The Scammer Interested in my writing - An Early Aughts memory

I have been told that your writing is so good that you should write a book.  You should write a book!  Why don't you write a book?  Really.  Write a book!  You're wasting away because you write a book!

Does anyone know what goes into having a writing career?  Does anyone know how difficult it is?  It isn't for lack of trying. I think I exhausted my resources that it left me dry and just done.  It wasn't a two month or two year odyssey.  It was about 20 years and it's safe to say that I tried.  Do I wish I could wish make a career out of writing?  Yes, I do.  To those who acted like it was so easy can just shut the you know what up.  It's not that easy.

Safe to say I dealt with scammers and liars.  I did meet someone online back in maybe 2000 or 2001 online.  It was for pen pals.  AOL had a site to meet people but not in the same way Tinder was.  My goal wasn't to sell my writing.  It was maybe making a friend and traveling.  This was before Harold.  I don't know what I was thinking when I put out a request for friends.  

Anyway, I had put one out in the San Diego area since I had traveled there and I thought it might be fun.  I got an email from someone named DJ.  Yeah, I'm using the initials he used.  He was funny and a businessman maybe a couple of years older than me.  We did have nice email exchanges and he was very funny.  He did comment on my emails being fun to read and I mentioned the writings I was working on. I had spent my 20s working on a screenplay that went nowhere and now I thought I'd try a novel.  He had wanted to see it after I explained it to him.  

It was just a simple rom com of a book. I hate romantic comedies after my ventures in writing.  Just a side note.  It was about a cartoonist who moved in next door to a divorced accountant.  She was a little shy about love after getting burned by her ex husband and he was just a breath of fresh air and fun.  I wish I could remember their names - Samantha and Jack, I think?   So DJ wanted to read some of the chapters.

I had a little bit of a flirty thing going on with DJ and had hoped maybe he would travel to Milwaukee so silly me thought ok, maybe he'll think I'm cool if I show him my novel and some of the love scenes.  

He definitely wanted to see more.  He also said that he knew someone that worked for a book publisher in the San Diego area.  I didn't if he was lying or not at the time. I thought it was great so I sent more.

Did I have more "romantic" scenes?  Yes, I did.  Do I feel like DJ was a pervert when I look back at this time?  Why yes, I do.  

I wouldn't say any romantic scene I wrote was X rated.  Or NC 17.  I watched a lot of Cinemax movies back then so you figure that one out.  It wasn't out of my own experience.  Apparently he was impressed with the scenes that I wrote that he suggested one.

It was definitely NC 17.  I didn't know people could do that sort of thing or bend that way.  You know, he seemed to be interested in me so I went along because that's what I did back then.

DJ really wasn't interested in me.  He mentioned taking a prostitute to a work event and I thought what do you say to that?  Did she seem nice?  How does that work?

It should come as no shock that he stopped writing me and how he did it was weird.  He sent me an email that said "Hello?  I don't think I have the right email anymore."  Initially I was panicked and thought is there something wrong with his email?

It was his way of ghosting me and that was fine.  He was a creep and he told me that his friend left the publishing company.  Oh my.  What a shock.

Don't worry about this sad tale.  I would go onto meet someone better named Harold.  Commence hysterical laughing if you've been playing along with this game.

I don't know if there was an avenue for me when it came to working as a writer.  Of course I wished that would have been my career.  It's not a joy to deal with the likes of Regina and the lurker in my daily life.  I just never found the right avenue. 

For a long time, I went through such a writer's block and thought, am I ever going to be able to write again?

Well I'm doing it almost every day for at least the last 2 years.  This is for me and if this helps someone that comes across it late at 3 am in the morning, then cool. 

If anything, writing has been my therapy because people are nuts.  




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