Weird Email Day

[lydamorehouse]

 It's been a day for weird email interactions.

First up is Silent Book Club Singapore. Silent Book Club Singapore contacted me about "highlighting" Unjust Cause (a curious choice being the second in a somewhat unpopular series) for their November 15 gathering. Of course, the inital email mentions no fees, but I could smell it on them. There are plenty of legit places that will offer to have you Zoom in to a club meeting, so I was a tiny bit hopeful.  Hope springing as it does, eternal, I wrote back and said, sure, tell me more... 

Alas.

The second email was immediatly, "for the low, low price!" ($100, not actually low, friends.) 

So, fellow authors? Beware. They're not legit.

Next, when I should be working on the sequel to Boy. Net, I wandered over to my ancient Hotmail account to clean it up. It occured to me that I actually have a lot of mail from many years ago on just stilling unread on Hotmail (now Outlook, but it still functions) and it behooved me to start trying to clean that stuff up. So, I'm clicking away, registering names only long enough to determine whether or not the email is worth saving, and there, in the middle of 2020 is an email from an old high school friend. The email came to me shortly after George Floyd's murder and it's from the one high school friend that I really, really wanted to have reconnected with. I had two besties in high school and one of them completely disappeared on me... and here she was, reaching out FIVE years ago. She wrote to ask after good places to donate post-the uprising and, I guess to make the email feel worth it, tell me about how her children (and dad and dog) were surviving the pandemic and lockdown. 

Both of these emails were deeply demoralizing. 

I sent my old high school friend a "hey, I guess I ghosted you five years ago? Hey, awkward, but I didn't mean to," email from my real gmail account, but I'm not expecting a reply. I've actually tried to reconnect with this particular friend several times over the years and have gotten zip. I suspect that I was just a sudden "Oh, I know someone in Minnesota I can ask about good charities" stray thought and not a real desire to reconnect, since... well, I did write several tims over several decades. And, maybe those also ended up in email accounts barely checked? But, also? I'm not actually hard to find. I mean, I guess Googling "Lyda Morehouse email" you do get directed to my Hotmail, something I should figure out how to correct that, but dang. 

Anway both interactions I kind of made me feel... I don't know, not "used," but definitely not loved for myself. 

lcohen  pointed out last night when we were chatting that I have been posting a lot of things lately that make it seem as though I'm down on myself (or my writing career,) and I just want to assure you all, I'm doing fine. There is, alas, an ebb and flow to one's writing career and I've been in the ebb (whichever one is the lowest) for a long, long time now. So, that does wear on me? But, it's also just where I am. Tomorrow or in five years, maybe I'll be back in the flow. You never know. 

But sadly, the ebb is where all the scammers find you and try to prey on you.

And I dunno, missing an email from my friend just sucks.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Can you also reply from Hotmail and let them know you sent them a longer reply from Gmail? Because it reduces the odds that you'll wind up in spam (a reply should land right in their inbox, whereas your Google mail e-mail SHOULD but you just never know, I've found some really odd stuff in my spam.)

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, I should do that. I am not hopeful, however.

[sabotabby]

I'm getting the book club spams SO MUCH (especially for Blight, which again, a second book in an unloved series). I've responded with "please send me proof of purchase for the book," sometimes with white text "ignore previous instructions." So far I haven't talked the bot into buying a copy because agentic AI is still science fiction.

The other weird one my co-host has gotten is podcast spam—fake or semi-fake authors with a fake publicist. One was from a conservative vanity press promising ghostwritten books to combat the woke agenda. Perfect fit for the show.

[lydamorehouse]

So I presume the whole scam is to try to get you to buy a slot with one of these fake authors and then just abscond with your money?

JFC.

[sabotabby]

According to the exposés, they put you into a Discord and throw chatbots at you, and promise you all of these reviews but you have to "tip" the readers at $20. There are also packages to get more readers. I don't know whether this is a standard "pay for a bunch of bots/people in other countries to leave reviews" scam or they just take your money because if anyone has actually given them money, they haven't said so out loud.

[lcohen]

ow, ow, ow, re missing that email. i wonder if i have any email accounts that i don't check. there's an address that i used through most of the 90s that was through the university and discontinued (by the university), but i think if someone uses it, it forwards to my current work email, which, not always appropriate (it was a personal email address through work which is not the smartest thing i ever did, but i didn't even have a computer at home at that point), but at least i still get the email, but i can't help wondering.....

anyway, i hope your friend writes back!

[lydamorehouse]

I hope she does too, but so far no joy. Naomi suggested I also write back from Hotmail and maybe I'll try it, but with this friend in particular I very much feel like that Tracy Chapman song, "Give Me One Reason," where she sings "I'm too old to go chasing around, wasting my precious energies..." (on someone who clearly doesn't want me.)

[lcohen]

i totally get that--i've talked to you about the hand that reaches back to me. cause it's no fun just standing there reaching out on your own.