Another Wanderingscribe Sicko-Fant Article

Whilst it has been a little quite on the news front regarding the most brilliant author in the entire universe (only kidding folks), it appears that news of Anya Peters exploits has reached a columnist from The Independant newspaper.

One would expect a high level of journalism from such an esteemed paper and so it was that I settled down with a cappuccino (the drinkable kind, not the monkey) and a HobNob to read up on what she has been up to lately.

Sadly though, it quickly became apparent that here was an article that had been cobbled together from a press release of Harper Collins and anybody even vaguely familiar with the Anya Peters Con story could be forgiven for thinking that the "journalist" had owed someone a favour and was advertising the forthcoming book under the guise of "News".

Not very up to date news though as it turns out.

Launching into his article by "bigging up" the "surprisingly high profile in our culture of Vehicle-dwellers" (he can actually remember three, not what I'd call high profile) he then waxes lyrical from his Harper Collins Press release, mixing up a few phrases here and there and touting them as new facts

For Example:
Did you know that WS has become a bit of a small celebrity in the blogosphere over the last few weeks?
WS has had more than 200,000 readers
There is talk now of a future bestseller.
A film deal would seem to be only a matter of time.
WS has revealed her real name, Anya Peters.

Sacre Bleu !!
The Independent readers would probably be chomping at the bit to rush out and buy this forthcoming blockbuster (or "bestseller" as it's optimistically described) when faced with all these “facts” without bothering to look at some of the actual facts.

Did you know that WS has become a bit of a small celebrity in the blogosphere over the last few weeks?
Really?
What has she done in the last few weeks?
Bugger all actually.
Somehow I think that this was actually news in about April 2006 but "Hey!", you can't blame Terence Blacker for not getting off his arse and actually checking the facts out.
Not when a press release is so much easier to regurgitate for his column, after all, who’s gonna be checking …….

WS has had more than 200,000 readers
Oh dear.
The BBC article that mentioned her story had over 200,000 hits, not her site but it's somehow spooky that this number is being bandied about again (did someone say "press release"?).
It may well be that she has had more than 200,000 hits but that does not equate to 200,000 readers.
Numbers in this instance mean nothing at all really as this very own (homage) site has had in excess of 187,000 hits.
You could break the number down into unique page hits, unique visitors vs returning visitors and pretty much mangle the stats to say what you want but this enigmatic figure of 200,000 keeps being quoted as "proof" of something.

There is talk now of a future bestseller.
Who's talking?
Her agent?, That’s her job.
The publishers? That’s their job.
The press release? That’s its job.

There's talk of my own blog being made into a future bestseller.
Where's the talk? Right here. See!
What a meaningless phrase, particularly as the pre-sale order price is already being reduced by the likes of Amazon and Waterstones.

A film deal would seem to be only a matter of time.
First I've heard of it and I pride myself on keeping up to date on all things "Wanderingscribey".
I rather suspect that this is the only original sentence added to Terence's article but if someone has actual proof of this then I'd be glad to be proven wrong.
Please note the word "proof".

WS has revealed her real name, Anya Peters.
Wrong again, Terence. This has been revealed to be her pen-name.
At this rate, journalists will be getting a bad name for not checking the most basic of facts.

It wasn't all doom and gloom however as Terence knocks out a few phrases to bring a smile to the lips of those of us who have been following Anya's con for a while.
" the prose reveals distinct signs of literary knowingness" = She's been to a library and knows what books look like.

"Wandering Scribe ....a life of scrounging and desperation" = Desperate to get a book deal

Terence ends his article by musing that "Weblogs may have a profound influence on what and how we read and write in the future."

True mate.
You should read more of them and less of the Press Releases.................

Valentines Day for singles

No cards again this year?

Wanderingscribe Abridged (4)

Hey Ho..... Another month and another flood of posts from the nations (Well, Harper Collins) favourite ex-homeless, ex-abused unemployed ex-blogger. It's time for the next roundup of posts which I present as a public service to those of you who can't stomach trawling through Anya's posts themselves. Although, if truth be told, (I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid at this juncture) I'm starting to think that Anya is trying to do me out of business as the abridged versions of her posts that I present every few months are now only a few words less than her actual posts. The previous Abridged versions took us up to November 27th. The epic saga continues ....... December 24th - Bought some presents. Reminisced about being homeless. January 15th - Reminisced about writing my book. Reminisced about being homeless. January 21st - Reminisced about writing my book about being homeless. Got a cold. February 11th - Reminisced about writing my book. There ya go. 3 months wrapped up in 4 posts. And mainly just adverts for the forthcoming book. Does anybody on Planet Earth still believe it's all kosher?????? Wanderinsgcribe Abridged 3 Wanderinsgcribe Abridged 2 Wanderinsgcribe Abridged

Yesterdays Big Thing

I like to keep my ear close to the street to keep abreast of what's happening out there and the latest buzz is that things aren't going to well for bloggers who think they can knock out a book. An article on Librarians Place sums it up quite nicely in pointing out that the "bloggers book deal" bubble may well have already burst and that, although bloggers books were popular two years ago, sales of any books who can find their roots in blogs are now very disappointing and often fail to recover the initial advance. Perhaps Anya's agent will advise her to get into Science Fiction as a recent post on "Whatever" backs up the cold hard facts that blog writers do not make good authors unless specializing in fiction. What's that you say? She already is dealing in it ?!? The "Whatever" article even goes so far as to blame the publishers themselves for pandering to the hopes and aspirations of the would be authors in the vain hope that they can ride the crest of the "bloggers write good books" wave. Lord knows what would happen if a desperate person, down on their luck and who harboured aspirations of being an author was approached by an agent claiming to be able to get them a book deal (who would naturally get a percentage of any advance fee) based on the premise that "misery memoirs" were big at the moment. It just doesn't bear thinking about, does it folks .........

Sale of the Century

With only 4 months to go until the few remaining Anya Sicko-fants left in the world can get their mitts on the greatest tome to be published since Janet and John, there's some good news on the horizon. The official publishers price of £12.99 is already being discounted by the likes of Amazon who, possibly in anticipation of being left with the whole boxful that they must have ordered on their shelves, have slashed the price by nearly £4.50 to a cheap and cheerful £8.57 !! Do yourselves a favour folks and never pay the full retail price. Some regular readers may wonder why I am advertising Anyas book for her. Fear not, I haven't gone over to the dark side but I do so out of a sense of justice. After all, the whole point of my cheery little blog is to provide balance and I'm not "Mean ole Miss Negativity" all the time. If you find instances of her book being sold even cheaper then please let me know. We all love a bargain, eh folks !!

Fact or Fiction?

The latest link on Anyas site is to yet another advert for her book, this time on the Waterstones site. However, eagle eyed viewers may notice a small but important difference between the details advertised on the Harper Collins site and the Waterstones one. Whilst the whole thrust of the advertising so far is that it is all true, Waterstones must have some doubts about the veracity of this claim as they have categorized the book as a work of fiction. Oh dear .... Are they privy to some info that the general public aren't? Or has Anya pushed her luck just a little too far in her efforts to get a book deal by any means? After all, the homeless blogger bit was stretching credibility, especially in her refusal to answer even the most basic of queries but the sudden emergence of the whole abandoned baby/abusive childhood elements may have raised suspicions a tad higher. Particularl;y as these fascinating elements weren't even mentioned until the ghost writer hired to beef up the story was brought on board. Not that he had previous form in bunging in these elements for books he had assisted on in the past. Oh wait .... he did. Hmmmm................

Seven, the number of posts with actual news

Ho hum........ Todays post by Anya sees more piffle about how hard it was to write the book and even more reminscing about being homeless. From the amount of whining she does about it, you'd think she had been homeless for years instead of a few months but I guess she has to keep harping on about it as you can bet your bottom dollar that the book promotion will feature homelessness as the tag to draw unsuspecting gullible readers in. It really does look like she can't be arsed writing anything of note these days and every posts highlights the fact that the entire blog is merely a stopgap till the book promotion gets into full swing. Even the links have been changed to self congratulatory and self promoting. Does anyone even read it these days? I only do so out of a keen sense of duty to my readers but with so little happening these days, it seems that the impetus has been lost and Harper Collins made a big mistake in throwing hard cash at a homeless bum with no story to tell. Not that it stopped her coming up with something to justify the bundle of moolah though! The last post with any actual news was way back in November (when she confessed to losing her mind). I can't help feeling that when the book is finally released and the blog is pointed out as the source of it all, those dozens of new readers who pop along for a butchers are going to be sorely disappointed with the actual content. Much like we are everytime she posts..............

Updates

To avoid the mind numbing chore of checking Anya’s' site for updates (which seem to be done every other month now), I have a small script running which checks for changes. The log for Thursday 4th Jan showed a change but all that was apparent was that the cover of her forthcoming blockbuster (no sniggering at the back) had been added to her links column along with a link to the Amazon listing. Strangely though, there was no actual blog entry update as to her status. Just an attempt to flog her goods and chattels via the blog (which the more cynical amongst us would realise was the reason d étre in the first place). Just what does she spend her time doing these days? Apart from reminiscing about the good old days when she was homeless, of course and therefore more interesting than just another unemployed person living in a bedsit. In a curious twist, I received another alert later in the day that there had been more changes to the blog. Naturally I hot-footed it over there (I really ought to get a life) only to find that the expected blog entry wasn't present. In fact, the only change was that the book cover and link to Amazon had now disappeared. Very strange. Could this be the equivalent of trying on a new dress and admiring yourself in the mirror? Had Anya grown so bored, locked up in her bedsit all day, that she was considering an actual post about some actual news but chickened out in the end? I rather favour the hypothesis that she doesn’t want to whip the Media into a frenzy over her book too soon.

1st Post of the New Year

Best Wishes to all Fans of Truth, Justice and The British Way !!

It's Christmas !!

Greetings fellow Blogospherenauts (if there is such a thing) , Some of you may be wondering why there has been no updates to this hallowed blog since November 27th. Well, if truth be told, there have been no updates on the Wanderingscribe blog since that date and as I exist only to provide counterbalance to her lies and deception, then there has been nothing to report. Apologies to the 325 of you that have logged on diligently (yes, I have stats enabled) since that date to see more of her shenanigans and outright lies shot down in flames but the simple truth is that her blog appears to have served its purpose and got her the book deal she was hankering after all along, hence few updates. I've no doubt that there will be more entries along the lines of "OMG what a whirl of press junkets and book signings, my life is all topsy turvey at the moment" bollox that will appear once she starts to fulfill her contractual obligations to advertise her book but in the meantime I'd like to extend a personal thanks to the 186,000 of you who have visited my site since its inception on 30th May 2006. Those figures are verifiable (unlike some we can mention) and if you want proof then just drop me an email. Try asking for that from "Anya Peters". Cynical? Moi? I leave with with one more image until the new year and I wish all my readers a Merry Xmas and a prosperous and peaceful New Year .....

Genuine homeless peple cut down the trees in "The Laneway" so that they can't be used as marketing pawns for some cynical would be author ........

Wanderingscribe Abridged (3)

As a public service to those of you who don't have the stomach (or the sheer mental fortitude) to read all the posts on Anya's site, I present the latest edition of Wanderingscribe Abridged. To get fully up to date, you may wish to peruse Episode 1 & Episode 2 of this exciting tale of ummm... nothingness which will bring you smack bang up to date with Anya Peters and her quest for a book deal. July 03 - Reminisce about when I was homeless and it was hot. July 17 - Car broke down August 17 - Waffle August 26 - Been on holiday to Ireland September - No posts October 21 - Reminisce about when I was homeless and I slept in a car. November 21 - Finished the book. November 27 - Reminisce about when I was homeless and hungry. There ya go folks, 5 months wrapped up in 7 posts. Didn't take long did it !! Although I am sensing a recurrring theme about how she harps on about being homeless even though she has been living in a bedsit for 6 months now. This writing larks a piece of piss! I reckon anybody with rudimentary writing skills could knock out a book these days ........ Oh look, someone has!!

Confession Time

At last there's hope for Anya. Her latest post (which incidentally goes waaaaaaaaaaaay over the top in terms of dribble quotient) marks a turn for the better as she finally confesses that she has lost her mind. ".... letting the waves carry my mind off. Because, yesterday, it was very good to walk on without it for a bit..." Way to go Anya. You have to realise there's a problem before you can get help!! Later on there's even more revelations that she once found some magic mushrooms and asked a café to cook them but, after they turfed the crazy homeless lady out onto the streets, she walked along with "my saliva dripping in lemony butter". There's a pretty mental image to conjure up. Do people make a habit of asking food establishments to cook something they found lying on the ground? Perhaps this is a ploy to "big up" the mental illness aspect that she must surely be going to use to promote the forthcoming book. Here's a little tip. Save your energy love. The evidence is already well stacked up in your favour !

Anya in her jutting out Kitchen. Did someone say "Eh ehh ehhhhh...."

He's got my publicity !!

Poor old Anya must be a bit peeved at the news that the bloke who inspired her to create a blog to get a book deal has only gone and got himself some more publicity from the BBC. Hugh Sawyer has made the news because he's upping sticks (probably literally) and becoming homeless in Ecuador. (What a grand life those homeless folks live, eh readers !) Avid readers of the turgid tale of Anya will recall that she used his blog to advertise her own, even going so far as to feign surprise that she was mentioned by the New York Times and handily providing a link for anyone who wanted to see her blog. (Don't forget it was written for herself though and was absolutely in no way a self promotional tool!!). Quite how she could be surprised when she obviously gave the interview in the first place isn't explored though. Probably a result of that mental illness that she'll be harping on about in the book. I quite liked the quote by the Beeb about Hugh Sawyer that "He has tried to make his living as authentic as possible." Mmmm..... Me too. I'm sick of meeting people who only pretend to live.

It is done

But who really cares? How many months is it now with no real news? How many months of self indulgent clap trap? Even the most ardent of fans must be reading Anya's blog and thinking "There's no news here!" Mind you, there is no story now. Not until the publicity train hoves into view............

Remember

In Flanders field the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Reaching out for help ....

As the latest site to fall victim to the con job being perpetrated by Anya Peters, World Vision includes a couple of recorded interviews ( a 2 minute "taster" and an in depth one of 5 minutes) where our heroine of the Laneways once again peddles the bullshit that has made her a celebrity in her own mind. I wasn't really sure if it was indeed our very own Laneway loser as the presenter keeps referring to her as "Onya" but how many homeless people can there be living in their cars in London? Actually, probably loads if it's a proven method to get a book deal. So.... cue the interview and straight away, the presenter makes a point that "Onya" is calling from a London payphone (no doubt to highlight the "pity me" aspect). Hang on a mo ..... Surely those tight wads at Harper Collins would have let her use the phone for 5 minutes. Especially as this would count as promotional work !! Mind you, it wouldn't have quite the same ring to it. "Here's "Onya" ringing from her publishers office about her forthcoming book .........." The presenter makes all the right cooing noises and feeds "Onya" her cues and our little trooper starts tugging at our heart strings with how she read about this person who had a blog (no mention that he got a book deal through it which "Onya" has admitted made her feel jealous) and how she then used her blog as a "cry for help". Hold The Phone !! I may be mistaken but weren't many offers of help made? (You can check 'em out yourself by trawling through the older comments on her site before they too are deleted (to help the story flow better)) Contact points for charities. Address's. Personal offers of help. On and on they flowed. But all were rejected by "Onya". Until that glorious day when the offer of help from a literary agent was made. Hallelujah !! That was more like it ! That's what she was waiting for. Sadly, the presenter doesn't go into this but instead asks "Onya" if she could perhaps read a passage from her blog. Don't be silly love. This poor ex-homeless woman is calling in from a payphone. Do you think she would have a printed copy of her blog to hand? Actually she does! Sacré Bleu !! Either that, or a laptop with wifi access so she can instantly call up her site. So off "Onya" goes, enthralling the listeners with an excerpt from February (one of the earliest entries). Now she might be reading from her soon to be published manuscript as the quote doesn't exactly match up with what appears on the blog. Was she quoting from memory? Could be as there have only been 69 posts in total since that first one in February. We then learn that Harper Collins asked her to write about her experiences. Strangely "Onya" forgets to mention the actual version which is that her new found agent apparently whipped up interest in her experiences before supposedly getting a bidding war going for the story which Harper Collins won. Umm.. your experiences as a homeless bum? Funny that, because the book that they are touting doesn't seems to concentrate on the homeless aspect too much but instead on how she "overcame her traumatic childhood and adult homelessness to find a place she could call home". So that would be a London Bedsit, would it? The drivel continues ..........

All my own work. Or is it …….

The claims by Wanderingscribe that her writing skills alone won the book deal have come under scrutiny recently with two opposing statements. One by Wanderingscribe herself that she’s "scribbling away furiously" and the other by her ghost writer about his Modus Operandii of interviewing the named author and then writing the book himself. Others have picked up on this latest in a series of anomalies and even questioned the (alleged) author herself via emails. Surprisingly she has deigned to answer one or two with the explanation that she and she alone is creating the masterpiece with Andrew Crofts merely "on standby" in case he is called upon to make any minor adjustments nearer to publishing time. Call me cynical if you like (it would make a change from Shirley) but would a Publishing House risk leaving it to the last minute before asking their ghost writer to "hone" the writings of a first timer with no experience of writing for a mass market? Especially as they have publicly stated that the book is being "written with Andrew Crofts" already. Another clue would be in the classification that Harper Collins are assigning to the the book (although even they aren't sure how to define the hotchpotch). Category: Biography and autobiography Come come HC, I realise that writing skills or a command of the English language aren't really a pre-requisite for your authors but even you must know the difference between a biography and an autobiography. Perhaps Anya is also confused over those big words so I'll help the poor soul out by presenting this "Print, Cut out and Keep" guide. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bi·og·ra·phy: An account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another (that would be the bit where Andrew Crofts produces it) Au·to·bi·og·ra·phy: The biography of a person written by that person. (that would be without Andrew Crofts) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Noblesse Oblige

Art imitates Life

Acknowledgements to Private Eye

How many posts?

To aid newcomers to the phenomenon known as Anya Peters, I was going to do another "Anya Peters Abridged" post in which I provide just bullet points of previous posts by Anya. Although this would undoubtedly prove an invaluable resource and save new readers from having to trudge through the endless tedium of her blog, thereby allowing them to get "up to speed", I was struck by a question. Just how many posts has she made in her quest to get that book deal? Hmmmmmm.............. Those of you with as much time on their hands as I have could pop over to her blog and do a bit of research but here's a helpful summary of all daily articles since she started back in February 2006.

February - 17

March - 19

April - 15

May - 10

June - 3

July - 2

August - 2

September - 0

October - 1

Total Daily Posts = 69

Another interesting fact is that Anya admitted that she secured her agent and book deal in the middle of May. Sacré Bleu !! I've just noticed that since she got the book deal, she has made a grand total of 8 posts. That's 8 posts in 5 months. Oh well, I guess she's been busy writing that book. Hang on. It's being Ghost written for her !?!

Oh well, I guess the time must have been taken up with trips to see the family. Then there'll be all those meetings to arrange her book tour and personal appearances. Funny how this isn't even mentioned in her latest posts. Just vague reminisces about when she was homeless.

Of course, that was 6 months ago but the blog still has its uses.

After all, HC have already stated their intention to use her blog as a marketing tool.

I'm sure they'll be advising her get her finger out and to start posting some more soon.

Unless she's going to get a ghost writer in for that as well .......

A chance to verify Anyas Tale?

In what must be a shocking blow for Harper Collins (HC), Wikipedia have deleted the entry for Wanderingscribe from their site. Why should it concern HC? Well, as you will be aware, the purpose of Wikipedia is to act as a repository for truthful facts. A notice posted on Wikipedia (dated 23rd September) stated that Lawyers of Harper Collins had been in touch regarding some of the so called facts and that further additions to the page were temporarily banned whilst legal teams looked at it. Quite what they were looking at was never disclosed. Within a day or two, the ban was lifted and the Anya Sicko-fants continued to alter the data and, as previously seen on the Anya Peters blog comments section, attempted to manipulate the facts to bolster the fanciful tale being woven by the author. On 19th October, Wikipedia posted a notice at the top of the post regarding the Wanderingscribe blog ands subsequent Wikipedia entry and stated that "it looks like an attempt by a publisher to whip up controversy about a book in order to generate sales." Although stating that there would be a 5 day period of grace allowed to prove the claims presented by the author using the pseudonym of Anya Peters (either directly or via HC), the page was deleted less than 48 hours later. Wikipedias rules state that "content which fails inclusion criteria for Wikipedia, is incapable of verification with reputable sources, .... is usually deleted." One can only imagine that the combined might of Harper Collins legal team (who would surely count as a reputable source) were unable to provide any substantiated proof about their claims regarding Anya Peters (which you would have thought would be easy to prove). Will this stop the marketing process for the book that has already swung into action? Doubtful, however, you can be pretty sure that any mention of the deleted Wanderingscribe entry on Wikipedia will be omited when HC are trying to drum up interest. Unless of course folks stumble on this humble little blog ...... You can find a copy of the Wikipedia entry before the Anya Sicko-fants tried yet another cover up, here.