L.T. Marshall's Blog, page 29
March 8, 2019
A tale of the nasty Writer
Recently in Book-land we have had a fair bit of drama on Facebook, concerning a certain writer who took a severe dislike to being given honest constructive criticism by a published author.
I didn’t bring it to my blog for two reasons .
1 – It was incredibly ridiculous behaviour
2 – He didn’t warrant the exposure
Only now, he has wandered into the very grey area of Libel and Character defamation and is trying to destroy a good friends name. An author who is well known and loved in the community. He is harassing readers and making all sorts of accusations.
Let me back track.
A few days ago a fellow author had written a post about authors being nasty to other authors in reviews. It was a pleasant discussion in which one writer – ‘Adrian Meredith’ wrote that he was struggling to get reviews and didn’t understand why he was not selling.
Kessily being a kind hearted lady, someone who helps when she can, went and downloaded the book on KU and had a read. To give him a sale and see if she could pinpoint an area he could improve and to leave him an honest review.
She came back with constructive feed back that I 100% agreed with.
Along the lines of issues with his formatting, the very short length of the book for the price and the fact that he had breached amazons 10% content rule and might get in trouble. In other words the extra filling in his book was more than 10% of the Bob story which the cover and blurb suggested the book was about. It was about 50% of the book which is a big no no. Amazon are very strict and would not only pull the book for page stuffing but permanently ban his account. Kessily did not want to see his account closed so pointed it out.
His response to Kessily.
‘F*CK OFF YOU C*NT’
(I should add that now various female authors have come forward and told us he called them C*nts in the past for other reasons too. Seems to be a habit.)
He commented harshly, and deleted it so abruptly so that no one could screenshot it and then blocked her immediately. No other contact.
Myself and the author Julia, whose post it was on saw it though and when he himself posted a status, we responded.
[image error]The only contact we have had.
After this he blocked both myself and Julia.
See this is where things become bizarre.
Mr Meredith then went onto rant , lie and obsess for the entire day (frequent long winded facebook posts) about the sequence of events and what actually happened. Smearing Kessily’s name and making up nothing but ridiculous lies. You can find all of his ‘notes’ on his Facebook page under his name Adrain Meredith. Not a single thing he has written is anything close to true in anyway.
Here is one example.
This is what he posted about Julia and I after our singular comments that resulted in us being blocked- hilarious. As you can see I was never actually his FB friend at all, his post was public, therefore I could comment and had only gone to his page to check out the links to ‘Bob the potato’. He doesn’t even quote what was said to him, some fantastical nonsense he completely made up. Trying to pass it off as a guess when he had plenty opportunity to copy our exact comments. I mean I had the time to read and screenshot them.
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I talked to Kessily in PM, she showed me she had downloaded the book as he was claiming she hadn’t and it was not on KU (it is….it’s still there) and explained her criticism clearly. So I bought the book myself to be able to legitimately critic it and support her. Something he claims neither of us did. He claims we have never read his ‘book’. Sadly it’s a whole 5.4 minutes of my life I cannot get back.
He also swears we could not buy the book for 99p and that no page reads had registered for KU to prove she had read it, as it was listed as $0.70 and not on KU – he has no clue how either KDP works or currency. They update reports hourly, not immediate and again the book was definitely on KU.
(The book has now been changed , more content added, new cover and a price hike.)
[image error]Okay then.
Let me make this clear though from here on in; nothing she said was wrong, abusive or in anyway nasty. She was helpful, gave him insight on why he was getting no sales and how to improve to get those sales and there was no other communication between them as he had blocked her. Nothing else. Nada.
What followed were fantastical posts and lies about how she was trying to ruin him, have amazon remove his books. That it was a smear campaign…blah blah blah. Major over reaction from a very unbalanced individual. He inflated what she had said and twisted it beyond all proportion.
To cheer Kessily up and distract her we made the situation into something funny. Focusing on the book and actually generating some sales for the man. Our Motto in the writing world is ‘Kill it with Kindness’ and he did brag how he had almost made it to best seller rating that day. Our post and hilarity actually got his book seen and he gloated on his page how he had made sales. Unbeknownst it was down to our #SaveBob campaign. I made very many memes that became a very short story board, because I did actually think ‘Bob the potato’ could have potential if he rewrote it and added illustrations.
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We thought that was the end. A day of jokes, laughter and putting it down to someone over reacting like an absolute nutjob and Kessily ended the day smiling instead of being stressed. Job done. We wanted to move on and forget him.
We were all now reading Bob, ironically, and I left him a very generous review that was based in complete honesty. I even upped a star because I felt bad for the poor eaten potato.
So I bet you are wondering why I made this blog post right? ….
Ahhhhhh. The plot thickens.
The lovely Adrian. The poor little fellow has been so obsessively fixated on the lovely Kessily, that he continued to post very libelous things about her and her publisher – for days now. Claiming Kessily has fake reviews on her books among other things. He seems to have spent the last few days doing nothing else. It’s alarming, to say the least.
It was brought to my attention that not only has he continued to make untrue statements and kept stalking, obsessing and lying, but he wrote a short story about Kessily and posted it in his writing group. (one of his own members sent it, proof they are disgusted at his behaviour too). It was in public domain so I can post it freely.
The truly appalling thing is this is a clear aim at our lovely girl (her name is very unique) and implies he wants to rape her?!?!?! I mean well, keep her as a sex slave and force her to do heinous things to him before he discards her.
How very noble and a clear insight into how his brain works. I am starting to think he has some serious women issues.
I would see that as a veiled threat myself, along with his continued statements about her. It’s a very clear personal attack for sure.
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[image error]Obsessing and talking about Kessily –
assuming that being domineering over men would be an asset to her career… except that she writes about female submissives so no, dominating men is NOT an asset, and not a ‘motive’ for the attacks.
So yes I outed him on Facebook and made people aware that this form of bullying and harassment from one unstable person who cannot take criticism has become something very serious. Some of the readers who bought the book themselves and reviewed it have been accused of lying too.
Jodie – this is a woman who keeps defending him, who came onto Kessily’s profile to harass her, blocked me and implied she would be stalking Kessily from there on in. She has venomously defended Adrain , no matter what.
She also posted a review on amazon implying she had been told to do so.
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Kessily has not said much more about this matter , publicly at all, so his posts are obviously about mine. He can’t seem to tell the difference between us despite the very obvious different name. Confusing himself with who exactly thinks he should be arrested. Kessily has said nothing of the sort , but a lot of you are very vocal about what a creep he is.
This man is trying to intimidate and bully and harass a fellow female author. Ruin her name with lies and he does not seem to understand that she can in fact sue him for libel for his FB posts and his story. That she can actually go after him for character defamation and the story with the veiled threat will be taken very seriously in the country he lives. He is Australian where they have very strong cyber bullying laws, which this falls under.
This is a man so delusional about his own self he thinks he is above the law.
This is #internationalwomansday we say NO to abusive arseholes who try and destroy someones life for being helpful.
He is obsessed.
Stalking her.
His wall for days is nothing about anything else except her and his Bob story.
We won’t stand for this.
Intimidation, slander and threats. Constant barrage of BS.
We as a writing community need to shine light on this crap when it happens and stand together to support our friend. She did nothing wrong at all.
She is obviously very distressed and saying nothing much on this topic but gave me permission to talk if I wanted to. I feel helpless as I cannot personally have it out with this man.
He is a coward and a bully, who is hiding behind his FB account and spewing such toxic nonsense I actually feel sorry for his wife. What must life for her be like if this is an example of his character.
He has no grasp of the reality in this situation, that it was self inflicted nonsense he continues to feed and twist.
Show Kessily the love by visiting her here. Our girl wants nothing but love and sharing and for all the drama to stop. She has no ties to the man and no desire to have anything to do with him.
We can show our support by simply showing her love, saying we support her and no one believes the BS pouring forth from that hell hole.
March 7, 2019
The Carrero Effect is Free
An emotional roller coaster of epic proportions, spanning an entire series.
It all started with The Carrero Effect - A story that will stay with you and keep you glued ... Join Jake Carrero and Emma Anderson on their turbulent transition from Boss & PA to more.
Flawed but addictive characters, and a roller
coaster ride of emotions. Join Club Carrero today, grab this amazing freebie while you can.
#clubcarrero #thecarreroseries #PictPublishing
Purchase link - Book 1 -
click here to get it
The Carrero Effect is Free
Yup, we are back with a flash freebie.
This time to accompany the last 5 days of Jake’s view, here is Book 1 to accompany it.
Blurb
EMMA ANDERSON has everything in her life worked out.
She has a perfect job in a Manhattan empire, allowing her to live a quiet, organised and safe existence. A necessity after a childhood filled with abuse, bad memories, and a mother who was less than useless.
She’s worked hard to get where she is – and she has just landed an amazing promotion.
But it comes with a problem – and one that could derail everything she thought she needed in her life.
Emma’s new role is as the right-hand man for billionaire playboy JAKE CARRERO. He’s exactly the type of person who could drive her crazy – and not in a good way.
Chalk and cheese – he is everything she’s not. Compulsive, dominant and confident, with a seriously laid-back attitude to casual sex and dating.
Jake is the only one with the ability to steamroll over Emma’s manicured, ice maiden exterior. But Emma has no desire to let anyone close enough to hurt her again.
Jake needs to show Emma that even someone like him can change when that one girl that matters walks into your life.
Loveable, sexy characters, and deep emotional topics.
Contains some mature, adult content, and language.
Get the book –
http://mybook.to/TheCarreroEffect
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Watch the trailer !!!
March 6, 2019
Book Piracy Petition.
If you remember, I wrote a blog post on Book piracy not that long ago, that went into detail on why I dislike it so much.
In light of that week, a fellow writer, Wendy Clarke, owner of the wonderful Fiction Cafe Book Club on Facebook, and I, decided to start a petition following unsuccessful reports of various pirate book groups.
Facebook rejected almost a dozen separate author reports for one specific group, simply because we cannot report copyright if it is not ‘OUR’ intellectual property. They also claimed these groups did not breach the community guidelines known as Facebook law!
Despite these groups having multiple illegal files from well known authors and shamelessly distributing them.
Being that we are very stubborn women, we decided to start a movement to have Facebook revise this policy and crack down on illegal book sharing on it’s platform.
#stopbookpiracy
We ask that they…
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Book Swag Ideas and a Free Printable
Here at Carrero HQ we are always thinking up ways the fans can show some appreciation without spending a fortune in fan merchandise. We also have no issue with other authors using our ideas to make their very own book swag for giveaways and events.
This week we came up with a printable which can be turned into a little fan pack for any budding Carrero obsessive.
For best results we recommend printing on Card stock and if you do not have a laminator then you can use clear jotter protector or wide sticky tape.
If you want to show us your makes , tag us on Facebook and Instagram or use the hashtags #clubcarrero (if you do this on twitter your tweet is auto retweeted by Team Carrero for all to see.
Our printable to make all pictured in either Carrero theme or Just Rose
Carrero Printable-fan-packDownload
Just-Rose-fan-pack
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WTF Outfox the market???
So I just came home from a school meeting to a recorded delivery threat from Outfox the Market, for being a member of a group of ex customers. A group I was added to and have only ever posted comments in a handful of times while still being a customer. Not anymore (wooohoooo celebrations that day)
I am laughing so hard.
I don’t use the group anymore, did when I was trying to get away from them for advice.
1- I no longer use it and never posted anything ‘sue-able’ just the truth. Never took part in any smear campaigns.I have hundreds of unused groups on my FB I never left.
2 – I won’t be bullied by a heavy handed company who blocked my leaving them 3 times unlawfully. Then try and clamp down on customers with their own bully campaign for speaking the truth.
I was not involved in a ‘smear campaign’ just spoke out about my own experience and now I am seeing why certain individuals are so against you.
Therefore I am well within the boundaries of the law.
‘Spoken defamation is usually referred to as “slander,” while written defamation is usually referred to as “libel.” … Truth is a defense to a defamation lawsuit. It is not libelous or slanderous for a person to repeat a truthful statement about someone, even if the statement may damage that person’s reputation.’
I am no longer a customer so snooping on me on Facebook and handing my personal details to this Bastian PLC, seems like something I should be consulting my own lawyer about.
‘Hate group’ I think it’s more accurate to call them disgruntled current and ex customers speaking out about your company.
If certain members of the group are going out and doing these things, then by all means contact them. The fact you sent a letter to anyone who is a Facebook group member says a lot.
It’s how you operate.
I would love to see proof of how I am implicated and I will bring all my emails and proof of how your company held my account hostage for months and kept refusing my switch for ridiculous reasons. I have proof that you reinstated my DD without my permission. OFGEM has reports about your company already.
This is just actually typical of the behaviour I have seen from this company on Trust Pilot where they are pulling down peoples reviews and posting personal data online in responses. Total breaches left right and center.
If any of these people you speak of are my friends then you don’t have a legal right to tell me to cut contact with them….go away.
More bully tactics from a company I ever regret getting involved with.
Pretty sure snooping on social media, taking a member list and using your customer data base for ex customers details to hand to another company is not lawful….will soon find out. Off to find a phone number.
Want to explain why on anonymous Trust pilot reviews you are posting customers names in response and accusing them of being the authors?? BREACH OF THE DATA PROTECTION ACT right there. Also , there is this thing you need when trying to sue people – proof. So far all I have seen are honest accounts from customers you messed with.
Spend more time rectifying the account issues and less time arguing with reviewers on Trust Pilot, sending scaremongering letters to Facebook group members and heavyhandedly denying half the things your ex customers are complaining you did.
You want people to stop bad reviewing you and bad mouthing your company – rectify and improve.
All your letter has done is add weight to why I would never recommend you.
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March 5, 2019
Square Peg
This is me.
A square peg in a board of round holes that we call society.
I can’t say when I first noticed it, I mean, really saw that compared to those around me every day I just didn’t quite seem the same. I guess I was too young to realise what that really meant. To be an odd shape or an oddball that could not slide into the space life reserves for the round pegs around us. While they smoothly nestled into what was expected on the big board of life and met all those imaginary goals that someone says we should all meet as children. I struggled to understand why all the things we learned side by side just did not seem to absorb into my flat edges the way the round pegs seemed to get it. I didn’t progress like they did, my growth goals, my milestones…
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March 2, 2019
Carrero Update
Just a brief check in for followers who are patiently waiting.
Book 9
The Carrero Contract – Finding Freedom
It’s being written (we had a lot of personal delays but I swear I am working on it) Release date will come when I have gotten farther into the editing and tweaking stage.
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The Carrero Magazine Issue 2
For the same reasons that have delayed the next book, we had to slow down on the magazine. It’s ready to go live next week but we are switching it from quarterly to bi-annually. All subscriptions were cancelled for the new billing and all members were contacted to have it rectified. You will get the online free version link when it goes live.
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Alexi’s View Bonus book
It will be coming after book 9. The cover isn’t ready for release yet but the content has been voted on by fans and chapters picked. It will join the other bonus books.
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Free Carrero Bonus Book – March 1st to 5th 2019
It’s FREEEEEEEEEE
We are onto our 4rth giveaway in our year long Carrero freebie calendar.
The beloved romance series, with a growing fanbase that follows multiple characters as they learn to trust and fall in love.
What is the Carrero series?
Books 1 – 3 arethe story of a young, emotionally scarred woman, embarking on a new relationship with her employer. Recently promoted to his side; a friendship forming which helps her face her scars, her past and forms a new life built on mutualtrust and love. This is an epic turbulent story about letting people in, letting people go and learning to reconnect with emotion. Lots of engaging characters, twists, turns and drama.
Books 4 – 6 follow the character Sophie, from the first books, and Jake’s brother Arrick. A close friendship formed by mutual need that leads somewhereneither expects.
Books 7 – 9 featuring Alexi Carrero and Camilla Walters. When…
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