Pre-Nups, Fraud, and Huffington Post Reporting

I just read an interesting article posted on Huffington Post.  The article's headline was, Why This Millionaire's Wife Is Especially Happy.  This certainly piqued my interest.  Upon selecting the title, I then read the interior headline, "Elizabeth Petrakis, Millionaire's Wife, Gets Prenup Thrown Out."  

All right!  Now I am really interested.  

Then I read the first line, "In a rare move, a Brooklyn appellate court has decided that a prenuptial agreement between a Long Island woman and her millionaire husband will be thrown out, the New York Post first reported." Well, golly.  What happened? 

The article goes on to state that the ex-Mrs. Petrakis was given a pre-nup three months prior to their wedding.  The document stated that Mr. Petrakis' assests would remain his over the course of the marriage and in the event of divorce, but for every year they were married his wife would receive $25,000.  She refused to sign it.  

Four days prior to the wedding, Mr. Petrakis promised to destroy the pre-nup if they had children.  She accepted this and signed the document.  The article does not state whether or not they had children, but assuming they did have kids, he did not throw it out and later had his attorney enforce the document.   

The issue with the article is how it misleads readers.  It is not a "rare move" for a judge to throw out a document when fraud has occurred.  He lied to her to get her to sign the document.  That is fraudulent.  Not only that, but it was four days before the wedding.  Did she have time to really examine the document to comprehend what she was signing?  And what was the rush?  He wanted her to sign it so badly, he lied to her days before their nuptials.  

It smells bad and when it smells bad, there means there is a problem.  This was not a "rare move" by the Brooklyn judge.  It was the right move.  To visit the article, click the link below: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/elizabeth-petrakis-prenup_n_2853146.html

The Rejection Letter

The text was rejected by the publishing house:

Dear Ms. Carter:

Thank you for your reply. We have considered your sample but regret to inform you that the material does not meet our needs at this time. Our book list has little room for additions, and we find we must decline the majority of what is offered to us.

We thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it. We appreciate your interest in Pelican Publishing Company and wish you the best as you pursue publication.

Sincerely,

---

Pelican

It was nice to at least receive a reply.  I honestly wasn't sure I would hear from them again.  It is disappointing, but the show must go on.  

I will also add, I love working under an alias!  This rejection felt way less personal.  More of a general bummer, but if I ever meet my rejectors (-ers?), they won't know it was me.  That feels satisfying.  

At least I can put this to bed and move on from the experience...

CC

A Fork in the Road

There is something to be said about getting off your ass and ending procrastination.  It certainly does lead to activity.  Activity is great, but this ultimately leads to shit actually happening versus nothing happening.

Can you hear that?  I think I just heard the world's tiniest violin...

Prior to the holidays, I forwarded a few chapters to the leading regional publisher of trade books.  I sort of thought they might be interested, but expected a flat rejection considering the economy and that they currently have a listing on family law.  What I did not expect is a letter requesting I detail how this text differs from their current offering.

Obviously, I am going to argue my book greatly differs from their current book.  That book is BORING.  I can barely read the introduction.  It is also dated.  It was published in 2004.  Hard to believe, but that is almost a decade ago.  Plus, that text goes for $20.  Mine is only $10.  BIG DIFFERENCE.

I know.  That sounds like a stretch...

To send a proper reply, I believe I should find that book at our local law library and really glance it over.  Do a little more than just "Click for an Inside Look" off Amazon.  I believe a few paragraphs in reply are in order.

The other fork in the road is that I have joined a local Meet Up self-publishing group.  We met a little over a week ago and I feel very inspired.  It feels great to learn tips, hear others self-publishing whoa's, and find camaraderie.  It sort of makes me feel like maybe going it alone really is the best option.

Right now, I feel like a cartoon character whose car has come to a fork in the road.  Rather than choosing a left or a right lane, I am simply picking my car up around me and two wheels are going one way while the others go the opposite direction.  Let's see how long this activity lasts...

More to come,
CC

Was mama right about the whole "eggs in one basket" or is there only one basket?

I woke up this morning remembering how mama would always warn me not to put all of my eggs in one basket.  She would advise me to never rely on one single source when you really need to spread yourself out.  It is in this line of thinking that I believe it best to investigate other regional publishing houses.  

IF (and that is an "if" in capitals), it is accepted by two.  Wouldn't they have to negotiate with me?  Wouldn't that be beneficial for me?  That, again, is a big what-if, but it might behoove me to check it out.  I should not be so freaking lazy and only send the text out once.  I should send it to others.  I think this may be something I need to Google...

*googling*

What do we have here?  So far I see one that publishes outdoor magazines...One that does historical texts...Hmmm.  I am not seeing any others.  Oh, dear.  I am not seeing any others!  This does not look promising.  

Oh, no.  Perhaps this basket is a bit more precious than I realized.  Perhaps this basket IS the basket, and that “is” is also in capitals!  Oh, gawd…  

CC

With a New Year Comes New Resolutions

The new year has already come and gone and with it I have made a few new resolutions.  I decided this year I will focus on a few new ones, not the old stand-by ones.  I am focusing on new ones because the old ones are simply constants for me: lose weight and quit smoking.  Now, the first one, lose weight, cannot be a new resolution for it is in no way new for moi.  The second, quit smoking, is an ongoing battle for me, thus not new (sidenote - I have not had a cigarette since August, but I am now addicted to my electronic cigarette).

No, NEW is the word.  So, for my 2013, I hope to accomplish the following resolutions:

1) Wipe out the road rage.  Yes, I have a nasty temper that flairs when people act stupid behind the wheel.  But here is my problem, WHO CARES?  If someone pulls out in front of me, isn't it obvious they did not see me.  And if said person does pull out in front of me and I do not careen into the side of their vehicle, why am I honking and giving them the bird?  They in no way hurt me or my property.  Rather, they simply pulled out unexpectantly.  It is not the end of the word, thus I should not throw a complete fit.  So, I plan to be nicer behind the wheel.  So far so good.

2) MobyDickBigRead.com - I love that the classic Moby Dick is available in audio format for free.  I never read the book, but this is the next best thing.  It is 100's of chapters long, so I plan to listen to it in its entirety.  I think I can, I think I can...http://www.mobydickbigread.com

3) Be more creative!  I have two ongoing projects I would very much like to keep "ongoing".  One is scrapbooking.  I just love it and I have lots of little mementos and various pics to clip and store away.  I definitely need to keep that up.  My other project is my little novel.  I am happy to report I recently re-picked up Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (5th Edition) by Janet Burroway.  It is really good!  I learned I should simply restart my novel, which pains me so.  I have over 20,000 words written, but Janet is right.  They are probably crap.  Starting over will really help me zone in on my character and edit out a great deal of noise.  The other thing I learned just last night is I need to create more crisis and conflict.  Who wants to read a story that goes on and on and on and on?  We want action!  We want the see-saw of drama.  Heck, my life is boring.  Novels take me away to a fascinating place.  And if the story doesn't, I stop reading.  So, picking up this book has been a breath of fresh air into this project of mine.  I hope to have something ready for someone (my sister) to review.

Any who.  I hope I can keep this up for a long time.  Happy New Year!  Good luck with your own resolutions, whatever they may be.

CC

Check out Janet's book -

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (5th Edition) by Janet Burroway Permalink: http://amzn.com/0321026896

Forget Guerrilla Marketing. I Need a Publisher.

I need a publisher.  As much as I enjoyed the publication process of the publishing process, I am not loving the marketing part.  How do I write a press release?  Who do I send the press release to?  Where do I find contact information?  How much will postage cost me?

Forget it!  I finally caved and sent the first few paragraphs into a publishing house.  I am familiar with the house since Louisiana is a small place.  There are not many publishers here anyway.  Plus, the only competition I have is from one of their publications.  It is from 2004, so I am sure they may be seeking a new book.

Who knows though?  The only thing I can do is hope their slush pile isn't too deep.  I will keep you posted!!

Camille

http://amzn.com/147813884X

http://www.amazon.com/From-Proposal-Ever-After-Louisiana/dp/147813884X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355521736&sr=8-1&keywords=from+the+proposal+to+ever+after

NaNoWriMo - Let's get this party started!

National November Writing Month officially kickstarted yesterday.  If you have a hankering to finally get that story off your mind and onto the page, this is what you are looking for.  All the site does is motivate you to get the story written.  They will forward you interesting facts and motivational emails.  There may even be a write-in organized locally near you.  I am hoping to join one this year.

One of NaNoWriMo's emails (sent many moons ago) was especially inspiring for me.  When I think of how much I have procrastinated on a story, I now have Dave Eggers voice in the background "egging" me on.  I have saved it for all these years.  I hope you find it inspiring as well:

To: ____________ 
Subject: [NaNoWriMo] A pep talk from Dave Eggers
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:07:01 -0800
From: nanowrimo_loves_you@nanowrimo.org

Dear NaNoWriMo Author,

Is procrastination a problem for you? Really? You think you have a problem?

Here's procrastination: The organizers of NaNoWriMo asked me three months ago to write this pep talk, and I'm only writing it now, after blowing three deadlines, after avoiding ten reminders. I was asked to write a pep talk for NaNoWriMo, and I'm actually writing it after the month started. So whatever procrastination problems you have, I probably have you beat. I'm the worst, and I'm getting worse every day.

It's a very strange thing, because we all think writing should be fun. That is, when I was temping through most of my twenties, wondering what it would be like to write for a living, hoping for such a life, I thought it might be pretty sweet. I thought if I ever got to write for a living, I would feel pretty lucky, and that I would be so appreciative that I would bound out of bed every day and, like a goddamned adult, I would write as much as I could every day, and get work done in a reasonable amount of time. Again, like an adult.

Instead, I need, on average, 8 hours sitting on my writing couch to get one hour of work done. It's a pathetic ratio. I stall, avoid, put off and generally act like someone's making me do some terrible job I never wanted to do. I blow pretty much every deadline I'm given.

Just like I blew the one for NaNoWriMo.

But then, when things are late, and I'm feeling like an idiot, and I feel like I'm letting down someone (like the people at NaNoWriMo, and you), I finally dig in and get started. And then I write, and I write in a fury, and I even, sometimes, enjoy writing.

And that's why I love NaNoWriMo. It gets you started. It gives you the impetus to finally start, and/or finally finish. Knowing there are thousands of others out there trying to do the same, who are using this ridiculous deadline as cattle-prod and shame deterrent, means goddamnit, you better do it now because you know how to write, and you have fingers, and you have this one life, and during this one life, you should put your words down, and make your voice heard, and then let others hear your voice. And the only way any of that's going to happen is if you actually do it. People can't read the thoughts in your head. They can only read the thoughts you put down, carefully and with great love, on the page. So you have to do it, goddamnit. You have to do it, and you can step back and be happy. You can step back and relax. You can step back and feel something like pride.

Then of course you'll have to revise it ten or twenty times, but let's not talk about that yet.

Write your goddamned book now. The world awaits.

D

Dave Eggers is the author of Zeitoun and What is the What. You can learn more about his work here.