I’m back from the dentist, where Minou the fur-coat-bear* was a Big Hit. I did not take the Valium before the appointment, though I had it with me, In Case. As it turned out, I didn’t need it; the appointment was Very Brief — a matter of grinding down about four teeth and polishing everything to a high shine. The recommended braces being out of the question, this ends the current Dental Adventure. I do need to see the hygienist again in another three months, but I expect to have positive news, then.
So that.
Reminders:
1. There’s a new Liaden story up at Splinter Universe, the title is “Roving Gambler,” and it’s set on Surebleak. Here’s your link.
2. An oldie-but-goodie. The following is a reprint of a post made in this blog in November of 2013. We have not changed our minds.
Don’t write and post fan fiction of our work.
The following is Lee and Miller specific, and it has been our stance for more than a decade. It’s not new, and it’s not a secret. Other writers have other stances and opinions. When in doubt — ask.
I know it’s a popular belief among many of the fan-fiction community that fan fiction does not hurt the parent work, that it provides much-needed publicity to the parent work, that it does not infringe the copyright or trademark of the parent work, and that the authors of the parent work can’t stop it, anyway.
Three of these four beliefs are just that — beliefs. They can no more be proven than can our belief that fan fiction materially harms the parent work — especially a parent work which is still evolving — provides no useful publicity, and does, indeed, infringe on the copyright and the trademark of the parent work. Note that we are talking about our own works here — see disclaimer, above.
To the fourth point, that authors are powerless to prevent fan fiction authors from ficcing whatever they want to — that’s perfectly true. Common courtesy would seem to dictate that the wishes of the author of the parent work be respected, however. So, we would ask for common courtesy.
3. For those who have friends that they need to addict to the Liaden Universe®, the ebook editions of Agent of Change and Fledgling are available as free! downloads from All of the Usual Suspects. I think you know what to do.
. . .and that’s it. I would like to point out that I have three coon cats in my office as I type this, all of them projecting Professional Level Sleep Rays. And that my writing goal on the day is at least 2,000 words.
Right, then. More coffee.
See y’all later.
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*Minou is actually constructed from an old fur coat. There was a woman in Winslow who was making fur-coat-bears and selling them through Back Door to the Moon, the local Pagan shop. BDttM is long gone, and I don’t know what outlet, if any, there now is for fur-coat-bears. Minou was a Yule gift to me from Steve.
Etsy and art/craft fairs are decent places to find bears made out of real fur (generally from coats.) Some people will take a family heirloom fur coat and turn it into bears for children/grandkids. It is a nice way to give several people something from one item.
Hey, I addicted another girlfriend with loans from my collection and the free ebooks 😀
it works
Thanks for posting this, Sharon. Too many people think it is okay to post fan-fiction even when authors have asked them not to. My advice to them is to post where authors ARE okay with it, such as the 1632Universe. We control the fan-fiction, make it better, teach writers how to write professional quality work, and the ones that get published get paid SFWA rates. That’s how people can have the outlet– write, get better and get paid for it. And leave the authors who don’t want to spend the time policing the fan-fiction alone. I’d love to write in the Liaden Universe, but I respect you both too much to do it.
Yay! Good work!
I hadn’t even thought of Etsy. Duh.