For the purposes of the USA Today Bestseller Medical Thriller Author Publishing Collaborative Boxed Set program, Genius Media shall not incur any publication and promotion expenses of any nature in excess of the fees paid under the terms of its author agreements and shall have no power to obligate [redacted] or any other author for any publication and promotion expense above author fees paid whatsoever.There's a "cash call" prohibition and an expense cap. But Kairos wanted writers to believe otherwise, so it could inflate expenses and ensure a loss.
In 2013-15, I hired Mr. Bastian as a ghost writer and later co-author of a novel we wrote together called Henry and Tom, sold through Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).You'll note a reference to a bankruptcy. Wid Bastian filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition on January 13, 2020.
In mid 2015, Mr. Bastian embezzled money from a joint bank account we opened to pay for marketing campaigns for Henry and Tom. Rather than pursue embezzlement charges, I hired an expensive lawyer in Washington DC to transfer all rights for Henry and Tom to me in exchange for a $4K payment to Wid and a non-disparagement clause for both of us. This seemed at the time like the most expedient and cost effective way to deal with all the problems Mr. Bastian had caused.
I thought this matter was concluded until recently when Amazon/KDP informed me that a debt collection firm had placed a lien on Henry and Tom due to a bankruptcy filed by Wid Bastian/Genius Media Inc. KDP is currently sending my royalties to the collector per the lien. I have filed formal complaints with Attorneys General in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York in an attempt to have the lien removed in states where the debt collectors are registered. I have also filed formal complaints against Wid and Genius Media Inc. with the Attorney General of Utah and the County Attorneys Office in Providence, Utah.
I think blogs like this are creating awareness of the depth and extent of Wid’s continuing criminal activities so we can all work together to stop him from doing this to others and get him to face justice.
In last week’s midterm elections, Democratic and progressive political candidates flipped red House districts, key state legislative bodies, governors’ offices, and even Senate seats in Nevada and Arizona. We’ve elected one of the most diverse Congressional classes in history, with historic numbers of women and LGBTQ representatives, including the first Muslim and Native American women […]
Dressed as "Star Wars" characters, local officials in the Philippines are out and about to enforce strict quarantine measures while also handing out relief packages.
One virus; 18 ways of seeing the world. Covid Latam is a collective project documenting the coronavirus pandemic as it unfolds across Latin America. Photographers – 9 men and 9 women – are working in 13 countries: Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba and Mexico to document the unfolding story of the pandemic through the Covid Latam instagram account
Continue reading...Determined to find an uplifting moment every day, the Yorkshire photographer Rebecca Cole has been in search of images that bring spring to her family and friends in lockdown. She has been sharing a daily image with them via Blipfoto for the last six and a half years, but photographing nature has provided a particularly welcome escape in recent weeks
Cutting short our holiday to Cuba as Covid-19 took off, it was an eerie feeling transferring through an emptying Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in the middle of the day with the shutters down on duty free. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got home but, while life felt uncertain, I knew my wildlife - my haven - would still be there. The countryside around Burley-in-Wharfedale, my home, has become my daily sanctuary, now more than ever.
Continue reading...VE Day celebrations, physical distancing and lockdown – the most striking photographs from around the world this week
Continue reading...We want to see your photos, videos and audio of what it is like doing your job on the frontline
Staff working for the NHS have expressed concern about the lack of protective personal equipment, with photographs circulating on social media of staff creating their own makeshift items, including with clinical waste bags.
We want to see healthcare workers’ photos, videos and audio of what it is like doing their job.
Continue reading...Your local boozer might be shut but the pub quiz lives on, with everyone from Helen Mirren to Stephen Fry asking the questions
In an unidentified magnolia room, Lenny Henry is yelling: “Let me hear you say: ‘YEAH.’” Next to his face, a live chat feed blurts out heart emojis and comments such as: “Hello, Sir Lenny!”. Or: “I’ve had the biggest crush on Lenny Henry since his Chef days.” Or: “Hi, my team name is Wuhan Clan.”
The Dudley comic is hosting the National Theatre’s online pub quiz, a pre-recorded broadcast, streamed via YouTube and Facebook. He is joined by Lesley Manville, Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen to pose 15 minutes’ worth of intensely difficult general knowledge questions to the public. And, bizarrely, to announce that: “I will pull interesting faces while you write the answer down,” before shooting his eyebrows to the sky and gaping his jaw as if he’s running an advertising campaign for his own tonsils. Still, this is lockdown living; everything’s a bit odd.
Continue reading...If you would like to take part in a project about love and loss, we’d like to hear from you
After losing his father and younger sister in recent years, photographer Simon Bray has an appreciation of what it feels like to lose someone close to you, and through his photography project Loved&Lost, he offers the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate those who are no longer with us.
If you have lost someone through coronavirus and would like to take part, we’d like to hear from you.
The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has announced its Nature Photographer of the Year 2020.
This year, for the first time in the GDT's history, voting was carried out online, due to the pandemic.
Ready for your weekly dose of amazing animal photos?
These are sure worth your time.
Here's a link to our previous list, in case you missed it.
This video is from 2017 but it just makes us feel so warm and happy that we had to let it surface once more!
The video is only a bit over a minute but filled with a lot of emotions, excitement, and love, that you can just feel.
Elephants are truly remarkable animals, so intelligent and gentle, you can just tell they have a big heart.
In days when face-to-face interaction is so 2019 and millions of people all over the world are zooming in with other people, it is only natural that the people on the internet will find a way to get the cats involved too.
So, they created a fake screenshot of a zoom call by taking a pic of a cat in a steamy position, put it in a video call frame, and adding a photo of another cat shocked by it.
And the result? Simply brilliant. And hilarious.
The talented Instagrammer, Chaz Hutton has found a creative way to describe the perils of life with a series of brutally honest graphs to make you chuckle.
We have gathered the funniest ones he created about animals.
This video is an oldie but goldie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt turns the tables on the paparazzi that were bombarding him with cameras and questions. It's a curious thing to see how the paparazzi react when being fed a ration of their own medicine. It's almost as if they don't like it, like really don't like it.
Oh man, "Chad the Alpha" is on one. This conversation just stinks of delusions. Alpha bro reaches out to another dude and literally asks him to break up with his girlfriend, because he suspects that she'll be happier with him. Yeah, okay, Chad.
