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 isEditorial 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.
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.
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.
I received the gorgeous final copies of Floreana last week … it is officially out in the world on December 1, and the novel received its first (wonderful) trade reviews: “highly recommended” (Library Journal) and “engrossing” (Publishers Weekly).
And for those of you who want an early peek at Floreana, it is now available on Amazon’s First Reads for the month of November.
I’ll be doing events as soon as the book launches in December, in the Northwest and Southern California … click here for details, and I hope to see you soon!
It’s not a secret that many of us writers have had a hard time being creative during the troubling times of the past few years.
And, as I was preparing this post, I realized I have not even glanced at my List of Works since 2019. Granted, 2019 was the last “normal” year before the pandemic changed the world, so I could use this as a handy excuse — but not forever. Even though the world remains changed and the pandemic remains with us, we writers have to get back to our writing, if we haven’t already.
And the good news? Many of us have. In looking at my List of Works, I realized that while I haven’t been tracking my projects, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. Updating my list of works has reminded me that though I haven’t felt very creative, I’ve actually been making some creative progress: I’ve been working on three separate book projects (which now, finally, appear in my List of Works), and I’ve somehow managed to publish three short stories during the pandemic.
And this is why I highly recommend keeping a List of Works (learn the how and why in this post), which I began doing a dozen years ago. Having a list like this reminds us writers of the ways in which we are moving forward (even when we think we aren’t).
So, while the past two years have apparently been too distracting to attend to my List of Works, I’m finally getting back on track. (Maybe this means 2022 will be different, and better!) But at the very least, it will remind me that even if I can’t control what goes on in the world, I can control my own tiny piece of it — and being creative is the best way to move forward with optimism during such crazy times.
I cannot recommend a List of Works — or whatever your organizational strategy may be — enough. Even if you’re not an organizer or a list-maker, give it a try. And even if you ignore your list for years at a time, that’s okay — it’s always fun to pick up where you left off, whether you learn you’ve been writing more than you think you have, or whether it helps you realize it’s time to get back to it already.
However you may decide to track your work, don’t neglect to set writing goals and to check in with yourself (or a writing buddy) to keep track of how you’re going.
And for a few inspirational writing tips, check out this wonderful advice from a few successful and prolific Ashland Creek Press authors.
Here’s to a happy, healthy, hopeful new year of writing!
Poet and teacher Janée J. Baugher is the author of two collections of poetry, The Body’s Physics and The Coordinates of Yes, and her new book, The Ekphrastic Writer, is an amazing text filled with art, poetry, prose, and inspiration for all writers. I’m thrilled to have had this email chat with Janée about her new book.
Q: With so many museums being closed due to the pandemic, are there any virtual spaces you’d recommend for ekphrastic writing inspiration?
A: I have a friend who lives in Chicago, and when he told me that on July 31st the Art Institute of Chicago was opening I raged with envy. I immediately opened that museum’s website and beheld an incredible article called, “Protecting Art in An Empty Museum.” Isn’t it curious to know that while many of us are jobless, distanced from our family and friends, and spending too many hours before the newsreel that fuels worry and fear, there are countless numbers of tireless museum stewards working around the globe to ensure that works of art remain safe? If you cannot experience art firsthand, museum websites are the best option. So, to answer your question, here are some resources:
This website allows you to click on the world map, which brings up a list of museum website links for that particular region.
The Smithsonian Art Museum, though still closed, recognizes that people remain hungry for art-viewing experiences. Since COVID-19, the organization has revamped its homepage—“Experience American Art from Home.”
The Getty Center is also still closed, but their internet presence is just stellar. Visit the website and you’ll see information on art conservation, research, education, and, of course, you’ll be able to enjoy tens of thousands of images from their collection.
Technology has certainly allowed for an easier way to weather the pestilence, and museums have embraced groundbreaking methods for virtual art engagement. You can search “virtual tours” and “art museums” on the internet, or you can simply visit your favorite museum’s website and see if those types of features exist. Are you lamenting your canceled trip to Paris? Now’s your opportunity to visit the Louvre virtually. What’s the good word from St. Petersburg, Russia? The Hermitage Museum is open! Can’t get there? Yes, you can.
Q: You recently participated in an art project for the City of Shoreline in which you wrote poems in response to scenes in the city’s parks. A lot of people are spending time outdoors during the pandemic. Can you talk about the possibilities within nature and ekphrasis?
A: Years ago I had a revelation about the similarity between writing on nature and writing ekphrastically. With both categories (objects in nature and objects d’art), the journey begins with aesthetics, reverie, and mystery. In my book I write, “Writers write concretely of the things they see, feel, and can name. Art of any type can be an extension of reflections on what you are looking at and how you are processing what you are seeing” (page 46). The possibilities within nature as it pertains to ekphrasis are infinite! While you’re spending time outdoors, keep in mind that public art is always open, and many museums boast sculpture gardens as part of their collection—most of which are still accessible for viewing and experiencing. Here’s an article that was highly informative to my chapter on nature writing: D. W. Meinig’s “The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene,” which is available online. Read this article and then venture out into a landscape and you’ll see it through an entirely different lens, which can be a stellar start to ekphrastic writing.
Q: In your book, you wrote that you first “committed ekphrasis” in 1995. How much of your own body of work is based in ekphrasis? What is it about ekphrasis that captured you and continues to inspire you?
A: One summer during graduate school while I was drowning under the pressure of writing a book, I went to Europe in the hopes that I could find the poems there. Within two days of arriving I found myself in a Berlin museum swooning over a little Dutch painting. I opened my notebook on the spot and out poured a ekphrastic poem. The process was systematic—the poems, I discovered, were at museums, so I visited a new one every other day for six weeks. And the approach to writing was easy—if I just freewrote while in the presence of art, the poems composed themselves. By the time I returned home, I had 100 poems, half of which were ekphrastic. Ultimately, that trip resulted in my first collection of poems. Most of what I write now is ekphrastic. My current work-in-progress is dedicated to a single artist, Andrew Wyeth, which is a new challenge for me in that it’s an opportunity to deep-dive into one artist’s complete oeuvre and to see what connections can be made among his many paintings and drawings. My original impetus for turning to the visual arts is the motivation that holds true for me today: I seek to extinguish the personality. Ruminating on an artwork is, for me, a mode of transcending the quotidian experience. In other words, in the spirit of writing imaginatively, the approach I take to squelch the ego is meditating on an object of beauty.
Q: Which of the twenty-six types of ekphrastic writing from the first chapter of your book—from personifying the artwork to addressing the artist to considering historical context—do you most often employ?
A: In compiling a list of conventions for this book, I studied scholarly articles, as well as read hundreds of ekphrastic prose pieces and poems, including analyzing my own work. Some of those conventions include #3, narrating the artwork; #17, writing the absent; #19, adopting the artist’s artistic style; and #26, transcending description. Unless it were an assignment, I don’t suppose that any of us is truly conscious of what convention we employ as we’re in the drafting stage of writing. It would be a worthwhile exercise for a student of ekphrasis to take one artwork and attempt all twenty-six conventions. For me, the desires I have for my poems take a backseat to the desire of the muse. It’s only during the revision process that I look closely at whatever convention is at play and then work towards consistency therein. For my third collection of poems (on Andrew Wyeth), I write in the first-person point of view, giving voice to Wyeth’s thought process as he paints and draws. That is to say that I’m currently using convention #8, giving voice to the artist.
Q: If you could make one recommendation to a beginning ekphrastic writer, what would it be?
A: The best ekphrastic writing is born from a writer whose aim and delight is to look deeply and for whom there’s some feeling associated with the artwork they’re engaging with. In other words, writing to an artwork for which you’re apathetic will result in a piece of writing that’s dead. Additionally, if you’re too close to a work of art (you’re the artist, for example, or your lover is the photographer), you might be unable to plumb the depths of its mysteries. To rephrase, if you gravitate towards an artwork for which you feel something, and it’s an artwork that you’re willing to scrutinize deeply and well, and through which there’s space for your imagination, then perhaps you’re on the journey to making an ekphrastic writing of literary quality. Even if you have no literary aspirations, writing freely to any type of art is a blast.
Q: And lastly: Would you be willing to choose a writing invitation from the book to offer to readers?
A: Yes, there are 200 writing invitations in the book, but here’s a new one—Since most of us can’t currently access museums and galleries, let’s take this opportunity to start ekphrastic writing at home. What art exists in your home? For example: original art hanging on the walls, posters, postcards, or images of beloved art in a book? Select one piece and place it on a table. Cover the entire artwork with a sheet of paper. While the artwork is cloaked, spend a few minutes remembering its details. What’s the medium? Who created it? What mood does it evoke? What do you most recall about the piece? Next, move that sheet of paper (on the horizontal or the vertical) centimeter by centimeter thereby slowly revealing the image. Take notice of the lines, brushstrokes, hues, shapes, forms, and negative space. Once you’ve truly looked deeply at the artwork, perform a 10-minute freewrite. Afterwards, spend 5 more minutes writing about why that artwork exists in your home. How did you acquire it and from whom? What are your personal associations with it? What’s its significance? Lastly, involving family members in this exercise can be an interesting way to explore others’ relationship to the art that you share.
Janée and Midge at the Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend, Washington.
