Roberto Arango is Out
Arango is a former Puerto Rican senator who left office a few years ago after nude photos of him surfaced on Grindr. He also has a history of voting against gay issues and aligning himself with conservatives while in office…even though he’s been gay all along.
On Friday (7 March), he officially came out in an interview with radio station Noti UNO.
He was asked by a reporter: ‘Isn’t it time for you to state whether or not you are a homosexual?’ Arango replied that the day he is asked the question, he will have nothing to hide.
So the reporter asked more directly: ‘Are you a homosexual?’
The former senator said: ‘Yes.’
I have no comment on this one, other than how many more like him are out there.
A photo of Arango bending over naked in an obvious position can be found here. Sometimes a photo does, indeed, speak a thousand words.
I have no comment here either. But if a photo of Rush Limbaugh ever surfaces like this one you may have to get my smelling salts.
Me on LazyBeagle
This month the folks over at www.lazybeagleentertainment.com featured me…and one of my books. There’s an author of the month spotlight you can read more about here.
The book that’s featured is one of my most recent in the Glendora Hill series, Cowboy Christmas Miracle. It’s not just a Christmas novel. It’s a book that covers an important part of the series and all of the returning characters. There are three books in the Glendora Hill series completed that haven’t been released yet. One of which is a bonus book I’ll be releasing soon titled, Silver Lining Ranch, that I wrote as a bonus for readers and priced at .99.
I’m truly thrilled and would like to thank everyone over at Lazybeagle. I think they are the hardest working people online nowadays.
Here’s the home page to the web site, too. I don’t think there’s a more comprehensive web site out there for authors and readers. They actually took all my books, organized them, and put them up on the web site. And I even have trouble doing that myself. And they do this for all authors without even being asked.
Amazon E-book Return Policy
This is just an observation.
Here’s a link to Amazon’s E-book return policy. This is what it states on Amazon:
Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you’ll no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return content, visit Manage Your Kindle, select the Actions button next to the title you’d like to return, and select Return for refund, or contact customer service.
This goes for all e-books, those that are full length novels over 100,000 words, and those that are short stories containing 5,000 words.
Although I don’t have a huge issue with book returns, at least not with any of my indie pubbed books on Amazon, I do think it’s interesting to note that I do get a few returns in the US, but never once from any country abroad. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if other authors experience the same results. I just think it’s interesting that US readers are more inclined to return than readers in other countries.
I, personally, have never once returned an e-book to Amazon. And I haven’t loved every book I’ve purchased.
Absolutewrite.com
I was perusing a few publishing blogs early this morning and found something on a literary agent blog that made me blink a few times. An innocent, decent newbie writer asked a simple question and the agent answered with a little advice and by recommending the newbie check out absolutewrite.com. In fact, the agent blogger made it sound as if absolutewrite.com is the beginning and end of all things publishing for newbies.
Frankly, I think advising a newbie writer without warning to check out absolutewrite.com is a lot like sending Tinkerbell into Valdimir Putin’s office with magic fairy dust. There are some interesting forums on AW, but it’s not a place anyone should ever go without at least preparing themselves ahead of time, especially not an innocent newbie who really wants to learn facts. I have read some of the most vicious, inaccurate things I’ve ever seen in publishing over there, I’ve seen flamewars over nothing, and I’ve seen so many misinformed know-it-alls handing out hearsay I stopped going there more than a few years ago. It’s also a place where some clever authors have found a way to self-promote in the sneakiest ways.
But more than that, when I think of absolutewrite.com I think of all things old Internet. I think of the olden days when the only issues writers had to worry about were questionable literary agents charging reading fees. I think of Preditors and Editors. Those days are long gone. The issues writers face nowadays range far beyond what they once were. And to advise someone without warning to go to absolutewrite.com isn’t just bad advice, it shows the blogger is living in a different time zone…like 2004.
I’m not totally anti AW. I think there are some interesting forums. I do think there are things to learn there as well. It’s just not a place where I would send a newbie for detailed, credible advice.