BLOGGERS BEWARE: Green Cap Marketing, Aldwin Sturdivant, and the photo credit scam

BLOGGERS BEWARE: Green Cap Marketing, Aldwin Sturdivant, and the photo credit scam

Posted inRandom Musings, Rants
Oh, the lengths scammers will go to. I received an email recently about a photo used on my site. Specifically, it was about a photo used in this article. The photo in question is this one, a photo from Wikimedia Commons which can freely be used, with proper attribution. The email came from the photographer, asking for a link back to his site. Here is the email, in full: Hi I hope you are the right person on this., I hope you're doing well. I am very pleased to see that my creative work in https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Running_Man_Kyle_Cassidy.jpg is being used on this article…
Are you a writer if no one reads you?

Are you a writer if no one reads you?

Posted inRandom Musings, Writing
The question seems ridiculous, doesn't it? If you write, you're a writer ... right? Isn't that how it works? But the fact is, whether they admit it or not, every writer has grappled with a variation of this question, subtle or otherwise. After all, we don't simply want to write, we want to be read. We want to be experienced. We want to be RECOGNIZED ... ... as a writer. And there's the crux. What separates "a writer" from someone else? When can Joe say it when Bob can't? The basic answer is that if you write you're a writer.…