Announcing My Scholastic Books/Book Fairs Association…and More

Recently I was given permission to announce my professional association with Scholastic Books/Scholastic Book Fairs. I’ve been writing, editing and enhancing copy (internal and external) for them for three years now. It is a delightful association. They understand the value of great copy and content and I know, personally, what a huge difference they’ve made during my lifetime when it comes to fostering a love of reading in school age kids.

 

Kids who learn to love reading go on to contribute to their communities, families and country in countless ways. Their minds are open, unleashed, and readied for learning, analysis, and other crucial skills that create better lives and outcomes. I couldn’t be any prouder to write for anyone than I am to write for them.

 

And talk about a Mutual Admiration Society! The people that I write/edit/enhance for are among the most appreciative clients I’ve ever served. Not a month goes by that one of them isn’t thanking me for “rescuing” them: taking writing tasks off their hands so they can stay on track with their many other duties.  Every time I hear something like that from them, I just grin from ear to ear. I’m helping them be more effective and efficient by letting them focus on what they do best while I focus on what they need done that I do best. It’s a win-win situation for everybody, including their target audience, which includes teachers, librarians, parents and students who want to see kids excel in school and succeed in life.

 

I’m happier’n a goat with a mouthful of goat chow–and that’s happy!

 

In Other News…

 

I just had to block a woman from contacting me online as she is bullying, harassing and threatening to “Pursue” [me] “to the end of your life–and mine” for being a Kelley author and  booster. I have contacted the San Mateo Police Department so see if they have any criminal records on her. I need to know if she has a history of violence, stalking, or other police run-ins that I should be aware of.

 

This is the first time I have run into a Kelley fan who has cornered and snarled at me in the way she does. I know she’s jealous of my friendship with the Kelleys; she indicated that the first time she wrote to say that she would have given her life to have the friendship that I had with them. (OK, I get that. I’D be envious, too. Just not so jealous that it infected my life on a daily basis.)

 

Right after that, she got cryptic and weirder. When that happened, I decided to try to find out more about her by asking her a few questions before inviting her to get any closer to me.

 

What she said about herself wasn’t true.

• When I asked her to send me photos of her volunteerism on a Mercy Ship in Africa, she said she hadn’t gone yet–after telling me she had.
• And she never did send a picture of herself.
• There is no picture or information on her Facebook page
• She has no friends on her Facebook page.

All of these are red flags.

 

Anything else she divulged in comments on my blogs or emails early on, before I ended communications with her (and told her why after giving her several opportunities to come clean, provide proof of who she is, and get real with me) and deleted her comments, revealed a spirit of grandiosity and bullying that was just incredible.

 

When I officially backed off and went radio silent, she went ballistic, saying that the Kelleys didn’t treat me the way I was treating her, and accusing me of being unfair.

 

Accusing me of holding her at arm’s length because the Kelleys didn’t do that to me?  That’s scary!

 

The Kelleys felt comfortable with me; they didn’t feel any need to hold me at arm’s length. By contrast, I didn’t feel comfortable with this woman from the second time I interacted with her! Had the Kelleys felt about me the way I felt/feel about her almost from the get-go, they would have been justified in holding me at arm’s length—hell, at football fields’ length!

 

I do feel sorry for her. But I feel sorrier for me because she is obsessed with “getting back” at me for not putting out the welcome mat for her.

 

I tried–I gave her several opportunities to tell me something–anything–about herself that I could verify. Even a look at her picture could have told me a lot, but she wasn’t/isn’t willing to divulge it even on Facebook.

 

I wouldn’t give her my phone number so she could call and “chat” right away–as soon as she connected with me the first time–so she looked it up and said she got it anyway. (Another red flag.) I told her NOT to call it until I got some proof from her (or from the police dept she said she retired from–I reached out to them, too) of who she was/is and agreed she could call me. Since then I have screened all my calls.

 

It’s disconcerting to have someone breathing down my neck and berating me for telling about my friendship with the Kelleys…threatening me for telling it like it was.  She accused me of wiretapping the Kelleys phone because I have over 1000 reports of what we talked about–which I wrote down after each conversation. The only recorded voices I have of them are the ones they knowingly left me on my voicemail machines. And I have a signed, witnessed release from Carolyn Kelley giving me permission to use all of my accumulated materials to write about them.

 

This poor woman appears to be untethered from reality. She has appointed herself the Kelleys Protector and is accusing me of desecrating them.

 

Hell, the Kelleys don’t need protecting. The Kelleys legacies are sure and secured–and what I’ve written about them helped ensure that.

 

It takes all kinds to make a world. I just wonder what kind of world she’s living in. It must be  hell. I’d sure hate to be living there. From what little I’ve glimpsed of it, it has to really suck…