As an independent author I’ve learned that we have a very little voice when it comes to how we are treated.  Yes you can get into group and such but how much are you really getting from that?  Have you really sold more books?  I haven’t.
What we need is a store where you can sell your books, be it on line or in something brick and mortar to get anywhere.  You need places where you can have book signings without having to sit down next to a hundred other writers trying to do the same thing as you.  You need space and it needs to be somewhere that you are the center of attention for a few hours.  This could even work with five or ten writers in one sitting, but not with a room full of writers.
Somewhere out there, no I’m not about to break into song although it might not be a bad idea, there may be places where you can do that but I haven’t found them yet.  Yes it is possible I haven’t tried hard enough.  I have done a couple of book signing but they have been small, real small.  I’ve even thought of starting a You Tube channel that post book trailers by lots of indie authors just so it increases your chances of being seen.  Yes I have my own channel and the number of subscribers are growing, I have 14 now so go me, but a few subscribers on You Tube doesn’t sell books really.  Oh you might get a few sales from that but what you need more than anything is word of mouth.  You need recommendations.
Facebook had loads of pages where you can post your books but most of the people in those groups are just like you, they are trying to sell their books not buy yours.  There is one group that isn’t like that and it is a great group but all that is listed is eBooks for free.  Now you know why it isn’t like the others.  Free books for the readers is great but it doesn’t do the author’s pocketbook much good.  No, just because they read one of your books for free doesn’t mean they are going out and buying your next one and it has nothing to do with you being a bad writer.  It does have everything to do with if I can get a book for free why do I buy your next one.  I don’t hold this against them and for a lot of them there is a reason for that.  They can’t afford to drop a lot of money into our books.
As usual I don’t expect to hear back from a lot of you, even though you do read my blogs, so feedback isn’t something I expect to get a lot of.  Hey you’re busy and I get it.  I’m busy too.  If anyone does have an opinion or suggestion I will be happy to hear it and it will be appreciated.  Hang in there all you Indies.  Maybe something will change.

They have released my book and it is no longer suppressed. I have sent them an invoice attached to an email which is to be followed by one sent via certified mail and that will be followed by one from my attorney.
In essence they took possession of my work saying it wasn’t mine calling into question not only my work but my integrity and honor.  I will not let this go.  The image of Emma on the front of that book is my daughter.  That is my work and my daughter.
As indie writers we have to deal with a lot of crap from distributors and others because we don’t have the backing or the money as big name authors so we often are used, mistreated, and ignored.  Well I’m fighting back.  Now if they really want this sixty three year old grandmother standing in front of a news camera I can make sure they get just that.
If they had sent me something that had said, hey there’s a bit of an issue and we’re going to hold off selling your book until we clear this up it would have been one thing but they flat stated that they didn’t think it was mine and I didn’t have the rights to it and suppressed it to where I didn’t have access to it.  If I had wanted to pull it from their company I wasn’t even able to do that.  Someone actually went looking for that book and they contacted me and asked if I had deleted it.
So no I’m not letting it go.  Will I win?  We’ll see. It won’t be the first time I’ve gone head to head with a big company and I’ve yet to lose.  Maybe I will this time but it won’t be because I rolled over and played dead.  That’s not me and I’m not going to start now.  Createspace you messed with the wrong old lady this time and I have every intention of following this through to whatever end there might be.  At least you’ll know you’ve been in a fight.

From me.
Well thank you for that.  Please open the attachment for the invoice for $750.00 that you now owe me for holding 'my book' hostage.This will be followed up by a certified letter with the enclosed invoice and shortly there after a copy will be forwarded by my attorney.  I do expect payment from you for withholding 'my book' from me.  I still need to upload the correct copy the revision and I sincerely hope that will not be an issue this point.  You brought into question today not only my work but my honor.
Please do not take this as a joke. I've been doing my research today and I'm not the only one you've done this to.  Your problem is I'm a sixty three year old grandmother who would look pretty damn pitiful in front of a news camera.  Check the new attachment.



On Tuesday, September 18, 2018, 6:29:01 PM CDT, The Content Validation Request Team <validation-request@createspace.com> wrote:


Hello Cathy Pace


Thank you for your response.


We’ve reviewed the information provided and we are happy to inform you that your book will enter the File Review process within 24 hours.    

  

Once your files pass File Review, you can either view a digital proof or order a printed proof copy of your title. After the proof is received and you're satisfied with it, you will be able to approve your proof for sale once it leaves our manufacturing facility.  


We appreciate your cooperation in this matter and thank you for publishing with CreateSpace.


Regards,



CreateSpace Validation Request Team

validation-request@createspace.com



From: Cathy Pace Matthews

Sent: 9/18/2018

Subject: Cathy Pace Matthews, Member ID 2234692 Book number 5768667


I understand that you think I might not have the copyright to this book.  I first published this book as an eBook on Smashwords in 2014, October to be exact, and then published it on Createspace in 2015.  I later published it in hardback to Luly because you guys don't do hardbacks.When going through the book the other day I found a sentence that wasn't where it should be, I'm not sure why that was but it was, so I corrected it.  I unfortunately used the template for Lulu with that ISBN number instead of the one for Creatspace which is

ISBN: 1517571057


ISBN-13:978-1517571054


More than that I have no documentation to prove that the book is mine outside of the fact that I have five other books published with you people and was soon to publish a seventh.The name of the book in question is Blood Lines The Curse which has been followed by Blood Lines Buried Treasure as well as Blood Lines Family Ties as part of a series.  If you take a look at the cover on Blood Lines The Curse You will notice the young lady on there.  She is my daughter.  The farm the book is based on has been in my husband's family for over a 100 years, actually closer to 130 years.  The original book trailer, not the best and has since been redone was published on November 2, 2016.

Here is the link for the original book trailer.  Yes I know it was not good.Blood Lines The Curse - Cathy Pace Matthews


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Blood Lines The Curse - Cathy Pace Matthews


For over a hundred years the Rodgers family has been living under a curse. Everyone in the family line has died ...

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If you would like to see the latest well I can do that as well.Blood Lines The Curse 10 24 2017


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Blood Lines The Curse 10 24 2017


When you have to find the body of someone who has been dead for over a hundred years before a curse as old as th...

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Here's another one that will take you on a little tour of the farm and the things i write about in those books.  Not mine?  You bet your sweet life that book is mine.  This was a labor of love. Introduction to Cathy Pace Matthews 1





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Introduction to Cathy Pace Matthews 1


Never would I have thought a very old headstone would set me on a course that has caused my life to take such a ...
The little spaces you see are where I sent attachments and links regarding my book earlier.

Well Createspace is still holding my book hostage and now I’m really mad.  I called them and even the girl I talked to said I sent the stuff to prove the book was mine but it would take 24 to 48 hours for them to resolve the issue.  Oh hell no.  I then sent them an email telling then that at 12:00 noon starting today I was going to bill them $100.00 for every hour after that they held my book hostage.  I will then process a bill and turn it over to my attorney for collection.  Yes I’m damn angry.
You’ve had that book for three years selling it, distributing it, making money off it, but because I sent you a revised manuscript with one of your competitors ISBN numbers you’re wanting to say that this isn’t my work. Oh hell no.
Well they were nice enough to send me an email thanking me for sending them an email.  Yep, going to be an expensive proposition for them. They have less than six minutes before I start charging.

On October 7 2013 I sat down and started writing my first book, Blood Lines The Curse.  I wrote it beginning to end.  It’s my book.  I’m self-published so I am the publisher.  Any company that has printed my book is simply that, the printer.
So what am I pissed about?  When I uploaded the revised version of my book yesterday I made the mistake, yes it was my mistake, of sending the template from Lulu.  Every printer has a different ISBN number unless you go to the copyright office and get one through them.  I had every intention of doing that first of next year.  This whole writing thing got away with me and before I knew it I had several books published.  Go figure.  And getting a copyright for a book of short stories, holy crap.  You don’t even want to go there.  You have to get a copyright for each individual story or at least I think it works that way but the info is confusing.
I digress.  The point is now Createspace is claiming I’ve stolen the work from someone else because of this stupid ISBN number From Lulu.  Doesn’t matter that I’m listed as the author there as well they are just pissed I guess because I went to Lulu instead of Amazon, who knows.
Now I’m having to prove that the material is mine.  I just sent them so much crap that it may take days to go through it if they even do.  Up till lately I’ve been fairly happy with Createspace but now it is switching over to Amazon and things are going downhill.  Fast.  Yes I am presently looking to change the printer, distributor, I use but where the hell do you go and not get screwed?  There are few things that can and will piss me off to no end and among those are to steal my work or claim it isn’t mine.  I ran into something like this with You Tube a while back and that damn near started a war then.  I won by the way.  This one damn well looks like it is going to for sure.  You can do a lot of things to me but don’t mess with my husband, my children, my grandchildren, my family, or my books.  I will hurt you to no end for those things.  Oh and by hurt you I mean legally.  I have no intention of going to jail over you, yet.
Oh and the type of thing I would do that would end me up in jail is to chain myself outside your door screaming for justice.  Wouldn’t that make a lovely cover story for the press?  Poor defenseless old lady arrested for trying to stop someone from holding her work hostage.  Oh yeah, that’s what they’re doing right now.  Holding my book Blood Lines The Curse hostage.

Taking Care Of A Sick Child
No matter how old your children get when they get really sick you step back in time and become ‘Mom’ again.  I know, I know you never stop being a mom but you take a back seat to them more and more as they grow older and they grow up and ultimately have lives of their own.  They have boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, children, jobs, and grown friends.  They become busy doing all the things you were doing when you were their age and they unfortunately have less time to spend with their parents.  That’s the way life goes and for some of us we’re glad of this but we tend to miss our little ones.  Now for some parents they may not be too unhappy with the distance.  I don’t judge you for this, I’m just one of those moms who loves being a mom.
For most parents regardless of the type you are, let one of them get sick however, suddenly you become the most vital individual in their lives again.  Well if you’re lucky that is, if you don’t have a great relationship with your child or children you might have a different opinion about that.
My daughter Gina got really ill this past week and I spent five days taking care of her.  As a rule when Gina is sick she can be a bit demanding and honestly a pain in the bottom but this past week she was at the point where she was so meek and surprisingly apologetic that it scared me.
As for her normally being a bit of a pain when she is sick, less face it, we all are a pain in the butt when we’re ill.  We don’t feel good and depending on the type of person we are we either want you to go away and leave us the hell alone or you want us waiting on us hand and foot.  It’s normal.  Hence the reason for me being concerned with my daughter.  She has a hard time apologizing when she isn’t sick so her doing it continuously when she was sick scared me.  What do you expect, I’m a mom and I love being one.
The thing is Gina and I had a chance to talk this past week like we haven’t in a long time.  We sat and talked about anything and everything.  The most important thing I found out was that she was honestly still my little girl.  Yes she is grown and she has her own family and that comes first, as it should, but she is still my little girl and always will be.
There were other things that came out of this past week that not many would understand.  What those things are I will keep between Gina and myself but I will say that she has a certain talent that for many years she had pushed to the back because when my mom died, they were very close, she put it in a mental box and locked it away.  I knew she had opened that box a tiny bit in the past couple of years but this past week I got to see that she has thrown that box open and let all of it come spilling out.  I don’t know anything that could have made me any happier.  Sitting here now it makes me smile.
I don’t know if it works the same for others but no matter how worried you might get when your grown child is ill, if you have to go and take care of them remember to take the opportunity to get to know them all over again.  You might be surprised at what you learn.  I’ve always been proud of my daughter and what she has accomplished but this past week gave me a deeper insight into the woman she has become.  Yes I’m tired but it’s a small price to pay for what I got in return.  Thank you Gina for being the person you are, imperfections and all.  Oh and for the rest of you reading this, the imperfections aren’t that big or that many in my opinion but then, I’m her mom.

Some of you will have read my short story When Halloween Was Halloween.  That was pretty much a true story and it happened to me.  If you haven’t read it maybe you should before reading this one.
We all remember the movie Paying It Forward, well I did but not in a nice way.  I didn’t even mean to pay it forward it just happened that way.
The story I wrote was about a small child which is what I was when it happened to me so you would think that’s what happened when I paid it forward, nope, not at all.
At the time I lived in an old house, I’m talking old, and the huge front porch ran the entire length of the front of the house.  Nothing unusual about that with an old house but this house was built on a fairly large incline so on one side of the porch, which is where the driveway was, it was about three feet from the ground to the deck of the porch.  Steps led up to the porch from the drive way as well as steps that came up the center of the porch.  The distance to the ground to the deck there was a little higher at that point so it had two more steps than the side ones did.  Now on the other end of the porch it was about six feet or a little better to the ground and there were no steps.  There’s a reason for this rambling.
I was all dressed up for Halloween and the little trick-or-treaters that came knocking and believe me ours was one of the houses that everyone hit.  Yes I decorated big time for Halloween back then, graveyard and all.  My oldest brother had stopped by the house to partake of the goodies that we had laid out in the kitchen for family and friends who stopped by so it was busy at our house that night.  Usually always was on Halloween.  Oh I should tell you that the brother I mentioned before was the police chief of our fair little town and he was on patrol that night.
While my brother and I were goofing off a little a knock sounded at the door and I answered it with candy in hand for the little ghost, goblins, and princesses who might be standing there.  I was met of course with the expected little darling and of course a parent.  What I wasn’t expecting was the blood curdling scream that the woman let out nor what she did next.  She took a nose dive of my front porch on the side with no steps, remember the rambling, jumped up and took off down the road as fast as she could go.  Her three adorable children we left staring at the receding back of their mother as she screamed her way down the two lane highway that ran in from of my home.
I did the only thing I knew to do at this point and that was hustle the little ones into the house and hand them over to someone inside and yell for my brother to come and help me.  He had to chase this woman down the highway in his squad car and bring her back to the house in the backseat of his patrol car.  Once back at the house he nearly had to pry her out of the backseat because she refused to get out of the car unless I went away.  No problem, I went inside.  My brother collected the three well fed and happy offspring of this frightened woman and returned them to her.
To this day I can’t understand how I managed to frighten this woman so badly or how any grown up could be that scared of anything, especially so bad that she would leave her children behind.  I have a picture of that night and I thought I looked quite lovely, don’t you?

We all have those mundane things we have to do on a daily basis.  Pick up the kids, drop off the dry cleaning, and stop off at the post office on occasion.  You know what I’m talking about.  The irritating little chores and or incidental interruptions in our daily lives that irritate the living hell out of us and take up valuable time.
These are rarely if ever really pleasant even if nothing bad happens during these stop and goes we don’t like having to do.  Occasionally we might find something to smile about, maybe exchange a few pleasantries with someone we know or even don’t know, or maybe something beautiful that catches our eye for a moment but that still doesn’t make these things something we want to do.
Usually when we make it home if we have someone we relate a short synopsis of something that happened to us it is usually because we got mad about some incident or we ran into an old friend we haven’t seen in a while but that’s it.  Rarely and I mean very rarely do we come home with a tale that is out of the ordinary.  Tonight I did.
I had a couple of small errands I needed to run and decided to stop in at a Mapco to pick up a couple of bottles of water while doing all the other things I needed to do.  It was a fairly calm, not so hot evening that made me roll the windows down on the car and I was just sort of in my own little world when I pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store.  As I go to roll up the window this young woman, quite attractive, in a sort of odd bent over position yells out at me, “Sorry but I just had to go.”  It was at this point I noticed the sound of something liquid hitting the ground and then notice the very large stream of liquid making its way toward my truck.
I sit there stunned with my mouth hanging open for a moment taking in the scene in the now twilight evening hours and realize what is happening and I busted out laughing.  This darling young woman worked for Mapco and she had pulled one of those large floor coolers you find in those little stores where they store ice with beer or soft drinks, usually the former.  She had rolled it outside to pull the plug on it as it were to empty the water from the melted ice.  She started laughing and apologized to me stating that she had no idea what made her say that, it just popped out.
I walked up to her and said that’s perfectly OK.  Best laugh I had all day but her mistake was to pull that on a writer and she could bet she could read about her little joke tomorrow on my website.  Turning red she responded oh no you wouldn’t.  Yep, and of course here it is.
To that amazing young lady thank you.  I wish I could tell Mapco what a joy she is but I’m afraid the story might get her more in trouble than get her a pat on the back or a raise.  With her sense of humor and the way she deals with customers she deserves the later.  Unfortunately companies seldom have any sense of humor at all.  Shame.
Anyway to that young lady I would like to say thank you for making what should have been one of those boring stops a hoot and made my night.

I opened up my computer this morning and the first thing I see on my emails is this thing from You Tube.  Getting an email from You Tube isn’t that big a deal as a rule after all I have a You Tube channel.  Big whoop.
This one was different however.  This wasn’t the usual we’re offering this or if you do that sort of thing it was a great big congratulations with confetti no less.  I managed to hit what they consider high numbers and now that opens up a lot of new possibilities for me.  To me it just sounds like another excuse to get me to pay for something.  I could be wrong I really haven’t dug that deep into it yet but I will.
Oh here’s what was being showed with the graphic confetti;
OMG!
You had 1,141 minutes watched this month.
That's 19.017 whole hours!
I wish I could add the confetti but you get the idea.  No I had never received one of these before.  Go me, I guess.
But after that there’s a whole lot of you can do this and you can do that and our team members blah, blah, blah.  You get it I’m sure.
Anyway when I find out more about it I’ll let you know if this was an honest go me or a OK let’s see if we can turn this into a ‘let’s see if we can trick her into giving us money thing.’
I’m thinking the second but I’m a bit of a pessimist.  The flip side of this is book sales are up.  Not a lot but they are up.  On that one, yes, go me.
Anyway this was as close as I could get to confetti.

I have informed you that I started painting rocks, well it’s turned into something else.  I did a dragonfly, not one of my best works I have to be honest, for one of my granddaughters because she knows I love dragonflies and we’re always talking about them or looking for them when we’re outside.  I hid the darn thing and she found it and she loved it.  All’s good.  When I hid it was when my daughter told me that purple butterflies, I had painted the background on the dragonfly purple because Savannah loves that color, Gina told me purple butterflies are the symbol for Turner Syndrome.
If you don’t know what that is I suggest you look it up on the internet because it’s way over my head to explain but it is something that is near and dear to me.  I have a beautiful granddaughter who has it.
Today I painted a purple butterfly.  No big deal except what do I do with it.  I want to leave it somewhere that someone finds it that it will mean something to them.  It turns out a lot of organizations use the purple butterfly so it increases my odds that someone will find it that it might bring a special smile to their face.
I hope you will look up Tuner Syndrome and find out what it is and what it means to so many girls and women.  I first heard about it when I was writing my first book so I had some idea about it when it touched our lives.