It's been some time since I've written anything, so I thought I would assure people that yes, I am still alive. This year has been very stressful, both professionally and emotionally.

My sister started cutting herself after a bad break-up but refuses to seek professional help, which she needs, desperately, for various issues.

I also took a chance and left my old life behind me. I was so unhappy most of the time and I finally took my courage in both hands and started on a fresh leaf. I've moved to a new city and am going to university again.

As you can see, I was too busy with real life to worry about fanfiction. However I have not abandoned any of my stories, nor do I plan to do so. I will update when I have time.

The forces of my Naruto/HP crossover plot bunny are strong, therefore the newest chapter of "Green Eyes and a Smile" can be found at my ffnet account.

The sixth chapter of "Crimson Sorrow" can be found at my ffnet account. Naturally, there are quite the number of OCs because of the Genin teams.

For those who are interested, Konohamaru graduated a couple years prior to the beginning of "Crimson Sorrow".

After much consideration I've come to the conclusion that I will keep my stories over at ffnet, at least for the moment. This is largely thanks to greyinthedark who went to the trouble to ask a lawyer and did even further research on her own. So, if you're going to enjoy any of the updates I'll put up this week, send her a big "Thank You", why don't you?

I've also created an account over at mediaminers, however they never sent me a reply to my question about their TOS(...or rather, where I can find them), so I'm a little leery about posting anything over there.

The mailing list offer still stands by the way. Give me your contact address and the name of the story you wish to be notified about and I'll put you on the list. It's not really necessary for people who have an account at ffnet, but those who don't, might want to consider it. It's also a "just in case"-list, if I should change my mind about moving my fics elsewhere(...I know a couple of great authors who did and I'm going to ask them for their reasons).

I have to admit, I had a good time with ffnet, but their new TOS would make it an idiocy to stay. Anyone who continues to post there after reading their "indemnity"-clause is just asking for trouble. That clause states(...only in lawyer speak and many more words) that you will pay to defend ffnet and all its people in court should a copyright holder ever sue them.

The word fanfiction kind of implies that you are not the original copyright holder and suing for copyright infringement is one of the easiest ways for the less known artists to make money, it's kind of become a sport for them in my country at least. This hasn't happened with fanfiction, yet, but I'm not going to risk going broke trying to defend the ffnet staff.

So, if anyone knows a good fanfiction site I could make my new home, be sure to let me know. I'm going to start taking down any and all of my stories at ffnet this weekend. They will be transferred to this lj temporarily, perhaps at affnet later on, I'm not sure yet.

EDIT: I've checked and lj has the same indemnity clause in their TOS. Are there any sites left that don't have them? Since those sites are all under American law, could someone please explain why they put those indemnity clause in? The way it's worded sounds kind of fishy.

Edit 16/03/09: http://www.legalmessenger.com/legal-articles-indemnity.htm
Read it and then remember that no fanfiction writer is the copyright holder of his/her stories. Scary clause for a fanfiction site to have, very scary.

Edit 17/02/09: She's taken it down, but I'm going to keep her on my list of authors to check on from time to time, just to be sure they haven't tried again. ^^;

Once again a "new" author has stolen someone else's story on ffnet. I'll give them that it isn't(but only just) a word for word copy(...they changed a character's age and butchered the grammar and language)but otherwise it is glaringly obvious that they plagiarized another story.

Take a look yourselves.

original story by Calamus: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3924834/1/The_Lima_Syndrome

copied story by japanimation: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4867109/1/Stockholm_Syndrome

By the publishing dates and the number of chapters it is easily discernible who copied from whom.

Please report the plagiarized story by using the "report possible abuse" button on the left corner at the end of the chapter.

I don't like plagiarism, at all. It is one thing to be inspired by another's hard work, it is a totally different thing to simply copy their work and pretend it is one's own.

Chapter 16 of my Naruto fiction "A Burned Leaf" can be found here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3591643/16/A_Burned_Leaf

It is a transitory chapter and was hell to write. I'm not quite happy with how it turned out, but it didn't seem to get any better, so I left it like that before I lost my will to write anything at all. ^^;

The next update will be for "A Burned Leaf", chapter 16 is already 1/3 done and I'm feeling like writing Naruto-fiction at the moment.

I've finally managed to find some time and get my muse to write at least a little bit. The chapter is short and didn't come out at all like I had imagined it. My muse was quite uncooperative so in the end I gave in and let her take the story where she wanted it to be. *shrugs*

It's not too bad because it means the next chapter is all mine...hopefully. ^^;

Anyway, chapter 9 of my PoT fanfiction "Enigmatic Prey" can be found here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3236523/9/Enigmatic_Prey

It's been a while and it seems my absence has worried some of my reviewers, for which I want to apologize dearly. Life's been very...busy and...disagreeing these past months.

I want to thank those who worried about and wished me well, those who cheered me on to continue my writing and those who told me they enjoyed reading my stories. If I needed a reason for writing you would have given me ample.

It's my birthday on Sunday, so I'll be out of town and quite busy with family this weekend, but I'll try to have something ready to update next week.

There have been a couple of questions regarding my writing habits in the last weeks and though I answered the individual messages I will put the answers here, too.



"Why do you write slash fanfiction even when there are female characters in the original story you could pair the males up with?"

That's a very good question and one I have, on occasion, asked myself. Most of the time the answer why my muse focuses on male pairings will be: because she is fascinated by the characters and she doesn't care about their gender. It's the character's personality, past or actions that make my muse take interest in them.




"Why do you feel the need to bash certain female characters, like Sakura from Naruto?"

Here we have another case of personal preference, I'm afraid. While I have read fanfictions that portray Sakura as a great friend and character and while the canon Sakura has become somewhat more likable in the Shippuuden series, I cannot forget how despicable she was in the beginning. It's not because she was a mindless, nerve-grating fangirl(...Ino was a fangirl, too), but because she had some character flaws that I truly hate: she broke off her friendship with Ino despite all that Ino had done for her; she is selfish; she abuses Naruto regularly.

People might argue, but this was my impression of Sakura for the whole series before Shippuuden, so when I write her, this is what I'm working with. I do not feel the need to "lie" about my own opinion of this particular character just because there are people who like her immensely. *shrugs*

By the way, there are female Naruto characters that I like and can stand reading a romance with my favourite male characters about: Temari, Ino and perhaps TenTen.
Those three are the only female characters of the show that I found somewhat likable.





"Why don't you update more often?"

Honestly, I feel bad about how irregularly I update, but for me writing is first and foremost a hobby, as in something I do to have fun. Therefore I do not feel the need to sacrifice my free-time for it exclusively(...after all, there are also friends and family to visit, books and fanfictions to be read, animes and movies to be watched, etc). There are weeks when my muse is hyper and I have the time to write which will lead to nearly daily updates. More often though my muse will be cranky or disinterested or freshly obsessed with a new fandom and there will be no updates for weeks.




"Then why upload a story in the first place?"

Simple, those stories wouldn't have been written at all otherwise. I know in my head how the story will go, what the characters will say, feel and do. There would be no need for me to put the words to paper, so to speak, if I didn't plan on sharing them.





"Why do you write in English even though it's not your own language?"

Because I'm a masochist like that. ;-)
No, no, it's because one, more people read English, two, it's a good way for me to practice my language skills and three, I have only ever seen the anime in question with English subs.





"How does your muse come up with her ideas?"

Another good question and one with many different answers. Sometimes my muse simply fixates on two characters in a certain situation, sometimes she plays the "what if"-game, sometimes she comes up with full scenes without any warning and then constructs a story that will lead to them.
I tend to joke that my muse can come up with story ideas/scenes/dialogues while I am watching paint dry, because I don't know what makes her work.





By the way, at the moment my freetime is taken up with watching the European Soccer Championship. There are two games every evening and some of the teams are really amazing: Portugal, Germany, Netherlands and Spain.

No, the story is neither dead nor has it been abandoned. My muse simply didn't feel like visiting her "Eyeshield 21"-lair.

It's short, but chapter 4 can be found at ffnet.

By the way, anyone feeling like writing quality Eyeshield 21 fanfictions, preferably with Shin/Sena, Hiruma/Sena, Akabaya/Sena or Riku/Sena pairing? It'd be much appreciated. :-)

Chapter 5 can be found at ffnet, as usual.

It's fun writing Genma and Naruto and I can't wait to finally introduce Naruto's Genin properly.*evil grin*




Argh, I've just spent the last hour and a half installing my new security software. They should put a warning on those things so that poor unsuspecting fools like me know not to try and install those things in the middle of the night. *grumble*



This just isn't my week. Somehow I managed to burn myself so badly with a hot-water bottle in my sleep that I'm now sporting some vicious burn blisters just above my right ankle. It shouldn't have been possible, because surely the pain would have made me wake up...? Anyway, the blisters are healing nicely and I'll sport another set of lovely burn scars to add to my growing collection(...last year the oven immortalized itself on my left knee).

I don't mind the blisters or the scars, but they start to itch when they heal and it's been driving me crazy. ^^;

I'm sorry it's later than planned, but as I have mentioned before, my schedule this week was a little...hectic.

You can find chapter 14 at ffnet.

It was a difficult chapter to write and holds the title of "most revised chapter ever", which is kind of funny since it's only one of those annoying chapters that bridge the gap between two events...^^;

Hope you enjoy!

A little bit late, but you can find chapter 9 at ffnet: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3234648/9/At_the_bottom_of_an_ocean

There will be updates for my other stories today and tomorrow, too. I just have a tight schedule at the moment, sorry. ^^;



This story is slowly but surely coming to an end and I am glad about it. I always re-read earlier chapters before writing a new one and am beyond embarrassed about my earlier writing style and mistakes. That anyone could continue reading the story for more than three chapters is nothing less than a miracle.

Some time in the future, when I am not working on anything else I am going to edit that story...I will. *skeptical look at muse*
Just...don't hold your breath, ne? ^^;

I still don't know why my muse insisted upon the humour scene at the end of this chapter. She just wouldn't budge about it. It doesn't seem to fit the story, somehow. Then again, it fits the PoT canon mood quite well...and with Ryoma getting better I can slowly merge canon and story mood again. *sigh*

I've been notified by the kind Knave that the Thief has deleted the stolen story. You can read Taki-kun's statement regarding the issue here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1352190/

I'm not sure I believe her(...because she only claims to not have been at ffnet this year, what about the emails and her blog?), but the story was deleted and that's all that counts in the end, I guess.

On one hand, I am deliriously happy for hina88, but on the other hand that Taki-kun deleted the story herself means that ffnet didn't do a single thing(...that is, if you believe Taki-kun's claim; it could be she was warned to take it down by the admins).

Anyway, I'm keeping my word and am going to update my stories, tomorrow at the latest.

It was great to see how many people cared about this case and acted on hina88's(...and every other author's)behalf.

Edited 09/05/08:
Since I've been asked by several people about the current situation, I decided to put my answer here.

As far as I know the ffnet admins haven't answered any messages sent to them regarding the issue of Taki-kun's story theft. The story is still up, though the Thief hasn't dared to update another chapter since mid-March.

I am still sending abuse reports and emails to support@fanfcition.com, though a slightly altered version since it has been nearly eight weeks since I first started to send those emails.

( You can copy and send it, too, if you don't want to find your own words: )

If the ffnet admins still won't have done anything till August, I will start to update my stories here on my lj, friends-locked(...because to stall any longer would be unfair since you've supported this case with your reports, too). It's not an ideal solution and I really hope the ffnet admins get their act together before I have to resort to posting here exclusively, since I really thought ffnet to be a good site to post at before this fiasco started.

I will update the List as soon as I've got the time to do it, please just post a comment and let me know if you should be on it too, okay?






THANK YOU
14/03/08 Amylion THANK YOU
THANK YOU 14/03/08 lady_of_mystery THANK YOU
THANK YOU 14/03/08 artimusdin
THANK YOU
THANK YOU 16/03/08 Knave THANK YOU
THANK YOU 16/03/08 Ms willow gosermer THANK YOU
THANK YOU 16/03/08 Lady Gaidin THANK YOU
THANK YOU 16/03/08 flygirlwv THANK YOU
THANK YOU 17/03/08 wes_lane THANK YOU
THANK YOU 17/03/08 ms.gringotts THANK YOU
THANK YOU 18/03/08 Toa THANK YOU
THANK YOU 18/03/08 Kit turned Mighty THANK YOU
THANK YOU 19/03/08 MaraSeti THANK YOU
THANK YOU 20/03/08 Chibi-Sweet THANK YOU
THANK YOU 21/03/08 Chibi Strawberry THANK YOU
THANK YOU 25/03/08 RebelC THANK YOU
THANK YOU 28/03/08 desgod THANK YOU
THANK YOU 29/03/08 abhorsen3 THANK YOU



I'll update this list with the names of everyone who has reported Taki-kun to the ffnet admins(...that I know of, of course).

This list serves two causes, one, it lets poor hina88(aka atanih88) know she is not alone and two, we will know just how many reports have been sent by different people(...again, that I know of)to the ffnet admins.

EDITED 18/03/08:
I've just been at hina88 aka atanih88's lj and it looks like she's decided to take a break from fandom. This is exactly what I meant when I warned people about what an unchecked/unpunished case of plagiarism can do to the community. Hina88 is a great writer with great potential and thanks to the Thief and ffnet we might not see more of her work for some time to come.

Please show hina88 some support and let her know that you are taking up the fight that has dimmed her love for the fandom.

...and how you can help by reporting her.

Since ffnet seems to ignore any and all abuse reports sent via the "possible story abuse" button, you will have to report it the old fashioned way by sending an email to support@fanfiction.com.

Here's the text I am sending them every other day:




Dear ffnet administration,

I'm pretty sure you've already got an email from hina88 AKA Patricia about this, but since nothing has been done about the stolen story in the last 6 weeks and the abuse reports sent by multiple people don't seem to have reached you, I want to present the case again.

The following links will allow you to verify the collected evidence with your own eyes:

http://community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism/49316.html

http://community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism/50145.html#cutid1

After being contacted by the original author the first time and getting severely scolded by reviewers for stealing another's story and claiming it as her own at the end of January, Taki-kun stopped uploading stolen chapters. She never responded to any messages, not to kind inquiries and not to the several requests to take the story down sent by hina88.

Since nothing happened despite the numerous abuse reports, Taki-kun has started to upload stolen chapters once again.

It's obvious by now that she doesn't see the error in her ways and isn't interested in sorting out the matter with hina88.

She won't take the story down herself and she won't stop uploading and claiming a story that doesn't belong to her.

Many readers and writers know about this case and are bewildered as to why their abuse reports don't seem to have any effect at all.

Please, please take the stolen story down.


Sincerely,
(your name)



Copy and paste it(...you know the thing Taki-kun has done with hina88's story, only you have my permission to do so)and send an email to support@fanfiction.com.




On another note, please show some moderation in your messages to the Thief AKA Taki-kun. She may be an obstinate, impudent air-head, but it is against the TOS at ffnet to harrass her via pm or reviews. You are free to tell her what you think about what she's doing, but do it in a polite, civilized manner(...you wouldn't want to descend to her level, would you?).

I'm sorry to say, but there won't be any updates till ffnet takes down "Taki-kun"'s stolen Naruto fanfiction "Volatile"(...originally written by hina88 at adultfanfiction.net).

It's sad, but it looks like only fellow authors have decided to help hina88 out by reporting the plagiarized story to the ffnet admins and they don't seem to be impressed by getting reports from the same 30 odd people every single day.

I thought if readers only knew about it, they would be as outraged as I am, but they don't seem to care at all, perhaps thinking it isn't their business.

Well, I'm going to make it the readers business. Since my stories have a not insignificant number of readers, I'm hoping to put those numbers to good use.

I'm serious about this. I won't update till the story has been taken down.

The following links will provide you with the needed evidence:

http://community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism/50145.html#cutid1

And here, you can report the story to the ffnet admins:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4001345/1/Volatile


I'm going to contact 30 people who have me on author alert every day(...since I can't send more than 30 pm's a day), to tell them about the theft and ask for their help by reporting the story.
To show you that it does work and makes a difference, I will start a "Thank You" list, with the names of those who helped:

THANK YOU

Amylion who reported the story and send me a message not an hour after I first contacted her about the issue

I'm sure everyone has his/her own criteria when selecting or reading fanfictions. Personally I tend to overlook small grammar or spelling mistakes if the story promises to be original and entertaining or if the author is either obviously a newbie or writing in a foreign language.

However I have never had to hit the back button while browsing the fanfictions on ffnet as often as yesterday.

( rant starts here )