Writing Business | Cathy C. Hall Writes

I expect if you’ve been writing, you’ve been taken advantage of, writing-wise, somehow, some way. Which is really annoying, because writing’s hard enough as it is.

That’s why a group of brilliant writers banded together to bring the world Writer Beware. You’ve probably heard of this site, and know you can go there to get valuable information about scams and scoops, and help with your “problems or pitfalls” in publishing.

But did you know Writer Beware had a blog, brought to you by the same three authors? Not only do they bring you up-to-the-minute publishing news, but they also have links to tons of great blogs-agents, editors and info. It’s a quick way to find some of the best writing resources available on the ‘net.

Which is really swell, because I’ve got enough to do, producing scathingly brilliant writing.

(P.S. There’s still time to comment for The Quick and the Thread. I’ll leave the giveaway open till Monday so weekend visitors can have a chance to win this fun read. But it’d be really, really swell if you commented on that post.)

I don’t really understand “the internets” all that well. But occasionally, I’m forced to figure out some internet-related glitch. So what I usually do is a. turn off my computer or b. scream at “the internets.”

Neither of these approaches worked very well when the Beneficent Mr. Hall had his Facebook account hacked into. Suddenly, very interesting, not to mention titillating messages were sent to his flock of friends. Which numbers about 10. Seriously.

Still. It was unnerving. Especially in light of the fact that the Beneficent Mr. Hall’s email account had been hacked-twice. Unfortunately, there were quite a few more contacts in that account, including business contacts. Um, oopsies!

So, what to do? For the Facebook account, he went all Terminator on it (I mean, who can blame him? The internet demons seem to have targeted him). He tried to terminate his email account, too, but couldn’t figure out how. So he cleared out all the contacts.

Which brings us to our Tuesday Tip. You never know when the internet demons might attack. You can have all kinds of internet protection in place, but you could still get hit. So, you might want to be careful about holding on to tons of contacts.

I go through my contacts and get rid of dated ones, but recently, I had a TON of editor/submission contacts hanging about in my email. Imagine if the editor at a Christian anthology received a very interesting, not to mention titillating message from yours truly.

She’d probably go all Terminator on me. So clean out those business contacts, just to be on the safe side. Oh, and change up your passwords once in awhile, to keep the demons on their toes.

And go ahead and scream at the computer. That always makes me feel better.

(P.S. If one of you, my personal and very bestest friend contacts, should get a very interesting, not to mention titillating message from me, please know that’s it’s not from me. Probably.)