Tag Archive | stalker

Minnie’s Remarks: I’ll be Gnome for Christmas (Book Review)

Oct25
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hi, I’m Oliver’s smaller but older sister, Minnie, as in Minnie Pearl, because the foster family had named me Dolly Parton and no offense to Dolly, they thought my petiteness needed to be mentioned every time they talk to me. Humans are odd, but I love my life with them, much better than the Amish puppy mill where I lived for three years. Now I get sunshine, snuggles, toys I’m learning to play with, and a buddy in Ollie, who like any brother, can be a pain, but I let him know in no uncertain terms when he crosses the line.

Mom asked me to review her latest Christmas novella, I’ll be Gnome for Christmas, a whimsical inspirational romance. She wrote it before I came to the house but she let me look at the story when she was making corrections during editing and I gotta say, there’s some funny names in this story which lighten the emotional weight of struggles the two main characters carry.

Gigget Wicket is a widow with two young children and she carries shame from her husband’s infidelities. Not only was he a cad, he left her high and dry when he died which was rude. She’s barely making it and isn’t looking for a new man to love because she fears part of the problem was that she was unworthy. She clings to faith in God and good friends and works hard to make ends meet, even selling produce at the local Farmer’s Market in town.

Bingle Twinkle was left high and dry when his wife decided she preferred his then-best friend. Losing a wife meant losing his dream for a happy family. Between factory work and serving in the Army National Guard, he keeps himself so busy that usually he doesn’ t have time to experience the loneliness. But when he runs into Gigget and her two little gnomes at the Farmer’s Market, sparks fly between them.

Gigget’ s children, Djoni and Amoretta really like Bingle and his way of diffusing a hostile man without raising a fist. They are praying for a dad who’ ll make them and their mother happy. With the holidays approaching, could a Christmas miracle be in the works?

This book entails real life mixed with wit and whimsy and a touch of dreams really do come true. Buy it for me mom and leave her a nice review so I can get more bully sticks since Oliver keeps stealing mine. I’ll give this book five bones so go buy I’ll be Gnome for Christmas, you’ll be glad you did.

You can listen to my mom talk about this book here:

Social Media Stalkers

Sep30
Reading Time: 2 minutes

IMG_0325 (2)Last week I wrote about voyeurs and this week I want to tackle what I will call the “stalkers”. Here’s an example of a private message sent to me on Facebook:

hello dear i did some criteria search for singles women and felt you was interesting so why not check out mine and get back to me if you like what you see,still new to this,a old friend told me about it,he actually met his wife through facebook so i thought i should give it a try,i hope this doesn’t sound like an embarrassing to you because i do know not everyone uses facebook for dating but i hope you are also single and searching like i do,i also notice the distance between us so don’t let it scare you away Love will always find you

I’ve had them from all over the world. Some telling me how beautiful I am but mostly wanting to hook up. I’m not the only woman to get them (I have not polled men on this though!) At first they seemed to come mostly from Africa and I though “green card?”

Here’s another one:

Hello babe am here with you now  How was your day?And what have you been doing since morning ….My name is  . . .

Babe? I’m no one’s “babe” much less his. It’s hard now for these people to send a message on facebook (many go to my spam folder so I don’t even see them) without sending a friend request.  When I get these I tell them that I am married with three kids and a Christian author. Not looking for “that” kind of relationship.  One man responded with “Whatever” and then three weeks later asked “Are you married?” Wow. Guess I must have really made an impression on him or he’s desperate!

This all points to the need for wisdom of who you choose to “friend” on Facebook.  When I first started I only “friended” people I knew (how’s that for turning a noun into a verb?). As I decided to use my Facebook page as part of my platform I began to “friend” other writers. Now I typically won’t friend someone unless we have mutual friends or I can see a logical reason (they are a writer too – or a fellow believer). Every once in awhile someone will have already befriended other writer friends of mine so I’ll give them a chance. Once I ended up blocking when it seemed that person was possibly a hacker.

And that’s always the final option. Someone crosses a line and I give them the boundary. if they can’t respect that then I’m like the old N’Sync song: “Bye, bye, bye!”

So, have any of you been “stalked” on facebook? What’s been your experience?