On Book Publishing and Book Reviews

The fog we had earlier this morning is beginning to burn away.  A little sunshine might peek through this morning, but that's iffy.  The forecast is giving us an 88% chance of rain and thunderstorms.  This is a replay of yesterday, though yesterday, while our temps rose, they didn't climb as high as our dew point, that reached 73.  The high dew point made our "real feel" temp a toasty 103 (F).

And yesterday, with that dew point, I was out back cutting up branches and running them through my wood chipper.  Believe me when I tell you that sweating was easy.  I could have wrung out my T-shirt.  But branches were cut, chopped, and chipped, and that's what's important.  Rehydration was prioritized since dehydration can be life threatening.

And here's a warning for all of you writers out there:  beware of phony publishers and reviewers.  I work with a gentleman whose wife wrote a book and instead of going through the process of self-publishing, went with a "publisher." She sends the publisher money and in return gets suggestions for edits.  This will continue until she stops sending them money.  As for reviewers, every few weeks I'll get an email or a message on  Instagram from some one, or some group offering to "promote my books."  This promotion includes reviews posted on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads.  The first time I was contacted I said "Wow!" and then I did my research.  Paying someone or some group to post a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads will get your book banned, and they have some serious algorithms that can detect fake reviews.  The last off I got was from some scammer calling themselves Booknbones.  There is a legitimate Books and Bones publisher, who publishes medical books, there is, however no Booknbones.  And if you do get contacted, research, research, research.  When I typed Booknbones into my search I got Scam, Scam, Scam.

And my mini-chainsaw arrived yesterday.

Andy Ogles lost his primary yesterday and will not be returning to Congress.  For those who don't know, Andy's a hate monger.  He's a white supremacist from Tennessee.  He has shrieked his anger against, Muslims, gays, and others on a daily basis.  In spite of Orangie claiming that he was a great American, voters said "no way."

With Stevie Miller standing behind him, Orangie signed 2 more Executive Orders yesterday in an attempt to limit birthright citizenship.  This was after the Supreme Court told him to shut up and sit down on this subject.  This has become a standard Republican tactic.  If one attempt fails, try a subtle variation on the same theme.  They will do this over and over again because they simply are untrainable.