarctica was small, now the impacts are greater — not only the carbon footprint of getting to the bottom of the world, but the introduction of bacteria, invasive species, and the effects on wildlife. As this article points out, “A recent study found elevated concentrations of black carbon – soot – in the snow around popular Antarctic tourism sites, which causes snow to darken and melt more rapidly. Researchers have also identified 14 non-native species around the Antarctic Peninsula, transported on clothing and in food.”

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) does an excellent job of encouraging sustainable travel and minimizing impact (yet it does remain a voluntary membership, and not all tour operators are members — those who do travel to Antarctica should be sure their tour company abides by all sustainable travel guidelines).

Ever since My Last Continent was first published, seven years ago, I’ve been pointing out that while tourism does affect the continent, Antarctica has bigger problems: global warming, overfishing, pollution from the fishing industry (from oil spills to discarded fishing gear). My own trip to Antarctica was life-changing — and the continent offers this experience to every potential visitor. If people return from Antarctica with a passion for tackling climate change, protecting endangered species, and making the world a better place, does this not make the trip worthwhile?

It’s not likely that every single one of the 100,000-plus visitors to Antarctica this season returned home and became vegans, stopped driving, committed to a net-zero lifestyle. But if each of them devoted their lives to some form of change for good, this would have an impact. For example, if we as a human species stopped eating seafood, much of the Antarctic’s problems would resolve — the myriad threatened species in the Southern Ocean, from whales to penguins, could have access the food we humans are taking from them, giving them a better chance at survival.

Of course, not all visitors will have such reverence for the continent. The Atlantic notes that “many sightseers bring a whiff of ‘last-chance tourism’—a desire to see a place before it’s gone, even if that means helping hasten its disappearance.” And as this Guardian article points out, “in some areas tourists have traipsed over delicate mosses and plants. Some historic structures have even been scarred by graffiti.” And for many tourists, there seems to be far less interest in learning about the unique landscape, history, and wildlife in Antarctica than in doing things they can do just about anywhere else: climbing, camping, cross-country skiing, paddleboarding, snorkeling.

There is no official cap on the number of tourists who can visit Antarctica, and, as the Atlantic advocates, Antarctica “is actually most valuable to us when left wild, so that it can continue to act as a buffer against climate change, a storehouse of the world’s fresh water, and a refuge for birds, whales, seals, fish, and even the krill that the entire marine ecosystem depends on.”

As this article notes, “Antarctica doesn’t need ambassadors; it needs guardians.” While surely one of the best ways to protect Antarctica may be to leave it alone, at the same time, seeing a place firsthand may be the most powerful way to let it change your life and vow to protect what you were able to witness firsthand so that it will all be there for others to see in the future. As acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton says in this 2010 interview in The Sun magazine: “…the wildlife wouldn’t miss us if we didn’t visit. But the reality is that experiencing wilderness increases the chance that we will preserve it.”

I love reviewing environmental literature for EcoLit Books, and even better is reading the reviews of the other contributors and discovering new works that address our changing planet (and how we might save it).

At the end of a year, it’s always challenging to choose among the great books we’ve read, but it’s fun to see this list of the Best EcoLit Books of the year.

Check it out for books to add to your reading list, or your holiday giving list. And stay tuned for what’s to come in 2023!

For most of 2020, I was hopeful that COVID-19 wouldn’t reach Antarctica. But in December, it became the last continent to report an outbreak, at a Chilean research base.

There are few better places to contain an outbreak than Antarctica (though the isolation means it’s not a place where anyone wants to be sick). Still, the greater worry about the coronavirus and Antarctica is its wildlife. As this article notes, “while there is currently less risk for humans in Antarctica, the potential for the Covid-19 virus to jump to Antarctica’s unique and already vulnerable wildlife has scientists extremely concerned.” Click here to read on.

With travel to Antarctica still uncertain for 2021 (last year, visitors could see the continent via a 12-hour flyby on Qantas), this will help keep the virus at bay there. But research, of course will go on — and this is quite fortunate in that this continent needs protecting now more than ever. Among the many creatures that need monitoring and protecting are krill, the food of whales, penguins, and so many more. Yet overfishing has been threatening their existence, which in turns threatens that of the Antarctic animals who are more familiar. Click here for a wonderful interactive article about krill.

Though Antarctica may have been less affected by the pandemic than any other continent on the planet, it is being affected by climate change more than any other. So even when we’re allowed to travel again, we have to consider what it means to go to the world’s more vulnerable places.

Check out this piece posted on the Climate Fiction Writers League, a wonderful resource for all who are interested in climate change. What I love about fiction is how much you can learn about a place or a species by reading a good story, whether a YA novel or a thriller. You can subscribe to the blog here, and get updates on new books and the science and passion behind them.