Plagiarism on Amazon

Honestly, I'm still a little stunned so this might not be the most eloquent post.

I've been plagiarized quite a few times. A lot. Enough to be jaded by the whole ordeal of checking out links, sending emails, contacting administration. Since the last time I posted about this, I've been informed of a few more attempts that I haven't even bothered to mention here on this blog. I was just sick and tired of the same old thing, rinse and repeat, losers who have no lives.

But this is the first time that I'm aware of someone having the actual audacity to publish and sell both False Facades and Through Me on Amazon, here: False Facades and here: Through Me. And while she's at it, this "Martha Greenwood" decided to steal reviews from readers too, slapping up comments I've cherished in the clumsy blurbs. And to complete things, plagiarize a bunch of other people's stories as well, listed in this post: Martha Greenwood on Amazon - fpwatchers.

I've always had this niggling worry that one day, this would happen. And it finally did.

There's this uncomfortable tightness in my chest. It's a mixture of frustration, heartbreak and this sick feeling of ... what else can I possibly do? I've tried taking FF down, plagiarism still cropped up, I put it back up and left my stories up for years, finishing TM, and it continues. All I can comfort myself with is the fact that at least, the stories are up to prove my copyright and that there are readers who still look out for me, exposing these plagiarists.

Thank you, fellintothemoon, for letting me know. Thank you so much.

And sadly, for now, I have an exam to get back to studying for. I have no time and zero tolerance for this crap. Martha Greenwood, you are one sad person.

Say What?

I wasn't going to mention the whole plagiarism incident again, but the girl who plagiarized my story didn't take the initiative to remove the story of her own accord so earlier in the night, I went and signed up at Winglin to ask the administrators for their help.

And that led to me going through the comments left on "her" story just to see what exactly has she been saying and how the readers have been responding. At first, you know, it was kinda amusing in a "Are you for real." kinda way seeing the way she responded to readers, thanking them and telling them to comment more because it'll give her ideas, but the more I read, the more, ah, pissed off I got.

Because instead of the attention-seeking young girl I imagined her to be, she started to come off as this high and mighty writer who was encouraging people to write and continue their fanfics and noting how sad that some writers never update and abandon their works and ...

Oh, for god's sake. Hypocrite, much?

One of her many gems of wisdom:

Katrina -- 24 May 2008 at 12:13 a.m.

I encourage other fanfic authors to finish their work too. I have seen a lot of kimerald fanfics out there but only a few got updated and finished. After a couple of chapters they were just left forgotten. It was sayang cause some stories had a very good and unique plot and some started out really well. I hope some authors will read this and have a little inspiration to finish what they started. I also encourage other fans to write fics too. I know you guys got lots of creative ideas.:)

And ...

Katrina <email address removed> -- 24 May 2008 at 12:03 a.m.

thanks again for reading.
--
angelica, crimson rose and tanya- thank you for the comment.
--
pink_butterfly and bisangni- yes crazy love will be ending soon. I know you guys hated being bitin, sad but this has to end. I don't have a new story right now to replace crazy love. I can't even promise that I will have the pleasure of time to write another one since school has been taking most of my time. I am actually very glad that you liked this story, my first ever fanfic story. Thank you all for reading . Till my next update.

AND!

Katrina -- 22 April 2008 at 6:41 a.m.

thank you for the comments.
angelica- wow, you really got the whole story printed on paper? thank you for the kind words. :)
hope you like this chapter.
HAppy Birthday Kim Chiu!

So now her dear readers have printed copies of "her" story. Good going, plagiarist. Thanks.

Sighs, I'm sorry, please put up with me. I know I should go the high road and just stop thinking nasty thoughts. You know, cleansing breath, good karma, all that jazz.

Still. If I ever find out who this girl is in real life ... heh.

Anyway! I still need to get the rest of the lab stuff down for my practical on Friday and prepare for my mock interview with the Dean that's immediately following my exam.

But in response to some concerns that I might remove False Facades, rest assured. I probably won't be doing anything to the story. I removed it once before, remember? And during that time, I realized that it wasn't fair to suddenly wipe out what had been left on the site, free for your eyes and comments, for years. Especially since the plagiarists probably had saved copies on file while the readers who really deserved to read the story were just left hanging.

I also realized that just because I removed the story, it unfortunately doesn't mean that certain readers, again, haven't already made personal copies and that some of them might have them ready at hand to distribute and share without my consent. Case in point, I checked the dates of this recent plagiarism case and I believe this girl actually posted up the story during the period of time False Facades had been removed. I think by having the full story back up, it might perhaps help me in tracking down more plagiarists; i.e. there's more of the original story bits to match with copies out there in Google searches.

More importantly, unlike the works of many other authors who have been hit with plagiarism, False Facades is nowhere near polished. It was written when I was very young and while I'm dabbling in revisions in private, I think this draft, which retains its rough and fluffy state, will always have this nostalgic appeal to me and some readers. Without its bizarre, over-the-top sort of humor, the story just wouldn't be the same and I feel that no matter how embarrassingly written certain areas were, I'd like to keep this draft out there. Just for fun. It was the original that had started me off on Fictionpress and drew the attention of most of my readers now and I think it deserves to be kept around to show how far I've developed and how much further I still need to go.

Plus, unlike the authors who are actively protecting their works for publishing interests, I definitely know that while False Facades might make for a light affair, some wacky sitcom, or even a cartoon, I doubt it will ever see the light of day in the hardcore publishing industry. (I'm sorry, FF, but it's true. Don't fret, I still love you the same.)

Thus, I came to this realization that this story is perfect to be left open and free for your perusal and entertainment. Nothing serious, everything at the whims of the characters. While I might still finish up revisions (yeah, some day in the far off shiny future) and self-publish it on LuLu.com, I'm more interested in doing so in order to attain a better copyright on the story so the draft will most likely always be around on Fictionpress.

What this does mean though - and I've been thinking long and hard about the future of FP - is that I probably, sadly, will never be able to post anything with more original ideas. I still want to write for fun and hone my writing (though I wonder how the fear of plagiarism's going to ultimately affect my posting, if I'll ever hesitate over a chapter one day and worry "I need to protect and hide this from the world."), but I'll probably stick to revamping cliches and we'll see how things goes. Do you guys have any favorite cliches you particularly enjoy?

Until then, I'll stick to finishing up Through Me and after that ... we'll see.

FF Plagiarized. Again.

Happy news: I had time to get down 8 pages for Through Me Chapter 27! So I hope to get it out pretty soon, yay!

Bad news: I was informed by McQuinn of The Fictionpress Watchers that False Facades was plagiarized. Again. On Winglin. Again.

This time, the girl not only took the time to change the locations, features, and names, she also managed to translate pages of the dialogue into another language - Filipino, I think?

By now, there's been so much plagiarism incidents, I'm more astonished by the level of dedication some people have in stealing stories than I am really upset. Of course, I'm still ticked off, but it wasn't to the point where I got murderous furious like last time, when the girl actually impersonated me and answered readers with a flippant, "Yup, I'm the same Maeven from Fictionpress! Totally not plagiarizing here!" Uh huh.

Like before, I left a message on her comments page to give her a chance to remove the story herself. I generally think the plagiarists who steal my stories are pretty young and their purpose is to get whatever comments they could. Hopefully, she'll realize this is a very serious crime and won't do this again. If not ... I'll have to set up a Winglin account tomorrow and post a message to the administrators. Sighs.

Bright side? I found out how kickass The Fictionpress Watchers are! Holy crap, I really don't think I would have ever found this plagiarist. Even though it seems like there's a sudden increase in plagiarism incidents, I think it's more because we have these new Watchers and their dedication to uncovering all these incidents that have been floating around unnoticed these past years. Even though the message was bad news, I'm in total fangirl mode and if I wasn't such a mess these days and so website/technologically bleh, I'd totally leap into LiveJournal territory and sign up just to worship join their community. I don't know how they do it, especially since this person actually changed a lot of the dialogue into another language, but they found it and I'm eternally grateful. I bow down to their sleuthing skills.


And now ... I have to study for my practical. I went to bed at 6am on Sunday to study for my written exam, oh lord. Good thing I had a monstrous iced coffee earlier in the day. Otherwise, Neuro seems to be going well and I'll be posting the next chapter pretty soon. I sent it off to my cousin for her perusal first and I'm going to hammer down some more details, maybe add some extra scenes, before I get it out there. Once again, thanks for your support and your patience!

(Is it sad to get so used to plagiarism incidents that most authors' reactions these days are "Oh damn, not again. Link, name, administrators, please?"? I honestly thought I was lucky enough to have my story finally go under the radar and escape all these recent issues. Thank goodness it's just one recent case and it's on a site that I had dealt with before. Here's to hoping plagiarists will go extinct sooner than later.)

False Facades Character Pics

Here are some random new and old character pics I've gotten from readers for False Facades:

Samantha Westlane - Alice Burdeu (Australia's Next Top Model) - suggested by Anonymous.





Samantha Westlane - ? - suggested by nysweetangel247



Danielle Grenford - Rose McGowan - suggested by nysweetangel247



Carrie Harland - Sarah Paxton and Brittany Snow - suggested by nysweetangel247





Vincent Grenford - ? - suggested by IcyPrincess14



William Carter - Felipe Dylon - suggested by Orient Fox



Tristan Harland - Jesse McCartney - suggested by Anonymous



Whew! I do love all those ??s. I have no idea what their real names are and if anyone recognizes a face, please let me know. Thanks for the pictures, everyone!

I am working on the next chapter for Through Me right now and I hope to have it out soon. Fingers crossed!

Twelfth Day

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

False Facades Chapter 29 and Chapter 30 have been posted! Whew, the story is now reposted in its completion and I hope it has not been a disappointment.

Thank you for reading and reviewing and I hope your winter break was - or is still - enjoyable!

Please, again, respect all writers and try to refrain from plagiarism! It really kills all of your karma points, truly.

I'm working on the next chapter for Through Me and it should be coming out shortly. Hopefully sooner than later.

Happy New Year!

Eleventh Day

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25, Chapter 26, and Chapter 27 have been reposted! Updates bonanza! Sorry about flooding your inboxes if you have me on alerts.

Tomorrow's the last night. Please stay tuned.

Tenth Day

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 20, Chapter 21, and Chapter 22 have been posted.

My mother's not feeling so well today. She spent the majority of last night throwing up so she took it easy for today while we (the bums she has to call her children) tried to handle housework without her. We are useless bodies.

I stepped outside to retrieve our trash cans since it was collection day yesterday. Evil wind blew one of our cans into our next door neighbor's driveway. I staggered around blearily in the cold in my high heels (I have no shoes except for heels and tall boots anymore every since I left my sneakers in the school locker so that I could be proactive and go to the gym - pfft, yah right) for several minutes, bewildered. I was wondering if some cursed people stole our trash can again and I bumbled around until I spotted it, reclining on my neighbor's property, half hidden behind the front tree.

Ninth Day

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18 and Chapter 19 have been posted!

I hate putting new sheets on my bed. It takes a team effort to get it over my mattress, smooth it down and tuck it around the four corners. My brother tend to help me, but it generally leaves me exhausted because we have to physically lift up my mattress and prop it away from the wall while I get on my tiptoes and reach and stretch and -

Yes, so today, I had no team so I did a halfass job by myself where I just crawled around my bed, tucking the elastic into the four corners, which means I'm probably going to wake up in the morning with my sheets curled around my legs. Excellent.



(I think that sometimes too. I'm onto you, secret spies!)

I just received an email from a friend and she sent me more e-book goodies - I swear, that's all I've been doing these days, demolishing novels from the library and their e-book collection. It's quite sad how excited I got over her email - oh plus, she passed German! Yay! Between my friends, we now have Cantonese, Mandarin, French, Spanish, German conquered - we are the United Nations of rudimentary basics. 

Eighth Day

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 14 and Chapter 15 have been posted! Sorry about the lateness, but I got home pretty late.

My cousin is a New Year's baby so my parents bought some food and we invaded their house for hotpot as an impulsive celebration for her birthday. Except we had no cake. And all we did was just eat and watch TV and tried to steer clear from her two toddlers.

Her kids are super adorable, but I have to say, the eldest's favorite game is seeing how many times he can bowl me over. He has this perfectly round, HARD head and he'll go back a couple steps, get a running start, and then propel himself onto me while I'm sitting on the couch. My other cousin (their uncle) tried to save me a couple of times, but that kid - he's a force to be reckoned with.

Still. They're so cute! I'm such a sucker.

My brother always makes me sit far, far away from him so he doesn't get in the way of the baby's attacks. My fav cousin lives in perpetual fear of getting hurt from him (the baby, that is) - or hurting him whenever she sees him.

So I'm kinda bruised and tired now, but shoot, I'm already behind on chapters so I have to repost chapters for today (well, yesterday) even if I have to stay up late. Remember, I count days by sleep cycles and I'm not asleep! Yet.

The only reason it takes me longer than it should to repost is because I go through the document changing the stupid thoughts to italics (back then, for some odd reason, Fictionpress didn't accept italics so I put all the thoughts in brackets and such. What a mess.) so of course, while I'm going through them, I notice grammar mistakes. Or awkward phrasing. So then I go change some of that. (Oh, if you ever notice any grammar mistakes or other mechanical mistakes, please, if you could, point them out in your review. There are always some readers who tend to go "Oh, I noticed some mistakes", but they never specify so it just might be helpful if you could point the way.)

Believe me, I'm already resisting my urges to rewrite the chapter and add more descriptions while I'm at it - otherwise, I'd never get around to reposting the chapter.

Like I said before, this rough draft can get so rough, my fingers positively cringes from the upload button. Be forgiving with my younger self who wrote it. She didn't know better.

Oh, and for those who say I leave a lot of cliffhangers ... I do. Haha, I'm sorry. But keep in mind, you guys now have it way easier than my first batch of readers. They sometimes had to wait months for the next update while you guys just need to wait for the next day or so. My early readers are hardened veterans and they should be given medals or something.

See you in a couple of hours or so for the Ninth Day.

Seventh Day

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 13 has been reposted! Happy New Year's Eve! May everyone have an amazing new year! Hopefully, this upcoming year will be way better than the last!

I feel utterly exhausted - I think I slept at like 5 am yesterday night so tonight's another advanced scheduled posting in case I'm busy elsewhere or I just pass out.

HAPPY 2009!

Sixth Day

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 10, Chapter 11, and Chapter 12 have been posted!

Fifth Day

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 9 has been posted! This is a scheduled posting so if this automatically goes up tonight, it means I got caught up reading and writing today and didn't make it back to the computer in time for the chance to put up a second chapter. Sorry, I'll definitely make up for it tomorrow.

Thanks for all the reading suggestions, people! Some of them, I read already. Others, I'll be sure to check out next time. It sounds like many of you are fans of Russian writers. :) Interesting coincidence!

I've been reading a lot of YA novels lately, particularly fantasies since I'm working on a novel on the sidelines with these elements. But the genres I read typically range all over - as long as it has great writing and a well thought out plot, I enjoy most novels.

Fourth Day

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 are now up!

I've been placing holds for dozens of books at the library recently since I'm finally on break and can relax with a few novels. I'm a much faster reader than writer - when I was younger, I could get through four, maybe five short novels in one day. (I only wish my time rate for schoolwork readings is on par.) When my requests are all here, I'm sending my brother to lug them home for me. He conveniently works part-time at the library. Very convenient.

Any suggestions for good readings?

Third Day

On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 have been reposted!

Thanks for the kind messages, everyone! I'm pleasantly surprised that there're quite a few of you who still ask about the revised False Facades version. To be honest, I thought the previous enthusiastic responses were because people just wanted me to hurry with revisions so I could slap the free draft back up on Fictionpress. :) I'm still working on it and I'll let you all know whenever I get around to polishing it up for LuLu.

I have to fork over $255 for anatomy textbooks next term. Eep! I'm broke. Friend brought over most of my books and a pair of scrubs today. It's an XS, but I still feel like I'm swimming in it for some reason. I eat like a pig (it gets embarrassing when I eat outside, especially at Korean restaurants, and people sitting next to us start shooting these glances over at me ever so subtly like they can't comprehend where the food goes. I like to turn my head just so - and then whip my face around really fast to catch them! Their heads jerk away so quickly, I think they get whiplash.), but I think I'm totally unhealthy and can't absorb nutrition or something.

I installed RealPlayer, which came along with this Weather Channel Desktop on my parents' computer. Every once in a while, it'll emit a thundering sound and freak my mom out. She also thinks it might fry the computer, like it somehow absorbs lightning from the air and transmits it through our screen. Hmm.

Oh! And right, I got a few messages from readers both in the past and now about how they don't labor under the misconception that authors with so many reviews will actually sit down and read all of them so they're just reviewing with the idea that it'll hit a blank wall or something.

Um, I don't know about other writers, but I most certainly read every single review! Reviews are like ambrosia to me! If that's the reason why you don't leave me a review, banish the thought from your mind! I sit there 24/7 in front of my computer with my email open, waiting to leap onto a review that trickles in - okay, no, really, I highly appreciate hearing from readers and while I may not get around to answering every single message, I do love reviews and do try to respond to specific questions or F.A.Q.s.

Is there any Fictionpress writer out there who isn't an absolute review whore? We wouldn't be posting stories up for feedback otherwise. We absolutely want to hear from you and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you and you should never lend money to him/her!

Okay, very good, the thunder just rumbled again from my mom's computer so it must mean I'm all righteous and whatnot haha.

Sudden Death
designed by fablefire at shirt.woot!

Second Day

On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 have been reposted.

By the way, I've already gotten a few messages again about how the story reminds them of a certain manga, anime, TV drama, movie, etc. Yes, it may remind you of certain stories, but please don't leave a message with this underlying implication that I had somehow plagiarized another story. After I've had my story plagiarized several times myself, I don't take accusations of plagiarism too kindly.

The notion of copying someone's idea was one of my pet peeves back when I first uploaded this story and I'd like to kindly remind readers that just because a story has certain similar elements to another story doesn't mean that the author necessarily plagiarized. Based on your criteria, this would indicate that all cliches are basically copies of each other - all those vampire with mortal girl, best friends falling in love, step-sibling love, rivals-turned-to-lovers stories should all sue each other for copyrights.

Plagiarism is the exact copy or near rewording of the same exact scenes, lines, and dialogue. A post on the non-infringability of plots and/or ideas by published author Justine Larbalestier summarizes points from blogger, Candy, most succinctly: "You can’t copyright a plot or an idea. You can only copyright the specific expression of that plot or idea as recorded in some sort of tangible form. Think about the nightmare of attempting to nail down and legislate a plot or idea for a story. How specific would you have to be before you could declare something unique enough to copyright? i.e. 'An angst-ridden story about a vampire falling in love with a human.' Dude, if you can copyright that and collect a small fee every time somebody published that story, you could have your own giant pool of gold coins to swim in, Scrooge McDuck-stylee."

Please keep an open mind. I can swear on my life that False Facades is an original writing of mine, from its characters to the dialogue, and I will never copy someone else's hard work.

I honestly never even heard of Hana Kimi before I published False Facades on Fictionpress. And to those who have told me that the story is a copy of "She's The Man", the movie came out in 2006, way after I put up the story in 2003.

And I believe that asides from the crossdressing girl, the plot line isn't really the same as these other stories. I think.

But you all are entitled to your own opinions and the more I try to defend the writing, the more I may seem like a snotty know-it-all or something. :) So in the end, I can only say that I hope you'll still enjoy the story as it is. That's all!

Thanks.

First Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

False Facades Chapter 2 has been reposted. Merry Christmas, all!

I went to cousins' (dad's side) place today, had my other cousins (mom's side) with us, ate a lot, had mango ice cream, watched WALL*E, and played Speed Scrabble. (Btw, Pa is indeed a word! I wasn't cheating. Look it up, cousins. Never argue with me again. :)

All in all, it was a pretty fun day as holidays should be - a packed house with loved ones and laughter and of course, friendly insults. Haha, hope everyone had a great day too!

False Facades Reposting

In light of the holidays and the recent deluge of inquiries about False Facades (I'm guessing with winter break starting, people suddenly have more time to kill), I've decided to repost the story on Fictionpress. :) Along the lines of holiday spirit and to make things more festive, I'll be posting up the chapters over the next twelve days, in acknowledgment to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (one of my favorite Christmas carols when I was a child). Twenty nine chapters over twelve days - you do the math. Since it won't be evenly divided, on some days, you'll see two chapters and on some, three.

In regards to my revisions, I haven't completed them yet, but ... oh wells. :) I'm feeling too cheerful this winter break. But once again, I must stress that I highly prefer no one copy+paste my writings. Please don't repost my story anywhere else, even if you credit me. I don't see the point when you could just as easily offer a referring link. I don't wish to see stories floating around on winglin.net, soompi, quizilla, or even xanga. If you didn't even bother to ask for permission beforehand, that's a double kick in my gut when I find out.

But I trust you guys. I have to believe that there are more good readers out there than bad. As I've written months ago, before I took down False Facades, in a PM to reassure a fellow FP frequenter who expressed her own fears about posting up her work after she noticed my plagiarism issues:

I know how you feel. I would love it if it weren't so easy for people to just click, copy and paste what so many authors here have spent hours, days, months writing. Sure, there's that nice little copyright sign at the bottom of the page, but it's small comfort in a world where so many people are anonymous and can take anything without any regards to the author.

Right now, I comfort myself with the knowledge that I'm showing my work to the world and that hopefully, even with plagiarism, the stories would have already been documented on the site as some sort of a proof that I've had the story here long before.

Fictionpress to me is a hobby right now and a method of motivation for me to finish up a long work, through gaining feedback and constructive criticism. I've long believed that my writings posted here are still in first draft modes and I've been astonished, dismayed, that any person would still plagiarize these pieces, even with their rough sections.

But I like this site because of the community, ease of usage, and feedback. Through the readers, I get to know what works and what doesn't and hopefully, this will help polish my writing skills for the better. In the end, the reason why I've chosen to maintain my works here isn't because I'm brave, it's because of the incredibly nice readers who haven't let me down.

It's scary publishing works online sometimes, but hopefully, there are more good people out there than bad.

So! I lost faith a while back, but now, with the Christmas cheer around us, I want to believe in Fictionpress again. Really. Truly. Deeply do! :)

But even though I had the story up before, I'm kinda nervous. By removing the last 29 chapters, I fear that I've given readers who haven't read the story before super high expectations of the story. I hope this doesn't inevitably lead to disappointment.

Readers should remember that this story is a super rough draft that I dared to put up years back when I was around thirteen, young and innocent. Now, I'm older and more ... fragile haha.

Like I've said before, this story has multiple cringeworthy points that jump out at me now that I look back at it, but at the same time, it's the story I'm perhaps the fondest of. In spite of my embarrassment at certain things I came up with, certain sections never fail to let me smile. It is the story that most clearly documents the changes in my writing style. Readers can literally follow the earlier, comedic, dialogue driven chapters to later ones that get developed more and more. Hopefully, you'll see what I mean. For this freezing winter break, I hope False Facades, fluffy and sweet with a cheerful, over the top sort of humor, can offer some sort of entertainment for you all. For the cynics out there who's hovering in the background ready to bash my writing, I admit ... I'm scared of you. But I also accept criticism full-heartedly since of course, I recognize my weak points. I can only hope though that if you really find that you don't like the story, please just stop reading and move along to enjoy other stories out there; don't let this consume your holidays - if you feel it's not worth it, then simply don't spend any more time on it.

For the readers more willing to deal with my crazy, whimsical writings, um, let the games begin? Haha, I do hope False Facades will be to your liking.

Cheers, everyone. The first day of Christmas starts tomorrow. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Fanart - Rose-Rayne and Anonymous

So Rose-Rayne (deviantART profile linked) sent an awesome fanart of Will! Gah, one fanart gives me the giddiness of receiving like ... 76.5 character pics at once! Major whoa.

Thanks, dear Rose-Rayne!

William Carter by Rose-Rayne

Look it! He even has the kickass T-shirt he wore in Chapter 23. :)

Speaking of fanart, this reminded me of some pictures I received way back in the False Facades days and I thought these fanart deserved to be posted up as well:

Samantha Westlane - Anonymous

Vincent Grenford - Anonymous

Tristan Harland - Anonymous

Thanks for the lovely artwork, Rose-Rayne and Anonymous! You guys are amazing.

Plans for False Facades

So here are the tentative plans I've been contemplating lately:

I know my limitations for False Facades and I don't think I'm going to try the traditional securing an agent road for it. I'd probably just crash and burn. That being said, I still want to ensure its copyrights in a way that's somewhat better than Fictionpress' own flimsy mark so I do want to see it in print. Sort of.

I've received a suggestion from a reader to try Lulu.com. I've looked into it and saw that it seems pretty much straightforward - a self-publishing site that doesn't actually ask you to cough up money first thing and it takes its revenues from only the amount of copies people order and what it'd have to print.

Thus, here's the gist of what I've been thinking:

First, I'll revise the crap out of False Facades, which means I'm going to be fixing up all its weak parts and probably fleshing out the beginning, a.k.a. add new chapters. I've looked back and realized that Sammy got off way too easy in her first days at Crestan High and I'm thinking of showing firsthand the kind of antics that Vincent and Tristan got into with terrorizing newcomers before Sammy entered the school. Second, I want to develop all of the characters' relationships further. The plot drove too much of the story and I want to throw in a bit more romance, a bit more character development.

After the revising is done, I plan to fix it up and throw its beautified version on Lulu.com for publishing and marketing - sort of.

That means that readers who want to have their own copies of False Facades or see it in print (early warning: print is super expensive in comparison to e-books) or be able to read the revised version of the story and see new chapters starring the crazy False Facades crew may have the option to purchase it soon and I can finally have some sort of security blanket in knowing that False Facades is in print out there somewhere with my copyrights intact as opposed to people copying and pasting my story off Fictionpress for their own benefits.

That being said, I hate the idea of making people pay for this story as the only option in which they can read it. So, in addition to making the Lulu.com book available, I'm probably going to be reposting the craptastic version, the original first draft of False Facades that was on the site before as a sort of a rough "library" copy for my budget-impaired readers. :)

Hardcore fans get the choice of buying the deluxe edition with its revisions and new chapters (all while supplying me with literally a bit of the revenues and a slightly more stable copyrights, yay :) while financially conscious readers get the option of just reading the original embarrassing version back on fictionpress again. Does this sound fair enough?

But all of this is just brainstorming for now. I have to sit down and sort out all the details first. Until then, I just wanted to keep you guys posted on what I'm thinking of so far.

In addition, I'm working on the next chapter for Through Me. I hope to come out with a new update soon. Thanks for your patience, all.

April 11, 2008 - Author's Note Update

Originally posted on Fictionpress on April 11, 2008.

Hey all! First, I'll like to thank everyone for the support they've shown. I've received many responses and PMs and I'll like to throw in a quick note right now that I'm not ignoring you - I haven't gotten back to anyone yet at all. The reason I've disappeared isn't entirely due to the plagiarism thing - I've been busy getting my butt kicked by biochem. Studying's pretty much taken me hostage these past few weeks and I'm still negotiating the terms for my release.

As a general response though, I've pretty much sorted out the PMs into three categories:

A) I support you! Please keep writing!

Thank you. I never expected the huge encouragement I've received and your messages were incredibly touching. My heart just melted. Into baby applesauce. Or something.

Anyway, thanks for the messages. I haven't given up on writing. I've always been working on pieces privately, things I haven't and probably won't post on fictionpress. However, I do have ideas for more FP stories and there's still Through Me and Unfinished Business. I'm just comatose from studying and that high you get - "Holy shit! Why are there only 24 hours in a day and 24908352664 pages to memorize?!" Yeah. Fun. No worries. I'm not quite dead yet. And I'm still your insanely slow updater.

B) Where can I kick the butt of that person who stole your story! No, seriously. Where?

Haha, it's over and done with. Hopefully. Finally. As for that matter, I'll like to especially thank a certain claraly. I noticed that not only did she bring up the issue on Winglin on my behalf, she also did extensive research into False Facades' background, providing links to this site, to fans' responses, and even to the SKOW award that it had won back in the day. Enough said. I love you, claraly.

And of course, to all those diligent fans who donned their flamer suits to fight the plagiarist ... whoa. You guys even scared me. Thanks for supporting False Facades so readily.

C) Can you please send me a copy of False Facades through email? or WTH happened to the chapters? It broke! Fix it soon and let me read the rest, kthanks.

I'm so glad that there are actually so many readers interested in the story to want to continue reading it or to reread it. Unfortunately, I am not too interested in emailing copies to individuals right now. It's not that I don't trust you - please don't be offended - it's actually more due to the fact that I'm incredibly busy at the mo' and any free time I get, I'd probably want to spend on writing new chapters. However, I am considering certain plans for False Facades and I will announce them soon once I've sorted things out.

Whew, this is gonna be a long note after all. I really have to get one of those blogging thingiemajingies. If this keeps up, I just might get the award for having the longest profile on FP to date.

Or ... I should probably create a website. If not to keep a blogging thing, then to host my writings up there and maybe figure out how to nix the whole copy+paste thing. Right. And as soon as I learn how to create a website in the first place, I'll get right around to that haha.

OH! Speaking of websites, I've been meaning to speak about this ... but yeah, things tend to get away from me, as you see. My homepage currently lists the link to freerice - I know, I know, Maeven can't make her own website so she throws in a fake "homepage" to direct us to, how incredibly pathetic - haha, anyway, the reason I have freerice up there is because I love the whole concept about it. You learn new vocab, someone out there gets free rice. Win, win situation. And for the authors and readers who troll this site, it's perfect. How cool is it to be able to learn new vocabulary that you can use while helping others out?

Random things aside, I still should learn how to make an actual real website for myself anyway. It's a useful skill in this information age of ours, isn't it? Yes, yes.

But I'm lazy so I'll probably end up enlisting someone's help anyway - most likely, my cousins who got all the technical, computer genes. Especially my insanely smart, lovely, endearing, vivacious lawyer cousin. When she reads this. Or when I ask her, after she tries to pretend she didn't read this.

Or maybe my brother, who'd probably end up posting pics of anime girls with huge boobs for decoration.

Hard choice.

This isn't a quick note, after all. I'm sorry. Tired brain tends to spew nonsense.

All in all, thanks for the support. Please have a bit more patience and I'll try to keep you guys updated on what's the deal with False Facades and if and when there'll be new chappies for other stories. And I'll try not to write an essay again.

Yours,

Maeven