Bad Banana

 From the fabulous Jenny Lawson   You are being scammed. Don’t fall for it. October 24, 2025 in Random Crap This isn’t a real post. It’s me venting a little and also maybe letting you in on something that might cost you a lot of money if you aren’t aware of it, especially if you are an author. Scammers have been taking advantage of authors forever. They know that your books are your babies and you desperately want to find the readers who will love them and that can make you emotionally invested in ways that make you vulnerable to people taking advantage of you. Here are a few recent and not so recent scams to be aware of, including one I got close to falling for myself: THE PAID PODCAST SCAM: This one consists of someone wanting you to be on a well-known podcast (or facebook live, etc) where you’ll be getting $3000 just for participating. This is the first red flag. You don’t get paid for being a one-time guest on a p...

Writing is cathartic, says poet, who voices his trauma in new collection Tuesday, October 7th, 2025   Joseph Dandurand. Photo by Peter Arkell   By Shari Narine Windspeaker.com Books Feature Writer Joseph Dandurand’s latest collection of poetry, I Would Like to Say Thank You, is a raw look into a life that has been both hard and rewarding. The Kwantlen First Nation poet calls writing poetry cathartic even if he’s sharing something with the reader that he has kept to himself for years. “I think probably the emotion that I'm in in that moment when I'm creating something might allow me to put my guard down and allow trauma to be voiced in a way that is, unfortunately, soothing and traumatic at the same time,” said Dandurand. His process is such that he allows whatever is in his head to flow on to the paper...