Monday, February 14, 2011

Hustling: It'll Cost You


Here is my author's video, posted recently on Smashwords, Amazon, Facebook, and sarahkernochan.com.

This video cost me a dear friend. We had never met, actually. We had been email pals, an innocent philosophical conversation that somehow stretched out a couple of years, until he made the mistake of showing the clip to his wife. She had been aware of our correspondence. I never thought she might feel threatened, since he was happily married in Scotland and I am happily married in New York.

But the video suddenly snipped the line of communication. Even though in the clip I refer to my dry hustling days as sins of my youth - and indeed they are over 30 years behind me - suddenly she could not trust me around her husband. And there you have the price of con games: even if you no longer practice the fine art of manipulating men, even if you are well past the age of your average femme fatale, and even if what you wrote was mostly fiction, don't be surprised if some people will forever believe that everything you say is fiction, devised to deceive, seduce, and betray. The very act of hustling in a video adds to the impression of your arrant untrustworthiness. She'll say anything to sell her book! She'll do anything to part a fool from his money (or his marriage)!

So my friend's wife made him end our correspondence.

In the video I mention that the life of a con artist is lonely. Your friends can't trust you, and if your only friends are other hustlers, you can't trust them either. It may be fun to watch ingenious flimflammers at work, but be aware of the red light blinking overhead: there's a tragedy in progress.

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  6. Sarah this is kristina k middle daughter I didn't know she did that to you she was quite the character still a lot of things that were very very bad even to her own and I want to tell you that I apologize that she did that to you someday someway I want to write my own memoir for healing processes of being raised by K but I have to say I apologize I am so sorry I am nothing like her thank you I ordered and downloaded the book and I appreciate it that I have this thank you so much

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