Once Again, No Plagiarism

Please Do Not Plagiarize. Honestly. I can't believe how many times I have to stress this. Since there are actually people out there who would not only steal my stories, but also blatantly lie to readers, claiming that I had given them permission to do so, I'd like to make a note here as well as on my fictionpress profile: I have never and will never give anyone permission to repost my stories on another site. Especially when they're changing the names of the characters. As if that's not fishy enough.

Is that clear enough? 

I believe I had already mentioned before in a prior blog post that I absolutely do not want other people to post my story up on other sites even if they say that they'll credit me. If I want the stories up on any other sites, I can very well do that myself, thanks. 

My deepest gratitude to the readers (special thanks to Sarah) who informed me about the wattpad plagiarist. Thankfully, with their help, this incident seemed to have been resolved before I even got home from the hospital today. I am so relieved. Frankly, I'm pretty tired after call and I really wasn't looking forward to dealing with this issue yet again. I'm so thankful that there are still awesome, conscientious readers out there who would take the time to actively help correct a wrong. You're the best.

Through Me Chapter 30

Through Me Chapter Thirty has finally been posted! The end, at last.

I'm so sorry about the ridiculously glacial speed I've been updating this story with, but thank you all so, so much for continuing to support me and the story.

Been sitting on this chapter for a while now. My cousin had started to despair of ever seeing it posted up. I'm still not sure why I took so long to put this up, but I do have 63 pages of TM outtakes at the end of this all so maybe it was because I still wanted to continue revamping it or maybe subconsciously, I just didn't want this to end haha. 

Or maybe! I'm just really scared of more plagiarists popping up now that TM is fully completed. Plagiarism has totally left a bad taste in my mouth. I will destroy you if you steal my stories, including those of you who have stolen the basic outline, edited scenes and lines to try to paraphrase your way out of outright verbatim. You know who you are. I'm glad you've decided to edit your story so it reads less like False Facades now, but I was really furious in the beginning. Decided not to call you out on it because it looks like some readers have picked up similarities since they took the time to alert me and you seemed to be aware that you needed to back up that road fast and fix up your story so the plot is more of your own. Hope you continue to work at it. To others who are contemplating doing the same, you won't be so lucky.

Anyway, as to the tltr part (tltr is short for "too long to read") which you'll get to at the end of this last chapter, I'll probably blog the background story that served as inspiration for the exchange tomorrow or so. It's not much of a story, actually, but based on some of your responses to my previous blog posts, I think some of you guys are surprisingly interested in reading how dorky I am.

It's been a while since I updated this blog as well so I wanted to say: I'm alive! Happy Very Belated New Year 2012! And hope you all recently had a great Memorial Day weekend for those of you in the U.S.

Everything's been going well. Got Step 1 (one of the first medical licensing exams) over with a while back and that went well too. Will blog more about phlebotomy training and clerkships.

This is a bad habit of mine, but I think I've been avoiding the blog until I finally finished TM 30 so I could update with happy news at last, but now that it's done and over with, I should be able to blog more with no guilty conscious lurking over me! Granted, they'd probably be more random ramblings, but at least, you guys won't be left wondering if I'd collapsed into a black hole or something.

So thanks for following Through Me and I hope you all have enjoyed this supremely lengthy time with Tristan, Adel, and the rest of the gang.

You're the best!

P.S. To the random people who have been sending me repeated requests to purchase the rights to False Facades for $199, my answer is no. Thanks for the offers, but no.

To all others who have sent me reviews and PMs that I haven't gotten back to yet, I'm sorry! I'll try to go through them as soon as possible.

More Through Me Fan Character Pics & Artwork

I realized that I haven't gotten around to posting some more pics and artwork people have sent me ... months ago. I'm so sorry! I feel absolutely horrible. Please don't think I've neglected anyone because "Stupid Maeven plays favorites and hates me". No, I'm just horrible at managing time and responding and updating in a timely manner. I also tend to forget things easily so I have messages lined up in my inbox ... and then they fall off the page because of new emails and then by the time I click back ... it's months later and I realize readers probably forgot they'd ever messaged me in the first place, ouch. I actually just got around to replying to messages from January this morning. Slap me, please.

Anyway, here's a compilation of character pictures sent in by some readers. Some of their messages made me laugh. You guys are awesome.

Angelia suggested: Adel Bradbury - Jessica Michibata

Angelia says "I thought Jessica Michibata would make a good Adeline Bradbury. She's half Japanese, a fourth Italian, and a fourth Spanish. According to Wiki, Jessica's a whopping 5'9 - which, I think, fits Adel since she's tall (especially for an Asian since she's almost as tall as Tristan...). However, I wouldn't really google her since she's a lingerie model. :X

Here's some pics (which are thankfully, with her clothed)."






maria suggested: Adel - Vanessa Hudgens and once again, Tristan - Alex Pettyfer

maria says "The first person that comes to my mind when i think of Adeline is Vanessa Hudgens, shes part everything from chinese to irish and has the whole exotic look going on."



Also: "As Tristan i think Alex Pettyfer is perfect for the role, hes got long blond hair but and green eyes( i know Tristan has blue, but we can overlook that fact because hes gorgeous)"



And! xxPoisened-black-Rosesxx sent me a link a while back to her Deviantart gallery where she has some cute sketches she did of some False Facades and Through Me characters. :) She even took the time to draw out a scene from False Facades and I thought the drawings are absolutely adorable and funny. Check out her gallery here: http://death-on-a-rose.deviantart.com/gallery/. Thanks, Katherine!

I also got some picture suggestions through PMs from some readers, but if you're not aware of this, FP bans links to other sites to avoid spamming and tends to fudge up the link in the message before it gets to me so unfortunately, I haven't been able to get to any websites readers have passed along. If you really want to send me any link, please leave a comment on this blog and I'll be sure to check it out.

Thanks again to all the patient readers out there! I'm slowly but surely getting through all the PM responses - I might even be able to run through more individualized review responses soon. Hopefully. When my last exam is over.

Otherwise, writing-wise, I've figured out what I hated about the next TM chapter and am currently reworking the whole thing. I like it much better so far and I hope to have it out soon. Thanks again for sticking with me - you guys are the best!

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.)

Memorial Day Weekend & FP Plagiarism

Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend! I went to one banquet family reunion and two BBQs and gorged on way too much food. It was a nice break.

Unfortunately, I believe I'm practically five months behind on responses so I hope most readers can get their answers from this blog.

I know. I suck. I haven't updated in ages. I'm sorry. Super sorry!

I just finished Histology, which was a packed course with an exam every week. I had my board exam last Friday and ... now we start Neuroscience.

Friends and family think I'm joking when I say I'm going back to school tomorrow. They're like "Silly! It's summer vacation now!"

No ... it's your summer vacation. It's my start to a brand new course. I'll be rolling out sometime in July so wait for me then before you guys start having fun, yeah?

Yes, I'm quite depressed. I'll try to fit writing in there somewhere.

Of other bad news, I recently received messages from readers about plagiarism issues and the uproar in the FP community over how plagiarism had affected a major FP writer, Myrika. I believe she not only had to deal with multiple cases of people posting her story on other sites, but some of them had the nerve to try to slap the story up onto Lulu.com for profit. Sadly, Myrika has made the decision to remove her stories and stop posting on Fictionpress.

I generally like to duck in and out of FP.com to browse random stories and favorites and while I haven't been able to follow all of Myrika's stories, I'll have to be blind not to know that she is one of the top writers on the site - one of the most responsible, proliferate and talented ones with a way with words and timely updates. We've been around Fictionpress for roughly the same time period - I remember when I first started out, she was working on her earlier stories and since then, she's churned out quite a list of impressive works (compared to my measly ... 3. Okay, 2.5 stories. Okay, fine, 1.75. Ouch.) She's a truly dedicated writer and no one - especially not someone who has spent so much time on her pieces - deserve such disrespect, such blatant theft of her works.

I respect her decision to remove her works and work on her writings in private. I respect her calm manner in addressing all her readers and her resolve to protect her stories. I know sooner or later, she can get her polished works published and that would truly be the reward she and her loyal readers deserve for all these years of devoted writing and support. She will be missed on FP, of course, but perhaps, we can soon look forward to a whole new era of published writers stemming from Fictionpress origins? Like, we can soon be properly bedazzled by them in their new and sparkling ... Super Saiyan forms. (Sorry, Dragon Ball references were all I can think of.)

I've certainly heard about several writers making their attempts toward or are already well along their road to publishing. Ooh la la.

And then there are the rest of us still hanging around on Fictionpress for our hobbies. I've recently noticed some very nice stories and I'll try to make a point of noting new kickass writers soon. Everyone who enjoys writing have my respect as long as they, in return, have respect for all others - writers and readers included - and are truly continuing to hone their skills with their own ideas and talents.

May everything work out for everyone who puts in their greatest efforts. Karma's great at that.

SKoW Hall of Fame

I was inducted into the SKoW Hall of Fame yesterday night and they gave me these pretty, spanking new banner and avatar. I think the SKoW staff and the owner, Jenina, have always outdone themselves and their hard work to recognize writers' own hard work (especially since they and us - we all don't get paid) is one of the top examples of how certain members of the online Fictionpress community truly rock my socks off.

In addition, thanks must go to all those readers who took the time to read, review, nominate and vote for their favorite stories. Without them, none of this could have been possible.

Look! Pretty graphics by their special graphics specialist, Cheryl! (You should check out the other graphics she made for the rest of the inductees - some of them took my breath away. If I could, I would put all my favorites up here, but then that's probably dorky and the other writers may not appreciate silly me displaying a row of THEIR graphics like they belong to my own personal harem collection. Pokemon, much? Kickass Author, I choose you!)

But here are mine:





I'm going to miss my equally cool avatar I got from SKoW Round 6, but all the other cool kids are updating their profiles all the time so I guess I should get with the program too.

Also, it's my badge to show that I am antiquated now and my name should no longer pop up again in the nomination process because readers are incredibly sick and tired of seeing me again (Ew, Maeven again? I thought she's collecting pension in Florida by now.) - yah, I joke, but no really, that's how it is. Haha, so keep an eye out for new blood and excellent stories and nominate your heart out! I believe the nomination period for SKoW Round 7 just started, ooh.

One of these days, I should definitely write up entries for stories I feel deserve way more attention. Yup!

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.

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!

SKoW Round 6 Awards Graphics

Some people have asked about the award graphics. The winner list and the graphics could all be found on the SKoW site.

Here are the ones the designer, Leila, created for my Amazing Wordsmith award:





The ones for Most Humorous aren't available yet due to technical difficulties, I believe.

Pretty, huh? They made my heart go "Whee!" I may be biased, but I think these awards are the prettiest yet. I remember vaguely way back in the day (I feel ancient), I think I received an award for Best Overall with a simple image of Beauty and the Beast. Not that it wasn't cute, but I think SKoW has really come a long way with all the intricate, new graphic designs.

Unfinished Business Chapter 9 and FP Anonymous

Unfinished Business Chapter 9 has finally been posted! Sorry about the cliffhanger, but the next stopping point I had in mind would make the chapter way too long.

I've been thinking a lot about my writings and why I have this almost fanatical desire for a certain level of anonymity. I've seen writers around on fictionpress who wouldn't think twice about offering up their facebook and myspace accounts, listing up all sorts of contact info from AIM to MSN to whatever. On some level inside me, I think that it must be nice to be able to make friends amongst fellow writers.

On another, I find it a bit scary opening yourself up so freely to the world wide web. Ever since the plagiarism issues, I've realized that not everyone around fictionpress lives by a good set of morals, let alone the random people who might float in from haphazard search engine inputs.

Ultimately though, I think it's brave what these people do. For me, I have a pet peeve about people finding out about my writings. I don't mind talking to readers and posting chapters if I could hide behind a penname and some level of anonymity, but to completely reveal my true identity ... wow.

It's a weird quirk of mine. Unless I have something completely polished and substantial to me, I don't like to offer it up with my real name attached to it. That usually doesn't include romances. Romances are probably one of my favorite kinds of stories to write for fun, but family stories are definitely my forte in the literary workshop/award/publishing domain. (Oh, quick happy note, a short story of mine has recently been accepted for publishing in a small literary magazine. I believe it's a really small publication, but I'm still happy they liked my work enough to accept it. The editor got back to me with a list of helpful revisions and I returned it to her several weeks back. It's all thanks to an English professor of mine who noticed it and submitted it on my behalf for me. I only wish I had more professors like that.)

Fictionpress to me is still a productive hobby and a way to practice my writing and a way to entertain myself and other readers out there, but my chapters are really rough. This is why I started posting writings online for two years before I dared to tell my cousin that I've been writing as a hobby.

It's why I posted for nearly four years before I let literally a handful of my closest friends find out I frequent fictionpress.

I didn't tell my ex at all that I liked to post my writings online. My cousin might have accidentally mentioned it to him once though or something because somehow, he found out and pestered me about giving him a link for a while. I still didn't tell him.

My cousin thinks I'm crazy and she usually lets it slip out sometimes to some friends that I write online and that they should read my writings. I try to shush her or cut her off a lot. It doesn't always work. One time, I believe I tried to tackle a mutual friend and then had to physically pry his fingers off the mouse to keep him from checking out the link immediately.

My cousin's a sweetie, but she doesn't take hints very well and the last time she started to talk about my stories to one of her friends again, I literally unleashed my full strength and karate-chopped her across the arm or something. It probably gave her a bruise on her arm for her efforts, but she got the hint.

It's weird, but I think I like having a sense of anonymity because there are still levels of writings I haven't explored yet and I'd rather not have to worry about the reactions of people I know, acquaintances and whatnot, finding their way to my writings and then attempting to offer their feedback and comments.

Because I haven't yet figured out for myself what completely works and what doesn't. Darker themes, sex scenes, more mature language ... I haven't really tried working with these elements at all. I haven't yet figured out when or if I would. Think of me as still sorting out my writing ideas. Baby steps. It's tough to write to an audience. And it may be tougher still when the audience knows you.

Thus, kudos to all the brave souls out there who can vent out their ideas and thoughts with no barriers. Maybe someday, I'd be just as secure about my FP writings too. :)

Writing note: Through Me Chapter 20 is coming along. It was around the same length as the UB Ch. 9 draft this morning and I chose to finish up Ch. 9 instead.

Random note: My friends and I went on a crazy karaoke marathon the other day because it was really cheap. On a weekday, you can get a room til 8 for only about $11 per person. That meant my crazy friends decided to meet up at like 2 and we literally stayed in the room for six hours. By the time we staggered out of the room, our voices were hoarse.

They also got me addicted to a song, Sara Bareilles' Love Song.



Over a weekend sleepover at a friend's place, we happened across her interview and she mentioned that the original idea behind the song was her feelings against all those people who were pressuring her to come out with a hit song even though she didn't have any particular inspiration then. I thought that was cool because in a way this could be taken as a song against writer's block. Bwahahaha, take that, evil block.

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

March 28, 2008 - Plagiarism Scene Take Three

Originally posted on Fictionpress on March 28, 2008.

So apparently, the Winglin incident isn't completely over. I don't know how Winglin dates its stories or maybe it's been around for a while and I just learned about it, but another author (or perhaps it's the same person as before) has posted my story again here, www.winglin.net/fanfic/maeven/, claiming that's she me and that's she "re-casting" the crew with Hong Kong stars this time. As opposed to the person last time who posted with Korean stars and had the nerve to respond to readers' inquiries whether or not she was plagiarizing my story that yes, she was indeed the Maeven from Fictionpress and that "I" just wanted to repost the stories with some favorite celebrities (pfft, yeah right), this person didn't even do a good job in replacing the names. She merely just slapped on a character list in front of the chapters.

Unlike last time, I wasn't nearly as polite in the note I left the person.

All this plagiarism has really bothered me and I'm sorely tempted to just take the story off this site, if not for the fact that keeping this would somehow provide proof that I was and still am the original author. Can you just imagine the wry smile on my face?

Honestly. Honestly, I don't understand this. If people are so interested in reading this, then just come over to this site. I've left this here on this site for your perusal for how many years? And people are still plagiarizing? What's the point? Are they even making any profit from this? Are the few reviews they receive that satisfying to their small egos?

I'm really ... I can't believe I'm so shocked. And surprisingly so hurt by this. I've taken this news even worse than before for some strange reason. Perhaps it's because I just emailed a reader back asserting my faith in all my readers, perhaps it's because I suddenly feel so helpless. Just a month after my announcement to the readers about the last incident and already there's another plagiarizer popping up, it's made me realized just how insecure I really am. This isn't just a one time thing that I'm letting get to me. This has happened, to my knowledge, three times before and it doesn't stop, does it?

It's even brought me to thinking about going to one of those self-publishing places and just edit and publish this damn story once and for all. At least then, I'll be able to retain my rights completely. At least then, even if I miss all the feedback I've received from so many readers, I won't have plagiarizers lurking around as well.

But on a second thought though, I probably won't, simply because I've seen the prices on those books and whoa, some of them tend to be whythehellareyousoexpensivelittleteenybook which doesn't make much sense to me. It doesn't make sense why I would even try to sell something to you guys when, despite it being in its rough draft, it's been offered freely to all of you on this site for all these years.

I write for fun. I post to get feedback. It's been a good relationship. A chapter for the time you take to read and review and to leave me supportive comments and constructive criticism.

It's been great.

But unfortunately, right now, I can't do this anymore. I know I'm probably being really drastic, but ... please understand.

I've regretfully decided to remove most of the chapters from False Facades except for the very first one to leave some indication that I am still the original writer just in case there are those crazy people who've taken the time to copy and paste my chapters and stored or printed them and would be ever so happy to continue plagiarizing on another site.

Please. To readers - I'll like to say that I've only posted my original works on Fictionpress and Writing.com before so if you see any of my works floating around out there, just know that it's some imposter. In addition, to those who've taken to reposting my stories even with an indication that it was originally written by me (I've seen some do so on soompi.net, I believe), please. Just don't. Not that I don't appreciate your efforts, but I'd rather you had just directed readers to my profile in the first place. I don't much like to see my work reposted with the cast replaced by your favorite stars. I don't see the point and you're just undermining my original idea for the characters.

Uncle Frank's passion for Samantha's red hair and Marco Ngai pining for Gillian Chung's black hair don't quite work the same to me.

So I guess that's it. Thank you all for reading and for all the support. With time, I'll consider reposting the chapters and updating again. Maybe I'll even edit them first haha?

Just ... not now. I'm sorry.

Yours,

Maeven

False Facades and other Fictionpress Stories

False Facades

This is probably the story that I'm fondest of ... and yet, it's also the piece I'm perhaps the most embarrassed of. Honestly, I'm honored and humbled by the huge positive response I've received for this work and I think I was incredibly lucky to have so much support and encouragement as a new author back then because your feedback motivated me to work harder at improving my writing and, not to mention, to keep up with constant updates. (Until then, I had the tendency to lose stamina halfway and never complete long works so thank you all.)

That being said, long after the story had been completed, I'd received some emails or reviews saying either A) It was an unoriginal story or B) I didn't deserve so many reviews and that frankly, they were surprised that I had managed to get so many reviews in the first place because they didn't like the story at all and that there were other stories that deserved more attention, etc. etc. Okay, fair enough. I, myself, admit that when I look back at the story, I cringe sometimes, wondering what the heck was I thinking haha. And I don't expect everyone to enjoy the way I write; everyone has his own likes and dislikes.

So here, more like a warning rather than a defense, I'd like to inform any future readers that False Facades was first written when I was a high school freshman, back when I was thirteen or fourteen-ish when I was kinda big on anime fanfics, and published on Fictionpress in 2003. Hence, and ouch, you'd see multiple exclamation marks, poor grammar, characters that ran amok in wild antics (well, I still haven't quite lost my taste for those crazy scenes haha), lightning speed character development, and ... okay, I'll throw this one in as well - thoughts in brackets - even though it wasn't my intention. Fictionpress, back in the days, had some weird format thing so instead of italics, I had to put the thoughts in brackets and scene dividers as stars.

However, I do promise, that if you stick with the story, probably past Chapter Twenty or so, you'd hopefully see my writing mature. The format suddenly changes. And this is why I'm so glad I posted False Facades up here, because with you guys as reviewers, as witnesses, as fans, and as critics, I was able to shape the story - and my writing skills - into what they are today. And I hope to keep on improving since I still have quite a lot of things to work on.

Good points to False Facades? It was simple. It was simple and sweet. There's a quality of innocence and reckless style in it that reminds me of my younger days, back when I typed simply for the heck of it. I thought nothing about what would come next and wrote that scene in that moment. Over the top, but it's endearing sometimes and it still brings a smile to my face when I'm not grimacing.

That being said, I'm still quite surprised how there are people who've plagiarized this work - even with all the craptastic writing in the beginning - so many times (The Winglin incident has finally died down. I believe the person or the site admins have finally taken down the story. Thank you all for your support.) and it's unnerved me. I would like to revise this story in the future just to make it less cringe-worthy, but I might not post it. I don't understand the liberties some people have taken with posted fiction online. Just because authors here have chosen to share their writings and their stories online with the community doesn't mean we don't wish to retain our rights. Please be courteous and have respect. Be kind, rewind.

And that ... had absolutely nothing to do with anything, but I thought I might as well throw in something else in my preaching.

Long note, eh? If you stuck through it, more power to you. Thank you for reading.

(March 28 2008: The last 29 chapters were removed from Fictionpress due to the plagiarism incidents. As of now, I am working on certain plans for it and may repost it sometime in the future.)

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Unfinished Business

The title says it all. Sorry! I'm thinking about finishing up Through Me first to see how it goes. I might or might not continue with this. It's been left alone for quite some time already (understatement of the year) and I feel any readers following it might have already gotten fed up and dropped this story.

Update: Thank you for those who suddenly reviewed or sent me Private Messages demanding for another chapter. Haha, I'm so sorry about the wait, but at least, you've refreshed my interest in the story and I'm contemplating about reworking this piece now. We'll see how it goes.

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Through Me

Still in progress. The characters are running me up and down a hill though haha.

Update as of March 10: Through Me Chapter 15 has been posted.
Update as of March 16: Through Me Chapter 16 has been posted.

About Me

My penname is Maeven and I'm a frequenter of Fictionpress.

I write for fun. For relief from reality. For something productive to do beside going blind from textbook worship. I adore thinking up crazy plots and dialogue. I'm an English minor and an insane fictionpress writer by night and an equally insane, but panda eyed comatose med student by day.

What I've been driving myself nuts over is working on actually getting out of med school in one piece. So at times, the workload can get incredibly overbearing and I can be insanely slow with updates. (Most readers know this about me - I'm so sorry!) Yeah, just wait until I hit Gross Anatomy next year. You'll never be hearing from me again.

Writing style wise, I love humor and bantering in my chapters. Weak points wise, I'm not big on descriptions. I'm not saying I don't love descriptions, but I tend to find myself short on time and so, in my rush, I usually just put down two lines rather than two paragraphs if I could, if I deem it not particularly necessary to the story right now. Descriptions, to me, are aesthetic embellishments, and I would so love to be able to work more on them, and I probably would in a second draft or so, but just for now, please please please take it as you will because I do have an exam to study for, probably right after I post up an update. When I have more time, I'll be sure to spend more time on all my weak points accordingly. Thank you for your suggestions.

Understand that my writing style for short pieces in English classes differ highly from my fictionpress writings. I feel that right now, my stories here on fictionpress are still in their first drafts and will definitely need to be tweaked. This is why I appreciate and adore all your constructive criticism, but at the same time, if I don't immediately get to correcting something (like False Facades, still in its full awkward glory), please understand that I did read your comments and I did take them into consideration and that once I get the time, when I remember, I would immediately jump on it. I'm not ignoring you, especially not you right there, sitting in front of your computer with a mug of Lipton tea. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.

A while back however, I was plagued with several plagiarism incidents with certain individuals taking my story and reposting it on another site. After dealing with this one time too many, I got fed up and I removed most of False Facades in an attempt to protect my copyrights.

Since then, I've been concentrating on my studies and reformatting plans for my writings. I've contemplated leaving Fictionpress all together, but to be honest, I've become addicted to its community and the amount of support and response from readers and authors there have made me realize that I can't just pry myself away. I've received messages that have really touched me and they've reminded me of my belief that there is still more good than bad out there in the world.

Thus, I'm establishing this blog to try to keep track of my thoughts and writings and to keep my readers updated on my progress as I try to hone my writing skills and venture back into fictionpress. Wish me luck?

Hello World!

So I finally decided to pick up a blog.

A major factor is because I've finally realized that with the way my fictionpress profile is going, it's going to end up as an encyclopedia rather than a brief bio.

Second, I'll like to keep track of all my past author's notes rather than deleting them all to make space.

Third, most of my notes on fictionpress tend to get away from me and they belong more on a blog than there.

And fourth, this can finally be the outlet where my lil scribblings, writings, and sometimes, my not so lil rants belong. :)

For the following first couple of posts, I'll be importing my recent author's notes from fictionpress to clear up my bio, including the ones regarding the recent plagiarism incidents and my decision to remove False Facades from fictionpress. Please stay tune for new updates on future updates and plans I'm brainstorming for my fictionpress stories including False Facades soon. Much thanks!