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- Written by Michael Z Williamson
I called out this strange individual a few days back.
And this is the response he emailed:
James LaPorta
Oct 5
 
to me
 
Hey son,
Long time, no chat. Appreciate the advice, but the bullshit meter is full, so unfortunately, I canΓÇÖt take anymore advice right now. Anytime you want to compare writing careers, IΓÇÖm available.
Stay out of trouble, kid. And keep those fingers flying across that keyboard of yours, you little rascal, you.
Sincerely,
James LaPorta
--
James M. LaPorta
Journalist | Documentary Producer | Former U.S. Marine
Bylines at: The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast
(C) 202-650-0089
Twitter: @JimLaPorta
Website: www.jameslaporta.net
For Encryption: SIGNAL and TELEGRAM
Fingerprint: 1EE4 2581 B0D6 1C8E C131 A635 4EC2 B5D2 7728 669F
Confidential: This communication contains confidential and/or privileged information and is intended only for the person or entity named. Anyone other than the intended recipient, or the named recipient's employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the named recipient, is prohibited from reading, copying, distributing, disseminating, or otherwise using the information contained in this communication.
 
Compare careers? Well, I want to say upfront that popularity doesn't directly equate to accomplishment. But okay.
My first novel was Freehold.
Contact with Chaos while deployed to the Sandbox in 2008, when not on long hours of duty. It kept me sane.
Do Unto Others... still sells reliably in all editions, like all my SF--Hardcover, paperback, Audible, Baen eBook, Kindle, Nook.
Rogue continue the story arc of The Weapon. Once again I got fanmail from professionals--both special operators, and investigators.
When Diplomacy Fails... is the third segment of the Ripple Creek universe. Just look for the ellipsis.
Tour of Duty compiled my existing short stories, essays and some snark, that were originally written for writers like Joe Haldeman and Mercedes Lackey. James has probably never heard of them, either. That says more about him than them.
Wisdom from my Internet was a joke, as was the publication by "Patriarchy Press" which is owned by my girlfriend--a minority female. With advanced degrees. And her own side career of writing. And a major job with a real security clearance for an aerospace contractor. It was a #1 Amazon bestseller in political humor. It got nominated for an award, and I'm relieved it didn't win. It earned money, though.
A Long Time Until Now sold out its hardcover print run so fast I barely got any. Good luck finding any.
Now, the NYT bestseller list is hard to crack, and I will freely admit I haven't managed that yet. One thing to keep in mind is for that list, it's only certain stores that count, within the week, in certain genres--they don't acknowledge Romance or Western, for example, because Romance would own the list.
Bookscan, though, monitors distribution sales and categorizes by genre. ALTUN was a National Bestseller in SF, per Bookscan. It also got a legitimate screen query from someone who does things with Universal Pictures. Let's not hold our breath--it took 30 years for Ender's Game to reach the screen. But I have the query and it's floating about.
Tick of the Clock did better than I expected for a self pub, and Travis deserves credit for being patient with me while I was somewhat sick.
Angeleyes also was a National Bestseller, and nominated for a Prometheus. Once again it was a tough, worthy field and I didn't win. That's infinitely more nominations than James, though.
I was a single parent while writing this, btw.
Forged in Blood is also a National Bestseller. It's selling and reviewing tremendously well.  (EDIT: And won the P&E Readers' Poll for Best Anthology, and Kacey's story was the Year's Best winner.)
That's it to date.
Well, this is pending: Tide of Battle
Which includes work I did for Kevin J. Anderson and Janet Morris. Heard of them? James hasn't, I'm sure.
And I just finished two more short pieces, one of which may become a TV project, because the person running the project actually does have TV credits. The other short may become a book, because the editor liked it that much. Note that "May" is not "Will." It's a flexible industry.
I have a collaboration on spec mostly finished.
I have contracts on another Ripple Creek and two more time travel novels, one of which is being written now.
I have another short on contract, one on spec, another collab novel on spec with a verbal go-ahead from the publisher, meaning we'll ink a contract when done or I finish some others, and another collab in the planning stages. I have about 40% of the content I need for another collection. I'm trying to organize another anthology and waiting for the publisher to look at numbers.
I'm still the stay at home parent for a three year old while doing this.
My full bibliography is here.
I have cover quotes from, among others, Locus, Analog and Publisher's Weekly.
James...doesn't.
According to associates overseas and in the US Navy, you can find my books in:
The American Book Center in the Hague and Amsterdam, and in fact, I've done book signings there.
Most military Exchanges. (I've signed at several of those, too. Ft Knox, Ft Meade, several Army and Air bases in the Middle East and Europe.)
Hong Kong.
Singapore.
The southernmost English speaking library, in New Zealand.
Oh, yes -- my publisher pays for my book signing trips and gives away free books to the troops. Because when you are a professional, your publisher has a budget to promote you.
It's not a hugely household name career like Terry Brooks or Terry Pratchet, but it does keep me in upper class lifestyle. I'm not rich, but I'm certainly comfortable.
Where can you find James' books? Trick question. He doesn't have any books.
So, let's look at James' other writing career:
- Medium --vanity, doesn't pay.
- Daily Beast -- as far as I know, doesn't pay.
- WaPoo -- Now, according to professionals in the newspaper industry, op-eds that aren't penned by the hired staff don't get paid. They just offer exposure. You know, that thing you die from in winter.
Blogs and clickbait sites don't pay anyone. They can't afford to. Hell, they can't even afford facts.
Sample article: "Can Shia LeBeouf Convey The Trauma Of Combat?"
Come on, Chia the Poof can't even run a "performance art" camera of him bleating about the president.
PROTIP 1: If you're not getting paid for it, you're not a professional.
He's written a half dozen things while stringing for UPI, and man, James couldn't wait to fuck those dead bodies in Vegas to blather out his complete erroneous bullshit about how "Rifling is also the bullet weight in grains" and "a free floated barrel isn't connected to the rifle" (allegedly told to him by someone in Special Forces, even though Wikipedia or any of a thousand online fora could have explained it in small words. But I digress). The problem is, while UPI does pay a little, it doesn't pay enough to interest any professional writer. In fact, I probably got paid more for my last short story than he got paid for all of it. UTI, excuse me, UPI is for people who hope to eventually rise to the level of working for some local paper. Of course, having your alma mater Marine Corps ban you from one of their bases for interfering with a case in progress won't help your odds of getting hired.
Oh, and he's "Assistant Editor" of something called "Blue Force Tracker" which is referenced twice on Newsmax, which is almost as credible as the Weekly World News. Now, BFT is a GPS based system for watching for friendly forces. You can find a lot of that. Searching for it as a magazine, journal, paper, blog...it doesn't exist as far as I can tell. It's complete bullshit.
James says he's "Never heard of me." Likewise. Which is why I used Google before opening my trap.
He's not Walter Winchell. He's not even Clifford Simak. (I know James has never heard of him.)
I have a few articles. My unpaid stuff was for several Second Amendment sites, because I was promoting a valid cause WITH FACTS. Readership was only a couple of million people. My paid stuff has been in firearm mags, too, at up to $1/word. Including some in other countries.
Also, I prefer to use references in my articles, not vague references to someone who is claimed to have been in Special Forces.
And I'm Editor at Large for Survivalblog.com which is easy to find, has a huge following, and will acknowledge me, though to be honest, I haven't done much recently due to other commitments. But it does actually exist.
PROTIP 2: No professional is ever actually insulted by, "I've never heard of you." For example: That country music star at the shooting in Vegas? Never heard of him. I don't listen to country music. But I'm sure a few seconds on Google will find he is of note and has lots of fans and customers.
Moving on, then.
James claims to be a film producer. Well, I'm not. But I have appeared in productions, and consulted to others. For friends doing film festival stuff locally, I'm cheap or free. For some of these with national media, I billed $1000/day and got it.
So, let's check IMDB for James:
Nothing here, either.
PROTIP 3: Cell phone video does not count as professional film to anyone in the industry unless it's incorporated into something else and you're paid for it.
James knows even less about producing films than he does about firearms.
Let's check Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Z._Williamson
Here I am, though the page is out of date. I'm sure it'll get fixed eventually. I make no attempt to edit it.
James:
Not notable by their standards either, apparently.
Wow. That's 0 for 4 so far.
He does have 8 Patreon followers though.
Now, to be fair, I joined Patreon way back, and realized it didn't do anything I needed it to do since I don't produce daily content. I've never looked at it since, and have neither delivered anything nor been paid. So possibly he's the same.
I doubt it, though, since he makes a point of linking to it.
But to give the benefit of the doubt, we'll call this one a draw.
What about our former military careers?
My military career was pretty much unremarkable and I freely admit so. I enlisted in 1985, retired in 2010, had about 5 years and a bit active duty including deployment time, the rest being split between Army and Air National Guard. I helped with the Mississippi Flood in 1993 for about six weeks, have a few decorations for doing small things, and some unit decorations for maintaining an amazing level of mission accomplishment during blasting sand in the Sandbox. The unit gets credit. I was part of the unit.
Oh, I DID have 25 years of Expert ratings, competed in rifle match for the Army Guard and won trophies. And even though it wasn't my specialty, I served as an armorer, was a range safety NCO, ammo point NCO, helped my unit upgrade M16s to A2 standard, was a weapons courier.
And then in the civilian world I conduct tests and evaluations of weapons sent to me by manufacturers, such as this one.
And make my own from raw materials, such as this one:
I suspect James didn't. $50 on that.
I have $1000 says no. Put up or shut up.
Oh, right, James. You haven't earned enough from writing to afford that. Okay. Let's make it $20.
Toodles, you giant soup sandwich.
Which is why I get paid that kind of money, and he doesn't get paid to speak of.
UPDATE: a few of the fans of those "nerd books" at a small convention just donated $17,000 to charity. https://www.facebook.com/LibertyCon/posts/10155122920663481
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- Written by Michael Z Williamson
REPORTER: Hey, I need some basic facts. Who's knowledgeable?  You? So tell me about the shoulder thing that goes up.
EXPERT:  I've been a professional in the field for 45 years as a user, designer, manufacturer, expert witness.  So, there actually isn't a shoulder thing that goes up.  I think they were referencing...
REPORTER: Wait, you're some kind of gun nut, aren't you? Fuck off.   You're biased. What about you?
"ACTIVIST": I'm President of the Association For Banning Bumpfire Shoulder Things, a 501(c)4 agency.  AR15s were invented by Ronald Reagan in 1981, and are issued to all felons as they leave prison because of a loophole allowed to exist by the GW Bush administration.
REPORTER: Good stuff! Keep going.
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- Written by Michael Z Williamson
Now, I'm sure some of you are saying, "Well, that would never happen."
And I'll point you to the insane rules regarding narcotic painkillers, where cancer patients and migraine sufferers are in agony because a bureaucrat is terrified that someone might use one of those pills for FUN!
Because it's not "pro abortion" vs "pro life." It's "Pro choice" vs  "pro mandatory childbirth."
The obvious parallel is, "What do we do about drunk drivers if we can't ban alcohol?"
But it can sure as hell make it worse.
- Details
- Written by Michael Z Williamson
James LaPorta is a veteran of some small issue, and claims to have been an "intel cell leader," which I find no record of, and if he in fact was, he should keep his retarded piehole shut about it. 
He does have a steely gaze, though, which is super important.
Now, the gist of this article is that the Vegas asshole had "more powerful and deadly weapons than even the military! ZOMG!"
Michael Prior: Love how he argued both sides. The shooter's guns are more accurate than the military's guns but he needed no skill because he was shooting at an area target. Accuracy with a firearm is the skill not the weapon.
Jimmy boy claimed this was an "editing error." Cool story, bro. Along with the 56 others? You might want to improve your editing if you want to be a real writer some day.
~~~
https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/marine-corps-bans-journalist-camp-lejeune-base/
Oh, I may edit this if we find more.  There was so much retardery we couldn't even process it all.
EDIT:
This was his response when I mailed him the link:
His response:
Be sure you are sitting down.
Swallow whatever you are drinking.
"Hey son, 
Long time, no chat. Appreciate the advice, but the bullshit meter is full, so unfortunately, I can’t take anymore advice right now. Anytime you want to compare writing careers, I’m available. 
Stay out of trouble, kid. And keep those fingers flying across that keyboard of yours, you little rascal, you. 
Sincerely,
James LaPorta"
~~
Talk about a snowflake.
For the record, as of 5 Oct 2017, he has nothing on Amazon or IMDB as a "writer" or "documentary producer."
I have 20 books in print, 6 of which I believe were or are bestsellers, and four professional screen and movie credits as a technical expert.
UPDATE: See Part 2 here: http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=435 
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