Another Birthday for Beth Buege – and Still Her Murderer Has Not Been Brought to Justice

Ever since I first ran across the name, “Beth Buege,” back in 2014, I have had a sense of being haunted by her and by the lack of justice in this case. It’s a rainy morning and I awoke first with images of Beth in my head. I never got to meet her and I don’t know anyone in her family or any members of the community in which she lived and in which she was murdered. Yet, she was in my head, again, this morning. Then, suddenly my thoughts turned to rage as I remembered what happened to her and the now decades-long effort to cover it up and I was suddenly fully awake. Then, I remembered that today is her birthday!

This blog started out as my “therapy blog,” where I just wrote about things that bothered me – it’s cheaper than a professional therapist and highly effective. Then, it evolved into a blog solely about chicanery on the part of amateur writers conning the public, using dodgy marketing schemes, and making a mess of Amazon.com, thus making life difficult for honest writers and sellers there. A website called Zonalert was erected to discuss some of the unethical activity. I was verifying the truth of the information at that site for myself when I first ran across Beth’s name. In particular, I had looked at a list of what they considered the most outrageous offenders, which you can see here and was observing activity surrounding some of these people just at random. I don’t know any of those people on that list, either – nor would I care to.

I have since removed some of my posts here about these activities, some of which were (and probably still are) associated with a group of writers who hang out and self-glorify and self-promote at Writer’s Cafe Kboards. This is a site I wish to warn any serious writer, publisher, or graphics artist to stay far away from, although you will see it often recommended. It is a virtual cesspool of self-absorbed con artists and all you will learn there is how to con people, which they like to call “marketing.” Based on my own experiences there a few years ago, there are very few, if any, successful writers there and if you have had any measure of success, yourself, you can attract a lot of trouble from the “writers” who post there, who seem to have nothing else better to do. Furthermore, some of the people on the ZonAlert list do or have hung out there and have been protected by the moderators at that site whenever evidence of their wrong-doing has been brought up.They will simply lock the threads and dismiss anyone questioning dodgy marketing activity as a troll.

Some things have changed for the better at Amazon since Zonalert got involved in exposing all the fraud and shady marketing schemes hack authors get up to. At one point, a very famous American author (famous for her vampire novels set in New Orleans) got involved and apparently, she’s one of the worst self-promoting, no-talent narcissists in the world world of writing and publishing and has her own teams of people who do her bidding on Facebook and Twitter, whether they are paid or not, it’s difficult to say. But, they appear to be fiercely loyal fans who spend a lot of time online promoting and defending the author – and, for the first time, it came to the attention of many of us that this was a practice (“street teaming”) among talentless hack writers. There were lots of independent bloggers talking about the fake reviews at Amazon and it was getting a lot of attention in mainstream press. So, Amazon finally acted to do something about a lot of the fake reviews, especially the paid ones from sites life Fiverr, which were addressed by Zonalert.

So, some of these very bad authors, who cannot sell a book on its own merits, resort to “street teams,” which in effect turn into online gangs, who are usually compensated for their loyalty to the author. They promote her work and denigrate the work of her competitors. (When I was writing about this, I ran into cases of authors who even hired people to kill their critics or competitors.) As far as I know, this is still going on. I have no reason to believe that it has stopped and that is why I am being very careful with my words here. And, this is the thing that really enraged me. Not all loyalty is good. For instance, loyalty is not good when it’s being paid for and it’s not good when it is protecting evil-doers.

The murder of Beth Buege is particularly frustrating because there are details, available in the links below, of what happened to her that night that seem to point squarely to one man. It’s one thing that we have a so-called justice system that favors the criminals over the victims and their families. We can all look at that and say that there is a problem with a system that is in place and maybe there needs to be some changes – and I think this is very true. But, it is a whole other thing when there are people – women! – who have to know who the perpetrator is and they are protecting him and, in fact, have formed a protective shield of loyalty around him.

What I see is not just one woman protecting this killer for years now, a woman who brought a cold-blooded monster into this world and has no sense of responsibility for that. But, there is a whole network comprised mainly of women who are supporting this effort of protecting a killer. Before a lot of information was deleted online (and information about this case disappears almost as fast as it appears online, but I managed to see quite a bit of it!), I saw excuses given for this, for example, that it all happened so long ago that it’s not important and no one cares!

It is important and people do care. A lot of Beth’s family have passed on. As far as I can tell from online reports, her only living relative is her brother and he cares very much about her. There are friends of Beth and people in her community who care very much about her still and want to see her killer brought to justice. Then there are people who never met Beth, but who have run across this story – and not just the story but the unbelievable harassment of her one remaining relative and those who are seeking justice on her behalf – and I am one of those people.

What I saw disgusted me and enraged me. Furthermore, it is my opinion that innocent people who have nothing to hide, who are not protecting a murderer, don’t behave this way. I would, also, remind those people who are protecting the suspected perpetrator and downplaying his role that there is no statute of limitations on murder.

So, the problem here isn’t just a failed justice system, but a whole lot of failed human beings who rally support around someone like the suspect -and I don’t know if he’s an official suspect or not – but, he certainly looks suspicious from my point of view.

It’s interesting how the police classify criminals. For instance, there are con artists and there are murders and these are considered to be two different classes. Yet, I find that whenever I see people involved in unethical behavior that more often than not they have a few more skeletons in their closet. This has been a lesson in my life – people who will commit one type of offense will commit another and birds of a feather really do flock together.

It is my hope that, at least, one of the people who know something about Beth’s murder will somehow evolve into an actual human being, grow a conscience and come forward with whatever information they have.

It is, also, my hope that more people will become interested in this story. I know there are lots of cold cases and beautiful young blonde women being deprived of their civil rights by criminals in this country has become something of a fait accompli. Every day we read about such people being abducted, raped and murdered, it is glorified and romanticized in movies, and the list of similar cold cases in the state of Wiconsin alone is very long. Yet, I hope that someone who has the power to bring greater attention to this case will come along and take up this story. This is not just the story of another valuable life being snuffed out by another criminal, but there is an entire tale of subterfuge that surrounds it and the truth needs to be ferreted out.

If you know anything about this case or anyone involved, there are some different ways you can report what you know. You can contact the detective on this case (last one I know of was Kathy Spano) at 414-935-1212. You can, also, contact her brother, Bruce, at his Facebook and there you will, also, see an email address where you can correspond with him, if you have any information that could help bring Beth’s killer to justice so that her spirit can finally be at peace.

Related links:

Here is Beth Buege’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justiceforbethbuege

This is the most recent interview with Beth’s brother about the case on the anniversary of the day of her murder. The article and the video are from June 2015:

http://www.cbs58.com/story/29221167/young-beautiful-and-murdered-the-mystery-of-beth-buege

This is the newspaper clipping you saw in the video at the link above:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19911102&id=5kUbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6U4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3402,516255&hl=en

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/95479204.html

This is an older post I did about Beth. There might be some more information there: https://witchrants.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/my-tribute-to-beth-buege-her-family-and-friends/

Happy Birthday to Beth Buege!

Happy Birthday, Beth!

I apologize for being away from this blog for so long.  I plan to be back with another installment of the Fraud Omnibus series of posts on the subject of author fraud soon. A lot of the author-fraudsters seem to be keeping a lower profile at this time in the wake of the backlash from concerned reviewers, readers and other authors a few weeks ago.  But, there is still plenty more to be said.

If you read my previous posts, you may have noticed that author-fraudsters are people who have a different philosophy about ethics than the rest of us.  Most of them have a knack for dancing on the razor’s edge of what the rules and the law allows. They usually know just what they can get away with and just how far they can go and they don’t always confine their activities to simply paying for fake reviews, as described in this ZonAlert article.  Moreover, you may have noticed a pattern in their activities, for instance, they all hang together for fear of hanging separately.

Who is Beth Buege?

In the course of trying to deduce exactly what some of these folks who have a suspicious pattern of reviews, who either outright buy reviews or employ online gangs of fake fans, called “Street Teams,” to deceive readers and game the Amazon ranking and review system were up to, I ran across a real life mystery drama. It’s the story of a family who lost their daughter, Beth, to a cold-blooded killer, a strangler of women, on June 3, 1990.  It is believed that the killer is still on the loose in their community and a lot of people, who love Beth and have never forgotten her, want him put behind bars where he belongs. They are working very hard to get attention to this case and bring her killer to justice.

Time does not wash away the blood from a murderer’s hands. He knows who he is and, according to information available about this case online, so do a few other people.

Death is only a physical event and, because we are so much more than just our physical bodies, those who have passed on are never really far away from us.  Ever since I found out about this case, which is now a Milwaukee, Wisconsin cold case, I have often had the feeling that Beth is close by. I can see her smile sometimes when I close my eyes and sometimes I even think I can hear a faint voice saying, “Don’t forget me.”

She’s not able to speak out for justice on her own behalf now, so it is up to us to her to keep her case in the spotlight as best we can.

Every day that I read of a similar cold case somewhere in the country being re-opened and solved, I feel hopeful that this could happen for Beth, too. If the right detectives with the  intelligence and the drive to solve this case using all the new tools available to law enforcement agencies these days took enough interest in it, this case could be re-opened and Beth and her family could have some  justice and a modicum of peace.

Prosecuting criminals doesn’t bring back the dead, but it does give the family, the community and everyone else concerned the sense that the legal system works, at least, once in a while.  It would be nice for all of us to feel that we are not living in an environment where the bad people always win and the expense of everyone else and are never held accountable.

A glance at the large number of cold cases for murder, not only in Wisconsin, but all throughout the country does not impart a feeling of confidence or security.  Too many cold-blooded killers are never caught. Sometimes they blend in seamlessly with the rest of society and who knows what else they become involved in, how many other crimes they go on to commit – undetected, unsuspected, unpunished – because they know exactly how much they can get away with,  how to stay just out of reach of the justice system and very often they know how to insulate themselves with the support of others who, also, hold a different philosophy about ethics than the rest of us.

Getting Beth Buege’s case re-opened would be a gift to her, really the only gift we can give her.

It is, also, the right and ethical thing to do. It is simply not fair that  such criminality should be allowed to flourish.

Happy Birthday Beth!

Happy Birthday, Beth!

Beth was born on this day, May 16th, in 1969. As you can see from the pictures in the video below, she was a very pretty child who grew into a beautiful and very photogenic woman. She was only 21-years old when she was strangled by someone.  According to reports, the last person to see her was her boyfriend.

The following is from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal Sentinal, June 3, 2010:

On Sunday, June 3, 1990, shortly before 9 a.m., Buege was found strangled in the passenger seat of her red Chrysler Laser in the 4900 block of N. 49th St. The car was seen several hours before parked outside what was then Jake’s restaurant in Wauwatosa, where a man she was dating lived upstairs.

A witness saw the car – with a license plate that read “FLRT 12” – jerking along N. 49th St., said retired Wauwatosa police detective King DeSeve.

“Whoever was driving it obviously didn’t know how to use a stick shift,” said DeSeve, who, with the blessings of Milwaukee police investigators, worked the case unofficially until he retired in 2003.

Beth was a loving daughter and a kind, trusting person, whose life was cut short by this inexplicable act of brutal violence. The motive is unknown.

For more details about Beth’s life and more information about this case, please, see the following video:

How You Can Help

The man who killed Beth has been dancing on the razor’s edge, just outside the reach of the law for far too long.  Please, look at the information available about Beth’s life and her murder at the previous post, My Tribute to Beth Buege, Her Family and Friends. If you know anything that could help police solve this case, please, contact Detective Kathy Spano at 414-935-1212.

If  you are moved by the details of Beth’s case, please, do what you can to keep her story fresh in people’s minds. If you have the ability or influence to help get this case re-opened, please, use use whatever is available to you to get more attention on the case and put the pressure on law enforcement to bring the murderer to justice.

Related articles:

Reward is Doubled by Parents Who Think Boyfriend is Suspect, The Milwaukee Sentinel, November 2, 1991: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19911102&id=5kUbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6U4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3402,516255

Milwaukee slaying remains unsolved after 20 years,  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by Jesse Garza, June 3, 2013:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/95479204.html

 

 

 

My Tribute to Beth Buege, Her Family and Friends

This was my rant site, the place where I vented about a lot of things that bothered me before I deleted most of those posts to focus on what is happening with indie authors committing fraud.  I once called this site my therapy place because I am a multiple violent crime survivor. I have survived multiple rapes as well as being abducted and held at gunpoint in an incident of random violence that nearly resulted in my death.

The men who tried kill me did not succeed. I survived.

But, Beth Buege did not.

In neither of our cases have the men who committed the violent crimes against us ever been brought to justice. There is no hope that the criminals who tried to kill me will ever be brought to justice – one of them was a cop.

But, I believe that there is still hope that Beth Buege will get justice, although her murder in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 3, 1990 is now a cold case.  I have read the articles and viewed the video tribute to Beth Buege below from YouTube and I have seen the determination of her family and friends to obtain justice for her – and for themselves.

You see, the family and close friends of Beth Buege are crime survivors, too. When their daughter’s life was brutally snuffed out in 1990, they crossed into that world of twilight that all of us who are violent crime survivors live in. Nothing ever looks the same afterward.

How I First Learned About the Murder of Beth  E. Buege

I would not know about Beth Buege except I happened to be at the right place at the right time to see her friends’ or family’s desperate attempts to bring attention to her case.

My understanding from this incident and from what I’ve read elsewhere is that the family of Beth Buege would like to bring more attention to the events surrounding her murder. More people talking about any case like this helps keep it alive in the minds of not only the public, but law enforcement.

To that I say: 10-4. Message received.

So, this is my tribute to Beth Buege.

It is a collection of articles and a video to inform you about the circumstances surrounding her unsolved murder. I hope that someone will see this who can help or who will feel moved to tell what they may know about the circumstances of her death, which will finally bring her killer to justice.

According to the articles and other information below, the Buege family is certain of the identity of her killer, but Beth was murdered in 1990 when DNA evidence had not yet developed to its present state of technology. Although, there are others who probably know something about the circumstances surrounding her murder, they are not talking. These seem to be the main reasons her killer has not been put behind bars for the rest of his life, which is better than he deserves. As it is, the suspected killer is still at large, apparently living quite a good life.

Information About Beth Buege Collected from the Web

Reward is Doubled by Parents Who Think Boyfriend is Suspect, The Milwaukee Sentinel, November 2, 1991: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19911102&id=5kUbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6U4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3402,516255

Milwaukee slaying remains unsolved after 20 years,  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by Jesse Garza, June 3, 2013:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/95479204.html

Unsolved Murder of Beth E. Buege, Unsolved Murders National Database, http://www.truecrimereport.com/coldcase/victim/unsolved-murder-of-beth-e-buege-28890875/

Beth is listed on this page along with many other beautiful, young women who have been murdered: http://csafd.proboards.com/thread/2437?page=37 – I’d like to point out the obvious, but something that is often forgotten when we talk about women who are murdered or raped: They’re not murdered or raped on their own. Somewhere is a brutal criminal who committed the crime and he is, more than likely, still at large.

(Update 3/22/2014: The following site lists suspicious deaths in Wisconsin. You’ll recognize Beth on the 7th row down, 3rd from the right. Hover your mouse over her photo for details:  http://php.wisinfo.com/mktg/unsolved_osh/ Also, see this page – http://www.thenorthwestern.com/section/WIS019804 –  for a number of videos discussing these cases, including a Cold Case Series, which you’ll find when you scroll down near the bottom. The video series discusses how cold cases are being handled and many of them solved, not only in Wisconsin, but elsewhere.  One theme is the importance of people talking about the cases and keeping on talking about them.)

(Update 3/25/2014: The following link goes to a memorial in Beth’s honor where you can send virtual flowers or a message:  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53202188 )

If you are on Facebook, you can go to this page and learn about Beth Buege at her brand new page (Apparently Facebook took down the old page a couple of days ago), which is called Memories of Beth Buege: https://www.facebook.com/groups/748070505218006/

This is a video tribute to Beth Buege with some known information about the night of her death, information about the prime suspect and who to call if you have any information. This is a very moving and haunting video. I woke up with the song, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” going through my head this morning, I can’t get it out of my mind, which is what moved me to make this entire post :

If something happens to the above video, you may find it here: http://www.frequency.com/video/beth-buege/153062305/-/5-1429513

There is no peace without justice!

Justice is very important for all crime survivors, including the family and friends of murder victims, who are often not treated very well. Not only they are they cast aside by the system, but they are treated horribly by society as a whole.  They are left to pick up the pieces of their lives entirely on their own and sometimes they live in fear because of what they know. For instance, in this case a killer of women is still on the loose and since he has gotten away with his crime for so long, he may be feeling pretty confident about his chances of never getting in trouble for anything – ever.

Nobody can just move on from so great a violation as what this family – and many other survivors – have endured. They live with it every day. They go to sleep with it and they wake up with it. Their view of the world and the people in it has been completely altered forever. Their sense of safety and peace is completely shattered because they know a truth the rest of the world doesn’t seem to know or care about.

The only way to bring a modicum of peace to this family, for them to feel that the world is something like it ought to be, again, is for their daughter’s killer to be acknowledged for the murderer he is and be brought to justice. Justice and peace have been denied to this particular family for almost 24 years. But, there is hope. If you know anything about the circumstances of Beth Buege’s murder, please contact Detective Kathy Spano at 414-935-1212.

Rant on Stephen King and Gun Control

{pd}

I’m late on this. I’m very much not plugged into what’s happening outside my own world because whenever I stick my head out of the cave there’s usually something unpleasant going on.  Here’s the latest thing:  Stephen King has just released a new book in print only – no digital version. This brought out the anti-print and anti-traditional publishing trolls and I read some unkind comments directed toward King because of this decision. Frankly, I don’t understand the criticism. Authors own the rights to their books and they can do whatever they want with them. If that means not releasing them in certain formats, then that’s entirely their business.

So, as I did a quick Google search on Stephen King with regard to this issue, I ran across this disgusting tidbit from the UK Daily Mail: Stephen King Gives to Maine Gun Control Group.  According to this article he gave them a five-figure sum. He, also, wrote a book called, “Guns,” in which he purports to support the 2nd Amendment, which is the highest and oldest law in the land with regard to guns, even claims to own a few guns of his own, all while urging more gun control and mis-characterizing both American gun owners and the NRA (National Rifle Association) and displaying his ignorance about guns.

See review:

This all seems like a PR move since he, also, pulled his book, “Rage,” from the shelves, also (although, this was some time ago, back when school gun violence was becoming an issue in the news). King’s books are characterized by all kinds of violence and misogyny, so why pull this particular one? Well, this book was supposedly pulled by King after a copy of it was found in relation to a hostage situation in Kentucky, in which it seemed that the perpetrator  was trying to carry out the plot of the book, which is about a school shooting. (Kentucky Youth Frees 11 Hostages and Surrenders, Associated Press, Published: September 19, 1989)

Isn’t it interesting that all of these celebrities who are, at least, partially responsible for depictions of violence with guns in popular culture are now hypocritically anti-gun?

Isn’t interesting, too, how many of them have guns of their own, have their own body guards and sometimes live in gated communities?

They want guns to protect themselves, but you are on your own.

If I could ask any of these people a question, I would ask them why they hate violent crime survivors – and, especially, women – so much?

Stephen King’s work  is especially misogynistic (ie. The Shining and The Secret Window – both depict instances of domestic violence and violence against women.) Yet, it appears that he and other celebrities, would sacrifice the safety of people in the U.S. and sacrifice the law (the 2nd Amendment) that protects us for the sake of their own pathetic careers – as a public relations move.  Have they no souls?

{pd}

Stephen King is, also, a 6′ 4″ tall, ghoulishly ugly man, which means he has no idea what it is like to be a 5′ 2″ tall woman, who has dealt with threats of bodily harm from strangers since the age of 12.  See my Rant on Height Discrimination Against Shorter Women and Men, in which I describe how most perpetrators of violence (against me and other women) are huge men who choose petite victims. Apparently, King feels that we have no right to defend ourselves from people like him, however we see fit to do so.

Why do these gun control advocates hate those of us who have had to cope with stalkers? Rape and threats of rape in our own home? The death of our family members? Why do they want to leave us defenseless, so that those who want to harm us can finally get the job done and completely obliterate us?

What kind of selfish, evil person do you have to be to be a gun control advocate in the face of the epidemic of rape and violence against women in this country?

Furthermore, it takes a special kind of sell-out to use your celebrity influence to publicly advocate the overthrow of the 2nd Amendment, which protects the basic human right to self-defense,  merely as a public relations move. That is really low.

If you are not on the side of victims and survivors, then you are on the side of the perpetrators of violent crimes. It’s that simple.

Video with hypocritical anti-self-defense celebrities advocating against the 2nd Amendment, which is one of the most basic protections of human rights in the U.S.:

King and other celebrity hypocrites, as well as media dunderheads, could benefit by listening to this video before opening their stupid mouths on the subject of guns:

 

Rant on Serial E-book Returners at Amazon

Jail Cell – This is the place fraudsters, pirates and other thieves belong!
Author Andrew Bardwell from Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Copyright::Creative Commons

This rant is specifically about serial returners of ebooks at Amazon.com – it’s not about returns of ebooks anywhere else or the return of paperbacks, because this is not much of a problem right now. But, the problem of serial ebook returners at Amazon is getting worse – despite an alleged crackdown on them in January this year.

What is a serial returner, you ask?

A serial returner is a habitual returner of retail merchandise – in this case, ebooks. They buy and return them, one after the other.

While there are legitimate reasons for returns, such as a defective product, there is no reason for someone to go through an entire author’s or publisher’s list, buying and returning books in succession.

Why are they doing this?

Like other criminally-minded people, they’re doing it because they can. And, they can because Amazon is allowing it to happen.

Serial returning is piracy and like all other pirates,  they are dishonest people who don’t mind committing fraud, especially if they can do it within Amazon’s Terms of Service and not get in any serious trouble.

Petition to  Stop E-book Refund Fraud at Amazon at Change.org

Authors upset about returns, in general, have signed a petition at Change.org requesting Amazon.com to, at least, stop taking returns on books that have been read. Although, it doesn’t specifically  address the problem of serial returners, who sometimes go through an author’s entire series of books in a set, buying and returning them, it’s something.

The following link goes to a very short article, called Return to Sender: Why Return Ebooks?, which is proceeded by a bunch of comments about the above petition. The article isn’t much, but some of the comments are interesting. Some justify this form of piracy just like pirates always justify their nefarious activities to the victims. They say, “Live with it!” – “It’s not really hurting you.” They, also, justify theft of books when they cannot afford them, although ebooks are extremely affordable (many between .99 and 2.99).

But, the best comment is # 14 by Ekatarina Sayanova who says:

“Returning an ebook because you don’t “like” it is promoting what essentially amounts to piracy. Whether or not you will like a story is the chance you take. Caveat emptor. Besides, you can download a free preview. If you buy the book after reading the preview and don’t like the book, tough. Get over it and move on.”

“The only valid reason to “return” an ebook would be if the file was corrupted and you were not able to access it on your ereader, or it did not display properly. A refund would be issued only if, after downloading the second file, the file still didn’t work properly. Because free previews are available, there is absolutely no reason to be permitted to return an ebook for a full refund.”

“Here’s what everyone is refusing to understand: Those returned books are resold and the author does not make a single penny on the resales. The sale of a copyrighted work without royalties paid to the author is piracy – plain and simple. Amazon gets away with it because of a loophole in the law or because they are (paraphrasing) “too big to prosecute”.”

“I’m an editor. I bust my professional rear end working with my author clients to get the best possible story out to the readers. I’m not a charity and cannot work for nothing. Those who complain about stories that need editing – guess what? Piracy is one of the reasons why authors (indy authors especially) sometimes can’t make enough to hire professional editors. (Don’t get me started on what small publishers charge authors for editing.) There is nothing we’d like better than to see to it that every ebook sold went out without errors and read as smooth as the finest brandy feels going down the throat. It isn’t going to happen if the author can’t make money because the work they sweat blood over is being sold without them getting compensation.”

“So, the next time you return that ebook because you don’t “like” it and you didn’t take the time to read the preview, or simply because you just don’t “like it” , or because you think you can get away with something, remember that book is someone’s livelihood. How would you like to put a year of your life into something and see it stolen out from under you? Hmmmmmm?”

“I didn’t think so.”

I just couldn’t have said it any better!

Rant on Nuts in Writing Forums

Nuts: What you will often find in online forums

Forum culture is not what it used to be.  It’s very different from the way it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, it was a lot more anonymous and a lot more civilized.

It seems like less anonymity would make people behave better, knowing that literally anyone could see their information – their faces even sometimes – and attach it to their behavior. But, it seems like since the days of MySpace (when people were first asked all kinds of invasive personal questions to join a social web site) things have gotten a lot worse online, in general, and in forums, in particular.

Now, you might think that a forum dedicated to the subject of something like writing and publishing would be pretty civilized. You’d expect that authors would not want to put their bad, abusive, nutty behavior on display right next to their names, images of their books with links to sales pages, links to their web sites and sometimes even their faces.  But, if you ever venture into the Writer’s Cafe at Kboards (formerly called Kindleboards), a site devoted mainly to the Kindle, but with a section for writers called “Writer’s Cafe,” you might be surprised at what goes on.

It is a  haven for nuts!

Every so often they have threads of interests to writers and self-publishers. But, many posters there complain that they are attacked when they post about certain subjects like traditional publishing or copyright infringement. New posters are often treated with less respect than established members of what they call their “community.”   Consequently, many new members come and if they are mistreated, they quickly leave and do not come back.

If you enjoy lots of drama and watching people make fools of themselves, Writer’s Cafe at Kboards is the place. Here is an example of how the moderators there run the show: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,145383.0.html#.UUpN2ze8gsI

Other forums for writers and publishers, which may be more beneficial depending on your needs:

Absolute Write Water Cooler  (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/) This forum is very diverse. When you post here, pay special attention to the different sub-division of forums and keep the discussion within that range of subjects. For instance, do not praise the virtues of independent publishing in the sections devoted to traditional publishing.

WritersCafe.org (www.writerscafe.org) This is not the Kboards (Kindleboards) Writer’s Cafe! This site is very good for fiction writers who want to discuss the art of writing, itself.

KDP Community Support (https://kdp.amazon.com/community/forumindex.jspa) For those who publish on the Kindle Digital Platform, through your dashboard, you have access to the KDP community. This is a very helpful group, especially when you’re just beginning or if you have any kind of technical or account-related questions.

Another forum is WattPad’s Industry Insider Forum for Writers: http://www.wattpad.com/forums/categories/32-club

All forums have nuts. Not all forums are as nutty as others. Some are more serious-minded and are the best places to post about a particular subject. The above four have been most beneficial to me, personally.

Some nuts are harmless, but some can be dangerous. Even though you may feel safe at home behind your keyboard, forums can present a danger.

Therefore, when you use forums, remain anonymous. If you are an author, don’t give details about your business, your location or your books. For example, don’t use your real name, don’t post pictures of yourself or your children, don’t post pictures of your books with links (like you are encouraged to do at Kboards). Many people have learned the dangers of nuts in forums the hard way. They’ve been stalked, their sales pages have been trolled and they’ve had a lot of other problems. Simply being there with a picture of yourself (especially if you area woman), could cause you a problem. You can suddenly begin having problems with someone because you posted about something someone else doesn’t like – narcissists see themselves in everything you say and may take offense to something not directed anywhere near them. Then, they may stalk you. If you do not have any personal information about yourself anywhere, they will be limited to stalking you at that forum.

Keep in mind that some moderators are nuts, too. And,  you never really know who they are. For example, the moderators at the Kboards (Kindleboards) Writer’s Cafe are all volunteers. They’re nobody special and they likely have no special qualifications to be volunteer moderators. Moderators set the tone of a forum, just like managers set the tone at a business. If you have nutty, narcissistic moderators, you may, also, find a collection of nutty, narcissistic posters.

If you happen to go to a forum where the moderators are unstable and you sign up using your e-mail address, they may be able to see that information, even if you make it private. If you send private emails to other posters, they can see those. If a forum moderator (at any forum) turns out to be unstable, they have information with which they can stalk you. When you sign up for your forum accounts, do not use your main email account. You can get temporary email accounts at www.hush.com, which will usually work just fine. Again, don’t sign up for an account that contains your name or anything that would help them identify you. Protect yourself.

If you look at the Kboards Writer’s Cafe forum link above (it’s a big kerfuffle involving a litany of complaints by posters about behaviors on the forum, including some very disturbing ones), you can see why you might not want to disclose your gender or sexual orientation, especially if it is different from either straight or male. That particular forum has a history of allowing men with sexually aberrant behaviors to remain on the site, despite complaints. This is just an example, of course, these people could be at any forum and you will be safer if you do not disclose gender or sexual orientation at any of them.

In fact, there’s really no need for them to know anything about you, ie. marital status, creed, race, nationality, religion, lack thereof, etc.

The best thing to do when you go to a forum is ask your question. Thank people if they give you good advice and get out. Avoid the places that are high drama.  Most of the people who get involved in the high drama are not going to help you with your writing or publishing efforts. If you find yourself having to “ignore” a lot of posters who are harassing you, be advised that just ignoring some people (for example, narcissists) only makes them more aggressive.  So, the “ignore them” advice that you’ll inevitably get if you should have a problem with a nut in a forum doesn’t work.  It may work in the short-term, but it won’t’ work for long.

Look for the forums that seem to have the most successful people and give you the most benefit.

Rant on E-book Piracy, Sociopaths and Rampant Criminality

May book thieves be cursed to a swift and violent death and condemned to hell!

Until book piracy happens to you, it is a hypothetical thing.

Crime is crime and theft of property is a serious one. People who steal usually have no compunction about committing violent crimes. It’s sometimes a progression of criminal activity that begins with swiping things that don’t belong to them that leads to such a progression. Some people – in fact, apparently a very large percentage of people – are soulless sociopaths and psychopaths who are incapable of empathizing with their victims.

Like other criminals, pirates have a thousand ways to justify their crimes to themselves and others. One of the lies they tell is that piracy doesn’t affect sales. They even have false surveys that they share online at left-wing sites like Huffington Post to try to convince others that stealing books online is a victimless crime that doesn’t cost. Some of these criminals even go so far as trying to make the case that stealing from writers and publishers helps them.

These ideas would be laughable except that they are so widespread among these online criminals as to be considered normal and acceptable.

Devils are friends of mine.

Online piracy is organized crime and there is no justification for participating it.  Like the sites that resell other people’s books as if they are their own, the P2P (peer to peer) sharing and torrent sites profit from a form the theft of intellectual property.  “Sharing” is a euphemism for counterfeiting. And, there are many other euphemisms for this kind of cybercrime.

The unethical people who participate in this crime might be the same people who break into your house or rob banks, but they  commit their crimes online mainly because they think there is less likelihood of getting caught and there is definitely considerably less likelihood of being physically injured or killed during the commission of their crimes.

They are extremely well organized. Not only are their actual criminal enterprises, which are criminal conspiracies, well organized, but their not-for-profit supporters are well-organized, as well. They have  important sounding names and often disguise themselves as academics who support the freedom of information. But, these organizations and their criminally-minded members don’t just want free information exchange within the boundaries of the law, they want to freely exchange what is the property of other people.

Aaron Swartz hides his face with his bike helmet in this image from http://www.thesmokinggun.com/ while burglarizing MIT. This is the hero of the free information movement and the online pirates

This philosophy was embodied in the person and philosophy of Aaron Swartz, the man who broke into MIT and downloaded millions of files off the JSTOR servers.  A Marxist cult of  personality has been constructed around this man, who must have been completely insane, before his apparent suicide. You can read Swartz’s “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto” at the following link: http://archive.org/details/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto – if you are familiar with Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” you will, no doubt, recognize the same ideology in Swartz’s manifesto.  It’s almost like a missing page from the original 19th century document, especially written for the 21st century. It’s as if he was channeling Marx, a man who had no respect for other people’s property or persons to the greatest extreme.

You can read about the 13 charges against Swartz, which were dropped after his death, at the Smoking Gun web site:  Caught Red-Handed, Aaron Swartz Was Prepping For Key Federal Court Evidence Hearing. This is the story the mainstream news and the pirates won’t tell you about Swartz’s crimes.

If you see a site that purports to be a place for writers, like Writer’s Cafe Kboards (formerly Kindleboards) look to see if pro-piracy discussions are tolerated. If they are, move on.  If you do post, be entirely anonymous. Never reference yourself or your work or give any small details a  prospective stalker could use to target you.  This has happened to other people. And, it has happened to authors who asked pirates to stop stealing their work. These are hardcore criminals and their supporters are criminals, as well – you never know who you’re interacting with online.

If you have questions about piracy and dealing with it go to sites with professional authors – not just “authors” who sell a couple of 99 cent books at Amazon – but professional authors who earn a living from their work. These are the people who will be most likely to support you in your efforts to protect your own work and your income.

One place to seek help online is from the Authors Against E-book Theft YahooGroup.

The above is a closed group and this is so for a reason.   Authors, artists and others who try to protect their work are frequently subjected to abuses. This is something you should be aware of if you become a victim. Look for support carefully – again, not from just writers (because some amateur writers are so desperate to have their work read that they support thievery), but from professional writers.

Also, don’t be afraid to call a local copyright attorney if you have a case. Get screen shots of the violations before you send the DMCA takedown notice. There are numerous sites where you can find the template for this notice, this is only one such site: http://www.savingforsomeday.com/how-to-file-a-dmca-takedown-notice/