Cleolinda everywhere

So someone else has run off and reposted my work (this time, it's Twilight in Fifteen Minutes. NO DOGPILING, Y'ALL). I don't go looking for this stuff, because honestly, if I started trying to police the internet--which I did try for a little while, back when I was first writing these things--I would never, ever get anything else done. But I feel like once you've brought it to my attention--I don't know that legally I have to do anything; this isn't an issue of trademark, which has to be defended pretty vigorously; it's a simple matter of copyright flowing from the pen, as the expression goes. I wrote this, it is verifiably mine, and I have the right to decide who does and does not get to run off with it. So morally--perhaps, more accurately, emotionally--you feel like you're not supposed to let it go.

( The problem with this one is that the girl's gotten defiant )


ETA: Okay. She's apologized. As for you guys? I have finally read most of the comments, and while I said NO DOGPILING, most of y'all were admirably civil. However?

The authors onto you, BTW: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/820888.html?#cutid1

Check out the number of commenters on that post - that's the number of people who hate you right now.

BAD FORM. You better hope I don't find out who that was.

Okay, so, I'm going to be tied up tonight recording a podcast (though I'm also working on the new Secret Life), so obviously there won't be a linkspam, so I have to go ahead and show you the latest New Moon set pics NOW:

SPARKLE* INTERVENTION.**

* Sparkle not actually included.

** If you or someone you stalk experiences symptoms of melodrama (extreme pallor, shirtlessness, recitation of Shakespeare), please call our toll-free drama queen hotline at 1-800-DAZZLED.

Okay, you guys, we gotta have a talk. I was trying not to say this (and I can't think of a better way to say it without coming off like a complete bitch, so let me apologize for that in advance), but I can't blame y'all for doing something if I haven't said that I don't want you to. If you want (or don't want) something, you have to put it out there because people can't read your mind, is what I'm saying. So:

I love you guys. You know that.

I started writing about the dolls the way I start writing about most things here, which is on a whim, because I felt loopy, for fun, for the hell of it. It became something a bit more involved, but something I still enjoyed doing on a more complex level.

I'm starting to get a bit stressed about it.

Guys, I know that suggestions and offers of additional dolls are fundamentally acts of generosity. I know how you intend it. But I have got to be able to write this the way I want. I can't just shoehorn in other characters or other fandoms because you want me to. (And I have heard from a lot of very generous people who want a lot of different characters added.) Put it this way: I honestly cannot think of another writing situation, fanfic or otherwise, where people could buy characters to put into the story.

And if you decide this or that character would be a great addition to the story and you buy a doll of it and find a way to send it to me, I'm telling you, I will not be able to use it. I will feel like an ungrateful bitch--I will feel like shit --but I will not be able to use it. (If my mother knew I was saying this right now, she would come up here and beat me upside the head, I tell you what.) I would rather stop writing the thing entirely than sit there sweating bullets trying to figure out how to up-end a story I've planned out, that I'm writing for fun, to wedge in that character, which I will likely have to sit down and research if I'm not familiar with it or the fandom. As much as I love you guys, and as much as I know that this is coming from a place of love with y'all, when it starts inducing anxiety and stops being fun for me, the whole thing stops.

(Oh my God, did I just threaten a classic fanfic writer flounce? Oh my God.)

There's a couple of other things to keep in mind--due to some readers who have already been very generous (in addition to gifts from my family at the holidays), my doll/figure collection is twice as big as when I started writing about it in earnest eight months or so ago. I'm having a hard time keeping everyone on stage as it is; there are dolls I want but haven't bought for myself because I don't know what to do with them in the story. I'm already holding one or more dolls/figures (*cough*) back until a more opportune time to introduce them. So there are dolls you don't even know I have at this point, which is another reason not to get crazy with the random acts of kindness.

You guys are so, so generous, but really, I need y'all to just sit back and enjoy the show at this point, if you even still want to after this.

Re: The weirdly defiant POTO/15M theft: the full text of the You Accusatory Squirrel-Like Person rant got posted (well, it was always public), but now there's a very teal apology up. Bizarre.

(If the girl's reading this--look, it's not that a big deal. You thought it was written by someone else and you thought you had their permission. That wasn't correct; now you know, you took it down, and you apologized. Apology accepted. It's not a "heinous crime"; it's just something that needs to be taken down. Really, it's not the end of the world, and you don't have to take your toys and go home; it's only going to be as big a deal as you make it.)

(Or maybe this is what's going on. I don't know.)

(Wait, she paid someone else $47 for the "rights" to something I wrote? What?)

Meanwhile: Less jittery today, although I do feel very awake.

Something that occurred me while I was answering comments* on the previous entry--( Read more... )

Meanwhile, padawansguide came through for us with some new, even better Alice in Wonderland pics. We don't think it's literally Violet Baudelaire's coat, but it's clearly a design that Atwood is reusing. Which is cool, because I love that coat.

(Here's more, assuming they stay up/unlocked. Maybe long enough for you to see Baby Bonham-Carter-Burton's rockin' red velvet cape this time.)

And if I didn't know better, I'd swear I went to college with the girl playing Alice. (S'up, Beth! "Rita Dove! I love her!")

More linkspam! And early, so I can get back to work! ( Apocalyptic polar bears, Milanese shenanigans, Immortal McHorror )

Dear Family:

Please stop involving me in your endless fights, rationalizations, Monday-morning-quarterbacking, and recaps of aforementioned fights.

Sincerely,

STAB STAB STAB


I want to put a sign on my door that has the Swiss flag on it and, in 18 languages,

Vendez-vous la folie ailleurs; nous avons suffisament ici-là.

Vende ústed la locura en otro sitio; aquí ya tenemos demasiado.

GO SELL CRAZY SOMEWHERE ELSE, WE'RE ALL STOCKED UP HERE.