Social Media Dupes

As I have embarked on this public creative venture of mine, there have been a number of issues that cropped up.

One of the strangest real life encounters actually happened on Whidbey. My family and I parked near the Ebey Ferry House to take photos. When I got back to the car, there were three people sitting off the road and toward the driver side back tire. They seemed to be picnicking and opening a bottle of wine. From within the car, I heard one of the two females say “I am fine with what Nicole is doing. I mean how would it look when I go to check on the copyright and someone says, ‘Oh, I remember her?’ I don’t want to look bad.” Were they tracking our movement somehow? That might sound weird but people do it every day–celebrities are tracked all the time. Was she getting updates from social media/locals? Who knows. She obviously had issues and thought she was clinging to or benefiting from my work somehow. If that is the case, she was and is incorrect.

Of course, there is an old nemesis or two (or three) of mine still on the island. One or two even moved there from Nevada after I returned to the island in 1993 and they have been working against me ever since. Fortunately, there are limits to power, money, and arrogance.

More recently, book covers looking resembling mine, nearly identical story lines, and even social media dupes have started showing up as well. A Gmail address (whidbeywitch) was even hacked and taken over by someone else. I was able to retain and use Witch of Whidbey as a Gmail address and still have both URLs.

Given my experience on the island, I figured there was a person (or several people) watching my every move.

While figuring out my Instragram handle, I briefly –we’re talking a couple of hours– let go of Witch of Whidbey to use my name instead.

Ultimately I decided against it and learned I could just create another account.

However, within that time,  someone else had taken it. This woman was from San Diego (an area I have connection to) and now living on Whidbey. I contacted her about my brand and the issue. Her response was to ignore and block me. She started a witchcraft subscription box (now defunct) and a bookgram (also defunct). Obviously she did not realize there was a curse on anyone trying to benefit from my stories, brands, ec. Basically, you can’t steal from me or profit from hurting me or mine. It will result in complete failure for the thief and their associates. Eventually, her posts switched to documenting life on Whidbey so I left her to what she was doing since it wouldn’t impact brand.

In the meantime, I decided to pivot toward including my love of surf. It never occurred to me that she was still watching or trying to dupe. But when I checked to see if the Witch of Whidbey IG handle happened to be available again, I saw she had started paddle boarding and including paddle board pics. Hopefully she is not thinking of going from her herbalist/plant witch claims she made with Witch of Whidbey to claiming she is a surfing sea witch. Sorry babe. I’m already doing that with Blood Moon Surf. Try finding your own thing.

I document everything now and I have no problem calling people out members of the Ministry of Thieves and Liars.

#Ministryofthievesandliars #witchofwhidbey #nicolehenneman #nicoleanstedt

Also, always Google or check for your name online. As some know, I went to college in Bellingham, WA. There is a woman who graduated from a school in Bellingham who has my name within hers.

It is more subtle, but this cover looks like it took inspiration from one of my author logos. Fortunately, the rendering she used of the 
“fangs” is not good.

And this one…

It also comes as no surprise to see that an element used by a vampire store in Salem seems to have similarities to the V design of my coin in their new “crest” and logo.  However, it most resembles a basic knock-off on the Volturi herald/crest from Twilight. Though they seem to have forgotten that they are supposedly “vampire witches” as their crest conveys nothing except they are humans making money by appropriating and contaminating vampyre culture. Fortunately, their crest is also not branded so it can be used by vampire fans long after their business shutters.

Shortly after launching NicoCosmica on Instagram, these profiles showed up.

I am guessing they wanted to ride on coat tails, hope someone stumbled on them while looking for me, or thought they would slide in and either try to steal the concept (like the woman trying to use Witch of Whidbey) or pretend to be me.

This I saw on TikTok and Facebook Shorts. It was a reenactment of something I was forced to do for a birthday skit back in 1991. They found someone who looked similar to me as long as she wore the sunglasses. In mine, the fishnets were black and I was wearing black shorts–not denim.