Given a recent blog “comment” regarding my contact with Mr. Oleg Cassini, I felt it necessary to post a scan of a letter written by him to me. This is one of many but it will be the only one scanned here. While I maintain that Mr. Cassini was extremely helpful with my book, “Gene Tierney: A Biography,” the icing on the cake, so to speak, was his (and Gene’s) daughter (Tina) writing the foreword. Enough said.
Michelle Vogel
Michelle Vogel (Author) - michellevogelhollywoodnews.com 
Michelle:
You don’t have anything to prove Hun, I know how it can be because I had people riding my tail for months and it took filing a police report to get them to stop. Don’t let negative Jealous people hurt you like they hurt me. They aren’t worth it. Your books are the best Bios written and you are the best when it comes to citing your sources how dare someone question your sourcing. They are clueless.
Thanks, Lisa. Your words are very much appreciated. Writing books is hard work and McFarland are very strict on sourcing, permission letters, etc…in any case, I think I proved my point. Thanks again for your words of encouragement 🙂
I back up Michelle regarding McFarland’s strict policies on signed releases. You can’t just claim you’ve interviewed a person. You require a signed and dated release form from the person you interviewed giving McFarland permission to publish the material. It can be a major hassle for the writer as sometimes you’re left waiting for the release. Without that signature and date McFarland won’t publish the interview.
The same applies to personal photographs provided by contributors.
With the rise of self publishing many rules are being broken but McFarland isn’t a self publisher but a respected reference-scholarly publisher. Michelle is an honest person who is dedicated to her work and is always willing to help fellow authors.
Thank you, Paul. I appreciate your comments on what it takes to get a book out there. Writing it tends to be the easy part, all the red tape is maddening at times! Thanks again 🙂