Hello, Cat Ryan here. Just wanted to let you know that I’m back in the saddle again—the saddle, that is, of internet dating.

 The good news is that after a few false starts I finally made a friend. Yes, a male friend. Woo hoo! They do exist, after all. Could this be a  case of “When Harry met Sally” though? Harry didn’t think that males and females could ever be friends because the “sex” thing always gets in the way. Do you  agree with this? Well, I tend not to. I think that if two people have lots in common and there is no physical attraction between them, then yes, they can be friends. I also think that even with males I’m attracted to, if I take the sex out of the equation, I need to know that we can at least be friends; otherwise, once the “lust” phase is over the whole relationship will collapse.

But back to the internet dating: A couple of weeks ago, I had coffee with a rather cute younger man (don’t ask me how much younger than me he  was because I won’t reveal this in public. lol). Anyway, this guy was very  engaging and we had things in common, and I found myself thinking that perhaps our new “friendship” would turn into something more intimate. I could see myself  getting involved with him, even though he wasn’t as cute as Richard Gere in
American Gigolo, but then, who is, right?

Our date went well, we had lots to talk about and liked each other, and I thought he was rather romantic. He paid me nice compliments and told me I looked 26 instead of 4... (well, let’s just say 40, shall we?). We   parted with a lovely hug, a chaste kiss, and the promise of another meeting. I then  drove home and congratulated myself on how easily I got back in the saddle again, and was already anticipating our next date when suddenly I get a text message from him to the effect of the fact that he enjoyed the coffee with me and that he thought I had fantastic boobs.

OMG! Talk about vomit! Why do guys do this? Where’s the romance in “I love your boobs?” No class whatsoever. And that, my friends, was the end  of that short-lived interlude.

This turned out to be just as bad as the guy who waited until he met me before he told me he was married. Needless to say, I had a very quick cup of coffee and ran out of there.

It’s really sad that with the advent of internet dating and social media like Facebook, it has become so much easier for people to cheat on their spouses. There is very little honour left in this world, and even less fidelity. 

So, there isn’t much we can count on these days, except for those Nigerian scammers who are forever after me! Thank God I got it down to a fine art now, and it generally takes me under 3 seconds to find them out.

Hi all, Cat Ryan here. I just want to say that I have now exhausted my internet dating exploits and I just give up! I’ve had it with the Nigerian scammers, the married men posing as single men, the married men telling me they’re married and still looking for “a bit on the side”, the weirdos, the psychos, the tightasses who make you pay for your own coffee, the ones who want to make contact with you but are not prepared to send you an email because it costs them money to make initial contact—so yeah, they expect Cat to fork out. And let's not even get into the "gigolos" who tell Cat she looks like she's 25 years of age (just to get her in the sack) when she knows very well she's in her 40s--mind you, a good looking 40! Yes, I still got it. LOL.

God, you name it and Cat’s been through it. For a millisecond, Cat actually considered running off with the lipstick lesbian that propositioned her. LOL! But no, Cat’s a straight girl and she’s looking for a real man. It seems the quest is over though, and Cat hasn’t found “the one”.

 The good news is that Cat is the main character in my novel “Like  Casablanca”, so she’s lucky in that in the end she’ll find the prince; well, that’s if she doesn’t blow it. Woo hoo! But what’s in store for Cat’s creator, novelist Sylvia Massara? Well, she’s now planning “murder and mayhem”, a great  antidote for a broken marriage and a nasty divorce. This means that the lawyers are getting richer and Sylvia is pulling her hair out. Ouch!

It’s too early to have a “divorce party” yet, so Sylvia would like to offer a discount on her two romantic comedies, Like Casablanca and The Other Boyfriend or on her drama The Soul Bearers. The first 10 readers of this blog to comment on any aspect of internet dating or "love gone wrong" will receive a coupon for any of Sylvia's eBooks, which are currently priced at $3.99 on Smashwords (multi-format available). With the coupon, you'll be able to purchase the novel of your choice for only 99 cents! So hurry and leave a comment with your internet dating or love gone wrong experience.  
 
This is Cat Ryan and Sylvia Massara signing off from the Cat Ryan Internet Dating Capers—and we thank every one of you who’ve left comments in the past on Cat’s posts.

Ciao for now!  

Another report from Cat Ryan from Like Casablanca: Yes, I'm still in character and scouring the bottom of the barrel on 4 different internet sites. All I got so far has been a range of men from age 21 to 70 years interested in talking about nothing but sex online.  OMG! These "spine donors" (for want of a better word) don't even have the guts to meet me for a coffee first, let alone use some kind of subtlety to string a woman along! Not to mention that tight fist of theirs, after all, a cappuccino in Sydney will set you back around $3.00 to $3.50 (much more than a good novel written by Cat's alter ego--Sylvia Massara).

All I'm after is some stimulating conversation over a nicely made Italian cappuccino and the promise of a budding frienship. Remember what Rick Blaine said to Louis in the movie Casablanca: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".

Well, Cat Ryan will battle on, but in the meantime, she'd like to leave you with a special on all Sylvia Massara novels. The novels have been repriced for a limited time to 99c on Kindle and $1.45 for all other eBook formats. Multi-formats may be found on Smashwords. For links to all of Sylvia's books go to the home page on this site or click on the above (pls note: Kindle is a bit slow processing the new price, so if the price isn't 99c yet, just wait a couple of days).

Now, please wish Cat good luck. She's now beginning to get messages from men in the States and the UK, even though she specifically stated in her dating profile that she's not into long distance relationships. Yes, you guessed it, these panting, sex starved males don't even stop long enough to read a girl's profile.

I only have one word for all this, and it's a noise more than a word: Aaaarrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you know that authors can sometimes live through their characters? In this short video I talk about turning into Cat Ryan, the protagonist in my latest romantic comedy, "Like Casablanca", who is blogging about internet dating. I recently had a creepy experience of my own with internet dating and I'd like to share with you how I caught out a Nigerian scammer. Let me know what you think.