October 13, 2007
Dear Airleaf Victims,
I would like to welcome our five new members which brings our number to 83 and growing weekly. People are finding us through the Google ads which appear on the Airleaf page on Google. It's amazing how different we all are, but how similar our stories are.
I have had the opportunity to speak to four of you on the telephone this week. I think it's great when we can connect via phone just for support. If any of you would like to have a conversation with me, please let me know and I'll be happy to call you or give you my number.
Several new stories are on our website at www.AirleafVictims.com. Please check this each week so you can see new stories going up. If you would like your story on the website, just let me know. I'm also happy to advertise your website.
This week, rather than share a story about an author with you, I would like to share some information that will make you even more angry than you already are. One of the stories has become a victory for us. But allow me to start with another Airleaf tragedy.
Several months ago, most of you received this email advertising the upcoming Airleaf Carnival Cruise:
Walk the Red Carpet with Airleaf on the Carnival Sensation
For a limited time only, Airleaf has made arrangements to secure an audience with film producer Al Smith of LiteStone Entertainment. This weekend will guarantee a one-on-one meeting with you and LiteStone Entertainment offering you the opportunity to see what the film industry is looking for and if your book has what it takes to make the red carpet.
September 27-30, hear world-class speakers and attend valuable workshops promoting book sales. Schedule your time with Airleaf Executives, including Carl Lau, to discuss national exposure and enjoy benefiting from other authors’ experiences while cruising to Nassau, Bahamas.
There are only 13 cabins available as of today and due to limited availability on board the ship, they must be reserved by Friday, June 29, 2007. Get your passports ready and call Dawn directly at 1-800-342-6068 or email dduncan@airleaf.com.
Welcome aboard! Dawn Duncan-Rodgers Author Consultant
1-800-342-6068 Airleaf Publishing and Book Selling www.airleaf.com
765-342-7217 Fax
About a week before the trip was to take place, people were getting calls that there might be a cancellation due to "stormy weather" and hurricane season. This seemed odd to me, so I called Carnival myself to inquire if they were planning on cancellations due to this. They informed me that cruises are never canceled, but rather "rerouted" if there are hurricanes causing problems. I remember this happened to some of my friends two years ago where they ended up going to Nova Scotia instead of the Caribbean. So, I knew there was problems on the horizon. Two couples informed me that the trip was canceled. They had already invested money in airline tickets to get to the cruise as well as paid upfront for the cruise. Now, two weeks later, the money still has not been returned to them despite promises from Airleaf. What can I say?
Please keep in mind that this trip was going to provide an audience with Al Smith, president of LiteStone Entertainment, which leads me to the next story which is a victory for innocent victims of fraud.
This issue with you started last week when Airleaf authors received thisnotice:We are proud to announce our latest movie venture! You can view the trailer for another Airleaf feature film The Touch on our website www.airleaf.com. How would you like to see your book made into a feature film? Have you envisioned your book as a movie? Our promotions department can take your work and create a film treatment that will be presented directly to decision makers in film and television. These one on one meetings have already produced over 30 options for film.The cost for this service is normally $699.00 but you can participate for only $450.00. Join us in the leap to the big screen!Dawn Duncan Author Consultant dduncan@airleaf.com 800.342.6068 AirleafPublishing and BookSelling 35 Industrial Drive Martinsville, IN 46151
After receiving a copy of this from nine different members of this group, I decided to check out the information. This is because we have all been fooled into believing that Airleaf had taken an Airleaf Author's book called "Jessie's Girl" and turned it into an upcoming movie. All of Airleaf's promotional material misleads you into believing this. I was able to find out from reliable sources that Jessie's Girl was not written by an Airleaf author; rather it was a movie trailer with a script that was given to Airleaf by Lawrence Dixon, the Vice President of Litestone Entertainment, to be turned into a book by Airleaf. In other words, Lawrence Dixon is not an Airleaf author who had his book turned into a film. He is a screen writer who went to Airleaf after this deal and asked them to turn his script into a book. To my knowledge, there is no movie "Jessie's Girl," but there is a film trailer.
After revealing this issue with you all several weeks ago, a number of you sent me out the new announcement about "The Touch," asking me to investigate the truth.I was rather shocked to find that the movie had been released as a movie in 2005, but not a book. I found the information on Google rather easily as you can do. Quite frankly, I believed that the producer, Mr. Art Ayris, was incollaboration in this Airleaf fraud, just like Jessie's Girl. On the Airleaf website, there is no mention about a book by the name "The Touch," just a film being advertised with the headline: Books to Film - The Next Great Adventure From Airleaf Publishing. Then you see a picture of "The Touch" and a trailer for the movie. I was getting very angry as I kept researching this.One of our Airleaf Victim authors contacted me to tell me he actually met the producer of the film and had a copy of it. He told me that they both had met two years ago where he, the author, obtained a copy of the film. He believed that Mr. Ayris, who owns a Christian publishing company called Kingstone Media which produces films and comic books for the Christian community, was an honest man with integrity. He felt sure Mr. Aryis was being misled or not informed about how he was being "used" by Airleaf to promotetheir high priced promotional packages of taking people's books and turningthem into Hollywood movies. Based on his high regard for Mr. Ayris, I called Mr. Ayris at his home in Florida to find out the truth.
I am so glad I had the chance to talk to Mr. Ayris about his movie because it assured me that he is NOT in collaboration with Airleaf and their criminal fraudulence. I realized that he didn't know how he was being unknowingly manipulated by Airleaf and Litestone Entertainment. He explained that Litestone Entertainment, in conjunction with Airleaf, had negotiated a deal with him to make his film into a book. Remember, the movie was released in 2005 long before Mr. Aryis ever heard of Airleaf. He was NOT an Airleaf author having his book made into a film as Airleaf alludes to.I sent him a copy the weekly emails that I have been sending out to our groupgiving him all of the examples of fraud that we have fallen prey to. I also had him view our website, as well as a summary of complaints sent to me by many of you. I also explained how being part of this Airleaf scam can leave a bad stigma on his company when our case breaks open through the police and Attorney General's office.
Today I received a response from Mr. Aryis which he said I can share with you. He wrote:
Bonnie-Thanks for taking the time to contact me yesterday.Yes, I am going to be sending a note back with the contract that I will not be doing a book with Airleaf until this case and suit are settled.Will also be sending them a letter to take The Touch off their site.Also plan to have a conversation with Mr. Smith at Litestone in regards allof this.Thanks again.Art AyrisOn behalf of our Airleaf Victims group, I would like to applaud the action of Mr. Ayris to remove himself from the fraudulent stench of Airleaf. Every time a new author logs on to Airleaf, he/she is being misled about these "books to films" ventures--much like you were when you were told "Only 12 books are going to Hollywood--and yours can be one of them."
As far as Litestone Entertainment, it is very clear that they are working with Carl Lau to mislead innocent people. As you saw on the cruise notice, Al Smith of Litestone Entertainment was going to give each of the lucky 13 authors a private meeting to hear about their books. It seems that Al Smith of Litestone turns up at a lot at Airleaf events. As our investigation into Airleaf proceeds, I will be requesting an investigation of this company who is conspiring with Airleaf to mislead Airleaf Authors into believing that their books are Hollywood bound.
That's it for this week, my friends. Keep the faith and hope. We are moving ahead nicely, and soon there will be some interesting news to report.
Love and hope to you all!
Bonnie Kaye
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
AIRLEAF UPDATES, October 9, 2007
October 6, 2007
Dear Airleaf Victim Friends,
Each week we are gaining new members. Our numbers now are nearly 80. This comes through the Google adwords where I am advertising our website. I am working to update the website each week adding your stories. Sadly, my computer web person was on vacation this week so it won't be updated again for another day or two. For those of you who have posted your stories on there, I am happy to add your website if you would like it included with your posting. One of our authors suggested that, and I'm happy to do it.
Detective Buskirk was back this week, and he is diligently compiling all of your information. It is IMPERATIVE that you send him your story if you haven't done so already. I appreciate your doing this because it will in time bring down the house of Airleaf. Be patient a little longer. I am confident that we are making a major difference.
I spoke to Ron Hawkins this week from the Indiana paper. He hasn't done anything on our story because he is busy until after the election. It's a small local paper, so I'm not expecting much. Instead, I would like to make this a national issue as I mentioned last week. This week, I am going to write my own press release. I will write a general press release using the stories of those of you who have given me permission. Then I would be happy to contact the news paper in your area to interest them in doing a story featuring their local authors' stories. If you are interested in working with me on this, please let me know.
On a side note before I print this weeks "horror story," I would like to discuss an issue that is painful for me, but I feel I need to discuss it. While I was at my wits end with Airleaf, I went to Brien Jones for help. I didn't know Brien at Airleaf nor did I have any dealings with him. He sent me a letter like many of you received talking about his leaving and the reasons why. I called him in desperation because I was having no results with Airleaf. This was in May. He sounded genuine and told me that he, too, was a victim of Airleaf. He told me that he had started his own company where he was helping authors in the "right" way. He offered to reprint my book for free. I told him that I was producing a new book that I wanted published for my annual national gathering in September, and he said that was fine, he'd print that for free. Remember, at that point, I still knew nothing about him. After starting the "Airleaf Victims" group, I started getting all of your emails--plus more--from authors who had been defrauded by Airleaf. The overwhelming number of them mentioned that Brien was the one responsible for their being scammed. When I confronted him with this information, he claimed that he was just "following orders" like the other employees. He was going to "right the wrongs" of Airleaf and publish people's books for free. In fact, he sent an email to one of you this week stating he has published 31 books for free, taking the loss himself. He promised me that he wouldn't be doing what Airleaf did--fake promotions and publicity. I believed him. I wanted to give him a chance. Some of you thought I was naive, but I couldn't believe in my heart that he would repeat the stench of Airleaf. I did tell him quite clearly that if he did, he would be on the same road to disaster as Airleaf.
Now after talking to a number of ex-employees and from the feedback of you, our Airleaf Victims, I realize that I was wrong. I apologize to those of you whom I tried to convince that things have changed at Jones Harvest. It's the same story--different day--different place. I know that two of you have written to me about Brien being wonderful based on your experience. I wish you luck and wish you the best. But my experience has shown me otherwise, and for this reason, I will not be affiliated with Brien because it hurts my credibility. I hope Brien will do the right thing by those people who have faith in him. I'm not one of them any more.
One of my goals for this group is to establish a way for you to do your own publicity. I will be more than happy to do the research for this in the months ahead. I read on one site that it is much cheaper to higher your own private publicist than it is to buy publicity from places like Airleaf and Jones Harvest even if they were doing what they promised. I have spoken to publicists that charge between $35.00 and $50.00 an hour to promote books by sending them to radio stations, television shows, and the news media. I will start putting together a kit that all of you can have for free on how to promote your book with little or no cost by doing it yourself.
Airleaf is now trying even more desperately to grab in authors. Six of you sent me their advertisement this week about the new Airleaf film called "The Touch." I did some investigating--and just like Jessie's Girl, this is a movie trailer, not a film. It is being done in connection with Litestone Entertainment, which is a payoff agreement between Carl Lau and their owners. The book "Jessie's Girl," about Jesse James' daughter (spelled incorrectly by Airleaf) was written by Lawrence Dixon, Vice President of Litestone. He then had Airleaf take his script and turn it into a book. So there are NO Airleaf Author movies being made--just more scamming.
Today's Airleaf Victim story comes from Martha Harris in Washington State--so far, the biggest loser of money of all of us. Here is Martha's story:
Airleaf Publishing first sold me a package deal which included many of their services. They then resold some of those same services for an additional Price. Brien Jones of Jones Harvest Publishing and a past employee of Airleaf can confirm this statement. (I guess so, Martha, since he was the one selling these packages.)
Mr. Jones can also confirm that Airleaf's records that show between $35,000 to $40,000 of my money alone, not counting the sales to others which is tremendous was paid to Airleaf for such services.
My personal record directly from Airleaf mentions $13,185.85 only, a direct indication of two sets of books and possible tax fraud. I think I could come up with supporting evidence along those lines. Just remember I am now living in Washington State, and those records would be at my previous address in North Carolina. Some of those services I paid for were partially or never delivered including:
1. 10 minutes of radio time - I don't remember being interviewed for more than just a few minutes--not 10 minutes.
2. More radio time however apparently less time according to Airleaf, yet it costs me more provides another discrepancy.
3. Television appearances - this never happened.
4. A review with Boker which would include a professional endorsement. That didn't happen at all. The only endorsements I received were the ones I got.
5. Book of the Month promotions costing me $2,000.00 but no benefits that I can see so far.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when Airleaf gave my book the same ISBN number as another book by another author. I know this is illegal. I know this to be a fact because I went one step further and bought a copy of the book titled "From the Pastor's Heart" by Pastor Jonathan Willey.
It's obvious that I have been very naive. A short explanation would serve us all right. A person who is trustworthy tends to trust others.
A book can feel like our entire purpose for living: I didn't want to give up my purpose or my hope for my life. All of the things that one has done wrong or most of them can be put on paper for your children, your grandchildren, and for others to see, giving them stepping stones for doing the right thing and winning over the oppositions that so much weigh down our spirits and stand in our way of becoming wonderful people.
I prayed for Airleaf and its employees, and now I wait on the Good Lord to make things right.
Sincerely,
Martha Harris
Martha, all of our hearts are going out to you today.
That's it for now. Please keep in touch whenever you like. I am here for you. We will win our battle and stop other trusting souls from making our mistakes.
With love and hope, Bonnie
Dear Airleaf Victim Friends,
Each week we are gaining new members. Our numbers now are nearly 80. This comes through the Google adwords where I am advertising our website. I am working to update the website each week adding your stories. Sadly, my computer web person was on vacation this week so it won't be updated again for another day or two. For those of you who have posted your stories on there, I am happy to add your website if you would like it included with your posting. One of our authors suggested that, and I'm happy to do it.
Detective Buskirk was back this week, and he is diligently compiling all of your information. It is IMPERATIVE that you send him your story if you haven't done so already. I appreciate your doing this because it will in time bring down the house of Airleaf. Be patient a little longer. I am confident that we are making a major difference.
I spoke to Ron Hawkins this week from the Indiana paper. He hasn't done anything on our story because he is busy until after the election. It's a small local paper, so I'm not expecting much. Instead, I would like to make this a national issue as I mentioned last week. This week, I am going to write my own press release. I will write a general press release using the stories of those of you who have given me permission. Then I would be happy to contact the news paper in your area to interest them in doing a story featuring their local authors' stories. If you are interested in working with me on this, please let me know.
On a side note before I print this weeks "horror story," I would like to discuss an issue that is painful for me, but I feel I need to discuss it. While I was at my wits end with Airleaf, I went to Brien Jones for help. I didn't know Brien at Airleaf nor did I have any dealings with him. He sent me a letter like many of you received talking about his leaving and the reasons why. I called him in desperation because I was having no results with Airleaf. This was in May. He sounded genuine and told me that he, too, was a victim of Airleaf. He told me that he had started his own company where he was helping authors in the "right" way. He offered to reprint my book for free. I told him that I was producing a new book that I wanted published for my annual national gathering in September, and he said that was fine, he'd print that for free. Remember, at that point, I still knew nothing about him. After starting the "Airleaf Victims" group, I started getting all of your emails--plus more--from authors who had been defrauded by Airleaf. The overwhelming number of them mentioned that Brien was the one responsible for their being scammed. When I confronted him with this information, he claimed that he was just "following orders" like the other employees. He was going to "right the wrongs" of Airleaf and publish people's books for free. In fact, he sent an email to one of you this week stating he has published 31 books for free, taking the loss himself. He promised me that he wouldn't be doing what Airleaf did--fake promotions and publicity. I believed him. I wanted to give him a chance. Some of you thought I was naive, but I couldn't believe in my heart that he would repeat the stench of Airleaf. I did tell him quite clearly that if he did, he would be on the same road to disaster as Airleaf.
Now after talking to a number of ex-employees and from the feedback of you, our Airleaf Victims, I realize that I was wrong. I apologize to those of you whom I tried to convince that things have changed at Jones Harvest. It's the same story--different day--different place. I know that two of you have written to me about Brien being wonderful based on your experience. I wish you luck and wish you the best. But my experience has shown me otherwise, and for this reason, I will not be affiliated with Brien because it hurts my credibility. I hope Brien will do the right thing by those people who have faith in him. I'm not one of them any more.
One of my goals for this group is to establish a way for you to do your own publicity. I will be more than happy to do the research for this in the months ahead. I read on one site that it is much cheaper to higher your own private publicist than it is to buy publicity from places like Airleaf and Jones Harvest even if they were doing what they promised. I have spoken to publicists that charge between $35.00 and $50.00 an hour to promote books by sending them to radio stations, television shows, and the news media. I will start putting together a kit that all of you can have for free on how to promote your book with little or no cost by doing it yourself.
Airleaf is now trying even more desperately to grab in authors. Six of you sent me their advertisement this week about the new Airleaf film called "The Touch." I did some investigating--and just like Jessie's Girl, this is a movie trailer, not a film. It is being done in connection with Litestone Entertainment, which is a payoff agreement between Carl Lau and their owners. The book "Jessie's Girl," about Jesse James' daughter (spelled incorrectly by Airleaf) was written by Lawrence Dixon, Vice President of Litestone. He then had Airleaf take his script and turn it into a book. So there are NO Airleaf Author movies being made--just more scamming.
Today's Airleaf Victim story comes from Martha Harris in Washington State--so far, the biggest loser of money of all of us. Here is Martha's story:
Airleaf Publishing first sold me a package deal which included many of their services. They then resold some of those same services for an additional Price. Brien Jones of Jones Harvest Publishing and a past employee of Airleaf can confirm this statement. (I guess so, Martha, since he was the one selling these packages.)
Mr. Jones can also confirm that Airleaf's records that show between $35,000 to $40,000 of my money alone, not counting the sales to others which is tremendous was paid to Airleaf for such services.
My personal record directly from Airleaf mentions $13,185.85 only, a direct indication of two sets of books and possible tax fraud. I think I could come up with supporting evidence along those lines. Just remember I am now living in Washington State, and those records would be at my previous address in North Carolina. Some of those services I paid for were partially or never delivered including:
1. 10 minutes of radio time - I don't remember being interviewed for more than just a few minutes--not 10 minutes.
2. More radio time however apparently less time according to Airleaf, yet it costs me more provides another discrepancy.
3. Television appearances - this never happened.
4. A review with Boker which would include a professional endorsement. That didn't happen at all. The only endorsements I received were the ones I got.
5. Book of the Month promotions costing me $2,000.00 but no benefits that I can see so far.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when Airleaf gave my book the same ISBN number as another book by another author. I know this is illegal. I know this to be a fact because I went one step further and bought a copy of the book titled "From the Pastor's Heart" by Pastor Jonathan Willey.
It's obvious that I have been very naive. A short explanation would serve us all right. A person who is trustworthy tends to trust others.
A book can feel like our entire purpose for living: I didn't want to give up my purpose or my hope for my life. All of the things that one has done wrong or most of them can be put on paper for your children, your grandchildren, and for others to see, giving them stepping stones for doing the right thing and winning over the oppositions that so much weigh down our spirits and stand in our way of becoming wonderful people.
I prayed for Airleaf and its employees, and now I wait on the Good Lord to make things right.
Sincerely,
Martha Harris
Martha, all of our hearts are going out to you today.
That's it for now. Please keep in touch whenever you like. I am here for you. We will win our battle and stop other trusting souls from making our mistakes.
With love and hope, Bonnie
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