I’m thinking this morning of when my husband and I returned from a couple of nights in Calistoga, a charming town in California’s Napa Valley. Yes, it has its share of upwardly mobile types who go there to visit the many wineries. But there also are others who need to be replenished by the pastoral setting and many opportunities to take walks in the surrounding hills. I need that uplift today. (more…)
For everybody except those hiding under a rock, it’s impossible to avoid AI these days. 
I’m grateful to Al Sirois, a fellow Regal House author, for sharing with us his writing journey. 
Since my late 20s, I’ve recorded my dreams every morning, curious about the wonderful dramas that unfold each night in the subterranean depths. During a trip we took a while back to Osoyoos, B.C., I got a better understanding of dreams and the role they play in our lives. 
I recall returning home a while back after spending time at a recently built rental home on the Oxnard, California, beach. It had a wonderful view overlooking the harbor and ocean. You might think I would miss the incredible views and location, as well as the house, brimming with technological toys. But I didn’t. It was a relief to return to our simple Richmond abode, built in the 1940s. 
As a young woman in the 50s growing up in Canada, I was intrigued by hockey and football. Baseball didn’t exist for me then. It hadn’t entered Canadian consciousness, and it would take some years before it did. But I didn’t feel deprived. Hockey and football had much to offer at that time, including handsome, vigorous guys. 
Being part of an on-line writing group for several years provided me with many benefits. But the positives also produced a few negatives.
I didn’t get to sleep till 1 AM this morning after reading a fascinating article about the assemblage artist Joseph Cornell. I’ve felt that in many ways, he’s my spiritual father. A-I describes his work as intricate “signature boxes, glass-fronted shadow boxes that serve as miniature, poetic theaters. Inside, he meticulously arranged collages and three-dimensional ‘found objects’—such as old maps, vintage photographs, watch parts, and marbles—to create dreamlike, nostalgic universes that celebrate memory, astronomy, and romantic cinema.” 
I’ve just finished rereading Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady and have mixed feelings about the era and the characters. It’s difficult to read about Victorian morés from a 21st Century perspective. Not only do I need lenses that will give me a bi-cultural perspective, but I also feel squashed between a culture clash. Just after I finished with Portrait, I read a review of A. M. Homes’ book May We Be Forgiven in The New York Review of Books. One of her main characters says, 
In the SF Bay area, we’ve recently had unseasonably warm days, totally out of character for us at this time of year in San Francisco and the other nearby coastal regions. Most of us have been delighted to sit out in our yards at night and enjoy this new balmy climate. But then I read in the paper recently that the planet has been recording one of the hottest springs, reminding me that while I’m luxuriating in these above-average temperatures, the weather extremes are killing the planet. It’s a startling and disturbing statistic. 
I guess there is something comforting about the way today’s youth have become accustomed to their parents/guardians checking on them at all times via smart phones, etc. It may feel like being held in a kind of web (and here I’m not referring to the World Wide Web), a loving network. But it also suggests to me what it’s like to be trapped in a spider’s snare. The idea that none of us can have a moment when we aren’t being scrutinized in some way makes me shudder. What has happened to the notion of privacy and freedom? Am I old-fashioned to think they still are virtues?Another pay to play scheme: Feeding on the dreams of writers!
July 21, 2025
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| I’ve written before about how difficult it is these days to make a living as a writer. Besides the proliferation of ways to be published (traditional, hybrid, self-publishing), entire industries now exist to convince writers that this publication or that award or this marketing company will “spread the word” far and wide about their work. I was pretty sure that after decades in this business and a recent deep dive into the bogus contests one is encouraged to enter, I had insulated myself against any of these “pay to play” schemes.
I was wrong.
This time the request for an interview came from an outfit describing itself as “a literary magazine based in London.” The first third of my memoir Daughter of Spies is set in England so this seemed like a perfect fit and one that would help increase British sales. I spent three precious writing hours fashioning thoughtful answers to their interview questions which were impressively detailed, another reason I thought this was a legitimate outfit. Someone had really researched the depth and breadth of my published work. And they included my favorite photo with the credit line.
photo by Christiane Alsop Once I submitted the answers, I received a letter from someone calling herself the Editorial Director of this “magazine.” She should have used AI to write the letter if, as I suspect, English is not her first language. All typos are hers, not mine. This is A, Editor In Chief of the magazine. I’d like to thank you for participating the inteview. We found insightfull to your inteview and decided to include print editotion. And the punch line. Authors are expected to order copies of the print magazine at $35 each although Readers House can offer a 60% discount. And although they talk about distribution in 190 countries and you can buy one online from Barnes and Noble for $32.99 (!), it’s not clear, as I should have read first in an article on this excellent website, Writers Beware, that this print magazine is widely available in retail outlets in the UK or anywhere else. Two independent bookstores they list on their site had never heard of the magazine. As Victoria Strauss of Writers Beware points out, “Reader’s House basically admits, in one of its followup emails, that acquiring readers is not its main goal: ‘Unlike other magazines, our print edition is designed for authors rather than readers.’ In other words, author, you are our customer.” So this is not exactly a scam but it’s what we’ve come to call a pay to play scheme. As I wrote in an earlier post, “the one thing that has stopped me in my tracks is the number of “come-ons”, scams, and false promises that land in my inbox daily. Every one of these involve me spending money and, in the end, they will cost me far more than I ever expect to make in royalties. And all of them prey on a writer’s desperate desire to be lifted above others in the great cacophony of modern life where people more and more choose visuals on devices over reading the printed word.” I’ve informed Readers House that I won’t be buying any print copies although I appreciate the online exposure. However, I hope to include excerpts from the interview in a future Substack newsletter because, as a writer always pressed for time, I can’t stand the thought that one minute of mine was wasted. Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop (www.elizabethwinthropalsop.com) is the author of over 50 works of fiction for adults and children under the pen name Elizabeth Winthrop. These include the award-winning fantasy series, The Castle in the Attic and The Battle for the Castle as well as the short story, The Golden Darters, read on the nationwide radio program, Selected Shorts, and included in Best American Short Story anthology, and Island Justice and In My Mother’s House, two novels now available as eBooks. She is the daughter of the acclaimed journalist, Stewart Alsop. Daughter of Spies: Wartime Secrets, Family Lies, a family history about her parents’ love affair during World War II and their marriage lived in the spotlight of Washington during the 1950s was published by Regal House, October 25, 2022. Follow her newsletters on Substack. |
