Finding the Armchair Traveler in All of Us

Hope you had wonderful holidays! As much as I enjoy traveling, I also enjoy reading about traveling. I think there’s a secret armchair traveler in all of us. Some know me as Katie/Kate from William Robert’s combat memoir, Air War: The Incredible True Story of the Combat Flyers, which was recently released in a 20th Anniversary edition. William Robert and I started our path together over 30 years ago, as husband and wife and as business partners. He has always been the creative, the writer and artist, but for just as long, I’ve been his arts & press publisher and the woman behind the scenes of our gallery partnerships, such as those with World Galleries. While I handled his small press work and art/photography, large multinational publishers handled his other work, including IDG, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pearson Education, Cengage Learning, Microsoft, Wiley, TimeWarner, O'Reilly, HMH, and over 100 other publishers globally.

Whenever I tell people my husband is the William Stanek/Robert Stanek, writer and photographer, I’m often asked what it’s like to live with someone so creative, so driven. Well, that’s kind of a difficult question to answer. But I will say, for all those curious, that William Robert’s been my best friend in life for as long as we’ve been partners, both in a romantic and a business sense. He’s the best husband, the best father to our children.

There’s a reason those who truly know William Robert, especially other writers and artists, think of him as a gentle giant, a warrior poet and a beautiful person. He’s not only one of the most kind and thoughtful, he’s also one of the most artistic, creative and inspiring people around. He’s overcome so much in his life to get where he is today—poverty, violence, neglect, death, homelessness, combat, health issues, more. It’s a wonder he got here at all, and yet he did.

William Robert and I have lived a wonderful and eventful life, a full life, due in large part to his creative eye and dedication to purpose, to craft, to the people around him. He expresses himself in his words and art, using the pain and the tremendous obstacles he faced in his childhood and early life as a source of inspiration, rather than despair, while striving for heights he would not have reached otherwise.

I may be biased, but I think his work is incredibly special. His photographs capture something very raw, real and beautiful about life, whether his subject is a medieval cathedral, a sky-filling sunset after a storm or a mountain half seen in the distance.

With this in mind, I want to invite you to visit the world with us and dream through our new premium large-format photography book: William R. Stanek. The Black and White Collection #1: Fine Art Photography Rare Masters.

@ Barnes & Noble

@ Amazon.com

@ Bookshop.org

@ HPB

Meant for discerning collectors and special collections, this premium, oversized book works wonderfully to display on a coffee or cocktail table to inspire conversation when you are entertaining and to simply pass the time. Inside, you’ll find more than 100 fine art photographs from the Rare Master series by William, photographs from throughout his 30+-year career.

Producing a premium fine art photography book is expensive. Individual photographs featured in this book sell for hundreds of dollars in William’s studios. It was a challenge to find the right balance, to ensure not to devalue the work to which William has dedicated his life while delivering value in book form to you as the reader. For this reason, we are delivering William’s Rare Masters as a series of volumes that can be collected individually at a lower price point, and as books that combine multiple volumes into a single volume at a higher price point. We hope you agree this balanced approach works well.

Throughout this book, I discuss the story behind the work when possible to give you insider insights and to inspire conversation and, perhaps, to inspire your own adventures too.

Full page photographs, with extras. Photoshoot locations:

1. Newport Beach, California, USA

2. Lucerne, Switzerland

3. Ghent, Belgium

4. Vienna, Austria

5. Paris, France

6. Lucerne, Switzerland

7. Paris, France

8. Costa del Sol, Andalusia, Spain

9. The Bernese Highlands, Switzerland

10. Bavaria, Germany

11. Vienna, Austria

12. Oa’hu, Hawaii, USA 

13. Orléans, France

14. Kauai, Hawaii, USA

15. Florida, USA

16. Kauai, Hawaii, USA

17. Zermatt, Switzerland

18. Ghent, Belgium

19. Kauai, Hawaii, USA

20. Ghent, Belgium

21. O’ahu, Hawaii

22. O’ahu, Hawaii

23. Hallstatt, Austria

24. Kinderdijk, Netherlands

25. Orléans, France

26. Washington state, USA

27. Colorado, USA

28. Lake Hallstatt, Austria

29. Oregon, USA

30. Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany

31. Kinderdijk, Netherlands

32. Bavaria, Germany

33. Colorado, USA

34. Kauai, Hawaii, USA

35. Oregon, USA

36. Adelboden, Switzerland

37. Oregon, USA

38. Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

39. Vienna, Austria

40. South Carolina, USA

41. Vienna, Austria

42. Maui, Hawaii, USA

43. Cannon Beach, Oregon, USA

44. Hawaii, USA

45. Hawaii, USA

46. Florence, Italy

47. London, Great Britain, UK

48. Bavaria, Germany

49. Hawaii, USA

50. Hawaii, USA

51. Hawaii, USA

52. Lake Tahoe, California, USA

53. Berchtesgaden, Germany

54. Paris, France

55. Vienna, Austria

56. Rome, Italy

57. Rome, Italy

58. Salisbury, United Kingdom

59. Lucerne, Switzerland

60. Sintra, Portugal

61. … 81 The Netherlands, for the Art in Flowers special collection

82. Vienna, Austria

83. Maui, Hawaii, USA

84. Vienna, Austria

85. Vienna, Austria

86. Blois, France

87. Fontainebleau, France

88. Lucerne, Switzerland

89. Obertraun, Austria

90. O’ahu, Hawaii, USA

91. Rome, Italy

92. Salzburger Land, Austria

93. Delft, Netherlands

94. Rome, Italy

95. Kauai, Hawaii, USA

96. Gstaad, Switzerland

97. London, Great Britain, UK

98. Lake Walen, Switzerland

99. Hallstatt, Austria

100. Paris, France

101. Washington state, USA

102. The Bernese Highlands, Switzerland

103. Normandy, France

104. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

105. Stirling, Scotland, UK

106. Loire Valley, France

107. Windsor, Great Britain, UK

108. Rome, Italy

109. Bavaria, Germany

110. Zermatt, Switzerland

111. Volendam, Netherlands

112. Vienna, Austria

113. Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy

114. San Francisco, California, USA

115. Auxerre, France

116. Bay of Naples, Italy

117. Florence, Italy

118. Washington state, USA

119. Vienna, Austria

120. Lazio Italy

About Hui Cha Stanek

Erstwhile Photographer and Long-time Publisher Hui Cha Stanek has always been the woman behind the scenes. She has managed the day-to-day operations of Stanek Media for the past three decades. Her work has been featured in a number of gallery shows and recently in a career retrospective with her husband. She prefers candid street photography and photography of people (though not traditional portrait work). One of her most famous works, Tip Toe I See You, is shown below.

Others, not to be missed:

Salt Water Taffy

Let Me See Too

My Hair Day Too Mom

Where Did it Go

You'll find these fine art photography works and more at:

https://www.pictorem.com/gallery/360.Studios?cat=10605&iframe=1

About William Robert Stanek

Seattle-based Photographer and Artist, William Robert Stanek, is a combat veteran who supports other veterans, is also a vocal champion of books and libraries. Not only an artist, he wrote nonfiction for over three decades as William Stanek and fiction as Robert Stanek. Find his fine art photography and prints from his original oil paintings in his online studios:

360 Studios - https://www.pictorem.com/gallery/360.Studios

1North Studios - https://www.pictorem.com/gallery/1north

Studio 24 - https://www.pictorem.com/gallery/24

Robert Stanek Studios - https://www.pictorem.com/gallery/robert.stanek

Connecting to his roots in his work is important to Robert. The beautiful fine art print that follows is a view of Mont St. Michel in Normandy France, part of Robert's popular, limited A Day at Mont St. Michel photo series. Special to Robert as this is the region where his French ancestors are from--an ancestry Robert has traced back from Quebec Canada to its origins in France.

Find William Robert's books at

Walmart https://walmart.com/c/brand/robert-stanek

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Robert%20Stanek%22

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/search?q=robert%20stanek&c=books

Apple iTunes https://books.apple.com/us/author/robert-stanek/id55535880

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Stanek/author/B001K8IESG

Justice Department Identifies Ten Amazon Staff Accepting Bribes, Writing Fake Negative Reviews, Targeting Products for Take Downs

When the malicious targeting of my books stopped suddenly, I thought someone must have finally caught the Amazon insiders responsible, and someone had, the Justice Department. A grand jury in Washington indicted six of those involved in a $100M fraud scheme, involving at least 10 Amazon staff who were being bribed. In exchange for bribes, corrupted Amazon staff facilitated attacks against competitors of those paying the bribes, using their inside access to Amazon's network to suspend competitors' accounts and product listings, remove favorable reviews and commentary, write fictitious negative product reviews designed to hurt sales, post spurious comments to intimidate victims and drive away customers, and much more.

Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office Western District of Washington issued a press release on September 18, 2020 naming the individuals who had been indicted. EPHRAIM ROSENBERG, 45, of Brooklyn, New York; JOSEPH NILSEN, 31, and KRISTEN LECCESE, 32, of New York, New York; HADIS NUHANOVIC, 30, of Acworth, Georgia; ROHIT KADIMISETTY, 27, of Northridge, California; and NISHAD KUNJU, 31, of Hyderabad, India, who are charged with conspiracy to use a communication facility to commit commercial bribery, conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorization, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud.

The names of the Amazon employees being bribed haven't been released yet. The defendants will make their initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Seattle on October 15, 2020. The case is being investigated by the FBI, the IRS-Criminal Investigations, and the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs. The Grand Jury Charges are detailed in a 38-page indictment:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/press-release/file/1317986/download

Being on the receiving end of these self-styled "takedowns" for two decades, I recognized every tactic outlined by the prosecution in the charging document. These are the very tactics my competitors had been using to target my books on Amazon with the assistance of Amazon insiders, and as I've been blogging about just as long. My posts about the same are here:

The Devil Writes Romance Novels

https://readindies.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-devil-writes-heart-warming-romance.html

Speaking Out About Ugliness in the Publishing Industry
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2014/09/speaking-out-robert-stanek.html

Unethical Competitors
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/01/unethical-competitors.html

Authors who Trash Competitors
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/03/authors-who-trash-competitors.html

Authors who are Trolls
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/09/authors-who-are-trolls.html

Speaking out About Haters
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/06/haters.html

The Internet Isn't the New West
http://www.williamrstanek.com/internet-new-west.htm

My original blog at RobertStanek.com has posts about the same that go back to 2003:

http://www.robertstanek.com/rsblog1.htm

http://www.robertstanek.com/rsblog2.htm

http://www.robertstanek.com/rsblog3.htm

For years now, my every complaint about the targeting of my books was answered with retaliation, whether I wrote Amazon support or the Amazon executive team, and I finally have the definitive answer as to why. 

Despite these indictments Amazon is and remains the most corrupt marketplace on Earth, and this corruption goes from the bottom to the very top of the company, as evidenced by what has happened to my books for the past twenty years whenever I filed official complaints. Hundreds of billions of dollars of commerce flow through Amazon every year, and I'm certain many more former and current Amazon staff will be identified as part of similar schemes.

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

Connecting with My Friend Walter Dean Myers, Talking Dysfunction & Diversity in America

The first time I met, Walter, aka Walter Dean Myers, we connected, and this led to an odd friendship of a sorts. The thing that bonded us was our similar childhoods, though decades apart. Walter was born in August 1937, my mamma was born in April 1937. Walter lost his mother when he was 2, and my mamma and her sister Dolores lost their daddy even earlier. Walter was given to Florence and Herbert Dean after his mother’s death, my mother, her sister and her mamma moved in with their gramma who raised them for the next few years until their mamma married again.

Walter saw me and knew who I was the moment he laid eyes upon me, never asked why I had a copy of Hoops in my hand. He just understood. As a child, I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood in Racine, Wisconsin, which I write about here. It was rough and tumble, which I also write about, and that was something Walter understood too as he and I both had to use our fists to defend ourselves at an early age.

His family became dysfunctional with alcohol and grief when his uncle was killed, mine when my step-father and sister died because of an explosion. The library and its books became my refuge, as books were a refuge and a solace for Walter.

Reading pushed us both to discover new worlds. For me, the classics. Treasure Island. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Robinson Crusoe. The Time Machine. The Invisible Man. Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Last of the Mohicans. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Around the World in Eighty Days. A Christmas Carol. Frankenstein. Dracula. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Lost World. And on and on.

Though never an apt pupil, Walter wrote well in high school and his English teacher recognized this, encouraging him to never stop writing no matter what happened to him. My English teacher in the 4^th grade recognized my writing skill and encouraged me to write for and edit the school newspaper, as did my Uncle Wally and both of whom told me to never stop writing, never stop challenging myself.

Walter dropped out of high school and joined the army at 17. I joined the air force at 17 after finishing high school because I was homeless and had no other options.

Walter was one of the most prolific writers, with more than 110 books to his credit, and is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award in writing for young adults, as well as many other awards. I also became one of the most prolific writers, with more than 250 books to my credit and counting, and have been nominated several times for lifetime achievement awards in writing.

After Walter passed away in 2014, I blogged about one of his last essays decrying a lack of diversity in writing, saying that diversity existed in writing it just wasn’t always plain to see. Diversity in my books has led to controversy. I haven’t let controversy change my views or my writing, nor have I kowtowed to White publishing, nor to the conscientious objectors who worship at the altar of George RR Martin and abhor veterans.

How odd that even after decades and decades, books must still be thought of as white or black, or for whites or for blacks. It was, after all, an interracial award for children’s books that put my friend Walter Dean Myers in the spotlight in 1969. We humans excel at putting up fences, we just don’t know how to take them down.

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