Jan Marshall – författare

"How could you give money to someone you’ve never met?"

That’s the first question most people ask.

For Jan Marshall, life was good. She had worked hard, set herself up well, and was looking for a companion to share her future with. Just as countless thousands around the world do, every day, she turned to online dating.

In just a few months, Jan believed she was ‘in love’. She accepted a proposal of marriage, and then sent money - ALL her money - to a professional scammer.

How did it happen? How can an intelligent person be so thoroughly scammed?

Jan courageously shares the details of her devastating experience, in order to help others recognise such devious swindlers who prey on trusting souls, and maybe even to catch this thief.

You might think it can’t happen to you, or someone you love, but can you be sure?

The work is a non-fiction account and memoir covering the communication between myself and the scammer, based on my records of our communications. By sharing the personal and intimate nature of the interactions it asks the reader to put themselves in my shoes, and in response the question “how could you be so stupid?” is answered.  It details the process of dealing emotionally with the scam and the financial difficulties that I found myself in afterwards. It is a story of my process through being a victim to becoming a survivor. Areas that need change are also addressed. Some support resources and links are also provided, though this is not the main purpose.

“Jan Marshall is a vital voice in the discourse on romance fraud.”  Dr Cassandra Cross, Cyber Frauds, Scams and their Victims.

We Make Writing Makes Us greedy for the right words and the thrill of creating when we know we have done our best work. It epitomises the concept that when we express ourselves, we become ourselves.

For those of us now having escaped the shackles of our working lives, we are now able to be our own masters in achieving our goals in the third trimester of our lives. We may now go where our imagination takes us.

You will find inside the covers of this wonderful literary potpourri, a collection of special works by very talented people in their third age.

A tongue-in-cheek comedy tale that takes us back to the court of King James I of England.

A mouth-watering offering of sweet treats from eastern Europe in a mini-cook book presentation.

Memoirs of life from the heart. Reflecting in many ways how to keep these memories alive and with us forever

Science fiction adventures from another space and time...and much much more.

The collection relates feelings of joy and humour; of life and death; and everything in between. Our class encourages and teaches a variety of writing media, allowing the authors a freedom of expression in their works.

The broad spectrum of works includes memoirs, short stories, poems, cookery, novel extracts and exercises undertaken during the Whittlesea U3A Creative Writing class.

We know you will enjoy the variety of experiences that our senior Victorians have shared within these pages.

The Whittlesea U3A Proudly presents We Make Writing Makes Us and its contributing Authors

Blaženka Hrvojević, Bryan (JBE) McNally, Don Langdon, Jan Marshall, Jenny Martin, Luigi Zucchet, Mark Reed, Maxine Danby, Miriam Zammit, Paul Hollander, Paul Murchison

The Whittlesea University of the Third Age (WU3A) is exactly what it says. A place for learning for those who are about to enter that exciting third age. When you reach the third age, age has no boundaries. We don''t stop learning just because we have left work, or our circumstances change in other ways as we grow older (and wiser).

Learning can be - new skills, hobbies that you wanted to try all your life but didn''t get the time to, or just learning to make new friends with like interests and share new activities and hobbies with old friends

When I retired from work I had no idea what I was going to do. The result, a potential void, that needs to be plugged pretty quickly.

So, after a bit of post-retirement research and clues from already retired friends I checked out the WU3A and what activities were on offer. I have always wanted to write and publish my own novel and felt this would be a creative change.

In late 2016 I joined the e-Publishing class offered by the WU3A. We all thought, great, a publishing class, but what we really need is to have something to publish.

So, I decided to start a Creative Writers Group, et voila.

But enough about me, our boutique little group started with four participants and has grown over the past eighteen months to twelve in the class, all with different writing styles and writing objectives.

We have those who love writing fiction from historical fiction, literary fiction, science fiction and fantasy; to those who love writing memoirs, poetry and plays; to those who love writing about our beloved country and region.

We all hope you enjoy this eclectic anthology of short stories, memoirs, poems and examples of writing exercises we all performed in class.

Yours in Reading

Bryan (J.B.E.) McNally

A lighthearted manual for getting through each day with humor and giddiness. It is a delightful look at some of our minor, daily irritants that includes marriage, motherhood, football reruns of highlights of last years game and the men we love who watch them again and again.

The book is filled with astounding anti-diet/anti-exercise advice in the chapter How I turned flab into dollars. While Jan was jogging she thought she heard applause. Regretfully it was simply her thighs hitting together. She was paid extremely well to leave the neighborhood. Franchise anyone?

There are time management tips If you do not polish silver for six years it begins to look like pewter. Pewter is nice! This joyful philosopher notices most human absurdities, ponders, reflects and then answers such questions as Can we really leave nagging to strangers? Why is it that for every light on Broadway there is a runny nose? She agrees with Hemingway that though the sun also rises, it also fades the drapes.

This witty book will have you shaking with glee (67 calories expended) as you realize the stuff that really annoys you can be thought about in a more amusing, tolerable and weight losing manner.