I got the proof of Star Sons yesterday and it's GORGEOUS! It will appear on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and BN.com by the end of February! If you prefer to shop in a local bookstore and don't find it on the shelves, tell your bookstore it can be ordered via Ingrams, their wholesaler.
In the midst of my excitement, I got word that a cherished friend is missing in a war zone. I'm praying for him to be found, healthy and uninjured, and sent home soon. If you pray, please pray for good news to arrive quickly and for him to be reunited with his family ASAP, safely and happily. Thank you.
While you're at it, please remember all the other friends, husbands, wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters who serve in the military. Each one hurt is some family suffering. Pray that they all come home safely and soon, and when you see someone in a military uniform, take a moment to thank them for their service to our country, no matter what your opinion of the war. They're putting their lives on the line for us. They deserve our thanks and more. If you want to help them, go to Anysoldier.com or AnyMarine.com (the two such sites I visit the most) and get the name and address of some service person who's asked for some supplies. They need socks, energy bars, all kinds of things that are easy for us to find, but hard for them to get over there. Adopt a serviceman or woman today, okay? You'll feel a lot better for it. Thanks.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Fanfiction thieves and Star Sons update
For some reason, I've been the victim of repeated thefts of my story, "The Refiner's Fire." First there was the 13 year old girl who thought it was okay to rewrite my exact plot but with different names for the characters and with Harry working for artists, not as a tile installer. She had his summer job as "cleaning brushes" for these artists. I'm a professional artist. Fine art painters do not allow other people to clean their brushes (or if so, rarely, and then it has to be an apprentice or someone else expert in the artist's methods) because fine art brushes are very expensive and can easily be ruined. I made Harry a mosaic artist because I'm an artist and know how mosaics are done and how the pieces are marketed. I also believe Harry is good at seeing patterns in events and coming to conclusions, so why not put his pattern-seeing ability to artistic use? Anyway, that girl took her story down and hasn't stolen from me since then.
Then there came Griffin23 who stole Refiners and posted it as his own story ("Harry Potter and the Mysterious Ailment" rather than "The Refiner's Fire") on several sites, including HarryPotterFanfiction.com. My readers always alert me when such a thing is happening, but this clown posted that story to HPFF.com TWICE in less than a month, with no changes to what he'd posted before, not even to his screen name! He changed my chapter titles to synonyms of what I had, and made some other changes in various places, but everyone who read it knew it was my story. It took some doing, but the offending stories were finally removed from the sites where they were posted and Griffin23 faded into the Internet ether. Good riddance!
Then last night, I get a message from a reader that Refiner's was being posted on HPFF.com again, this time as a straight cut-and-paste but with the title changed to "Harry Potter and the Refiner's Fire" (the real title is "The Refiner's Fire"). The idiot posting it ("LFC DJE") said he had "received permission from the original author to upload it" -- HE DID NOT!!!!!!!! To add insult to injury, he misspelled "received" and "author"!!!! It took a couple of hours, but the story has been removed. (The site owners are cooperative about taking the stories down, thank goodness.) But to have the same story posted THREE TIMES on the SAME site in less than two months? ARGH!!!!!!!!!! (Note to LFC DJE and Griffin23 - don't touch my stories again!!!)
For those who've read my fanfiction stories - I'm normally a pretty nice person, but when you steal from me, I don't take it well at all. I have NEVER given ANYONE permission to post my stories ANYWHERE except for two people, one of whom posts my stories to FFA, SIYE and my Yahoo group for me, while the other handles the OWL site. I post to FFN and Schnoogle myself. These "helper elves" of mine have permission to upload my stories, but they're uploading my stories under MY NAME, not their own (bless them!!).
If you ever see one of my stories someplace with someone else's name on it, let me know, okay? I will not stand for this kind of thievery! I use ideas from my HP fanfics in my original novels (the ORIGINAL ideas are NOT JKR's so there's no problem with my reusing them!), and I will not allow anyone to steal my stories.
On a happier note: "Star Sons--Dawn of the Two" has been delayed a bit in publication, but I've seen a proof of it, and it's beautiful! What an amazing feeling to hold a real book in my hands and know that's MY story in there! SO cool! I expect it to be on Amazon.com by the end of January unless there's another glitch in the process!
Then there came Griffin23 who stole Refiners and posted it as his own story ("Harry Potter and the Mysterious Ailment" rather than "The Refiner's Fire") on several sites, including HarryPotterFanfiction.com. My readers always alert me when such a thing is happening, but this clown posted that story to HPFF.com TWICE in less than a month, with no changes to what he'd posted before, not even to his screen name! He changed my chapter titles to synonyms of what I had, and made some other changes in various places, but everyone who read it knew it was my story. It took some doing, but the offending stories were finally removed from the sites where they were posted and Griffin23 faded into the Internet ether. Good riddance!
Then last night, I get a message from a reader that Refiner's was being posted on HPFF.com again, this time as a straight cut-and-paste but with the title changed to "Harry Potter and the Refiner's Fire" (the real title is "The Refiner's Fire"). The idiot posting it ("LFC DJE") said he had "received permission from the original author to upload it" -- HE DID NOT!!!!!!!! To add insult to injury, he misspelled "received" and "author"!!!! It took a couple of hours, but the story has been removed. (The site owners are cooperative about taking the stories down, thank goodness.) But to have the same story posted THREE TIMES on the SAME site in less than two months? ARGH!!!!!!!!!! (Note to LFC DJE and Griffin23 - don't touch my stories again!!!)
For those who've read my fanfiction stories - I'm normally a pretty nice person, but when you steal from me, I don't take it well at all. I have NEVER given ANYONE permission to post my stories ANYWHERE except for two people, one of whom posts my stories to FFA, SIYE and my Yahoo group for me, while the other handles the OWL site. I post to FFN and Schnoogle myself. These "helper elves" of mine have permission to upload my stories, but they're uploading my stories under MY NAME, not their own (bless them!!).
If you ever see one of my stories someplace with someone else's name on it, let me know, okay? I will not stand for this kind of thievery! I use ideas from my HP fanfics in my original novels (the ORIGINAL ideas are NOT JKR's so there's no problem with my reusing them!), and I will not allow anyone to steal my stories.
On a happier note: "Star Sons--Dawn of the Two" has been delayed a bit in publication, but I've seen a proof of it, and it's beautiful! What an amazing feeling to hold a real book in my hands and know that's MY story in there! SO cool! I expect it to be on Amazon.com by the end of January unless there's another glitch in the process!
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