Irish Footballer Porn
A 25 year old Irish footballer is allegedly being bullied and abused online now because he did gay porn. Actually, he did a gay for pay film that can be found on a "well-known" web site where "straight" guys fake being gay for a gay audience.
Posted online last month on The Casting Room, a man that appears to be the athlete is interviewed discussing his sexual preferences.
The man, given the pseudonym of ‘Fergus’, is wearing a London GAA top – the same team the footballer plays for. He is then seen giving and receiving oral and anal sex.
The footballer, widely named on Twitter, has not made a comment on the video.
Dozens of people have sent the player homophobic messages, calling him a ‘sick fag’.
You can read more here.
I did a simple search and found this.
Some accepted his apparent decision to appear in a pornographic film, but many hurled abuse or made crude jokes, while some expressed concern for the young man's well-being.
And this article mentions his name and goes into more detail. There's also a photo.
Dozens of people have also left vile messages on his personal Twitter page abusing him for appearing in the film.
Of course the horrible way he's been bullied and abused goes without saying. But I do find the web site where this whole straight guy fantasy thing happens interesting. We hear mixed messages about this all the time. We read research and hear "experts" talk about how gay men aren't attracted to straight men, and yet there are web sites like this lurking around everywhere making tons of money on the straight guy fantasy. What am I missing here?
Seth Rogen's Zac Efron Crush
This is interesting because it's almost the exact opposite of what I just posted with the gay guy crush on the straight guy. Even though Seth Rogen and James Franco parody things in a gay way sometimes, as far as I know both are straight. Evidently, it's not too far-fetched for a straight guy like Seth Rogen to have a man-crush on another straight guy like Zac Efron.
'The first time I saw (Efron) with no shirt on, my first instinct was there was something wrong because he has so many bumps sticking out of his body!My body is like one big bump, and his is like 87 different little bumps that come together!'
Rogen added: 'In the movie I make a joke, it's like his whole body is like a giant arrow that points to his d–k!. It's like someone designed the muscles to draw your eyes down from his gorgeous face and suddenly it's like a Plinko game with your eyes.'
You can read more here, where there's a clip of Rogen talking about this.
I actually think Rogen is big, strong, fuzzy, and adorable. And I'd choose him any day over Efron. In fact, in my latest release, The Preacher's Husband, the preacher in the storyline reminds me of Rogen. I didn't plan that, at least not consciously anyway.
Oh, Naughty Plagiarist
I rarely link to this particular web site because I find it dated now. But not completely; just slightly. For a long time it was THE place to go when you had questions about a shady agent, editor, or publisher. It's always been accurate and I think the intent has always been to help authors, not to hurt them. And although the post to which I'm linking now is just as articulate as any post they've ever done, I can't help but wonder if all that time and energy could have been spent on something more current...something that we're all dealing with now as authors, readers, and publishers.
In any event, the post talks about someone I've never heard of (and wouldn't have heard of had it not been for this post) who allegedly has a long history of all kinds of shifty activity, from unethical literary agent practices to plagiarism in the worst (and most ridiculous) ways.
Based in Alabama, WordWorks is owned by Pamela Wray Biron, who provides "Expert and Innovative Content
Solutions," including editing, ghostwriting, graphic design, illustration,
marketing, and web services. A
veritable Renaissance woman. And, gosh, just look at
Pamela's clients! The US Justice Department! 20th Century Fox! The President
of the United States! Check out the impressive names on Pamela's Testimonials page! Steve Jobs! Bill Gates! Michael Eisner!
Editorial and marketing staff from all the Big Five publishers!
There's
just one problem: most of the testimonials are plagiarized, and not just from
Jodie Renner.
It's a long post, and worth reading because it's interesting to see how far someone will go. And I guess if something like this helps one or two people from getting scammed it was, indeed, worth the effort. I also don't want anyone to get the impression I'm slamming this blogger. I'll admit that I've become a little jaded on the topic of bad agents and posts like this because I've been so desensitized to these things over the years I can almost spot a fake 100% of the time at a glance. But, there are plenty of scammers out there now who aren't acting as agents. They are gaming, they are aggressively promoting, and they are making the rest of us all look like veritable fools because we're not doing the same things. And that's the kind of thing I'd like to see on blogs like the one I'm linking to below because that's the kind of thing that's hurting us all the most.
You can read more here.
Showing posts with label writer beware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writer beware. Show all posts
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Saturday, September 14, 2013
RIP Ann Crispin; Toni Morrison Responds to Book Ban
RIP Ann Crispin
The blogging world lost a long time member this summer, Ann C. Crispin, who founded Writer Beware with Victoria Strauss.
Ann Crispin, best-selling author, Writer Beware co-founder, fearless fighter in the scam wars, beloved wife and mother, my friend, died this morning after a two-year struggle with cancer.
You can read more here. The post was written by Strauss, Crispin's co-founder.
Writer Beware was a blog I used to follow more regularly, but as things in the publishing world started to change I stopped following it as regularly because it wasn't something that was directly related to anything I've been doing for the past five years. Though I haven't always agreed with everything on WB, I have learned a great deal through them and Crispin was another consummate blogger who was passionate about what she did.
If you are a new writer and you haven't read WB, I would advise checking it out. As I said, I do think that with many of the changes happening in publishing some things should be rivised (like warning authors about literary agents and other authors who are working together as e-publishers and not disclosing this up front...and yet still claiming they are self-publishing so everyone thinks is just another simple self-publishing venture), but there's still a great deal of good information that might help keep you from getting screwed over by shifty editors and e-publishing services, among other pitfalls that prey upon good unsuspecting people, that seem to be popping up all the time. The e-mails I get from scammers daily would turn this blog into something completely different if I started posting about them daily.
In fact, Tony and I are planning to start an e-publishing service in the future, and one of the things I pay close attention to are posts on WB about other e-publishing services. Our goal is to create something affordable, and that has quality books, where the author always maintains control, and his/her rights at all times. The last thing I would want to see happen would be to get slammed on WB as an e-publishing service. So far, I haven't seen anything at WB with regard to e-publishing services that I haven't agreed with. Most of what they've posted makes sense...and I come to this thinking as a writer, not a publisher or agent. I know what I wouldn't want happen to me.
In any event, Writer Beware will continue on.
Toni Morrison Responds to Book Ban
One of the things that sometimes frustrates me about writing gay fiction of any kind, even gay romance, is when people who are NOT gay challenge what I know to be true and to be fact as a gay man. When I write gay fiction I don't try to turn it into a heteronormative frolic through suburbia like you see on TV shows like The New Normal. I do use heteronormativity sometimes in books because I think there are many gay people who are leaning toward that as we gain more equality. Just look at the marriage proposal video that went viral this weekend and you'll see what I mean. And look at all the gay couples who want children and the typical heteronormative family. But what I never do is fake gay culture, and some things that are rooted deeply in gay culture, and I've been slammed for doing that more than once by non-gay people who *think* they know all about gay people.
And this is exactly how Toni Morrison seems to be responding to comments made about her book, The Bluest Eye. Some have even gone so far as to call the book "porn," which I've posted about on this blog several times. I have read the book more than once and it's not only literary masterpiece, but also an account of African American culture we don't see often. For me, as a gay white male, to even begin to criticize anything about Morrison's personal knowledge when it comes to the African American experience would be ludicrous. It wouldn't even occur to me.
“The book was published in the early seventies and it has been banned so much and so many places. That I am told I am number 14 on the list of 100 banned books,” Morrison told Columbus TV station NBC4.
“I resent it. I mean if it’s Texas or North Carolina as it has been in all sorts of states. But to be a girl from Ohio, writing about Ohio having been born in Lorain, Ohio. And actually relating as an Ohio person, to have the Ohio, what- Board of Education? Is ironic at the least,” Morrison, a Lorain native, told the TV station.
I understand exactly how she feels, from a slightly different POV. Though I would never even suggest that my books be in schools, or read by minors, I feel the same kind of resentment each time I see someone question something I've written about gay men, as a gay man. I'm not the only gay man who feels this way either. It's something we discuss often in private, yet there's nothing to do about it because there are some who don't really want to hear gay voices as they really are. They support gays, they support equal rights, and they support the concept of all LGBT people. But when it comes down to *listening* to gay people they go dead blank and think what they want.
I'm glad Morrison responded to all this, and I'm glad she's not just sitting back and taking it. You can read the entire article in full, here.
She also deserves the last word on this topic, as an African American woman, and a writer.
The blogging world lost a long time member this summer, Ann C. Crispin, who founded Writer Beware with Victoria Strauss.
Ann Crispin, best-selling author, Writer Beware co-founder, fearless fighter in the scam wars, beloved wife and mother, my friend, died this morning after a two-year struggle with cancer.
You can read more here. The post was written by Strauss, Crispin's co-founder.
Writer Beware was a blog I used to follow more regularly, but as things in the publishing world started to change I stopped following it as regularly because it wasn't something that was directly related to anything I've been doing for the past five years. Though I haven't always agreed with everything on WB, I have learned a great deal through them and Crispin was another consummate blogger who was passionate about what she did.
If you are a new writer and you haven't read WB, I would advise checking it out. As I said, I do think that with many of the changes happening in publishing some things should be rivised (like warning authors about literary agents and other authors who are working together as e-publishers and not disclosing this up front...and yet still claiming they are self-publishing so everyone thinks is just another simple self-publishing venture), but there's still a great deal of good information that might help keep you from getting screwed over by shifty editors and e-publishing services, among other pitfalls that prey upon good unsuspecting people, that seem to be popping up all the time. The e-mails I get from scammers daily would turn this blog into something completely different if I started posting about them daily.
In fact, Tony and I are planning to start an e-publishing service in the future, and one of the things I pay close attention to are posts on WB about other e-publishing services. Our goal is to create something affordable, and that has quality books, where the author always maintains control, and his/her rights at all times. The last thing I would want to see happen would be to get slammed on WB as an e-publishing service. So far, I haven't seen anything at WB with regard to e-publishing services that I haven't agreed with. Most of what they've posted makes sense...and I come to this thinking as a writer, not a publisher or agent. I know what I wouldn't want happen to me.
In any event, Writer Beware will continue on.
Toni Morrison Responds to Book Ban
One of the things that sometimes frustrates me about writing gay fiction of any kind, even gay romance, is when people who are NOT gay challenge what I know to be true and to be fact as a gay man. When I write gay fiction I don't try to turn it into a heteronormative frolic through suburbia like you see on TV shows like The New Normal. I do use heteronormativity sometimes in books because I think there are many gay people who are leaning toward that as we gain more equality. Just look at the marriage proposal video that went viral this weekend and you'll see what I mean. And look at all the gay couples who want children and the typical heteronormative family. But what I never do is fake gay culture, and some things that are rooted deeply in gay culture, and I've been slammed for doing that more than once by non-gay people who *think* they know all about gay people.
And this is exactly how Toni Morrison seems to be responding to comments made about her book, The Bluest Eye. Some have even gone so far as to call the book "porn," which I've posted about on this blog several times. I have read the book more than once and it's not only literary masterpiece, but also an account of African American culture we don't see often. For me, as a gay white male, to even begin to criticize anything about Morrison's personal knowledge when it comes to the African American experience would be ludicrous. It wouldn't even occur to me.
“The book was published in the early seventies and it has been banned so much and so many places. That I am told I am number 14 on the list of 100 banned books,” Morrison told Columbus TV station NBC4.
“I resent it. I mean if it’s Texas or North Carolina as it has been in all sorts of states. But to be a girl from Ohio, writing about Ohio having been born in Lorain, Ohio. And actually relating as an Ohio person, to have the Ohio, what- Board of Education? Is ironic at the least,” Morrison, a Lorain native, told the TV station.
I understand exactly how she feels, from a slightly different POV. Though I would never even suggest that my books be in schools, or read by minors, I feel the same kind of resentment each time I see someone question something I've written about gay men, as a gay man. I'm not the only gay man who feels this way either. It's something we discuss often in private, yet there's nothing to do about it because there are some who don't really want to hear gay voices as they really are. They support gays, they support equal rights, and they support the concept of all LGBT people. But when it comes down to *listening* to gay people they go dead blank and think what they want.
I'm glad Morrison responded to all this, and I'm glad she's not just sitting back and taking it. You can read the entire article in full, here.
She also deserves the last word on this topic, as an African American woman, and a writer.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Writer Beware: The Scams Continue
I don't do a lot of these posts because there are other web sites and blogs for writers where they concentrate on scams and rip-offs. But when I see something I think is important to post about, I do my best to help these things from spreading.
This morning I opened a private message on Facebook. There was a friendly note that I thought was from an author telling me about her new book. I get these messages a lot and I don't mind reading them. Sometimes, if I have the time, I even check out the book. It's friendly; no harm done; all is well.
But as I read on, I saw there was something different about this message. It wasn't a personal message at all. It was a marketing company promoting some author's book through a private message on Facebook. In fact, they weren't even promoting the author's book. They were promoting their own web site and their marketing services. These services, so they claim, are supposed to make writers instant millionaires.
I'm not going to link to these people and I'm not going to name them. There are more like them out there and I'm sure there will be more popping up in the future. Now that e-books have become so popular, more writers are publishing than ever before. Sleazy companies like these know how vulnerable writers can be and they play upon their weakest points. One of which is selling books.
The private message I received began with this, I see you like to read. Anything that begins that way sends off signal right away. Then the message went on to explain the book in a few lines and tell me about the marketing services by this company that are guaranteed to sell books and make writers millionaires.
There is no such thing. Trust me, I know this because I've been in publishing for over twenty years. And when you hear someone say something like this, run in the other direction as fast as you can. These companies are only out there to scam you and take your money. If there was a magic secret to promoting a book everyone would be doing it and we'd all be millionaires.
People are paying good money to companies like this and they will never get results. In other words, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is too good to be true. And this is how I replied to this marketing company, verbatim:
Hi,
This is just a suggestion. But I'm not sure these spams on private messages work. If I found out anyone was sending out private messages to other authors or readers about my books, I'd go postal on them. It's along the lines of telemarketing and it's intrusive. I really do think there are lines drawn when it comes to promoting books, and when those lines are crossed it hurts the author more than helps him or her. And I hate to see that happen to any author. You might want to rethink your aggressive approach for the sake of the authors you are promoting. It just doesn't work.
Ryan Field
This happened at nine this morning. I'm still waiting for a reply. If they had been reputable, they would have replied. The scammers never bother.
This morning I opened a private message on Facebook. There was a friendly note that I thought was from an author telling me about her new book. I get these messages a lot and I don't mind reading them. Sometimes, if I have the time, I even check out the book. It's friendly; no harm done; all is well.
But as I read on, I saw there was something different about this message. It wasn't a personal message at all. It was a marketing company promoting some author's book through a private message on Facebook. In fact, they weren't even promoting the author's book. They were promoting their own web site and their marketing services. These services, so they claim, are supposed to make writers instant millionaires.
I'm not going to link to these people and I'm not going to name them. There are more like them out there and I'm sure there will be more popping up in the future. Now that e-books have become so popular, more writers are publishing than ever before. Sleazy companies like these know how vulnerable writers can be and they play upon their weakest points. One of which is selling books.
The private message I received began with this, I see you like to read. Anything that begins that way sends off signal right away. Then the message went on to explain the book in a few lines and tell me about the marketing services by this company that are guaranteed to sell books and make writers millionaires.
There is no such thing. Trust me, I know this because I've been in publishing for over twenty years. And when you hear someone say something like this, run in the other direction as fast as you can. These companies are only out there to scam you and take your money. If there was a magic secret to promoting a book everyone would be doing it and we'd all be millionaires.
People are paying good money to companies like this and they will never get results. In other words, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is too good to be true. And this is how I replied to this marketing company, verbatim:
Hi,
This is just a suggestion. But I'm not sure these spams on private messages work. If I found out anyone was sending out private messages to other authors or readers about my books, I'd go postal on them. It's along the lines of telemarketing and it's intrusive. I really do think there are lines drawn when it comes to promoting books, and when those lines are crossed it hurts the author more than helps him or her. And I hate to see that happen to any author. You might want to rethink your aggressive approach for the sake of the authors you are promoting. It just doesn't work.
Ryan Field
This happened at nine this morning. I'm still waiting for a reply. If they had been reputable, they would have replied. The scammers never bother.
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