So, I did a thing…

I was writing the last few pages of Davis’s story in the Iron Oath Sentinels series and took a break to check email. Of course, the author email was full of spam. One caught my eye. It was an author’s name I knew, that I followed for some time on social media, and who writes in the same broad genre of Western. I opened the email…sigh…just another book spammer.

I was feeling particularly catty that day, so after sending a DM to the author that they were being impersonated, I decided I was going to toy with the little mouse. Find the most ridiculous premise I could possibly think of and I wrote the spammer:

“Hey, R! I’d love to talk shop with you because I know there’s so much we have in common but I’m far too busy writing a book I’m developing. It’s a historical paranormal rom-com set in the Wyoming Territory about 1880. He’s a frontier attorney. Married to a stunning woman. They’re trying to raise a set of quadruplets. Oh, did I mention he’s a former Union officer and he’s a werewolf? His wife is a vampire. And they’re not sure what their kids are. Anyway, would love to talk shop but much later.”

I thought it was funny but it doesn’t take much to amuse me. A little later that day, I’m talking to a friend about the shared woes of inboxes flooded with spam emails and I told this friend about my response to one spammer. We were laughing ourselves silly until that friend said, “You know…”

“No. Do not go there!”

But, author brain being what author brain is, author brain then said, “You know the same things you write about would be in that premise: found family, a place to belong, being accepted for who you are not what you are…”

So, I did a thing.