jbondo, on 22 January 2010 - 05:19 PM, said:
Sounds lie Ken is merely market testing short stories here prior to submitting a book to be published. This is a common practice I've seen done several times by would-be authors on forum boards. I remember this one guy who had a thread going for 2 years, it was huge, hundreds of pages long with thousands of posts (almost half of them his). He told this unbelievable tale of his interaction with alien life forms and swore it was the truth. Of course people dug and dug for evidence against him. He was a tough nut and extremely intelligent. Of course the more you talk the more you have to remember. He actually had previously published a book on aliens which was found out via poster investigation. I made it a point to post very little in the thread and mostly read. I finally discovered several things that would expose him completely. I sent him a message and told him that if he would admit guilt to me, I would in turn not expose him. He did just that and I kept my word. As far as I know that thread could still be going today (4 years later).
I am by no means putting Ken in this category as he seems harmless. He talks a lot about dreams, etc.. so I guess it doesn't matter as long as he doesn't try to pass this stuff off as nonfiction.
Hey, you're right about me. No one is more "harmless" than I am! You got that right. And I'm not "trying" to pass this off as nonfiction -- IT IS nonfiction -- period. If ayone here want's to consider it fiction, that's okay with me. I'm not putting a gun to anyone's head to believe my stories one way or the other. If the vast majority consider this stuff fiction -- that's cool with me.
And yes, I also have heavily participated in "huge" threads here that have gone on for many, many pages, like this one right here:
http://unexplained-m...showtopic=98623
Go there and you will see lots of people calling me a liar and lots worse. I don't blame them. They have a right to their opinions, and I respect that.
Will I get a book out of this -- almost certainly. In fact, the book is done, and I have two publishers who want to buy. I make no apologies for that. I had no idea in the first place that anyone at all would be interested in these stories. But since I started posting them here at UM, I have received more than 4,000 e-mails from people urging me to turn these materials into a book.
And, in any event, what's wrong with anyone using forums to "test stories" that may later become a book? It's a win-win situation for everyone. Again, people are totally free to read or not to read, believe or not to believe, to buy a book or not to buy a book.
If there are self-appointed "truth squads" out there who want to "expose" me or any other author as a fraud, I could care less. As the saying goes: "The only bad publicity is your obituary."