Author: Judy L Mohr

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We Let the Strangers In: The Hunting Trolls

Anyone who has ever worked on social media will know what the troll behavior is like. The trolls are the people who seem to take pleasure out of creating animosity and hatred. They will say things to provoke a reaction. And when they catch someone in their sights, they decide it's time to play.

The best advice that anyone can be given when it comes to dealing with trolls is to just ignore them. Most of the time, if you don't entertain them, they will give up and move on.

But there is a rare breed of troll who develops a vendetta—and no amount of ignoring them will make them go away. The trolls see something in you that makes them think that you're vulnerable and they attack. And they keep attacking until you finally break down.

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Living in a Near-Cashless Society

Conversations within my various editors' groups occasionally turn to ways of accepting payments from clients. You get the conversations about using PayPal and similar services. There are the conversations about payments in cash. You get those hilarious conversations about clients wanting to pay via a royalty share, complete with boasted claims that the royalty share would be worth millions.

But whenever the conversation turns to clients paying by check, the group is often amazed by my response.

As much as checks might be nice for some people, I can never accept payment via check. No bank within New Zealand will allow you to deposit checks anymore. Even cashier's checks are now a thing of the past.

There is normally one person who asks how we pay our bills if checks are no longer accepted, likely assuming that we pay for everything via cash. But my answer to this question tends to shock them even more.

New Zealand has become a near-cashless society. Everything is paid for by way of electronic transactions, most of which occur via internet banking.

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LGBTQ+ Terms: A Glossary for the Unknowing Parent

I'll admit it: I liked the Netflix series of Sex Education. It's a racy show that explores the concepts of gender and sexual identity while at the same time reminding us that we are all human. And it is seriously funny. I still see Gillian Anderson as Scully from X-Files, but in every single one of the characters on the show, I can see someone that I know in person.

The show is aimed at teenagers, primarily those 16 years old and older. But if you have never seen the show, let me warn you now that there is open-door sex throughout the show, including in the opening scene of the premiere episode. But the show is not about sex. It's about understanding who we are as human beings, and yes, sex is a part of that.

This post uses medically correct terminology for human reproductive organs. If you are not comfortable with that, then you can stop reading right here.

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Nothing on the internet is private

On November 12, 2021, Victoria Strauss released a blog post on the Writer Beware blog about an editor and their shady practices. Within the editors' circles, there was concern about this particular editor's practices and how it might reflect on editors as a whole. However, most of the conversations I saw centered around the shocking nature of the editor's emails and communications.

I don't want to get into the disconnect between client expectations and services provided by this editor, because that's not the hidden trap that I want to highlight. I want to focus entirely on the fact that the whole world now knows exactly how this editor communicates. And the reason we now know this is because a screen capture of email communications was shared as part of the Writer Beware blog post.

That is the hidden trap.

Nothing on the internet is private. Not emails. Not personal messages. Not even chat room conversations.

If a computer or electronic device is involved somewhere within the process of passing information from one person to another, then there is a very real possibility that the information could be leaked and made public.

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Guilty

Slay the Naysayers

Every writer encounters at least one naysayer, even in the early stages of their writing careers. You know the ones I'm talking about. They're the people who say things that make you feel bad about your choices, or they hinder your ability to make progress, they shake your confidence, or zap you of energy.

They come in all different shapes and size. And some of them are stealthy in their actions, not even realizing what they're doing and the negative impact that they have over your writing.

But there are strategies for dealing with the naysayers, so you can make progress towards your hopes and dreams. It all comes down to mindset.

In today's post, I want to share with you some of my personal experiences with the different naysayers and how I deal with them.

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