Hacked off with Hackers

I think I've been pretty lucky so far in blogland. Most of the people visiting to check out my chatty chat are genuine readers, those who are interested in what I have to say, or at the very least, who want to know what will be happening next to my characters. But there are a growing number of comments from clearly less well intentioned types.
To start with I replied to some of these smartly messaged comments. They sounded pretty legit, things like
"I am really enjoying the theme/design of your website. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility issues? A number of my blog readers have complained about my website not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Chrome. Do you have any tips to help fix this issue?" Or even more perfectly tailored to get me interested "Amazing blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I'm hoping to start my own website soon but I'm a little lost on everything. Would you recommend starting with a free platform like Wordpress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I'm completely confused .. Any suggestions? Bless you!"
Sound pretty on topic don't you think? As one so new to the world of romance writing, I want to both encourage readers and writers to interact with me, and I love chatting via comments on other blogs and twitter. But with the links to these commentators own blogs consistently for shoes, website sales tools or just plain gobbledegook, I got wise pretty quick that though the comments about my writing and blogging being flawless might be flattering, they sure weren't legit.
Now, I don't want to discourage people from stopping by here, so I haven't turned up my security settings full blast. But I have made it a touch harder for a non human to bombard me with notes on nothing. If you're a real commenter, I apologize if that makes things take slightly longer, but I'm hoping that a wee burst of this and things will settle down again. Maybe I'll drop off that spam alert database in the sky, or at least, things will go back to a manageble level.
In the mean time, let me know how you deal with spam, on blogs or otherwise. And as always, happy reading!
xMichele

Image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Sneak peak

So I've sent off the first draft of Book Two of The Pacific Empress series to my fabo editor and now I'm cracking on with book three. I say cracking on, but with the insanely glorious weather we've been having, I have to admit that the words haven't been exactly flying onto the page at the moment...they will, they will. So in the interim I thought I'd share a tiny sneak peak into life back on board. Enjoy and do let me know what you think!
x Michele

"Today she wasn’t going to take any crap from Captain A-hole Atkinson. Staring over the head of her boss and the well stacked minion he’d taken to having tail him all the time, Felicity sought a glimpse of the ocean out the window. Better. She disliked the way the bulk of the ship disrupted the glorious view of Port Villa, but really, there wasn’t much to complain about. Vanuatu was definitely a tropical island paradise, and gazing at turquoise water was way better than having to watch Captain Atkinson’s face pout through his pep talk.

“He really shouldn’t pick such massive bodyguards, makes his short-man syndrome even more obvious,” she whispered to her neighbor.

            “Careful,” the Cruise Director, standing to her, left hissed back.

            Bugger. Felicity almost bit her tongue, literally, as the Cruise Director glared at her. Professional reproach poured off him, his body stiff, his lip stiffer. Bugger again.

            Must. Remember. New Cruise Director. Is. An. Ass.

            Darius Miller was about as far from her friend and the ship’s previous Cruise Director, Michaela Western as it was possible to be. Gangly. Uptight. A complete slave to authority.

Felicity sighed. Working for Adventurer Cruises was supposed to be relaxing for herself as much as for the passengers. Sure it wasn’t exactly a holiday, but it wasn’t massively taxing and when Michaela had been around at least Felicity had been able to blow off a little steam by providing snarky commentary about all and sundry on board. Damn Michaela for falling in love with investment billionaire Dylan Johns, leaving to take on the world at Head Office and have beautiful green-eyed babies.

Felicity sighed again. The new Cruise Director was no eye candy, and he was not a fan of her witty repartee..."

 

Snail mail isnt over already...is it?

So today in New Zealand, our national postal service has announced it may cut delivery of mail so that it doesn't happen everyday. To be clear, it already doesn't happen every day - Sundays are mail free, and many public holidays are too. What they mean is that they may cut down the delivery even further so we only get mail on three days a week. Three days a week!

Now, I don't get a huge amount of mail. Well certainly not much personal mail. But when I do get it, I love it. I love to open the envelope, the package (my mother in law still sends parcels wrapped in brown paper and tied with string - awesome) and unfold the carefully crafted contents at my leisure, preferably over a cup of tea. Would I miss out if this only happened on three days a week? Hmmm, I don't know. Maybe not. But the concept that we could be heading towards a truly digital scenario where there are NO MORE POSTED LETTERS, is that alarming to anyone? Of course, that's not what NZ Post are saying, and they've been quick to say that this is just a proposal, not a done deal. But it's pretty amazing that mail is declining so much that they are even suggesting this in the first place. When I look through my trunk of stuff - yes I have a trunk of stuff, literally, I still love to pour over some of the letters I've kept, the journals Ive written, and the hand written love notes of ex boyfriends. The idea of printing off a bunch of emails...it just aint the same.

Some people will, no doubt, discuss the change towards ereaders, and other mobile devices, making snail mail obsolete. And we do rely more and more on email, it's true. So what do you think? Would you be sad to see your letterbox turned into a birdhouse, or do you want the love letters to keep on posting?

x Michele

Images from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/