My First Nasty E-Mail

I know that if I eventually publish my novel I can look forward to nasty reviews and nasty e-mails from readers -- it's just a part of being a writer. It has nothing to do with me and more with whomever has reviewed the book or written the e-mail.

I always wondered if I'd be able to handle it, and then recently I got an e-mail at my job that gave me a taste of what I can look forward to.

In seeking travel agent comments on the new mega ship, the Norwegian Epic, I sent out several "cold" e-mails to travel agents I don't know.

This was the e-mail I sent (names of people and the publication have been erased):


Hello,

I am an editor with xx xx xx, a online trade publication targeted at travel agents. I'm working on an article about what travel agents are the most excited about re: the Norwegian Epic, and was hoping you could help me out. Are you or your clients looking forward to the July launch of the Epic? What one aspect of the ship are you most excited about and why?

Thanks for any input you can provide.


That evening I got the following response.

Sorry, your English is so poor, I could never believe anything you wrote.
Therefore, I have no comment for you.
Additionally, I request you remove me from your email list immediately.
Larry


I have to say I was so shocked when I first got it. My immediate impulse was to hit reply and let off a string of profanity. My second impulse was to begin a negative media campaign against his travel agency. But eventually I calmed down and decided I could be the professional in this case and take the higher road. I simply deleted the e-mail and will never contact this agent again.

Of course if anyone ever asks me if I've ever heard of his agency, I'll let them know a very rude man named Larry works there, and to avoid him at all costs.

But the point is, I got over my immediate shock. I realized his e-mail had nothing to do with me or my writing and I moved on.

If I ever get my novel published, I believe I'll be able to handle most of the negative comments that come my way.

Stranger Than Fiction

I'm in several Yahoo groups for all sorts of mystery-related associations and reading groups. All kinds of great information comes through on these lists but every once in awhile members will share some crazy news they've read. I read two items over the past two days that I just felt like I had to share.

One's pretty funny; the other is pretty disturbing.

Shall we start with funny?

This is from The Writer's Forensics Blog (http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/), which is written by D.P. Lyle, MD. For regular readers of my blog, you might remember that Dr. Lyle is the doctor who helped me with the poisoning scenario in my book.

He has a regular category he sometimes posts called Stupid Criminals. In this post, he tells the story of a woman, who at the time of her crime was serving on a jury for a credit card theft case in the Bronx.

During the trial, guess what she did? She stole a credit card from a fellow juror and went on a shopping spree!

Well the credit card noticed the unusual activity and alerted the man from whom the credit card was stolen. He called the police who tracked the activity and found a security camera revealing the woman shopping.

This case hasn't wrapped up yet, because the woman is claiming that the man was hitting on her and gave her his credit card to use. Yeah, right!

Ok, now for the disturbing item.

This originally comes from a Memphis newspaper I think. The body of a woman who has been missing since January was found last week UNDER a MOTEL BED INSIDE a metal frame with a mattress and box spring on top. It appears the body had been there SINCE HER DISAPPEARANCE!

That means her body was inside that bed for almost three months in a hotel room that has been rented out to people since her body was put there!

Her body was eventually found because a fould odor was reported by motel staff. Uh, you think? A body rotting beneath a boxspring and mattress for a few months? I can't believe it took three months to smell that!

According to the police the room has been rented out five times in that three month period and been cleaned "numerous" times as well.

And nobody smelled anything wrong? Noone sleeping on top of a rotting corpse sensed anything amiss? Their nose never wrinkled at a putrid scent rising from beneath them?

It just grosses me out thinking about it.

To make the whole thing just a little bit weirder, or maybe more pathetic, the police knew that the missing women had been living at the hotel and that she'd been staying in that room. While they went to the motel and spoke with some staff members, they never went inside the room to investigate!

OK, maybe I've seen one too many CSI episodes, but that just seems plain remiss.

Anyway, after reading this, I'm thinking maybe I need to start lifting up the boxspring and mattress on hotel beds before I snuggle in for the night. I don't EVER want to find out afterwards that I was sleeping on a corpse!!

Hey gals, whaddya think of in-air ladies only bathrooms?

Sounds crazy, right! But it's real. Japanese carrier All Nippon Airway is introducing women-only bathrooms on most of its planes, for all international flights. According to the air line, the new loos are in response to passenger requests -- from female passengers.

One women's only bathroom will be designated at the back of the plane. It will display a pink version of the universal symbol for women's bathrooms -- you know what I mean, the stick like figure in a skirt. If this bathroom is in use, women are free to use any other toilet that is open.

However, men may only use the women's only bathroom:

1.) When required for safety reasons -- I've been trying to think of a saftey reason that would require a man to use a bathroom, but haven't been able to come up with one yet...

2.) When a male passenger is not feeling well -- well, doesn't that defeat part of the purpose! Part of the reason to use a women's only bathroom is that when a man is having "stomach" issues, it usually (I said usually) smells worse than when women have the same problem.

3.) When there are very few female passengers and the women-only designation has been lifted for the flight -- can you imagine the overhead announcement. "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen. As there are actually very few of you ladies onboard today, we'll be lifting our women's only bathroom rule. Gentlemen, please feel free to use the lavatory with the pink women on it."

So what do you think?

Personally, I think it sounds great! I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the bathroom, realized I forgot to put my shoes back on before I left my seat and ended up with sticky socks! I try very hard not to think about what's making my socks sticky!!

And like I said before, we all know guys' crap smells worse than women's, right??

A flight comparison Web site in the UK, Skyscanner, polled its visitors about what they thought of the idea. Interestingly, the concept divided the opinion of respondents almost in half.

The poll asked whether travelers agreed with All Nippon Airway's move? 46% of voters agreed with it, and said all airlines should do the same. 51% isapproved of the idea.

Hmm, you think that division is a divsion by sex. Most women perhaps agreeing and most men disagreeing?

In its press release announcing the results of this study, Skycanner said "With fewer toilets to choose from when flying, men may have to queue for longer on flights that offer women-ony WCs."

Well, it's about time!

So what's your opinion?