So as I was publishing Song of Dreams, Memories and you, I kept getting odd warnings from my publisher about the cover. Since the books don’t make enough money to support me, I wasn;t too worried. I’d fix it, upload the image and move on. Then suddenly Monday morning I got something far worse. My book was rejected because they claimed I used parts of Sparticus: Morituri.
That means I am finding a new publisher but more on that later. Lets get back to the issue at hand. Did I infringe on the copyright of Mark Morris (https://twitter.com/MarkMorris10 http://www.markmorrisfiction.com/) ? No. And here is why. If you walk through his massive list of books he’s published over the years, you will quickly discover its horror, suspence and drama. He also has movie tie in books. None of this interested me. In fact, the only thing we connect on is the fact he wrote some Doctor Who and Torchwood books. On top of that, I have watched Sparticus: blood and sand on Starz. For me to infringe I would have directly lift one of his works and place it in mine. That didn’t happen. I dont own any of his novels nor have paid for any of his novel. Hell, I was unaware of him being an author of that tie in until it was slapped into my face. Finally, I read a sample of Morituri long ago, when it came out. So how did the computer think I stole his work?
I put a scene that was similar. Sparticus is a historical character. Lentitus Batatius is a historical character. The owner of the Lanista in Capua, Italy that owned Sparticus and many others. Considering I made Diocletion (a 3rd century Roman emperor) a member of the Assembly, had Emmett and Tyrion’s Grandfather and Father Roman citizens and had said Grandfather wipe out the 9th legion after they sacked the temple, then hid the temple objects of worship in the deviation. I had place to use the Roman empire in my stories. So I chose Sparticus as a jumping off point.
On top of that, in the show, the owner of Sparticus is addressed as Batatius. Thats his first name if he lived today. That’s not how he would be addressed in the Roman empire. He would be addressed by his lessers by either his title: Dominus or his last name Lentulus. During the entire scene that is how he is addressed. However I have him addressed by his praenomen instead of his Cognomen
The scene itself revolves around Lentulus, his bodyguard Titus visiting the place of Assurus, a syrian slaver who invited him to a private showing. After purchasing a slave, Lentulus is directed to a private garden where Erica rests. Erica is the ancestor of Erica the friend and school mate of Tom. She also happens to be connected to the Nilati who have assigned a member of her race to her. The scene continues as Lentulus, and a Greek named Hiernoymous bid on Erica until Hiernoymous’s companion, a tatooed man,who I dont name, wets himself in fear of something unseen. He flees in terror, leaving Hiernoymous unwilling to buy Erica. He bows to Lentulus but curses Assurus. In title maybe 2000 words, giving a taste of Roman empire etc.
The tatooed man is a warrior of Dagon, this is mentioned. There are several other shout outs to history and accuracy that arent in Sparticus. What I think is the issue is I used the title ‘Sparticus: Bringer of Rain’, a title used by the show. Either way, apparently my crafting of the scene was too similar so the system flagged it. This is part of the reason why I hate our copyright system. Its so broken. I literally had to make sure Lovecraft’s cthulhu was in the public domain before I started building the Nilati. (it is if you strickly use his works. Anything else might be licenced by the estate of August Derleth. So if I am going through the effort to ensure I am not using a licenced work of a known author I certainly wouldn’t steal the works of an author printed ten years ago.
In fact thats what fan fiction is for. I dont hide the fact that I used the fictional characters in Faking it. Those books had no issues. So whatever the problem is I am now faced with another issue. None of my books are in print other than Song of Betrayal, Christmas Circle and Homecoming Song. All were published by Blurb. For hardbound, I am returning to them. Song of Dreams, memories and You will go there so I can get a copy of it. Its been 6 yrs since I published with them so I dont know but I do know they never had a problem with my works. And I believe I had lyrics in one. (Which is also supposed to be an issue but isn’t actually because without the music it makes no sense. I made sure there were no recognizable ones. Google can be smart but we be ing detailed here)
As for the Ebooks, I am going to do something radical. I am going to post them for download. The series is almost over. Like Lovecraft himself, his stories sold poorly. He loved writing but hated criticism. So he rarely pushed his later ones out. His last book ‘At the mountains of madness’ was so hated at the time, it effectively ended his career. That hate ate his intestines and thats how he died.
I won’t bow to the anger. I wont bow to the hate either. I will continue to write everything about the assembly. So first of all, I will upload a pdf of the scene. That will be here free forever so everyone knows that you can be similar to someone else but that infringment requires intent and obviousness. I am entitled to get ideas and use items others use.
For example, I could create a novel version of ‘For All Mankind’ that follows the same plot as the first season does but without the actual fictional characters. And you know what? Apple wouldnt be able to do crap about it. Ed Baldwin belongs to them not Neil Armstrong or Werner Von Braun. Having Thomas P. Stafford act like Ed Baldwin is fictionalizing Stafford who is still alive and can sue. However, as I learned about Taylor Swift, fictionalization is hard to sue for because the bar is almost as high as slander. If the novel is a story and they are a part of it because its the period they are in, and it involves their career its even higher.
That’s the point. Sonny Bono, in an effort to protect himself, screwed over everyone else. Fan fiction wouldnt exist if Copyrights were a decade long. But its neither here or there. The scene will be up there. It won’t be in the book as it can be removed without damaging the plot
As for ebooks I haven’t published and other works? I am going to open a shopify page. I procrastinate. I needed to do this much earlier today but I didn’t for no other reason than I didn’t want to. This society as a whole is collasping in on itself like Rome did. We are sprinting toward a rapture of the church and with it, nothing really will be left. So I was trying to position my stories as something available.
What about Amazon? I am putting back the novels that were delisted via blurb. It will be fine. The goal is you reading the stories not profit, not lazy people overwhelmed by the purchase of Smashwords dumpster fire using a plagerism program to scrape words. It has always been that. So this is a minor set back.
As for the future? Working on a version of ‘At the mountains of Madness’ involving the Nilati. This lesson taught me that if I want to use other sources I need to be better. Don’t know how far this will knock back the timeline. I am still working on Mythic notes too. But now I am wondering who I will choose to get a bound copy.
To all of you, who read this. Thank you. To all of you who bought books thanks.
Our Song 