Petrelis Files

Gay Syrian Hoaxer's 99-Page
Book Proposal is Online

That straight American male Tom MacMaster, who is behind the Gay Girl in Damascus hoax, was peddling a book proposal about a month ago, according to American writer Minal Hajratwala, who shared this fascinating bit of information today on her site:

On May 9, a friend of a friend sent an email to me and two other women writers asking if we would help a young lesbian, a Syrian American political blogger, to find a literary agent for her memoir. He pointed us toward this powerful post.

According to her blog, Amina Abdullah Arraf was on the run in Syria, he said. Though he’d never met her, this kind man was moved to try and help her.

We had a short email exchange in which I offered some standard publishing advice and named three agents who might be interested. I soon received the following email from aminaarraf@gmail.com :

Hi Minal,

I’ve attached a section of my book in progress … if you can forward to [name deleted], I’d be very appreciative. You can also send her to my blog: http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/

I really have no idea at all about the business end of things …

Amina
The attached document was titled “A Thousand Sighs, and a Sigh: An Arab American Education.” I skimmed it, found it rambling and in need of a lot of work, and did not forward it to the agent — probably the best decision I made in this whole process. Instead I offered some editorial feedback via my friend’s friend, and did not hear back. ...

If you want to read more fiction from MacMaster, click here to read his 99-page chapter/book proposal. I wonder exactly how much more crappy stuff will surface in the next few days about this scandal perpetrated by MacMaster. This story is far from over.