Dealing with weirdos.

[Azure Skye]

This is closely related to the hate mail thread, sort of, I guess. If it is, you may delete it.


Have any of you had to deal with strange individuals because of the exposure you've gotten with your writing?

Does it make you feel violated and paranoid?

How do you deal with it?

[three seven]

If you count a declined claim letter as writing, then yes. One guy whose insurance claim I threw out (weird, this is the second time that job's come back to haunt me tonight!) er... where was I? Yeah, threw out his claim and he spent a good couple of weeks on the phone getting steadily more and more unstable (he was schizophrenic.) One time I had to (for the tape) listen to him for two hours threatening to.. er.. take me in a manly fashion and then cut me up with a sword. It's extremely hard not to rise to it.
I tend to take the view that if someone's willing to take the time and effort to pay you unwanted attention, they're clearly a few sandwiches short and need to be dispensed with whether they're harmless or not. If telling them politely to respect your privacy doesn't work, all you can do if you're being harassed or threatened is gather any evidence you can and call the police. And if you're in a situation where you feel violated or paranoid, that counts.