The NYLitMag Who Stole Christmas

Christmas morning came for me! My wife and I were up like little kids, doing our present thing along with our curious dogs and lurking cats... when I checked my phone.

... ... ...

Likes

Follows

An email?... hmmm... what's this?

From the 'NY Literary Magazine'... oooh... that sounds cool... I've been nominated for their

'Best Story Contest'? Woah! Cool!

At this point, I called to my wife Steph - I was excited! The news was the cherry on top of my Christmas Sundae... Pleased as my cats purring in the sunshine, I let the feeling linger...

I'd deal with the nitty-gritty tomorrow.

... But then, eventually, tomorrow came. It got colder and snowier - and I started reading the email more thoroughly. And something... something about it told me Spam. This is Spam, Ryan. Ryan. Ryan?

Ah, come on little voice in my gut which is always right, surely I deserve this. I'm a writer - nobody ever takes notice of me. Can't just this once, the impossibly good new news be impossibly true?

*Dead-Pan Here*

Later that evening, I messaged a few people in the St Louis Writers Guild about it, to get their take on what they thought about it... and then i did a google search and started reading up.

So, um... remember that little voice in my gut which is always right? - Let's just say, its perfect track record remains perfect. It's a scam. A dirty dirty scam. - Feel free to read up more from other suspicious writers who also did their homework with a quick google search.

No doubt, we writers deserve a little ego-tickle for all our constant hard work and unmitigated worry - but not this way. Not from an unsolicited email from an unheard of magazine with suspicious credentials offering too many others all the same supposedly exclusive accolade. Nope. Nope nope triple Nope.

However, it got me thinking... ok, so if we can use those devious persona non gratas over at the

'NY Literary Magazine' as a template for a writer award hoax, then what does a real award notification look like?