My year as a Debutante ends today. I’ve had a wonderful time getting to know the other debut bloggers (Amy, Dana, Kelly and Kerry) and blogging at The Debutante Ball. It’s difficult to sum up what a year like this means (especially since my novel only released last month) but I can say without reservation that I’ve enjoyed the experience thoroughly. I thought it appropriate to end the blogging year at the Ball in the same way it began: with the fish. Click here to see the rest of the story…
Read moreMonth: August 2013
Originality and Fixation in Copyright Law
Today, we look at two more required elements for copyright protection: “Originality” and “Fixation in a Tangible Medium.” COPYRIGHTABLE ORIGINALITY As the title of this post demonstrates, the threshold for copyrightable originality is so low as to be almost nonexistent. Legally speaking, the copyright requirement for originality boils down to “the author didn’t just copy the work from somewhere else.” Independent creation is the standard, and it means that as long as the author actually created the work, brilliance is not required. Authors need to remember that “illegal copying” includes more than “cut and paste.” Plagiarism, the act of copying someone else’s
Read moreFlame On!
Last weekend I brought home an unusual and beautiful new specimen for the reef: an electric flame scallop. For those who have never seen one alive, this is what it looks like: I brought the creature home with some misgivings, because I know they don’t survive very well in most aquariums. They’re filter feeders, subsisting on a diet of phytoplankton and planktonic bacteria (bacterioplankton), neither of which is present in large enough quantities on the typical reef. The scallop in question had spent three weeks in the fish store. It looked healthy and open, and since I know my reef
Read moreA Little Monday Pillow Talk
Writing novels is like breaking in a pillow. You pick out a story, fresh and new, from the rows of similar stories piled high on your mental shelf. Some start out harder, others squishy, and some seem stuffed with rocks. Price might play a factor. Bargain-basement stories cost only mental pocket change, while the ultra-special ones stuffed with soft-feathered dreams cost quite a bit more, in spirit and in time. You could change pillows after a night or two of sleeping (and some folks do), most of us commit to at least a year and sometimes more. Just like a
Read moreAn Interview with Linda Grimes, Author of QUICK FIX
Please welcome Linda Grimes, author of the new release QUICK FIX (Ciel Halligan Series, #2)(Tor Books, August 2013): Linda Grimes is the author of In a Fix and Quick Fix, the first two books of Tor’s light urban fantasy series featuring aura adaptor Ciel Halligan. She currently resides in northern Virginia with her husband and a host of imaginary people who fuel her writing. Ciel Halligan, an aura adaptor with a chameleon-like ability to step into the lives of her clients and fix their problems for them—as them—is working a job at the National Zoo with her maybe-sort-of boyfriend,
Read moreWhat Can I Copyright?
Today, we’re continuing the new series on Copyright with a brief look at a threshold copyright protection issue: What is “Copyrightable Subject Matter”? To obtain copyright protection, a creative work must consist of “copyrightable subject matter,” as that term is defined by applicable law. In the United States, that law is 17 United States Code section 102(a), which states that “Copyright protection [exists] … in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine
Read moreRipley … Believe it or Not!
Last week I brought home another porcelain crab for my little reef. Although larger than the other two, the new addition looks almost identical to the existing porcelain crabs, Face and Hugger. I’d originally named her “Hold” but after discovering that the new crab was both female and gravid (egg bearing, aka “pregnant”) my son persuaded me that she needed a name more in line with the “Alien” theme of the other two. We’ve named her Ripley. After completing her acclimatization hold, I released Ripley into the tank. She swam immediately into a large cluster of blue-green palythoas, where she
Read moreAn Interview With Laura Drake
Today I’m delighted to welcome Laura Drake, author of the new release HER ROAD HOME (Harlequin Super Romance, August 2013): Laura has always been a storyteller. She began on her front porch, telling ghost stories to the neighborhood kids. They ran screaming, but kept coming back for more. If she wasn’t telling a story, she had her nose in one, bumping into students in the halls on her way to classes. Her settings are Western, but Laura grew up in the suburbs outside Detroit. A tomboy, she’s always loved the outdoors and adventure. In 1980 she and her sister packed
Read moreAn Island, a Weapon, and a Plot Point Walk Into a Novel …
Tanegashima is the second largest island in Japan’s Ōsumi Island chain, located off the southern coast of Kyushu (the southernmost of the four major islands which make up the country of Japan). During the medieval period, Tanegashima was considered part of Ōsumi province and ruled by the daimyo in control of that territory. In 1543 a Portuguese trade ship heading for China found itself blown off course and landed at Tanegashima. The accident introduced the Portuguese to Japan (and vice versa) and within a few years the Portuguese had established a trading relationship with Japan. Among the most popular Portuguese goods
Read moreWhat IS Copyright, Anyway?
Authors talk a lot about “copyright,” but many don’t actually understand what the word entails. A lot of us also don’t ask questions, largely from a desire “not to look stupid” — I know I’m guilty of that on occasion, and I suspect a lot of other people are too. Since school is starting (for some, has already started) it seemed the right time of year to open a series on copyright for authors. We’ll talk about what it means, what rights it includes, and how to make sure your contract terms protect them. Today? Square 1: What IS Copyright,
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