Yesterday I was the target of a troll, a cyber bully. They hid behind two different fake accounts and commented horrible things. They said I was white trash, said I was nothing, a nobody, said I was what was wrong with the world, told me to have fun living with STDs. Now I’ll admit, this isn’t the first time a person has randomly been mean. I’ve had a few in my time. But never someone so persistent they’d use more than one account to get to me. And trust me, I’m 99.99% sure it was the same person just based on what they said, how they said it, and the names of the accounts. Which leads me to believe they may just be getting started. I don’t engage them. I don’t respond in any way. I delete the comments immediately and block the account. That’s what I will continue to do.

There are two types of people. Almost all of us are given a life or a circumstance or situation we weren’t expecting. Nothing goes right and suddenly we’re neck deep in a life we didn’t expect. But we can choose to respond really only two ways. We adapt, we press forward and we make as many negatives into positives as we can. Or, we don’t. We grow bitter and seek to make those around us unhappy any time we can. I speak openly about having HSV because it helps me and it helps others. People thank me and reach out to me with questions or just wanting to vent all the time. And so, I’ve taken what could be a very big negative in my life and made it a positive. But these are also the things about a person that someone will latch onto and try to use against you. And that’s ok. It just means I’m doing something worth attacking. I still have a hard time understanding who has the time and energy to do this to someone. Perhaps I will never understand because I use my time and energy focusing on much more important things. And I will continue to do that.

So, as a means to focus on some very big things ahead of me, my account will probably be a little more quiet. Not quite as many posts. Not because of the troll. Not because of the bully. I promise you that. But I will keep you guys updated.

Right now I have two books on Amazon.com and I must thank you all because they’re selling quite well. I appreciate that so much. I hope they continue to do so. Mad Woman is selling better than it did in previous months and Anchors & Vacancies is certainly holding its own. If you want to check them out, you can find information about them both plus links to them on Amazon under the “Books” tab.

My etsy shop has a few things in it including the return of custom poetry. It’s a limited quantity and always will be so I don’t overwhelm myself. I also have a few framed mini pieces, bookmarks, and signed poetry. I will be stocking some framed pointillism pieces again soon too. You can get to my etsy shop by clicking “Shop” tab and it will take you straight there.

Redamancy is my Black Friday release. And I need some time with it. And I have to spend less time on here to do that. It’s different than what I’ve written before. It’s happy. It feels good and fresh.Preorders for this book will be different than before. In the past I’ve had 100 preorders available. Redamancy will probably be only 25 preorders. They will come signed and numbered along with a print of a poem from the book. My goal is to have preorders up some time in the first part of September so be on the lookout for that.

As of yesterday, I’ve got a project with my B, J. R. Rogue and I’m sure we will be sharing details about that at a later time. I’m really excited about this. We’ve been talking about it for a very long time. And I can’t forget, my novel. I started it nearly a year ago and life got in the way. I want to finish it and release it. With any luck, you’ll see a debut novel from me in 2017.

So as you can see, there’s just so much to do. This is all on top of my 40+ hours full time job and the parenting stuff. So sit tight, continue to like, share, and follow me on this ride. I promise it will be worth it. Oh and let’s not forget the GIVEAWAYS! I will always make time for the GIVEAWAYS! Love you all!

As of late, I’ve received a lot of praise from everyone stating they are really proud of the stance I’ve taken concerning the UW situation, how brave I am, how it takes a lot of guts to do what I did. Maybe that’s all true, but please understand that’s not why I did it. I just wanted to do the right thing.

I am very sorry for anyone who is offended that I made a GoFundMe page. And yes, people were offended. One writer in particular personally attacked me and sent me several messages of which I ignored until they stopped.

I don’t want anyone’s pity for being a single mother. And I’m certainly not attempting to use it in any way to get money from you.

If you know me, you know I do what I can when I can to help others. I HATE talking about the good deeds I do. I hate feeling like I’m bragging about being a good person. But my morals have been called into question and now I must use these things to set the record straight in a manner of speaking.

If you follow me, you know I frequently do giveaways. I spend time and money to send my books and poetry out into the world for free. I pay for shipping and I spend the time to drive it to the post office. Fellow writers frown upon this sort of behavior. They say it “cheapens your work” and no one will buy your stuff if there are so many opportunities to obtain it for free. Maybe that’s true. But I’m still going to keep doing giveaways because it makes me happy inside to be giving a book to someone who may not otherwise have the money to obtain it.

If you follow me, you know not long ago I orchestrated receiving materials from about 15 other writers and artists to send to people as a “Thank You” if they made a donation to a fellow writer’s GoFundMe to help save their dog’s life. I contacted many artists and writers, received all the packages, kept track of every donation along with their contact information, bought shipping materials, packaged 30+ “Thank You” packages and shipped them out on my own dime. It wasn’t even my dog, guys.

If you know me, you know I tip $20 on a $12 restaurant bill just about every time I go out to eat. Which isn’t often because quite frankly, my tipping habits make it expensive. But I do it because the place I go to most often is a little diner next to work. And the servers are so nice. And they remember my drink order as soon as I step foot in there. This is the same restaurant I’ve sat in a people watched and noticed elderly people eating alone and paid for their meals anonymously.

If you know me, you know I’ve donated portions of my preorders to charities. If you know me, you would know that last week I was in the grocery store and an elderly woman was in a motorized cart behind me and couldn’t reach all the way into her basket and put things on the conveyor without a great deal of struggle and so I stood there having already been checked out and I took every single item out of her cart for her and organized it on the belt for her.

If you know me at all, you know that every single dime of the money that was given to me is going toward exactly what I said it was going to. And the book signing I have in Nashville, TN next month was paid for months ago when I actually had the extra money to do it. No, I am not taking donations and using them to travel the country. Yes, someone did actually comment that on my page earlier this morning. I have one trip scheduled. One trip to Nashville. One trip to Nashville that’s already paid for. One trip that is actually meant to further my efforts in writing where I will sign and sell books while I am there.

This same comment said I “bitched about being a single mother” last week. Let me make one thing clear to all of you. I never bitch about it. Do I struggle? Do I break down and cry in the solitude of my bedroom? Yes and yes. Do I carry on day after day bitching about being a single mother? No. I do not. I try everyday to be a person I would want them to be. So when I take them out to lunch and my daughter asks me why I’m leaving so much money for the server, I tell her because it’s good to be nice. It’s important to be nice.

When my daughter asks me why I have so many packages for the mailman, I tell her that as people we have to try every day to be generous. She asks me what generous means. I tell her sometimes generosity is going without something you want so that you can give someone else what they want or need.

I’m not a person who wants for many material things. I don’t get my hair and nails done. I’m not saying you’re a bad person if you are, please don’t misunderstand. It is very important to pamper yourself and treat yourself. I’m just saying these are not things I do. I don’t eat out a lot. I don’t buy myself new stuff a lot, aside from books. And those books are often either books by authors I really love or books by friends and other writers I know who are doing the same thing I’m doing. They’re independent. They’re trying hard every day to make a living from their art. And I support them in that cause.

Oh and one more thing. if you visited my donation page after the fact, you will see a “donation” from Eli himself. You know who he is. I don’t have to remind you that he is one of the owners of UW Publishing. He made a “donation” of $1675 which brought me to the goal I had set on there. Now let’s not mix words. Is getting money from someone who owes it to me a donation? No. It’s getting the money that is rightfully and contractually owed to me. Does Eli consider it a donation? No. No he doesn’t. He considers it part of the money he owes me and stated so in an email to me. There is also a comment on a fellow artist’s page where UW’s Instagram account states they given me $1600 of what they owe me. So no, Eli didn’t donate anything to me. He paid me part of what I am contractually owed. Nothing more and nothing less. And those who did donate to me are getting items in return. I will be sending out signed poems and signed books to everyone who donated the corresponding amounts.

This effort was not to get anything for free. In fact, I never thought for a moment I would reach the goal on there. The blog post I made and the reason for the fund was to do one thing. State the truth and let the rest play out however it may have. It was to prove a point to UW and to everyone else. My integrity can’t be bought. And when you stand up and do the right thing, sometimes karma has a way of repaying you all of those small good deeds you’ve put out in the world.

So, as for me, as far as I’m concerned the UW situation is all but wrapped up. I will not be making any more posts about UW unless I absolutely have to. I will continue doing giveways as I always have because I love you guys and giving you free stuff makes me happy as pie. I will be signing in Nashville, TN next week to further my writing career and it is not on the dime of anyone who contributed money to my fund. And I will continue to do as many small and random acts of kindness as I possibly can. Because it’s the right things to do. And you know what’s funny? Last week in the grocery store, the cute little old lady thanked me. She said “It will come back to you, dear. It will.” And I shrugged it off and didn’t think anything of it. But guess what? It has. It really has. So if for no other reason than to pay your karma fund, do good deeds. It will come back to you.

xx

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who read and shared my last post ” I Will Not Lie To You”. The company did finally step forward and pay me a portion of what they owe me. I’m sad it had to go this far to get them to do the right thing, but ultimately glad they did and just want this whole thing behind me. For those of you who will be receiving items from me, it will be a few weeks, as I have a lot to prepare. You were all so generous and I’ve got some work to do. I am so thankful for each and every one of you. You are the reason for my success. Without all of you, I would be nothing. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Most of you know who Underwater Mountains Publishing is. For those of you who don’t, I’ll make it brief. UWM is my former publisher. I published my first book, Learning to Speak with them. Since then, it has been somewhat of a nightmare. Everything you’ve ever feared about a publisher came true. They violated my contract with them in more ways than I care to admit. Upon requesting my contract be terminated, they delayed it for quite some time. I finally got an email stating my contract was terminated some months later. Then I was just waiting to be paid out my royalties. My book released in November 2015. Since the release of my book, I have not received a single penny of what is owed to me.

Amidst going through this, one of the former owners was accused of sexual abuse and harassment by several female artists. I will not name him here. Nor will I go into my own personal dealings with this portion of the matter. Just know that we are all victims.

As a result, I have been going back and forth with their lawyer for some months now. UWM couldn’t even provide a copy of the original agreement they had with me. Lucky, or rather, unlucky for me, I’m an organized person and I had the agreement. First, I was going to be paid every cent, then I was only being offered $500, then I couldn’t be paid because of some book buy back distribution bullshit. Now, they’re offering me $1500. However, as part of receiving the $1500 settlement, the agreement stated that I had to make a social media post stating that all of my previous posts about UWM were “not accurate” and were “out of context”. They used those exact words.

And you know what? I’m not doing it. Kat Savage isn’t just my pen name. Kat Savage is so much more. My social media presence is one of positivity, honesty, and integrity. And I will not compromise that for $1500. I will not lie to the very people who admire and respect me. I will not lie to the people who are responsible for my success. I will not lie to you. I love and respect you too much.

And that is what I wrote their lawyer this morning.

I know there’s a lot of cheering going on. I know people are going to respect and support this decision. And I’m glad for that. But you know what? I’m still a single mother with two children. I’m still the human that spent countless nights and missed countless hours with my children working on Learning to Speak. I’m still the person who has nothing to show for that book. I was counting on that money. Even in the end when I was waiting to be paid out, I was nervously waiting so that I could finally pay for my divorce and marriage debts to get me and my children to a better place. But now I don’t have that. In so many ways, I am stuck. And this entire UWM ordeal has done nothing but dig a deeper hole.

I turn to you, the people and friends who support me, the people I will not lie to, for help. I’ve created a GoFundMe account and listed the link below. I am asking you to help me prove a point. That we don’t have to bow down to bullies. That we don’t have to compromise out integrity to get what we need. That good people who support you will lend a hand to help in time of injustice.

I’m asking you to help me tell Underwater Mountains Publishing to take their $1,500 and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine because I can’t be bought.

Perhaps one day I will sell my soul to the devil. But it will not be for $1,500 and it will not be today.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please see my GoFundMe campaign here: ACTUALLY I’VE MET MY GOAL AND NO MORE IS NEEDED! Thank you!

There are items you receive as perks! Please let me be clear, I’m in no way trying to make it look like I’m asking you to pay my bills. I’m asking you to understand that I’ve been backed into a corner and this is the only way I’m going to be able to write and create. I’m asking you to understand I turned to you all for help instead of taking the hush money.

All My Love and Respect,
Kat Savage

That’s right, a day early. Why? Well, to be honest, I’ve had a really bad week. Like, really bad. It has been filled with crying, terrible sleep, and loads of stress. So I needed something happy today. Something that would make me smile hopefully. If anything, I’ll be so focused on promoting the release, maybe the bad stuff will just be kept at bay for a little while. Anywho! Anchors & Vacancies is here on Amazon.com! I hope you enjoy!

Anchors & Vacancies releases this Friday, July 29th! Preorders are wrapping up and the last few will go out in the mail tomorrow! No rest for me though, it’s straight on to working on my Black Friday release, my series of love poems. They’re my tender side. Something I’m not well known for. It should be interesting!

Anchors & Vacancies is releasing July 29th, 2016 but you can preorder signed copies right here for only $10! This chapbook is a 45 piece series originally titled “Left Atrium Anchors & Right Ventricle Vacancies” written over a year ago. The pieces in this series are some of my most loved, and I wanted you all to have your hands on them! Signed preorders are the only signed copies that will ever be available. Once the book releases, I will not list any more signed copies…EVER. So get them while you can!

My BFF Jen Rogue and I would really like to organize a meet & greet this summer. And we need your help to do it. Please fill out the form below to assist. Savage/Rogue Meet & Greet questionnaire!

via Savage/Rogue Meet & Greet —

I released Mad Woman early! I grow impatient waiting. It’s not doing as well as I’d hoped but that’s alright. I think I’d prefer slow and steady to a spike and then nothing. Plus, all of you are so awesome, I had so many signed preorders through my etsy shop. Don’t worry! I have a lot of projects brewing. So many things to look forward to. I hope they are received as well as my first two books have been. You can find Mad Woman on Amazon.com here.

You’ll be happy to know that if you preordered Mad Woman it ships today! That’s right. Of course, not many people are coming to my site yet for information but the lucky few that do get to know! Why am I sending out preorders so early when my release date isn’t until 4/15/16? Well….maybe I don’t plan to wait until then to release it…stay tuned.