Fanfiction for sale: SOLD!

Hi everyone!

I was just informed of two upcoming fanfics that will be getting an official publication. I think this makes it the fourth book in the last year or so that has its roots as a fanfic of one work or another.

This brings up a question that really makes me wonder: is it really right to profit off of a work that was originally based on characters another person wrote? My first reaction is that it's not right, that the characters are based off of someone else's creativity.

Fifty Shades of Grey is one example of a fanfic turned published work where you can see the book's roots as a Twilight fanfic. Ana is Bella, right down to the repetitive lip biting and several times during the story you can see where James drew heavily on the original Twilight series.

Then you have stuff like the upcoming book Beautiful Bastard, also a Twilight fanfic. (The other book, if you're curious, is a One Direction fanfic. Go figure.) I dug a little and found that the book will only have a fraction of the original fanfic in it, the rest of it being rewritten for publication. Of course, James made those same claims, that she rewrote parts of Fifty Shades, only for comparisons to show that the only big change she made was to rename all of the characters. Does rewriting a fanfic make it OK?

Part of me thinks that it's a little unethical to publish fanfiction and get paid for it. Then I did a little research and realized that honestly, it's not uncommon at all to see people base fictional works off of other people's creations. A look at the Wikipedia page for stuff based on Alice in Wonderland shows a plethora of works where people have directly based their works on the various characters. Heck, there's even an adult movie based on Alice, called Alice in Wonderland: An X-rated Musical Fantasy. It's a little hypocritical to say that some artist in Japan can create an entire franchise around Alice dating various characters in the Caroll books, but James can't create three books worth of original fanfiction about Twilight characters and publish it herself.

I do realize that Alice in Wonderland is in the public domain and Twilight is not, but a lot of the arguments about fanfic-ing for profit tend to go beyond copyright laws themselves and usually center around whether or not it's really right for someone to write a work based on someone else's characters, regardless of legality. I'm still mostly unsure as to where I fall on this. Obviously the legal standpoint is shaky on either side.

Here's how the law pretty much stands:

You can write whatever you want about works that are in the public domain as long as you credit the original creator somewhere in the work and do not try to pass off the basic designs as entirely your own stuff. You can pretty much even publish the original work as long as you don't try to say that you wrote Pride and Prejudice. This is why you see so many copies of public domain works from different publishers and companies. It's when you get into specific translations of works from another language or Ye Olde English to modern phrases that copyrights can be claimed. When it comes to stuff that's currently under copyright, you can do what you want when you have permission from the author/owner to do it.

But when you don't? That's when it gets shaky. You can write that you were "inspired by" the story and say that it influenced you, but that your story is your own. Or you can say that everything is a coincidence, as is the case with Jude Law's Repo Men and Repo!: The Genetic Opera. (But to take a look at the two plots, many of us are calling BS on those claims.) If you did base your story off of someone else's copyrighted work, you can publish the work legally if you change enough of the stuff to where you say that everything is entirely your own. This is where it gets really difficult to win a lawsuit if you're the one that wrote the original work that the fanfic is based on. You not only have to prove that the original work was based on your own stuff, but that the characters and situations are so close to your own that it's a copyright violation and not just the other author pulling in common tropes and situations. Most times it's just not worth it in the long run to bring to court, partially because it's so hard to prove copyright violations, partially because it costs so much, and partially because nobody comes out of it looking good.

But the concerns over whether or not it's legally right to profit off of other people's works does not answer whether or not it's morally right. It's easy to say "copyrighted", but like I said above- people often end up arguing over reasons that don't entirely have a lot to do with copyright and everything to do with creativity. There's no easy answer here, that's for certain.

The ponies are coming! Ponified book characters

If you've ever been on the internet for a minute, you've heard of them. The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show and its fandom. If you've been on there for a few minutes longer, you've probably seen some of the inevitable ponification of various book characters. Maybe you've even seen custom figures that have been altered. Either way, it's usually a blast to look at.

For fun, I'm linking to some of the stuff I've found through my travels:

(Note: I did not create any of these images or figures. When possible, I'm linking to the accounts for the artists via their names so you can shower them with praise and/or money. I've heard that artists like money and praise.)

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter

These images comes to you from the Deviant Art account of Eris Chaos Goddess.  If you've ever wondered what Jean Claude and Nathaniel (bottom image) look like as ponies, here you are! I have to say, part of me wishes that she'd included Nathaniel's pearl necklace in this one...

This custom figure of Asher comes from marienoire, who did a pretty awesome job. (It looks like she does a lot of custom figures.)


The Last Unicorn

This one I found via a Google image search, but the image name has the artist as "shockowaffel". I know that this seems to have been more taken from the movie version of the book and that Amalthea is already in pony shape, but this is a gorgeous picture.


Harry Potter

All  of these ponified characters come to you courtesy of asdflove on Deviant Art, who has a load of other great pony images!




TinTin

Here we have an image from the Tin Tin books, brought to you by sutakaibagirl!


The Hunger Games

Now we have an image from The Hunger Games, drawn for your viewing pleasure by ToxicKittyCat!



Twilight

Finally we have the Twilight ponies. Here's one brought to you by maikoforev5674 of Bella.

This is a custom of Edward Cullen by trillions. I have to say, it's pretty awesome!

I can't help but link to more of the custom Twilight ponies because well... they're gorgeous! This one is by jupiternwndrlnd. Please someone- throw money at her!! This is incredibly well done on the cutie mark artwork!

For my last image I have a quartet of custom ponies by eponyart, with each pony representing one of the books of the series.




Again, I want to emphasize that I own none of the above images and had no factor in their creation. I just saw them and couldn't help but want to post them on my blog because they were so cool and so the above artists could get some more well-deserved recognition!

Book Review: The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten

Title: The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten
Author: Harrison Geillor
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: 10/18/2011
ISBN: 1597802840







You don't have to be a Twilight fan to like this book, although I do recommend that you have a rudimentary knowledge of the series. This is a lot of fun to read, especially for the nice little twists that the author throws on the various characters. If you're worried about someone poking fun at the Twilight series, then relax. There's nothing particularly horrible in this that you or a friend haven't already poked fun at yourselves.

A small town... a plucky heroin, a shiny vampire, and a hunkey Native American rival with a secret. But all is not as it seems in Lake Woebegotten. Let Harrison Geillor reveal what lies beneath the seemingly placid surface. You'll Laugh. We promise.

When Bonnie Grayduck relocates from sunny Santa Cruz California to the small town of Lake Woebegotten, Minnesota, to live with her estranged father, chief of the local two-man police department, she thinks she's leaving her troubles behind. But she soon becomes fascinated by another student - the brooding, beautiful Edwin Scullen, whose reclusive family hides a terrible secret. (Psst: they're actually vampires. But they're the kind who don't eat people, so it's okay.)

Once Bonnie realizes what her new lover really is, she isn't afraid. Instead, she sees potential. Because while Bonnie seems to her friends and family to be an ordinary, slightly clumsy, easily-distracted girl, she's really manipulative, calculating, power hungry, and not above committing murder to get her way - or even just to amuse herself. This is a love story about monsters... but the vampire isn't the monster.

I have to admit that what really drew me to this book was that the author was parodying two separate groups: Harrison Keillor and Twilight. It's a pretty unusual mixture, which is probably why this book works so well as a parody. It's not the typical Twilight parody that's out there & I also liked that this wasn't as mean spirited as some of the other parodies out there can be. (Although in fairness I'm referring more to the various parodies out there in the fanfic-verse, so they weren't polished up like this book was.)

It really was a great idea to make Bonnie into a sociopath, which made a lot of sense in this story. It explains a lot of her actions as well as providing just enough entertainment value to keep me interested. I also liked how the book tries very hard to follow the storyline of the Twilight saga. It's just close enough to where you can spot when the shifts to the plots of each different book happens, but not to the point where it's overly awkward or jarring.

It's not all sunshine & puppies, though. While I did enjoy the book I also found that it just got a little old after a while. I would get into the book, only to find my attention wandering every once in a while. I'd enjoy the bits and pieces I read, but this really is something that I'd recommend more in small doses. It's the type of book that you read along with another book & flip through when you need a little something to clear your mind. It's more of an aperitif than a main course.

This is sort of par for the course, though. It's very difficult to find a parody novel that you'd want to read the entire way through. The problem with novel-length parodies is that it's pretty hard to keep the same level of entertainment & humor throughout the book. Geillor does an admirable job of this, but falls short of being something that held my attention non-stop throughout the entire book. I can't really see this as a major flaw since most parody books aren't really meant to be the attention grabbers that their more serious bretheren are.

For what this is, it's pretty good. Fans of Twilight will enjoy the spoof & the anti-fans will love seeing the sendups of the various characters. It's not a "ZOMG! BUY IT NOW!1!" type of read, but it's the type of book that will undoubtedly get a lot of readers through word of mouth. It's something that you absolutely must get if you see it at the library & a possible buy if you see it at the bookstore & like what you see.

3/5

(ARC provided by Netgalley)

Book Review: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Crescendo (Hush, Hush #2)
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 10/19/2010
ISBN:1416989439







After reading & adoring the first book, I'll admit that I was eagerly awaiting this sequel. It didn't matter that there was no general release date or any concrete knowledge about it. I just wanted a copy in my hot little hands. And now I finally got a chance to read it & know that it was worth the wait.

Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

One of my previous issues with the book was that in Hush, Hush the relationship between Patch & Nora was all physically oriented. She was warm for his form & didn't really know anything about him. I'm really, REALLY glad to say that in this book that has been brought up. In fact, it's actually the main gist of the book- Nora realizes that she knows absolutely nothing about Patch. As her attempts to learn are rebuffed by him, Nora's mistrust of him grows. It doesn't help that he's spending an awful lot of time around Marci either. For these issues to be addressed in this book & for them to be such a driving factor in the plot was absolutely awesome.

The pacing of the book was wonderful & I loved absolutely every paragraph of it. I even loved Vee, who was a lot less annoying in this book. If you loved the first book then you're going to love this entry into the series. Not only has Fitzpatrick's writing matured, but the characters have as well. Nora's still a bit of an idiot when it comes to her self-preservation, but hey- you've got to get to the book resolution somehow.

If you didn't like the first one or are looking for anything other than a Twilight-esque type read, you're probably going to be disappointed. If all you want is an escapist read, then you're in luck- this book has that in spades. All I know is that despite not being a huge fan of Twilight, I still loved this book & can't wait for the third book to come out in fall of 2011.

More Twilight coming soon. Sorta.

Want more Twilight? Well, you'll be sort of in luck. Stephenie Meyer is putting out another book. Only this one isn't going to be an actual story- it's an illustrated guide to the series that'll contain information that Twihards will know & some that they won't. (Please for all that's merciful, let Jacob ever get into a sexual relationship with a 6 year old Nessie. That's just squicky, even if she does "look like a fully matured adult".)

I might not be a Twilight fan, but I just have to admire how Meyers is able to overmarket her series, yet still have people begging for more.

Happy Banned Book Week!

Officially starting today & lasting until October 2nd is Banned Books Week, a week where we celebrate the books that some would have us never read. Maybe it's because they have witchcraft in them or other elements that someone might think makes for an "indecent" read.

Now when most of us think banned books, we think about the titles such as Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, or Lady Chatterly's Lover. We assume that the titles banned were older books & that it all happened years ago, that we wouldn't dare ban books now.

You'd be surprised at what some areas still tries to keep off their bookshelves. Would you believe that some people have tried to ban Blood & Chocolate, The Face on the Milk Carton, Harry Potter, & Twilight? Some of the groups trying to remove these books have actually succeeded, although it wasn't long before many of these books were returned to the public shelves they'd been snatched from.

That's why it's so incredibly important for us to remember Banned Book Week & to try to combat censorship by promoting our freedom to read. It's all too easy to assume that we'll never lose that right & all too easy for us to eventually lose it if we aren't careful.

Book Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Title: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Release Date: 06/05/2010
ISBN: 031612558X

I'll admit that while I didn't really like Twilight all that much, I was vaguely curious about this book. After all, it was the one thing my older sister really wanted as a late birthday present. (I've yet to hear her reaction to the book.) Since it was so short (only about 180 pages) I ended up reading it during my register shift at the bookstore. I ended up getting more drawn into it than I did Twilight, but somehow the book just seemed to be lacking in some areas.

TSLoBT follows the titular character as she struggles to survive in a flock of ruthless fledgling vampires that were turned by a creator they've never really met for a purpose none of them are even aware of. Bree knows that there's something not quite right about the entire situation, but she's determined to make the best of it. She manages to escape most of the in-group fighting by hiding behind Freaky Fred, then hunting with her friend Diego. It's during one of their nightly hunts that she & Diego have a close run-in with the sun (they've been told to expect to burn up if the sun hits them), only to discover that almost everything they've been told is a lie.

I'm not that overly familiar with the series, but I am aware of the storylines for the books. With that in mind, I have to say that I didn't really feel like I missed much as far as the Twilight story stuff goes. It's just that there's so many things earlier on in the book that were glossed over, stuff that I wish I had been able to read about. We're given only passing reasons for why Bree left home & while I can understand why the book focuses more on the current situation at hand, I really feel like it would have benefited the story if the characters had been more expanded on. I got the impression that Bree had been turned relatively soon before the story had started (about a few weeks beforehand), so I wish that the story had started with her being turned- it'd have build a little more suspense that way.

As it was, some of the more serious stuff felt sort of flat & while I did enjoy it enough to give it a B- (hey, it was short & to the point), this book feels like it will really only be truly enjoyed by die-hard Meyers fans. On a positive note, you don't have to have read the Twilight series multiple times in order to follow along with the story, but I get the impression that it helps. What I can say about this book is that it is making me think that I need to take another look at the series to see if my appreciation for this book can translate into my liking the Twilight series more.

Grade: B-