Swathi Mohan

I don't know how I'm gonna spend two more years like this.

It always gets better. Have the right people around!

I have graduated!!!!

I lost my grandfather four months back. He would have loved to see me graduate and work in a new city. I'm still not over it. Life sucks sometimes. But we all gotta accept and move on.

I lost my uncle a couple of months back. It has put me and my family in a terrible state of mind. You just never know how and when you'll lose people who mean so much to you. So keep checking in on them. Stay connected.

Life will always get better though. It has the ability to bounce back. Just wait for it to happen!

Nothing has changed at work. It’s smooth and still interesting. I’m getting married to my boyfriend in a week. He is the nicest man one can find. I’m really looking forward to that phase of life but I can’t help but feel nostalgic about my single and bachelor life. It was nice hanging out with friends with no sense of time.

Wedding preparation is hectic but I’m extremely grateful to my family for supporting me with everything. I have to travel to my hometown tonight and when I get back to my apartment, I’ll be married. It’s insane!

A lot of things are not going the way I want. I haven’t travelled anywhere properly last one year. But we dis go to Coldplay and Ed Sheeran concerts which are a big deal to us.

My mom is getting her knee surgery done after a long time of convincing her to live a painless life. Why do our parents never listen to us? But things that I have been wanting to fix are getting fixed at an extremely slow pace but I’m just glad it’s happening.

I’m forgetting to update my life developments right on August 1st but I don’t wait a second when i realise I had forgotten it.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.