Ramblings of an Australian Writer

I am steaming right now. Mind you, I'm not alone, bc this is something that's affecting a LOT of authors, both well known and not, from people like George RR Martin, Jeff Vandermeer, John Grisham, Jodi Piccault, David Baldacci, Mary Bly, Michael Connelly, Sylvia Day, to others, such as myself, Megan Derr, Aleksander Voinov, Olivia Dade, Andrea Speed, Ginn Hale and more.

And what is it that is affecting us? Oh, just that our work is being used to "teach" AI how to write books. Without our consent, and without our knowledge, which has to be a breach of some kind of IP and copyright law as we authors retain IP and copyright even when our work is in print or out of print (as is the case for the 7 of my books that are used, and which most of those I intend to republish.)

There's a gift link to read this article at The Atlantic, which expires in 11 days, so read soon, which has a ton of info. More info here, and The Authors Guild are launching a Class Action Suit Open AI. James Swallow is another author who's been hit with this too.

The Authors Guild has been brilliant, I have to say, and has a great post up on their site about what to do next. But I'm still peeved about this, oh yes I am.

Thank the universe.

This was something that all Australian authors were worried about—the proposed changes to copyright laws. Under the proposal, copyright for authors, which was in line with the international standard of existing with the author or their heirs/assigns for 70 years after their death, would be changed. The change would make it so the copyright would expire 15-25 years after the first publication date of the work.

The author of this proposal is the Productivity Commission, who are tasked with finding new and interesting ways for people to be productive and the government to make money. Its basic role is to help the government to make better policies in the long term interest of the Australian community.

The next proposal by the commission is one that hasn’t been rebuffed by the government or agreed to—in short, the government has given a non-answer on the question of whether or not they’ll go with this recommendation. This is to remove PIR—Parallel Importation Rules—where "an author owns territorial rights to their work, which means that they can sell their book to one publisher in Australia, one in America and another in the UK, and those publishers have an exclusive right to sell that book within their market only. Booksellers can therefore only buy bulk copies of a title from the publisher who has rights in their own territory, so Australian booksellers purchase from Australian publishers." [1]

As it stands at the moment, a consumer can buy a book from anywhere in the world. The system in place is fair and balanced, in that people can buy books in Australia published by Australian publishing houses or imports from overseas publishers, or they can buy books from overseas retailers such as Amazon, Book Depository or secondhand merchants such as Better World Books. Basically, the way it is, everyone gets paid, everyone's happy. This is the system in place in the US and UK as well as here, but it might not be here for much longer. Who knows.

Lastly, there is the debate of what constitutes fair use and that’s a murky thing at the best of times. Who knows what will happen there.

There's a petition to support Australian authors which is still up and running, so if you want to sign and support, that would be wonderful.
https://www.change.org/p/scott-morrison-save-australian-literature-stop-parallel-importation-of-books


[1] https://www.asauthors.org/copyright-under-threat#TOC

So I know the 'official' What's Up Wednesday is over with now, but it's a good idea and so I'm going to try to keep doing it here on my LJ. How frequently I do this remains to be seen, though!



WHAT I'M READING.

I've just finished Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and it was fantastic. A great fantasty novel, with the ending open enough for a sequel yet closed enough that it's not necessary. I like books like that. I'm hoping to start J. R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series soon.

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ A WRITING GOAL).

Still at work on Book, Line and Sinker and I'm hoping to get that finished really soon.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME.

Sleep. Quiet. The sound of rain on the roof. The internet not being down, because it's hard to research something when your ISP suddenly drops out. My cat cuddling up beside me.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW.

I've started new medication to treat my epilepsy. The side effects are annoying and I still feel like my brain is full of cotton wool, so that's bugging me a bit. I hope that this will all settle down soon, as I am not enjoying the adjustment period at all. My brother has moved down here and is all settled in and happy, our niece's wedding went off without a hitch and winter is here, so it's very cold! I have a book out at the end of June, cowritten with Cate Ashwood, called Brick by Brick.

I have a new release out today! A Fire in the Heart, book eight of The Archangel Chronicles is out now!





L-R: 1. Cas slumbering away. 2. Medieval colouring book and pencils! 3. Wedding cake made by my niece for her wedding. She's so talented. 4. Readers reading my books! 5. My brother and myself.

It's the end of the week, and I feel very much as if my brain is "argle blargle wargle." You see, I haven't had much sleep, and there's been a few reasons for this. They include the weather, joint pain, my cat deciding to be a LOUD conversationalist at silly o'clock in the morning, and finally, my Nano novel.

This is going to be the novel that ate L. J.'s brain, I can just tell. I've hit the point in my targeted wordcount that I have to keep extending it. I'm over 75K words now, and this morning, mum said to me, "Are you nearly finished it?"

Oh, how I laughed. LAUGHED, I tell you. And then I sighed, because the joke's on me, really, as I have to wear my fingers to the bone, typing uphill both ways in the rain and snow and drought... you know how it goes. Basically, I'm tired, so I'm a bit dramatic and a touch sleepy-hysterical, which is of course, the best time to write a LJ post! Y/Y? Y.

Anyway, I've neglected blogging for the healthy pursuit of gardening, which is more in the nature of the pursuit of agony and fear of the summer sun burning all our plants. Subsequently, two giant outdoor umbrellas are on their way, because I can't figure out anything else that works to shade everything. I've tried just about everything else, hit Gardner Google, and mum suggested the umbrellas, so that was the winner. I like the idea a lot because when it's not summer, we can fold them up and store them in the garden tool nook, so they're not out all the time.

In October, though, I had a lovely weekend visit from my good friend and fellow author, meredith_shayne. We went all over the Adelaide Hills and down into the Barossa Valley, bought a lot of things, tasted a lot of amazing wine, and had a great time. It's been a while since we've had the chance to hang out together, that little thing called the Tasman Sea is a bit difficult to drive over! So that was terrific, all in all.

Then in November, there was a visit from another old friend and fellow author, vayshti, an Adelaide expat, so we spent a lovely day together in a different part of the Adelaide Hills and then went to a brunch with some of the members of the South Australian M/M Group at a great cafe in North Adelaide called E For Ethel. (Best toasted cheese and ham and tomato sandwich I've ever eaten.)

There's been a lot of other things of the less exciting and happy kind too--I was diagnosed with acute bursitis, and had a very painful injection of corticosteroids for that, followed by long sessions with my pain clinician, aka, physiotherapist. Mum had lots of various tests and so on as well, so November has been a mixture of medical things and writing and gardening. Suffice to say, that now the garden is looking pretty amazing, and my left shoulder is achey as opposed to agonising. And I haven't yet hit the point in my book where I know I'm nearing the end.

To conclude, a couple of photos. As ever, click to see full size!




1. Meredith and her birthday present from me--a plush Captain America shield. 2. The Giant Rocking Horse in Gumeracha, one of the places we visited when Meredith was here. 3. Robyn Walker and I, up in Mt. Torrens in the hills. 4. The quirky awesomeness that is E For Ethel cafe.

More later! Hope everyone is well. <3

It's done for another year. I finished my NaNo on time, and although I haven't actually finished the book (I blame the rush of packing to move house for that), I did meet the word count for NaNo. 58386 words on book 8 of the Archangels Chronicles, A Fire in the Heart.

Not much left to write, and I must say that this has been the least pleasant writing experience for me. This is, again, due to moving issues. It's difficult to concentrate on your book when stressing about all the moving related stuff and being interupted by things related to moving! I will be VERY glad when that's all done, so I can sit down and get back to the business of writing and not having to pack up boxes and sort out what I'm keeping and what I'm throwing out/giving to friends/donating to charity in between paragraphs!

It's Round Four of voting on covers for the 2012 Rainbow Awards. I am humbled and thrilled that the cover for No Quarter is still in the race.

So if you'd like to help out and vote, and I'd love it if you did, please go here and cast your ballot.

* If you don't have a Live Journal, don't fret - you can log in using your Facebook or Twitter and vote accordingly. :D

*~*~*~*

In writing and publishing news, book three, No Shadows Fall has a release date of the 29th October. And to celebrate all October releases, Dreamspinner Press is having what is, I think, the most awesome giveaways - the tweetaway! If you don't have a twitter but still want to participate and bag yourself free books, bookmark the DSP twitter, right here.

Less Than Three Press has closed submissions for the Rockstar Anthology Collection, in which I have a story called >Capsicum Head. It's about an Aussie punk rock band in the 80s and their highs and lows on tour to the town of Port Pirie and the city of Melbourne. LT3 does have two open calls which, if I may say, look pretty awesome, and I'm planning to have something for the vampire call. If you're reading this..." Message In A Bottle call and Vampire call info.

I am currently at 65K words on City of Jade, the novel sequel to my short story, City of Gold. I am actually amazed at myself right now, I seem to be averaging 5K words a day and this story is practically writing itself. When I picked it up again, I had 30K words down, and now I'm powering along like a writing machine. With a very sore wrist. Ow. I'm really enjoying writing this, I get a lot of joy out of looking at blogs and photos and scholarly and academic research about where this book takes place, which is the Silk Road from Constantinople to Chang'an and then to Li'nan. (Istanbul - Xi'an - Hangzhou). It's set in 1141-42, and is the story of Gallienus of Constantinople and Misahuen of Gyeongju and their trip to find a new home in the Song Dynasty's capital, Li'nan. I would love to follow their journey as a tourist. It's on my bucket list.

*~*~*~*

I have gone on a herb growing kick, and my little herb garden in pots is going great guns. My mint is, I'm convinced, related to triffids. If I'm attacked by sentient mint, you all know what happened. Avenge me and honour my memory, friends.

Ahem. Anyhoo, I have mint, parsley, rosemary, lavender, chilli and thyme. (My landlady gave me the thyme. How awesome is that?) I plan to get some perenial corriander (cilatro to my US friends) and some basil, and that should tide me over for the time being. Until I spy something else I must try my hand at growing. Fresh herbs, though, omg. SO GOOD. So very, very good.

It feels like forever since I've posted anything. That's due to the fact I've been very sick. I'm starting to recover, slowly, but I still find myself getting worn out very easily and still feel a bit "flat," for want of a better word. Ten days after my night in the emergency room in hospital, I *still* have a large blood bruise on my left arm from where they took blood. Apparently, I now bruise easily. At least the bruises from the tattoo have faded - though that took about two weeks!

Anyhoodle, No Surrender, No Retreat has been out for about a month now. It's a book I'm really happy with, and I adore the cover that Anne Cain did for me. Book three, No Shadows Fall, will be out before the end of the year.

I've been taking a break from writing Archangels - when I've not been sick - to write other things. I've finished a long novella for a sekrit project for one, and I have a plan, which is more or less set in stone, barring more illness and I hope there's no more of that because I am SO over being sick. September and October will be spent writing the last third of Deliverance, which is an AU contemporary m/m, and doing some more on the sequel to City of Gold, which is City of Jade. I don't imagine Jade will be finished by the end of October, because there is so much I need to research as I go, and that takes time. But I'm determined to make more progress, even if it's only one more chapter. Then in November, as part of NanoWriMo, I'll write book four of the Archangels, which I actually have a title for! It's The Wind-Up Forest and the plot veers away from fallen angels and demons and megolomaniac people. Which is all I'll say for now!

I'm looking forward to my 40th, which is September 23rd. Myself and three close friends and my mum are doing a day trip up to the Barossa Valley. Wines, cheeses, fresh produce and Maggie Beers' chocolate and salted caramel icecream are my plans for that day. Also a visit to the giant rocking horse, the whispering wall and Tanunda, which is an awesome town in the Barossa Valley. I'll take lots of photos!

Finally, for anyone who's interested in participating or bookmarking in their calender to read along, I'll be participating in the Romance Reviews GBLT Madness Blog Hop. I'll be talking about No Surrender, No Retreat.

Hope you guys are all doing better than I have been the last several weeks. I'm so glad it's Spring on Saturday.

Oh, and if you're interested in following/friending me over on Facebook, you can find me right here.

Today, I'm going to blog about plagiarism.


NB: I am not including Fanfic in this. I personally have no problem with it. Professional Fanfic sells very well (just look at the amount of Star Trek, Supernatural, and Doctor Who TV tie-in novels there are for example!) and I have no problem with that, either. I even - *gasp* - own a couple of these tie-in novels. I know, fetch the smelling salts, post haste! Quelle horreur! Etcetera. So no, this post is not a beef with Fanfic. It's a beef with theft. Which I go into detail about below.

I'm a graduated academic. The rules and university policies regarding plagiarism where I studied were/are very stringent. In fact, I would hazard a guess that they are equally stringent in tertiary institutions everywhere. From day one of uni, it was pounded into our heads: plagiarism is bad. In academia, plagiarism will get you expelled. It will get your papers trashed, your academic credibility destroyed. It could well impact on your future career path. In research and writing fields, plagiarism is a big no-no. Plagiarism is defined thus:

Word Origin & History

plagiarism
1621, from L. plagiarius "kidnapper, seducer, plunderer," used in the sense of "literary thief" by Martial, from plagium "kidnapping," from plaga "snare, net," from PIE base *p(e)lag- "flat, spread out." Plagiary is attested from 1597.
- Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

I love etymology, don't you?

plagiarism definition

Literary theft. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote.

Note : Similar theft in music or other arts is also called plagiarism.
- The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

ANYHOODLE. Why am I pontificating about plagiarism? Well, it's not what you might think.

I've been reading a lot of articles and blog posts about the plagiarism going on in Amazon's self-publishing arm, Createspace. I've been absolutely stunned by it, the sheer level of gall some of these people have, including emails with strings of 'HAHAHAHA' and worse when confronted about the situation; and an example of one of the plagiarised titles, Bram Stoker's Dracula repurposed with a new title and author name. It was sold with the title/author of Dracula Amazing Adventure by Maria Cruz. (And the bad grammar in the title alone makes my teeth hurt.)

The NPR article there (link again) is really eye opening. There seems to be some sort of online course whereby someone wanting to make big bucks quick can learn how to do so - as a plagiarist. A lot of the books being sold through Createspace that are plagiarised are stories that have come from the Literotica site, which is free - so the plagiarists are taking these free stories, plonking them in a file, having it kindle formatted and selling it. Other people's words and effort are being exploited by someone else for their own gain. From the article, I quote:

"You can get on some forums, one is called WarriorForum, where they discuss all sorts of marketing things," Penenberg says. "How to make money on the Internet is the idea behind it. The guy that I heard was pirating [...] got onto these forums where they sell you a collection, a zip file full of stories that have been ripped off the Internet and repackaged."

Fast Company has a thorough article about this, here, where they talk to the individual who set up the above. I'm astounded at the amount of 'get rich' schemes that seem to focus on stealing other people's writing. Most of it, too, seems to be erotica. Another article on FC goes more in depth, with side-by-side screengrabs to show the level of the plagiarism. And, it's breathtaking in its audacity, as you can see.

Plagiarism Today has an excellent article on the subject, too.

Then there's this fellow. A David Boyer who, according to this fascinating, thorough blog, has plagiarised over sixty authors, including George R.R. Martin, Dean Koontz, William S. Burroughs and musicians such as Sade and Shania Twain, to name a few. The evidence presented is damning. It's appalling. It made me :O for several minutes. Does the perpetrator care? Not even a little.

I'd never heard of this guy until I went link hopping from the cut-and-paste-and-resell stories about Createspace. But boy howdy, he does get around. Prepare to lose a lot of hours reading about this dude - there is SO much stuff. I'm boggled he's still tripping merrily along his plagiarising way.

It's been said that plagiarists are unhappy people. I think that's disingenuous. Plagiarists don't care. That neither requires happiness or sadness. Though you honestly think a plagiarist is unhappy if they're making good money off someone else's work? Um. I'd say that was a big fat NO.

After all, original creators sweat and tears went into the work, and they reap the benefits by pinching and selling it as theirs. And that, for want of a much better word, SUCKS.

February has been a rollercoaster month so far, and we've only just started it! I was thinking about my writing, specifically about No Quarter which is out soon (omg, so excite!) and about how proud I am of that book and the books that follow it that make up the series. Even though I'm only a quarter way through writing book three, I'm still thoroughly enjoying this universe I've created and the characters and their stories. They are all eager to tell me their stories, and I foresee there being quite a lot of pieces set in this universe to come. It's almost like my comfort food of writing. Does that make any sense?

So while I was thinking about this, a memory from when I was a very little LJ came to me and I laughed and laughed for a while, that fond nostalgia laugh. It amused me so much that I wanted to blog about it. And hey, look – a blog post that isn't a promo link or a Six Sentence Sunday or a Thursday Thirteen!

Anyway, when I was very young, around 10 years old, I think, although that's a long time ago and I can't be sure that's how old I was, I wrote a story about a magical horse and his friends. I know I was in primary school at the time, because I remember a/my handwriting was *dreadful* (not that it's much better these days!) and b/I didn't wear a uniform to school – uniforms were for high school.

I remember I got an A for this story, which was written in an A5 size notebook with a dull grey cardboard cover. It's odd the details you remember. I remember showing my mother this story, because I was proud of my grade and because I wanted her to read my amazing skills as a storyteller (aged 10). Mum read the story and said it was very good, and then asked me about a part of it.

Naturally, I can't remember how the exact conversation went, but I remember the gist of it, which is as follows.

Mum: This is very good, LJ! But, why is Magical Horse Character calling 'ooo'?
Little me: 'Ooo'? [I was confused. I didn't remember writing anyone saying Ooh or ooo.]
Mum: Yes, right here. [She showed me what I'd written.]
Little me: OH. That's not 'ooo'! That's 0 0 0 – triple zero, to call the police!
Mum: ...I knew that.

Because our emergency call number is triple zero (911 in the US), it was easy to see how mum got 'ooo' out of '0 0 0.'

It gave me a giggle, remembering that. I think that's the earliest memory I have of my writing. That and the story I wrote about Humpty Dumpty in Australia, with Mr. Dumpty wearing a corks-onna-string-from-the-brim hat – like this:



This is not to be confused with the awesome that is the Australian Akubra hat, which is this:



The things we remember from our childhoods!

It's a good day today.

Firstly, I'm guest blogging at clarelondon's blog, today, talking about inspiration in photos, and I've shared some images of inspirational things, including one of Daniel Craig. Inspiration is in everything, am I right? Anyhoo, do stop by!

Secondly, I got a contract for book two of my Archangels series, No Surrender, No Retreat, which I am delighted and excited to accept, so yay!


These are jolly good things after several weeks of blah - the hot weather here has been dreadful, the heatwave has been one of the worst in years, so when the cool change finally hit on Monday morning, all of Adelaide drew a huge breath of relief. Being able to think without feeling like your brain is jelly? What a marvellous sensation!

There's been some health issues for me, above and beyond the usual (there's always something, sigh), so I am off to visit cardiologists directly and get that diagnosed properly. Interim diagnosis is SVT, which is Supraventricular Tachycardia, basically where the electrics in your heart misfire, so your heart starts beating a mile a minute. It is a very scary feeling, believe me. However, in my case, there's some concern that there's an underlying issue - not to mention a history of heart disease in my family - so it's off to the cardiologist for me. Soon, I will be on a first name basis with everyone in all the specialist units in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. My mum is also having tests at the end of February, so she will be staying here at my house for a few days, one before, the day of, and at least one day after the tests.

All of that explains why I've been less than frequent with blogging or doing the Thursday Thirteens or Six Sentence Sundays. Heat, plus health, plus worrying, do not make for a productive mindset. Today is a new day, though, a good day, so onwards and upwards!