My turn!

by Kittyinaz | Jun 16, 2014 | My Thoughts

I didn’t do this yesterday, but it needs to be addressed…

Don’t mess with my friends.

Simple right?  You won’t believe how many people don’t think of this as a simple idea to not do.  I can forgive and forget with the best when it comes to me.  Ask Meridian.  But when I stand up for something is when I see something happening to another.  When others attack my friends, when I see injustices happening, when people do wrong things to my friends.  I have no problem getting into someone’s face, and will say things.

That person who cuts in front of another in a line?  Yep, I am the one who said something.  My mom left a store one day when she thought I was going to get into a fight.  It is my weakness.  I just cannot forgive and forget.  Turn the other cheek and so forth. Who deserves to be picked on, to be put down and so forth?  It happened to me a lot, and it is not something anyone should veer go through.  When you talk or write or whatever you use to communicate with, think of who it might hurt.

Turns out another one of my friends got her story plagiarized.  What the heck? This is becoming a trend, you know that whole history repeating itself crap.  (See how I tied to another post I did?  Yep.  I do that shit.) I can give tons of kudos to the lady who did it to me, when I talked to her, she took the story down. Huge kudos for her admitting the mistake and owning to the mistake.  You guys don’t know what guts it takes to admit you are wrong, especially to the person who you did something wrong to.  It happens all the time, and people try to ignore it, or use excuses to try to justify themselves.  They try blaming others for their own shortcomings, and when you try to help them, they refuse the help.  It’s a downward spiral that normally doesn’t hurt the people you think, it is those innocent souls that get hurt.  And that shit aint cool.

Wrong is wrong.  I have done wrong, and it is why I forgive easier.  I have a temper.  Yeah, I know.  You are shocked.  I control it well.  Actually, let’s give credit.  I am slow to anger when it comes to myself, and I excuse people thinking I am overreacting even when the person takes a knife and stabs me in the back.  Yes.  True story.  Well not literally, but yeah.  Actually… yeah story for another time. Back to what I am saying.

I have been inspired reading stories. Or songs, movies, books and so forth.  We are all humans, and inspiration can hit in many ways. When I know about it, I give credit. Shoot, that song on top of each and every chapter?  That is my credit to who inspired me to write the chapter. The fandom I am writing in?  Another nod to the creators.  I don’t claim to own anything but my idea.  Royal Ember is one of the examples of a story that someone else agonized over, worked on and so forth that inspired a spark in my head and so is Blood on your Lips, Feral Blood.  Shoot, I know I was so inspired that I wrote to the author, and after promising her I was not stealing her story, I got permission.  And if you read it (What If), there is not much similarities.  I could only hope to write as well as her!!  But I gave credit.

In my story In The End, there is a similar situation, one that I never dreamed of being a idea from another author.  The author Mavrosal.  I use a panther.  I did not even think about it until I read something later and went looking.  Why did I choose a panther?  The green eyes.  The same as Olivia, my character.  I have LOVED panthers and Tigers since I was a little girls.  I love the cats, but those two are some of my favorite, along with cougars.

I picked the panther because I wanted the creature I saw them as. Majestic, loving, affectionate.  Loyal.  Their sleek coat to me was perfect for the whole story and being sneaky.  Nothing else.  I had the idea and then tried to figure out how to implement it.  I let my fingers do the typing thing, and she became Sookie’s guardian.  Never once did I think of the Dying Series.  Not.  One.  Thought.  So if I took the idea from her story, I am sorry.  My bad.  It was never meant to be.  It was a nod to a cat that I love.  If a tiger would have worked, yeah.  And no I didn’t know about the panthers in Hot Shot yet either.

There.  I admitted my mistake.  It was unintentional but because it was brought to my attention I gave credit.  Was that so hard?  No.

When you steal someone’s story, you are stealing their work, their tears, their time and their frustrations.  You take the from them the pain from banging their heads against immovable objects when the story is not quite going the way they want.  You take the smiles from their faces when someone comments on the story or favorites them.

And while the worst are the ones who actually steal it word for word, there is equally the ones who paraphrase your story.  The one you spent nights up late losing sleep to pound out an outline, to talk with someone about it.  The one you agonized about publishing.  The one you spent hours on the internet making sure what you are writing is right, finding those pics to inspire you, to get everything down pat.

All we want is that credit.  A quick line saying, hey, I read this amazing story and it inspired me to write this.  It takes away from your work, cause people are going to think, I read this already, or did they steal another’s idea?  And you lose readers.  Because it pisses a lot of readers who are actually writers off.  And if they though they read it already, and am looking for a new story they x out of it.

This has happened to my friends.  And to me, but like I said, the person was nice, owned up and removed the story.  I love my fans and the support I have from them, that this was awesome.  But sadly, the latest perpetrator doesn’t want to give credit.

Don’t mess with my friends.

They have a deadline in my head, and if I hear nothing resolving from it, I will start acting on the options I have.  The nice civil ones.  And go from there.

I have others who think they are hurting others, but the ones they are hurting are the true reason why we are angry at them.  Remember that whole I forgive you for attacking me but not for attacking my friends?  Yeah.  That.  Bad.  Very, very bad.  like poking the angry tiger, or hornet nest bad.  You don’t want to do that.  Not at an innocent soul.  It pisses me off.

The lesson here?  Give ducking credit where it is deserved.  And don’t attack my friends.

Now… go read your favorite author, smile and it will all be ok.  Leave them a review to let them know you acknowledge their sweat, sacrifice, the mental torturing we put ourselves through and all for writing something we hope will please you.

Wendy