I am a 73 yr old woman who wanted to write a book about herb gardening for years. My son heard Mrs. Larson on a radio station 98. 7 The Peak brag about her organic writing skills. He contacted her for me to help me with my book idea. She was very sweet and said she had time to help me. She said her hourly rate was high because she had 9 years of book writing experience, is a published author and was a Boston U graduate. I said OK and paid her a $1,200 retainer. She took my material, the money and just disappeared. I called and called and called, she would not return my calls. I tried the radio station and I think she though I was a stalker. She finally called me about 2 months later and said she had been busy doing work for Need-An-Article.com and CJD and would send me the rough material of her work in a week.
After a week passed I waited and waited and waited. I called and called and called. Finally 2 months later she said it was being sent. I asked her why it was so late and she said she went ahead and finished the material. I asked how she came up with final material when we had not even talked, she said to trust "the pro" and the material was very good. We met and I was very impressed. Wow, I though. She asked me for the rest of the money. I paid her. I took the material to my gardening group and they each took a copy home with them. One of the members noticed my book looked exactly like a book she just received from her sister-in-law located in Iowa. She had reviewed a book titled Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More for Amaon.com. I looked at it and the writing was the same. Mrs. Larson did not even change one word, she just copied it and handed it to me. I was crushed.
I cancelled the check and called Mrs. Larson who told me it was her work and she would ruin me on the Internet if she were not paid. To make a long story short, she calls me names, threatens me, and my son. She told my son she would ruin my name because she is a SEO (Search Engine) goddess and could ruin our reputation. I am not too familiar with computers but my son said she could do a lot of damage if I were to try and market a future book on the Internet. She will call and be very nice and then she calls and will be threatening. I think she is mental. She still calls and e-mails threats, I do not want to have anything else to do with her and I wish she would leave me alone. I later found out she did not have any book writing experience, has never been published, has been sued several times, no journalism degree or even go to Boston University and just attended a city college with no journalism education. I also understand she is being investigated for embezzling money from some CJD charity.
LoriGardenbooks
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.