Dream Job... Writer, Not Marvel Superhero.

Honored to have been nominated once again for an award for Distinguished Contributions in Writing & American Letters for my body of work encompassing more than 20 million words spread across tens of thousands of pages in the 250 full-length works I've written. Since my breakout bestseller in 1995, my work has been published and/or distributed by every major publishing house in the U.S. from Time Warner to Simon & Schuster to Random House as well as Hachette, Pearson, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, and Microsoft--not to mention more than 100 other publishers globally.

I've said it before and I'll say it again the success I've had is the stuff of Willy Wonka's wildest dreams. Still, as I wrote about in “How I Made This Crazy Thing Called Writing a Career”, wild success doesn’t necessarily mean riches for the writer. For sure, me and "80's" Stan Lee could stand in line next to each other and trade stories. Bookstores, publishers, agents, publicists, Uncle Sam and many others got the Lion’s share of the wealth, but I got to live the dream and living the dream was as good as being Spider Man.

I will forever remain grateful to my publishers and everyone else in the business who made the dream possible. In my career one of the things I’m most proud of is my work to give back, to support my fellow writers, to support veterans, to support the disabled--and especially disabled veterans. I've fought the good fight for disabled veterans for many years, but if I had to pick one achievement I'm most proud of, it is this: Giving away the millionth-dollar book to schools, libraries and communities in 2015, after 20 years of working toward the goal. Nothing ever felt so right. Schools and libraries are after all where I developed a lifelong passion for the written word.

My books often ended up in places where schools and communities had no other books. In classrooms in Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. In libraries in rural India, Spain and Portugal. In communities throughout South Africa, Brazil and Argentina.

As I look back at my career, I’m also very glad that from the beginning I did something for myself by starting a publishing company. That company began operations in 1995 and I used it to learn about the publishing side of the industry, which is very different from the writing side. By 2004, I knew enough about the industry and was ready to spread my wings and go into publishing on my own. I hired a great team and put them to work running my business.

In the beginning, we had quite a large team, that team has whittled down to a few core members, but remains in the business of bringing my works, and the works of a select group of other writers, to the world. They've helped get hundreds of translations for my works, which are now available in nearly every country around the globe. Over the coming years, this publishing company will transition to the William Robert Stanek Foundation. For readers this means that although William Stanek the writer put away his pen and paper, my work will continue to be available long into the future.

Capes and costumes for superheroes come in all sizes and colors except for writers. If you're a writer, the best you can hope for is to be acknowledged by those in your field and I am sincerely honored to have been nominated once again for an award for Distinguished Contributions in Writing & American Letters for my body of work.

Thanks for reading,

William Robert Stanek

The Guy Who Shares a Birthday With Tolkien Has Done Okay

It's official, my 250th book. Celebration soon. 20 million words, tens of thousands of pages. Published and/or distributed by every major US publisher from Pearson to Macmillan to McGraw Hill and Time Warner, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Hachette and Microsoft. Over 100 other publishers globally. Wow, what a ride it's been!!

Books written by William Robert Stanek (Reverse Chronological Order: Newest to Oldest, Present to 2014):

IIS 10: Web Apps, Security & Maintenance (IT Pro Solutions)

IIS 10: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions)

Windows PowerShell 6: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions)

Windows PowerShell 6 (IT Pro Solutions)

Exchange Server 2016: The Administrator’s Reference

Exchange Server 2016 & Exchange Online: Essentials for Administration, 2nd Edition

Office 365 & Exchange Online: Essentials for Administration, 2nd Edition

Windows Server 2016: Storage Solutions (Tech Artisans Library)

Windows Server 2016: IT Pro Library

Windows Server 2016: Domain Infrastructure (Tech Artisans Library)

Windows Server 2016: The Administrator's Reference

Windows Server 2016: Essential Services (Tech Artisans Library)

Exchange Server 2016: IT Pro Library

Windows Server 2016: Server Infrastructure (IT Pro Solutions)

Windows Server 2016: Installing & Configuring (Tech Artisans Library)

Windows Server 2016: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions)

Windows 10: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions)

Windows 10: The Personal Trainer, 2nd Edition: Your Personalized Guide

Exchange Server 2016: Server Infrastructure (IT Pro Solutions)

Office 365 & Exchange Online: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions)

Exchange Server 2016 & Exchange Online: Essentials for Administration (IT Pro Solutions)

Presenting Exchange Server 2016 & Exchange Online (IT Pro Solutions)

Windows 10: Step Up & Into

IIS 8 Web Applications, Security & Maintenance: The Personal Trainer

Windows 10: The Personal Trainer

Active Directory Administration for Windows Server 2012 & R2: The Personal Trainer

Windows PowerShell for Administration: The Personal Trainer

Windows Group Policy: The Personal Trainer for Windows Server 2012 and R2

IIS 8 Administration: The Personal Trainer

Windows Command-Line for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 and R2 (The Personal Trainer)


*BIG thanks to readers who pointed out that the original book list was only through 2014 (which is the last time the list was updated). So I added a few books from present to 2014.


Books written by William Robert Stanek (Reverse Chronological Order: Newest to Oldest, 2014 to 1995):

This Mortal Coil. After the Machines

Windows Command Line: The Personal Trainer

Windows PowerShell: The Personal Trainer

The Cards in the Deck (An NSA Spy Thriller)

A Legacy of Dragons (Guardians of the Dragon Realms)

Web Server Administration: The Personal Trainer for IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

The Dragon, the Wizard & the Great Door (Guardians of the Dragon Realms)

Windows Server 2012 R2 Inside Out: Services, Security, & Infrastructure

Web Applications, Security & Maintenance: The Personal Trainer for IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

Windows 8.1 Administration Pocket Consultant: Storage, Security, & Networking

Windows Server 2012 R2 Pocket Consultant: Essentials & Configuration

Group Policy Administration: The Personal Trainer for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2

Active Directory Administration: The Personal Trainer for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2

Windows Server 2012 R2 Inside Out: Configuration, Storage, & Essentials

Windows 7: The Personal Trainer

XML, DTDs, Schemas: The Personal Trainer

Windows Server 2012 R2 Pocket Consultant: Storage, Security, & Networking

Email, Internet, Web: The Personal Trainer

Windows 8.1 Administration Pocket Consultant: Essentials & Configuration

Exchange Server 2013 Pocket Consultant: Databases, Services, & Management

Twelve Dreams, One Dreamer

Buster's Birthday Wish

Exchange Server 2013 Pocket Consultant: Configuration & Clients

Sight Words Plus Level 9: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 8: Learning Essentials

Skip Counting: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 7: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 6: Learning Essentials

Trouble with Dragons

Living Fire (Dragons of the Hundred Worlds)

Breath of Fire (Dragons of the Hundred Worlds)

Windows Server 2012 Inside Out

Windows 8 Administration Pocket Consultant

Windows Server 2012 Pocket Consultant

Colors & Shapes Storybooks: Learning Essentials

Buster’s on the Job: Bugville Critters

How Many Fish Colors?

Sight Words Plus Level 5: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 4: Learning Essentials

Pirates Stole My Booty: Bugville Critters

Addition Level 4: Learning Essentials

Subtraction Level 3: Learning Essentials

Subtraction Level 2: Learning Essentials

Twelve Dresses, One Star: Bugville Critters

Mamma Sea Turtle Lost Her Babies: Colors & Shapes

How Many Fish?

Addition Level 3: Learning Essentials

Addition Level 2: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 3: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 2: Learning Essentials

Sight Words Plus Level 1: Learning Essentials

Into the Stone Land (Magic Lands #2)

Racing Super Buster Counts And You Can Too

Racing Super Buster Letters And You Can Too

Racing Super Buster Counts Higher And You Can Too

Racing Super Buster Shapes And You Can Too

Subtraction Level 1: Learning Essentials

Addition Level 1: Learning Essentials

Have a Spooktacular Halloween: Bugville Critters

Buster Feels Sad and Mad and Happy

Barry Lives Large

Sarah Gets Angry

Outside in the Snow with Buster and Friends

Buster Explores the Sea

Buster's Undersea Counting Expedition 1 to 10

Buster's Undersea Counting Expedition 1 to 20

Undersea, 2, 3 with Buster and Friends

Undersea, 4, 5 with Buster and Friends

Buster's Big Top Little Letters Show

Undersea, 6, 7 with Buster and Friends

Buster's Big Top Big Letters Show

Buster's Big Top 1 2 3 Show

Buster's Really Great Big Top Show

Discord (A Daughter of Kings, Comic #4)

Rise of the Fallen (Ruin Mist: Dawn of the Ages)

Start Summer Vacation

Save Their Allowance

Visit the Library

Remember Their Manners

Go to Camp

Explore the Solar System

Every Day Is Different

Catching A Cup Of Sunshine

Betrayal (A Daughter of Kings, Comic #1)

Deliverance (A Daughter of Kings, Comic #2)

Rebirth (A Daughter of Kings, Comic #3)

Windows 7: The Definitive Guide

Windows 7 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Group Policy Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Active Directory Administrator's Pocket Consultant

PowerShell, VBScript and JScript Bible

Windows PowerShell 2.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Have Trouble At School

Break Their Bad Habits

Stay After School

Have a Bad Day

Visit City Hall

Have a Surprise Party

Have a Backyard Picnic

Compete in the BIG Spelling Bee

Battle for Ruin Mist Core Roleplaying Games Rules

SQL Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

The Art of Ruin Mist: Heroes and Villains

Rush to the Hospital

Play Their First Big Game

Windows Server 2008 Inside Out

Windows Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

IIS 7.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Absolutes and Other Stories

Buster Bee's Adventures With Letters and Words

Go on Vacation (2008) (RP Books)

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ruin Mist: The Essential Reader's Guide

Keeper Martin's Guide to the Fantastical Beasts and Faerie Peoples of Ruin Mist

Visit Garden Box Farms

Have A Sleepover

Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Go to School

Visit Dad and Mom at Work

Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide

In the Service of Dragons IV

In the Service of Dragons III

Mark of the Dragon

Stormjammers: The Extraordinary Story of Electronic Warfare Operations in the Gulf War

The Pieces of the Puzzle

MCSE Core Required Exams In A Nutshell

Introducing Windows Vista

Windows Vista Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Fields of Honor

In the Service of Dragons II

In the Service of Dragons

Students Classroom Guide to Robert Stanek's Magic Lands

Teacher's Classroom Guide to Robert Stanek's Magic Lands

Web Guru's Guide to JavaScript

Microsoft Group Policy Guide

SQL Server 2005 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Windows Server 2003 Inside and Out

Windows Command-line Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Kingdom Alliance

Magic of Ruin Mist

Robert Stanek: Candid Conversations

Students Classroom Guide to The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches

Teacher's Classroom Guide to Robert Stanek's Ruin Mist

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches IV

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches III

Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Faster Smarter FrontPage 2003

IIS 6.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Windows Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

FrontPage 2003 Unleashed

Elf Queen's Quest

Journey Beyond the Beyond

Keeper Martin's Tale

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches II

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches

Effective Writing for Business College & Life

Essential Windows 2000 Commands Reference

Essential Windows XP Commands Reference

FrontPage 2002 Unleashed

Windows 2000 and IIS 5.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Windows XP Professional Administrator's Pocket Consultant

XML Pocket Consultant

All-In-One Java 2 Certification Guide 3rd Edition

Exchange 2000 Server Administrator's Pocket Consultant

SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Windows 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Windows 2000 Scripting Bible

FrontPage 2000 Unleashed

Netscape Mozilla Source Guide

Windows NT Scripting Administrator's Guide

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

SQL Server 7.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

FrontPage 98 Unleashed

Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend

FrontPage 97 Unleashed

Netscape One Developer's Guide

Learn the Internet in a Weekend

Web Publishing Unleashed Professional Reference Edition

FrontPage Unleashed

Peter Norton's Guide to Java Programming

Web Publishing Unleashed

Electronic Publishing Unleashed

Other books written by William Robert Stanek including collections, compilations, etc. (Reverse Chronological Order: Newest to Oldest):

Step Up & Into Windows PowerShell 4.0

Big Book of Math (Math Superstars)

Dragons of the Hundred Worlds Omnibus

Complete Magic Lands Omnibus

Complete In the Service of Dragons (Boxed Set Edition)

Big Book of Subtraction (Math Superstars)

Complete Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches (Boxed Set Edition)

Complete Ruin Mist Chronicles (Boxed Set Edition)

Big Book of Addition (Math Superstars)

Keeper Martin's Tale, 10th Anniversary Edition

Critter Subtraction Essentials Level 3

Critter Addition Essentials Level 4

Complete Learning Adventures of Racing Super Buster (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Complete Sight Words Learning Adventures of Buster Bee (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Critter Subtraction Essentials Level 2

Numbers Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Alphabet Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Critter Addition Essentials Level 3

Complete Undersea Counting Adventures of Buster Bee (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Complete Big Top Adventures of Buster Bee (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Critter Subtraction Essentials Level 1

The Bugville Critters Audio Collection Volume 6

The Bugville Critters Audio Collection Volume 5

Complete First Year Adventures of Lass Ladybug (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Complete Second Year Adventures of Buster Bee (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Every Letter Has a Sound (Audio Only)

Big Number Count Down (Audio Only)

Division Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Multiplication Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Complete First Year Adventures of Buster Bee (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Complete Magic Lands Books 1 & 2 Omnibus

Critter Addition Essentials Level 2

Critter Addition Essentials Level 1

The Bugville Critters Audio Collection Volume 4

The Bugville Critters Audio Collection Volume 3

Complete In the Service of Dragons (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Complete Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches (The Complete Series Omnibus)

Subtraction Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Addition Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Colors & Shapes Flash Cards: Learning Essentials

Effective Writing for Business, College & Life, 2011 Edition

A Daughter of Kings (Battle for Ruin Mist: Graphic Novel #1)

Practice Makes Perfect (Lass Ladybug's School Days #4)

Sometimes There's No Need to Worry (Lass Ladybug's School Days #3)

Bugville Jr. Learning Adventures Collection #1

Bugville Jr. Learning Adventures Collection #2

Bugville Jr. Learning Adventures Collection #3

Bugville Jr. Learning Adventures Collection #4

Vacation Surprise (Buster Bee's School Days #3)

Some Days Are Better Than Others (Lass Ladybug's School Days #2)

So Many Lessons to Learn (Lass Ladybug's School Days #1)

SQL Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Edition

Windows Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant 2nd Edition

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches IV, Special Illustrated Edition

Bugville Critters Treasury Volume 2

Bugville Critters Treasury Volume 1

Too Much Sweets (Buster Bee's School Days #1 )

Make New Friends (Buster Bee's School Days #2)

The Bugville Critters Audio Collection Volume 2

The Bugville Critters Audio Collection Volume 1

The Elf Queen & the King 2

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches III, Special Illustrated Edition

Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Edition

Windows Command-line Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Edition

Keeper Martin's Tale, Special Illustrated Edition

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches II, Special Illustrated Edition

The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches, Special Illustrated Edition

Windows XP Professional Administrator's Pocket Consultant 2nd Edition

Sovereign Rule

Magic Lands & Other Stories

The Elf Queen & the King

Windows 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant 2nd Edition

All-in-One Java 2 Certification Guide 3rd Edition

Increase Your Web Traffic 3rd Edition

All-in-One Java 2 Certification Guide 2nd Edition

Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend 2nd Edition

Professional Web Development Kit 2.0

Web Publishing Electronic Resource Kit

Managing Group Policy Classroom-To-Go: Windows Server 2003 Edition (Audio Only)

Active Directory Infrastructure Classroom-to-Go (Audio Only)

Internet Explorer 7 Classroom-To-Go (Audio Only)

Windows Media Player 11 Classroom-To-Go (Audio Only)

Windows Photo Gallery Classroom-To-Go: Windows Vista Edition (Audio Only)

Active Directory Sites, Trusts, and Troubleshooting Classroom-To-Go (Audio Only)

Managing Network Infrastructure Classroom-To-Go: Windows Server 2003 Edition (Audio Only)

Classroom-To-Go Training Course 3: Managing and Maintaining Network Resources (Audio Only)

Classroom-To-Go Training Course for Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment (Audio Only)

Classroom-To-Go Training Course 1: Managing Users, Computers, and Groups (Audio Only)

Classroom-To-Go Training Course 2: Managing Devices and Implementing Disaster Recovery (Audio Only)



It's been a long road. More news in the days and weeks ahead.



Thank you,



Robert Stanek

Inside Job: Amazon.com Employee Stole Credit Data of 106 Million

Amazon.com is rotten to its core. This latest case of "employee gone bad" (https://heavy.com/news/2019/07/paige-adele-thompson/) is yet another example of the widespread patterns of misbehavior, misconduct and mismanagement by Amazon.com employees that have been ongoing for the better part of two decades. From alleged money laundering to racketeering to computer fraud, the culture of misconduct and malfeasance starts at the top with the win-at-any cost disruptor model espoused by Amazon.com executives. A few examples for reference:

Misconduct stemming from office of the CEO: In 2013, dozens of Amazon.com employees and the CEO's own wife were caught flooding Brad Stone's book, The Everything Store, with unfavorable reviews to keep the book from damaging the reputation of Amazon.com and its CEO. (http://readindies.blogspot.com/2016/08/amazons-blackened-soul.html)

Misconduct organized and ordered by executives: In 2018, at least 50 Amazon employees were caught creating fake accounts on Ebay and accused of multiple federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, fraud and racketeering. (http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2019/08/amazon-employees-caught-creating-fake-accounts.html)

Misconduct organized and ordered by executives: In 2019, Amazon.com was caught in a highly unethical and likely criminal pay-for-praise scheme involving several hundred employees. (http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2019/08/amazon-caught-in-pay-for-praise-scheme.html)

Although the SEC, FTC and DOJ are all circling Amazon.com with possible intent to act, the federal crimes, misdeeds and abuses of Amazon.com executives and employees have so far carried on with impunity—more likely due to the deep (dare I say, cozy) relationships Amazon.com has with the Justice Department, U.S. Intelligence and hundreds of other government agencies than a lack of evidence. However, with the deepest secrets of our government, including the Sensitive, Secret and Top Secret information of the Justice Department (https://aws.amazon.com/stateandlocal/justice-and-public-safety/) , U.S. Intelligence (https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/)and more (https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/defense/), hosted on Amazon’s cloud servers, this latest case of "employee gone bad" is likely too hard to overlook.

To wit, the Amazon.com employee involved in the theft of the credit data of over 100 million people did so by using the knowledge gained working in Amazon’s Web Services division as a software engineer to hack into the data Capital One stored on Amazon’s servers. This data was stored in the Amazon Simple Storage Service, also referred to as Amazon S3, which is a service offered by Amazon Web Services to supposedly securely store the data of thousands of companies. Care to guess where many of the deepest secrets of the Justice Department, U.S. Intelligence and hundreds of other U.S. agencies are stored? Yep, Amazon S3.

While Capital One, like Amazon.com, largely downplayed the extent of the damage done in the data breach, the estimated dollar cost of the damages, as stated by Capital One itself, are telling: $100 to $150 million in damages. (https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/paige-thompson-capital-one-hack-former-amazon-engineer-social-security-numbers.html). Most troubling about all this? The (technically "former") Amazon.com employee involved used knowledge and skills gained from 2015 – 2016 to hack the Capital One data stored on Amazon’s S3 servers in 2019. This was an inside job. Amazon Web Services tactics, techniques and security surely should have changed considerably in 3 years—however, clearly they had not. Sort of like the lengthy Amazon Web Services S3 outage on February 28, 2017 that was so bad Amazon couldn’t even get into its own servers to warn anyone—a problem that occurred because of gross mismanagement involving Amazon Web Services procedures and tactics. Other examples of gross mismanagement? How about:

* the days’ long outage in April 2011 that Amazon didn’t make a public statement about for a week,

* the infamous Friday the 13th outage of September 2013 that left regional customers without service for several hours due to a simple load balancing misconfiguration,

* the lengthy Amazon Web Services S3 outage in November 2014 because of the failure of the AWS CloudFront DNS server,

*  or the 10-hour outage in June 2016 due to stormy weather that hit numerous prime websites and businesses.

As I stated previously, the culture of misconduct and malfeasance starts at the top of the company while the patterns of misbehavior, misconduct and mismanagement extend throughout the entire organization. More examples of mismanagement and failure of Amazon Web Services:

2017 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2017/03/02/aws-outage-that-broke-the-internet-caused-by-mistyped-command

2017 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/uptime/equinix-power-outage-one-reason-behind-aws-cloud-disruption

2015 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/09/24/heres-what-caused-sundays-amazon-cloud-outage

2015 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/09/21/amazon-data-center-outage-affects-netflix-heroku-others

2013 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/09/13/network-issues-cause-amazon-cloud-outage

2012 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/10/27/cascading-failures-caused-amazon-outage

2012 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/07/03/multiple-generator-failures-caused-amazon-outage

2012 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/06/30/amazon-data-center-loses-power-during-storm

2012 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/06/29/another-outage-amazon-cloud

2011 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/15/amazon-provides-more-details-on-dublin-outage

2011 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/04/29/amazon-networking-error-caused-cloud-outage

2011 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/04/21/major-amazon-outage-ripples-across-web

2010 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/12/13/amazon-hardware-failures-caused-outage

2009 - https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/07/19/outage-for-amazon-web-services

With this much going wrong and the regulatory hammer looming, is there any wonder why there is an outflow of executives, including Zumwalt, Blackburn, Wilson, Jain, and Chew for starters. In his new book, Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about Harry Markopolos, the guy who gift-wrapped and delivered the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme to the SEC. Much like the case of Amazon.com, federal regulators spent years ignoring Markopolos and what was plain to see before their eyes. They couldn’t be bothered to conduct a thorough and proper investigation. Like Harry Markopolos told Malcolm Gladwell: "the truth is in the math"; "people have too much faith in large organizations"; "the emperor has no clothes".

The truth of Amazon.com is in the math too—in the patterns of misconduct and malfeasance that start at the top of the company. Indeed, the emperor has no clothes, and that’s something I have said before as well.

Circling back, bottom line, this person worked for Amazon S3 as a software engineer, subsequently hacked Amazon S3 and did so using intimate first-hand knowledge gained while employed at Amazon S3. This intimate first-hand knowledge included information about possible vulnerabilities, how those vulnerabilities potentially could be exploited and exactly how Amazon S3 worked. As a former Amazon S3 software engineer, this person knew exactly what to do and where to go once she got into Amazon S3. So let's call this hack what it was: An inside job. If Amazon.com were a bank and a former teller knew the contents of the bank vault and then robbed safety deposit boxes 7, 17 and 73 of their contents, everyone would call this what it was: an inside job. Well, that’s exactly what happened. This was an inside job. This former employee knew exactly the vulnerabilities to look for, how they could be exploited and which deposit boxes to steal—and she learned it all while working at Amazon S3.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

--

Addendum: Interesting comments earlier on Facebook and in private regarding said employee's role at Amazon.

As explained in the article, this person was employed by Amazon as a software engineer for S3 from 2015-2016. The Capital One data was stolen from Amazon's S3 servers in 2019. This was done using insider knowledge and tactics gained while working for Amazon. Amazon and Capital One both have underplayed how damaging this whole thing was... though Capital One admits this is likely to cause the company $100 - $150 million in damages.


P.S> This case gets curiouser and curiouser when you dig below the surface. Basically, the "employee" did the crime then gift-wrapped herself for authorities by not only giving them a trail of breadcrumbs to follow but copping to the crime on social media. This ensured quick arrest and abrupt ends to certain internal investigations (and primarily at Amazon.com). Inquiring minds might want to hazard a few guesses why. Two obvious questions for starters: What else might have been uncovered with continued, deep investigation? Who else might have been uncovered? I’m sure the curious can discern others.

Amazon Reviews: Broken System

Between 1 in 3 and 2 in 3 product reviews on Amazon.com are fake. They are bought and paid for. They are written by friends and family. They are swapped and traded on Facebook. They are incentivized from readers. Talking about this problem as I have for nearly 2 decades now has made me the repeat target of the thousands who make their living writing reviews, the millions of sellers who benefit from the fake praise and the dozens of Amazon employees working the system for personal and/or professional benefit.

Having reported problems with reviews to Amazon hundreds of times over decades and received repeated, direct retaliation from Amazon employees for doing so, I learned the hard way about the active involvement of Amazon employees in Amazon’s own marketplace, whether to ensure the success of themselves, family or associates or simply to ensure the failure of particular targets. This occurring repeatedly despite state and federal laws protecting those who report criminal activity, corporate malfeasance and other corporate wrongdoings from retaliation by those they are reporting.

Letters and emails to Amazon executives were answered with retaliation, as were letters and emails written to Amazon’s own legal team. This occurred because of the hundreds of billions of dollars of commerce that flow through Amazon annually. This occurred because those who rock the boat are targeted and thrown overboard. This occurred because of Amazon’s deep ties with local, state and federal government. This occurred because Amazon's executives buy entire newsrooms. This occurred because the truth could utterly destroy Amazon's marketplace dominance.

With control within the government and within the media, Amazon knows it has little to fear. Maybe a decade or so from now they’ll get a fine with a slap on the wrist despite ongoing, widespread corruption and corporate malfeasance. How quaint of them to recently throw their hands up in the air and declare they can no longer guarantee their marketplace. Meanwhile their own employees have steered billions in sales from one direction into another, harmed the sales of this product to ensure the success of that and more. Meanwhile Amazon employees have enriched themselves, their families, their friends, their associates. Meanwhile their executives have become billionaires by ensuring not even the truth affects the flow of commerce across their server engines.

If you know me, you know I’ve written many times about this problem, this widespread corruption. You know Amazon has targeted my books repeatedly because I’ve spoken out, because I’ve complained about my books being bombarded with unfavorable reviews by unscrupulous competitors, because I’ve let others know that Amazon itself was part of the problem. Speaking out about this problem has cost me millions of sales and tens of millions in earnings—and yet I will continue to speak out. I will not be silenced by Amazon’s continued heavy-handed retaliation or the criminal actions of its employees or others.

For those who don’t know me, please do take the time to read the numerous articles I’ve written about this problem. You’ll find the articles here at Linkedin, in my personal blogs (http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/ and http://williamstanek.blogspot.com), at Go Indie (http://readindies.blogspot.com/) and on my websites (http://www.williamrstanek.com and http://www.robert-stanek.com/). You’ll find posts about this problem going back to 2003 here @ http://www.robertstanek.com/rsblog.htm. I do of course write as William Stanek, Robert Stanek, William R. Stanek and William Robert Stanek.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

Amazon Caught in Pay-for-Praise Scheme Involving Hundreds of Employees

Last August Amazon began recruiting so-called “fulfillment center ambassadors,” compensating them to generate praise for the company on twitter (and also elsewhere in social media and on Amazon’s websites). Several hundred employees have been enlisted into the highly questionable, unethical (and likely fraudulent) scheme so far. It’s not the first time Amazon has resorted to highly questionable, unethical practices when its public image or sales/earnings were at risk. Amazon has used fake praise, fake reviews and other fake commentary widely in the past. My article titled “Amazon’s Blackened Soul” (http://readindies.blogspot.com/2016/08/amazons-blackened-soul.html) highlighted the fake reviews generated by Amazon employees, including Bezos’s own wife, to kill sales of Brad Stone’s book about Amazon and Bezos entitled “The Everything Store,” while simultaneously ensuring any bad press or other fallout related to the book was whitewashed and minimized.

Persons associated with Amazon, and in particular employees, had a vested, financial interested in limiting the success of Stone’s book, reducing its potential impact on Amazon’s bottom line and controlling the message surrounding the book. None more so than executives, management staff and others holding stock or stock options in the company. Amazon guidelines do not allow any persons with a financial interest in a product (either for or against) to review a product, but that didn’t stop persons associated with the company from ensuring their messaging, damage control and spin was heard far and wide.

Stone’s book had the potential to cause both a significant hit to Amazon’s public image and an enormous impact on Amazon’s bottom line, especially in the days leading up to and following its publication. Without Amazon’s public spin and careful management of perception through reviews and other means, Stone’s book could have caused lasting, long-term damage to the company and its reputation, not to mention its CEO.

Make no mistake that Amazon was in a precarious position in the timeframe surrounding the publication of The Everything Store. Amazon as a public company had never been consistently profitable in its nearly 20-year history (at the time), quite the contrary it had been a consistent money loser. A sway in public opinion could have derailed its access to capital markets. The difference between Amazon then and Amazon now is nearly a trillion dollars in market capitalization.

Caught in this latest scheme, Amazon has admitted that the company is paying employees to generate praise on twitter. (See https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/08/15/amazon-ambassadors-program-pays-workers-positive-twitter/2023111001/) Meanwhile, the pay-for-praise scheme extends into other social media sites and onto Amazon’s own websites, where it has been used to combat criticism, complaints and more related to the company. By paying its employees to generate praise for the company, Amazon has once again ignored the basic tenants of the foundation upon which the company is supposedly built.

Amazon terms of service forbid anyone from trying to manipulate their reputation in Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon’s terms of service forbid anyone from compensating for feedback of any kind. With Amazon unabashedly breaking its own rules any time it suites, is it any wonder that fraud is rampant both within Amazon’s own rank and file and on its websites where there are over a billion fake reviews. (See http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2019/06/amazons-fake-reviews-robert-stanek.html)

As I’ve discussed previously in Amazon Employees Caught Creating Fake Ebay Seller Accounts (https://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2019/08/amazon-employees-caught-creating-fake-accounts.html), Amazon gets away with decades of corporate malfeasance, federal crimes, abusive practices and more by publicly claiming to be a marketplace disruptor. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the company has tight controls over the press and state, local and federal government, and works over time to manage public perception, to spin reality, and perform damage control whenever it is caught in the act.

Let’s circle back, what’s most interesting about all this is that Amazon strictly prohibits sellers from protecting their reputation on its websites (and by extension in social media) by direct response, commentary or otherwise, regardless of whether the reviews, feedback and/or commentary the seller is seeking to protect themselves from are patently false, paid for by competitors, developed as part of smear campaigns or otherwise.

Heard of Prime Day? Who hasn’t. Amazon has spent an estimated $100 million+ developing and deploying strategies to protect its Prime Day events and sales from negative commentary and criticism, including training and paying for nearly 1000 employees, consultants, contractors and other affiliated persons that manage strategy, marketing, damage control, spin and messaging while striking back against criticism, complaints and any other commentary Amazon dislikes in the days leading up to, occurring on and subsequent to Prime Days.

Now this is all just very strange since this occurs not only in social media in real time but also on Amazon websites in real time despite clear terms of service explicitly prohibiting any and all parties from such behavior. Odd how rule-maker Amazon not only completely ignores the rules but breaks them whenever the company wants. Odder still that this is all part of a planned and carefully deployed strategy to protect Amazon’s reputation and sales at all costs, as ordered by the executive officers and management of the company. Hello Mr. Bezos.

So, hmmm. No party can do anything, such as simple response or commentary to patently false or fake feedback, on Amazon websites, and by extension according to terms of service no party can do anything in social media that is contrary to Amazon’s terms of service, such as simply asking those who had a positive experience with a product for comments or feedback—regardless of whether said product is being falsely maligned or flooded with fake commentary. Only Amazon can do this because only Amazon can do whatever it wants whenever it wants despite clear terms of service mandating otherwise—and only Amazon employees, consultants, contractors and other paid workers can make positive commentary and/or ask others for their positive experiences.

Hmmm… Take a moment to appreciate the scale of the 1,000-person operation plotting for and protecting Prime Days and related events from any criticism and commentary Amazon considers unsuitable. That’s a scale and scope that only a company with a near trillion-dollar market cap could afford. But just because you can throw millions of dollars at something doesn’t make it right, fair or just. People who want to criticize, complain and comment about negative experiences related to Amazon should be able to do so without real-time damage control operators stepping in with positive and contrary opinion, spin and damage control. It is in fact highly questionable, unethical (and possibly fraudulent) to pay hundreds of people to generate positive commentary for a company or product—even for a trillion-dollar company named Amazon.

So there you have it, not just one but two more examples of questionable, unethical and likely criminal schemes used by Amazon to manipulate public opinion, spin reality and ensure nothing affects its bottom line. The least of the schemes discussed involves several hundred employees, the greater involves many hundreds—a scope and scale that boggles the mind and clearly demonstrates that congressional and federal inquiries of Amazon should only be the beginning of deeper investigations on the path toward mandated federal oversight, extensive federal sanctions and ultimately the breakup of this monopoly’s stranglehold over US e-commerce.

It should be clear to all that by paying its employees and others to fight criticism, spin reality and generate positive commentary on its websites and social media that Amazon has opened itself up to liabilities and prosecution the company is otherwise protected from under Section 230 of the Communications Decency act. Amazon executives and managers made clear and unmistakable decisions to pay employees and others to generate content and commentary, and therefore opened themselves up to prosecution, not only for the many false, misleading and otherwise controversial statements and content generated and displayed on company websites in the pay-for-praise schemes but for any and all content generated.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

Amazon Fraud Again: Amazon Employees Caught Creating Fake Ebay Seller Accounts

In 2018, at least 50 Amazon employees were caught red handed creating fake accounts on Ebay and accused of multiple federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, fraud and racketeering. Over a period of years, the Amazon employees had created hundreds—if not thousands—of fake seller accounts to lure sellers away from Ebay’s marketplace. The Amazon employees were caught after a months’ long investigation and sting operation designed to catch Amazon in the act of setting up the fake accounts with the intention of luring sellers to Amazon’s marketplace—and away from Ebay.

Over the many years Amazon employees operated as fake sellers on Ebay, they redirected thousands of sellers to Amazon, redirecting tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars in sales to Amazon. You might imagine when this extensive level of corporate malfeasance is uncovered there’d be explosive media coverage and damaging headlines. Yet you’ll be hard-pressed to find coverage of these happenings anywhere. (https://www.seattletimes.com/business/ebay-accuses-amazon-of-poaching-sellers-from-its-site/.)

Amazon successfully buried the bad press, ensured what little press coverage there was appeared deep in the news, and leveraged its power and influence to push the crimes out of federal courts and into resolution via arbitration, thereby ensuring the federal crimes of its employees were swept under the rug. Amazon gets away with decades of corporate malfeasance, federal crimes, abusive practices and more by publicly claiming to be a marketplace disruptor. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the company has tight controls throughout the United States over police forces and news rooms, and works over time to manage public perception, to spin reality, and perform damage control whenever it is caught in the act. Amazon does this all while laughing at the FTC, DOJ and other federal agencies investigating the company for antitrust and numerous other issues.

Sound Orwellian, like something out of the novel 1984? Not at all, through its Ring division Amazon has deep connections with police forces across the country—countless of which are indebted to the company for helping them solve crimes. Amazon in fact requires police forces to shill it’s surveillance cameras using secret agreements and private kickback arrangements in the guise of donations. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb88za/amazon-requires-police-to-shill-surveillance-cameras-in-secret-agreement

Amazon has control over news rooms through its CEO’s purchase of The Washington Post. Control over the DC-based Post, not only provides Amazon with access to news rooms and reporters around the world, it also provides Amazon with access to and influence over federal agencies and the White House. Look any day at the press list for the White House and you’ll see how this is managed. When Bezos/Amazon want a story gone or buried, it’s a done deal. Case in point this story of widespread corporate malfeasance and federal crimes which was white-washed from existence. Crimes that should have included criminal conspiracy, fraud and racketeering--just for starters.

Amazon’s deep relations with federal, state and local government ensures many of the company’s other federal crimes, misdeeds and abuses have never seen the light of day. How deeply is Amazon embedded into the United States government? So much so that you’ll find dedicated recruitment pages for federal, government, and state agencies (including https://aws.amazon.com/federal/ and https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/government/), the Department of Defense (https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/defense/), U.S. Intelligence (https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/), Justice Department (https://aws.amazon.com/stateandlocal/justice-and-public-safety/), and on and on. Amazon’s own words are telling: With over 2,000 government agencies using Amazon Web Services (AWS), we understand the requirements U.S. Government agencies… AWS provides cloud capability across all classification levels Unclassified, Sensitive, Secret, and Top Secret.

Amazon is so embedded into our government that it is impossible to perform any fair or just oversight of the company. All those government agencies working with Amazon are handled with close (dare I say, cozy) relationships between many employees of Amazon and many employees of the government agencies. Those cozy relationships exist at all levels from the executive down. With such close ties to the DOD, DOJ, US Intelligence and hundreds of other agencies, is it any wonder Amazon can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Not to mention the fact that not only does one of the most corrupt corporations in the world have ties into every branch of state, local and federal government throughout the United States, that same corrupt corporation holds the most sensitive data and secrets of the United States on its servers and by holding that data, ensures it will never have a judgement day.

Control the police, control the media, control the federal government. What’s next for future President Bezos? Oh wait, with those controls Bezos doesn’t need to be president to run the country, does he. He just needs to remember which puppet strings to pull when. Is there any question now why the Amazon monopoly continues unchecked?

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

Shame on Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA)

Beware those who do evil in the name of good, those who build bully pulpits so they can target and victimize. I wish I was talking about some totalitarian regime or corrupt corporation, instead I’m talking about Absolute Write run by Victoria Strauss and others. Absolute Write is a platform for hate and abuse created by those claiming to do good for the writing community. A platform for hate and abuse that claims affiliation with Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) to extend the reach of its harm, victimization and abuse.

For a number of years Absolute Write members and leaders indiscriminately targeted self-publishers as frauds, while membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America looked on and nodded their heads in agreement.

For a number of years Absolute Write members and leaders indiscriminately targeted those who used print on demand as frauds, while membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America looked on and nodded their heads in agreement.

For a number of years Absolute Write members and leaders indiscriminately targeted kindle authors as frauds, while membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America looked on and nodded their heads in agreement.

The list goes on and on and on… of alleged frauds, supposed wrongdoers, ne’er-do-wells. And so it has gone on for decades, with anyone who did anything this group from their holier-than-though bully pulpit disagreed with being targeted as frauds, while with the Science Fiction Writers of America has looked on and allowed continued widespread victimization and abuse.

Beware those who do evil in the name of good, those who build bully pulpits to target and victimize. Absolute Write and those who hide behind its claims of helping the writing community have done evil in the name of good for decades. Hate speech they’ve inspired is all over the internet. The animosity they’ve created runs deep. The hundreds of victims they’ve targeted have little recourse against the lynch mobs they’ve created, complete with public hangings and brandings all done in the name of doing good while doing evil.

In truth, the crimes of these hundreds of victims largely come down to simply having crossed paths with this group of writers who use their public forum to target, harass and harangue anyone for anything. Intolerance, cruelty, xenophobia, more, all run rampant in themes and subthemes, in private chats between members, all while the Science Fiction Writers of America looks on.

I was first targeted by Absolute Write members (Victoria Strauss, David Langford and others) in 2002. At the time, Victoria Strauss was an aspiring young adult writer with no status except for the platform of hate and intolerance she and others were building. My young adult book, Keeper Martin’s Tale, was a self-published, upstart success that was immediately targeted by this group and their ilk.

I’ve written much about this. You’ll find articles at Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamstanek/), in my personal blogs (http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/ and http://williamstanek.blogspot.com), at Go Indie (http://readindies.blogspot.com/) and on my websites (http://www.williamrstanek.com and http://www.robert-stanek.com/). You’ll find posts about related problems going back to 2003 here @ http://www.robertstanek.com/rsblog.htm. I do of course write as William Stanek, Robert Stanek, William R. Stanek and William Robert Stanek. I am of course the author of over 200 full-length works of fiction and nonfiction, having been a successful published author since 1995.

In these posts and articles, you’ll learn about the third review ever for the Young Adult book that competed with Victoria Strauss’s desires to be a writer, Keeper Martin’s Tale. The reader, using a fake account and fake name, said they had been duped/had by all the glowing reviews. Meanwhile, Keeper Matin’s Tale had exactly TWO previous reviews over a period of several months while it topped the Top 50 Scifi & Fantasy Bestseller list at Amazon.com and after selling thousands upon thousands of copies.

The second ever review for another of my books, Elf Queen’s Quest, was much the same, about how the reader was duped/had by all the glowing reviews—of which there was exactly ONE previous review. This reader also used a fake account and fake name.

This continued. All orchestrated by persons associated with Langford, Strauss and Absolute Write.

Odd articles appeared in Langford’s Ancible about how I was a supposed fraud, about how all the reviews were fake. This being 2002, my fiction works had sold thousands upon thousands of copies, and the total number of reviews was a mere handful—single digits on average across all my fiction titles. That didn’t stop the fake outrage reviews from flowing from associates of these persons, who liberally dumped 1 and 2 star reviews using fake accounts and fake names.

Langford, Strauss and Absolute Write next began targeting Reagent Press (2002/2003) claiming it was a fraudulent publisher. The earliest claim being because Reagent Press paid its writers using Paypal. Persons associated with Absolute Write then began targeting Reagent Press as well as myself.

And guess what? While these persons were decrying Reagent Press as a fraud for paying writers via Paypal, Strauss and associates were praising a newly forming company called Smashwords, which guess what? Planned to, and eventually did, pay its writers via Paypal.

That’s kind of a running theme of how all this works with these persons. Something that competes or perhaps has an original idea or theme that others want to use for their own is a fraud. Themes, characters, plots and more were in fact liberally plagiarized from my fiction books while these persons were indiscriminately targeting me, Reagent Press and my works of fictions.

Beware those who do evil in the name of good, those who build bully pulpits to target and victimize. Absolute Write have not only used their bully pulpit to harass and abuse, they’ve used it to suppress and censor, to ensure when they’ve stolen intellectual property or done incredible harm the victims of their crimes and misdeeds are instead victimized, harassed and maligned.

In 2002 when all this started, it’s important to note that I was a highly successful best-selling author with millions of readers for the dozens of professionally published books I’d written. I’d been a successful author since my breakout first book in 1995. The individuals involved absolutely knew this and yet they have continued to malign, defame, harass and attack me publicly for nearly 2 decades. They do this because they are insulated by dozens, if not hundreds, of like-mind persons who use the platform for hate they’ve created to take down anyone who gets in their way for any reason. Continued claims of affiliation with Science Fiction Writers of America also lends credibility to the victimization of their targets.

Over the past 2 decades, these persons have proven they’ll do whatever it takes to cause harm, to abuse and victimize, regardless of who else gets caught in their cross hairs. Some years ago, they published my home address “so that [me] personally and [my] family are physically targeted”. Apparently it wasn’t enough to smear, defame, and harass online, they also need the fight to become physical. This resulted in my daughters, ~10 and ~11 at the time, being physically accosted. Stop and think about that for a moment. They knew I had children. I have pictures of them in my accounts. And they wanted people to target them physically.

When I wrote about my children being accosted because of what they’d done, the response and comments? Strauss and others thought it was absolutely hilarious, stating that “my daughters deserved [to have been attacked] because their dad was a fraudulent self-publisher.” My crime: Yep, self-publishing novels of YA and children’s fiction.

I’ve written about all this before, I’ve named those involved, and yet the nonsense continues, nearly 2 decades on. More examples: When these persons learned I wrote a book about my military service. What did they do? They spread falsities that I wasn’t a combat veteran and that my claim to have been awarded the distinguished flying cross was stolen valor.

These persons urged others to spread this. Some asked others to “ensure [I] received threats so [I] would learn [my] lesson”. Others asked “circulate [his] address again, make sure he gets a personal visit [at my home]”. “Stomp some sense into him,” said another. Stop and think about that for a moment. These people were asking others to assault me at my home for the alleged crime of stolen valor that they knew was false because they’d made it up. These are the lengths these persons will go to abuse and victimize anyone who gets in their way for any reason.

Thanks for reading.

Amazon's Black Eye Deepens: A Public Sham/e

Speaking out about fake reviews has made me the target of the thousands who make their living writing reviews for pay. This continues despite Amazon's public dispute with over 5000 paid reviewers at Fiverr--no few of which were writers, who unable to make a living at writing, made their living writing reviews.

1 billion--and counting. The approximate number of fake product reviews at Amazon, according to an approximate 1 in 3 estimate. Multiple billions, if you go with the more likely estimate of 2 in 3. This includes incentivized reviews, paid reviews, friends & family reviews and all other reviews that otherwise would not exist without those involved cheating the system. Pick a random product at Amazon with oodles of reviews and odds are nearly 100% that you've stumbled upon a cheat. Take 2 recent purchases made on the same day as examples of just how broken Amazon is.

The first purchase I made were special gloves for those with carpal tunnel. I bought the gloves, not because of the 857 glowing Amazon reviews, but because of the oodles of websites that said W-O-W what a fantastic product it was. The company's website also looked legit. There were dozens of products from this company all glowingly reviewed at Amazon.

How good were the extra large men's gloves I ordered? Well, I couldn't really tell you because the product I received wouldn't fit the hands of an 10-year-old child, let alone a full-grown adult. If I hadn't ordered multiple pairs of the gloves in two different varieties, I might have believed there had been a labeling mistake or something--which is the first of many lies the seller tried to convince me of when I tried to get my money back. In the end, the seller agreed to reimburse me while also telling me to keep the gloves. I was supposed to donate them or such. Think about that for a moment these quasi-medical-grade gloves were supposed to be worth $25+ per pair and the seller didn't even want them back.

The second product was a support brace from a company positioning itself as a medical equipment supplier. Again, I bought the brace not because of the 1312 glowing Amazon reviews, but because of all the websites that told me this was the best product of its class on the market. As with the carpal tunnel gloves, I was so impressed with what the websites were telling me that I bought several braces and several pairs of special compression socks for my daughter who has down's syndrome and needs special footwear. These medical supplies weren't cheap. $58 for one brace, as an example, and $30+ for each pair of the special socks.

The company looked legit--it too had dozens of related products all glowingly reviewed, along with all these websites telling me how great the product was. Imagine my dismay when I received are what I believe to be $5 products that were made in China. It took some doing, but I did finally get this seller to refund my money, but it cost me $12 in postage sending the products back to get it and a lot of frustration.

*It's important to point out that I ordered both products on the company website. I did not order the products at Amazon. However, the products were fulfilled by Amazon and shipped from Amazon's warehouses.*

After I finally got my money back on these purchases, I went back and looked at the products, the seller websites, all those related websites. I'm a sophisticated buyer, who knows not to trust any reviews at Amazon, and yet I still had been suckered into buying fraudulent products.

These sellers had built or paid their way into sophisticated consumer-oriented websites where hundreds of other products had been reviewed and compared. These sellers had created or bought dozens of customer testimonial websites. These sellers had bought and paid for a mind-boggling number of glowing product reviews at Amazon. These were mega operations, selling cheap knock-off products that weren't fit for use and using tens of thousands of fake reviews at Amazon to help them do it.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

Remembering My Long-Time Friend Brian Jacques on His 80th Birthday

As I write this, today June 15, 2019, my friend, Brian Jacques, creator of Redwall, would have been 80. Of all the writers I’ve corresponded with over the years, from Raymond Feist to CJ Cherryh to Mercedes Lackey in the hey days of CompuServe, Brian was the wittiest and most fun. It was the highest of honors to host Brian when his fall 2005 book tour of the Western USA brought him to my adopted home town of Olympia, Washington. At the time, I wrote about Brian’s visit on a tribute page to him and his books, which I posted to share with my readers @ http://themagiclands.com/brianjacques.htm. The page is still there, hasn’t changed in 15 years.

One of the best things about Brian’s visit was that my son, Will, who was 13 at the time, got to meet Brian and get all of his Redwall books signed. Will was, and remains, a Redwall fan, having read all of Brian’s books multiple times. My two youngest were also at the signing and they enjoyed getting their pictures taken with my friend Brian. 

As I had promised Brian, I also gave him copies of the children's editions of my books, The Kingdoms & the Elves of the Reaches, which are set in my fantasy world of Ruin Mist. Brian and I enjoyed swapping stories of our created worlds, having bonded over our similar experiences with Catholic school teachers beating us with rulers.  

Brian was a hoot to listen to at author events and book signings. He loved his characters and got into the role of his characters actively in the telling. Brian loved a good feast as well, as any attentive Redwall fan knows.

Brian also challenged me to give back to readers and the writing community, to share my personal skills and experiences with others. Brian always spoke fondly of his days working with blind children and how he got his start. Early conversations with Brian were key in inspiring me to dedicate many hours and years to give away one million books to schools, libraries, community centers and others, though especially to teachers in classrooms who needed books for their students who otherwise would have no books at all as well as to schools for the blind, like the one in rural Scotland where students had access for many years to my entire catalog of books, including many educational and learning titles in the Bugville Critters, at no cost.

To say Brian Jacques loved the written word is an understatement. Brian lived for the written word and I think the only thing he loved more was bringing his stories and ideas to life with spoken word. Brian and I had running conversations about digital audio and in particular Audible, where my books had been runaway bestsellers--#1 Fiction, #1 Fantasy, #1 YA/Childrens for many weeks in spring and summer 2005. Brian was more familiar with traditional audio on tape and hesitant about the digital world--ebooks, kindle, audible, and such. I don't know if my words on the subject swayed his thoughts on the subject, but I'd like to think so, as his books did start to become available for both kindle and audible.

In the fall of 2005, none of us could have known that Brian would be taken from the world just a few years later. I was, in fact, looking forward to his promised next West coast USA tour and another visit with my long-time friend. For me, Brian Jacques will forever remain one of the true few who could paint pictures with words.

We all miss you, Brian, though it is perhaps fitting that the final Redwall book is about rogues. As a rogue scoundrel who worked many odd jobs in his life, this was perhaps Brian’s last wink and nod to the world.

Goodnight, Brian. Goodnight, Redwall.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.