Bree and I need to share files with each other.  It’s a simple, blatant fact–we write together, how can we not?  We’ve long searched for a service that would allow us to do so conveniently, and with a minimum of fuss.  We thought we’d found that with Dropbox, especially after many, many writers counseled us to use it, but it appears it might be a rights problem.

From their Terms of Service (emphasis mine):

Your Stuff & Your Privacy

 

By using our Services you may give us access to your information, files, and folders (together, “your stuff”). You retain ownership to your stuff. You are also solely responsible for your conduct, the content of your files and folders, and your communications with others while using the Services.

 

We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files). By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service. This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services. You must ensure you have the rights you need to grant us that permission.

How we use your stuff is also governed by the Dropbox Privacy Policy, which you acknowledge. You acknowledge that Dropbox has no obligation to monitor any information on the Services, even though we may do so. We are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, or legality of files, user posts, or any other information you may be able to access using the Services. We may disclose information about your account or your stuff to law enforcement officials as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

Uh, holy shit. What?  Honestly, the way this is worded (especially the part in italics), it could be nothing but their attempt to make sure that you know they’re watching you, making sure you don’t do anything that threatens their service.  BUT.  But nothing about the language specifically limits them to that, even though they say that’s all it’s for–technical administration of the service.  And you know what they say about giving someone an inch.

I’m not comfortable with giving someone these rights with my professional work, both published and in-progress.  So long, Dropbox.  Looks like it’s time for us to research other options.

Originally published at Moira Rogers' Blog. You can comment here or there.

Cross-posted from our blog, because we keep crashing the server.

Plagiarism & other rage-inducing things.

Last night, a reader who’d been searching for something at Amazon emailed us. She’d been looking for more Last Call books after having read the first two (kind of– getting to that in a minute). When she found them in the Kindle store, she realized they had a different name attached than the one with which she was familiar.

That’s right. Someone named Angela Priest has been posting “The Supernatural Bar of Last Calls Series” and other books on various sites like Smashwords, Scribd and Bookrix, (edit: Wattpad as well, who took down our books but left her account) places meant for people to share their own work with others.

Let’s observe some similarities between the title Hurricane that she’s posted and our book that was released from Changeling Press in 2008.

The blurb she posted:

Artist and witch Flora Logger hasn’t had an orgasm since a bitter ex cursed her five years ago. Whenever she gets aroused, bad things happen. Now, she’s come to Last Call in hopes of gaining an audience with — and help from — its owner, a powerful wizard named Bernard Delacruz. If anyone can break the curse, it’s him. And if he won’t come downstairs to meet with her, she’ll bump and grind until his bar caves in from the backlash. Hurricane: Contents under magical pressure. Experience required. Bernard doesn’t get involved with patrons… not even the hot, sexually frustrated ones. But when a lush-looking reddish-blonde threatens to wreck his bar with her curse and her need, he decides it’s time to take matters — and her — into his own hands. After all, even if he can’t break the curse, he can certainly ease her frustration. And what powerful wizard doesn’t love a challenge?

The blurb from Hurricane:

Artist and witch Fiona Logan hasn’t had an orgasm since a bitter ex cursed her five years ago. Whenever she gets aroused, bad things happen. Now, she’s come to Last Call in hopes of gaining an audience with — and help from — its owner, a powerful wizard named Benito D’Cruze. If anyone can break the curse, it’s him. And if he won’t come downstairs to meet with her, she’ll bump and grind until his bar caves in from the backlash.

 

Hurricane: Contents under magical pressure. Experience required.

 

Ben doesn’t get involved with patrons… not even the hot, sexually frustrated ones. But when a lush looking blonde threatens to wreck his bar with her curse and her need, he decides it’s time to take matters — and her — into his own hands. After all, even if he can’t break the curse, he can certainly ease her frustration. And what powerful wizard doesn’t love a challenge?

Hmm. Like…really? Changing Fiona Logan to Flora Logger?! Not only is it lazy and wrong, it’s terrible theft. What a horrible name. It sounds like a medical condition.

This woman isn’t selling our work as her own for money, but she’s certainly doing it for feedback. On several sites, as people told her they loved the books and encouraged her to write more, she beamed and gushed and told them she would, as time permitted. I guess Search/Replace takes a while.

A screenshot paragraph from her literary offering:

(It’s a screenshot because I couldn’t copy/paste the text she’d posted. Ironic, yes?)

The corresponding opener of Hurricane:

Fiona took one last look at the printed menu in her hand and grimaced at her friend. “I don’t need a drink. I need help.”

 

“Honey, this place is chock full of hot wizards.” Jenn snatched the menu out of Fiona’s hands and studied the back of it. “And this menu’s the key. We just have to decode it. Maybe they have a drink for ‘My castrated jackass of an ex cursed me to a life free of orgasms, contents under pressure.’ Like… oh shit, you can get in on a vampire/werewolf threesome? Hot.”

Wow, literal Search/Replace. What won’t people do?

Anyway, we emailed all the sites. Mark from Smashwords was particularly awesome, investigating immediately and removing the offender’s profile, citing their zero-tolerance policy for such things. Kudos to them.

But y’all should check this woman out. Late-night Twitter peeps have indicated that some of her other offerings look like they’ve been ripped off from Shiloh Walker and even Nora Roberts. (Let’s take a moment at that. La Nora? LA NORA? Is there a sane person on this planet who thinks cribbing her work is a good idea? WTF.)

So put out the word. Take a good look at this lady. This is the face of someone who thinks it’s okay to steal what others have written, put her own name on it, and take the credit.

This is a plagiarist.

 

UPDATE, 6/29 @ 6:21 pm

It seems that someone doesn’t like the takedown notices. In case anyone was wondering if this slimeball was suffering from a terminal case of stupid, the answer is yes and no.  Observe her comment to another user today on Booksie:

I had a dream that I made a paid account because I missed livejournal so much. And to be honest, I kind of DO miss livejournal. I have been floating around here in one form or another since 2001. So maybe I will get a paid account and see if I can handle it again without the ads. :D

-Bree

Because I'm giving away a kindle, and that's fun!

This is really sad for me because I've had an LJ account in one way or another since 2001, but we've reached a point where the ads and funky service and dropped comment notifications and everything else are making it too annoying to visit, but not really worth putting in money for a paid account to make it go away.

I'm discontinuing cross-posting over here just because I hate not wanting to come over here and answer replies. There's still a feed if you REALLY want to get our updates at LJ: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/moira_rogers/profile Otherwise, I'm gonna camp out on our blog and not worry quite so much about cross posting and formatting and when to LJ cut and funky images.

If you're interested, our blog's at http://www.moirarogers.com/blog

Thanks y'all, and rock on!

-Bree

The next couple weeks are gonna be GOOD weeks for books!  I’ve got a few pre-orders lined up and a few recent releases stacked up on my desk and all in all, I’m loving all the reading I’m going to be doing!

First off, my recent purchase: Mind Games by Carolyn Crane.  From her website:

Mind Games heroine Justine Jones isn’t your typical kick-ass type – she’s a hopeless hypochondriac whose life is run by fear.

She’s lured into a restaurant, Mongolian Delites, by tortured mastermind Sterling Packard, who promises he can teach her to channel her fears. In exchange, she must join his team of disillusionists – vigilantes hired by crime victims to zing their anxieties into criminals, resulting in collapse and transformation.

Justine isn’t interested in Packard’s troupe until she gets a taste of the peace he can promise. Soon she enters the thrilling world of neurotic crime fighters who battle Midcity’s depraved and paranormal criminals.

Eventually, though, she starts wondering why Packard hasn’t set foot outside the Mongolian Delites restaurant for eight years. And about the true nature of the disillusionists.

I’m totally reading this right now and it’s awesome. Witty, funny and such a neat world.  Looks to be an excellent addition to my urban fantasy collection.

Okay, Moon Called is still one of my favorite werewolf books of all times.  Adam is one of my favorite werewolves of all times, too.  I tend to have a breaking point on series with the same first person POV character, but whatever that breaking point is, I’ve yet to reach it with Mercy.  I’m still super excited to get my hands on this!

From Barnes & Noble (the first place I tracked down a blurb, which reminds me I haven’t even read a blurb yet, which I guess is the definition of auto-buy…)

When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she’d previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn’t take enough of Mercy’s attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side-leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declare Sam’s life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn’t careful, she might not have many more to live…

I am such a Kelley Armstrong fangirl. I’ve been glomming her books since I fell in love with Paige & Lucas. Yes, this is my one unforgivable offense as a werewolf fangirl: I only recently developed any sort of tolerance for Clay…it took 10 books for me to warm to him.  Luckily I love everyone else enough that I read the series like a junkie. (Karl! Hope! Paige! Lucas! OMG JEREMY!)

Ann Aguirre got me the first two books in Armstrong’s YA series, The Summoning & The Awakening for my birthday, and I read them both in three days.  I am so glad that the third book will be out soon, because man I wanna know what happens next! (Love triangle? What love triangle? Clearly Derek is the awesomest awesome that ever awesomed. I refuse to hear a counter-opinion.)

I tried to find a blurb for this book in a few places, and finally gave up out of supreme laziness.  But this is such a close knit series that no one should start with the 3rd book anyway, but if you haven’t read the first two you totally should because they’re as awesome as any Armstrong book should be.

Speaking of Ann Aguirre… Book #2 in her Corine series is coming out on April 6th! Not that I’m excited to read it, because I’ve already read it. HA! (I rarely get to say that, so I’m gonna savor it.)

That means there’s still time to get your hands on Blue Diablo so you’re all caught up!  Trust me, guys, I’ve read book #3 too and it is so awesome, and if you haven’t read the first two when it comes out, everyone will make fun of you.  You heard it here first.

From Ann’s website: As a handler, Corine Solomon can touch any object and know its history. It’s too bad she can’t seem to forget her own. With her ex-boyfriend Chance in tow—lending his particularly supernatural brand of luck—Corine journeys back home to Kilmer, Georgia, in order to discover the truth behind her mother’s death and the origins of her “gift.”

But while trying to uncover the secrets in her past, Corine and Chance find that something is rotten in the state of Georgia. Just a few miles away, no one seems to know Kilmer exists. And inside the town borders there are signs of a dark curse affecting the town and all its residents—and it can only be satisfied with death…

So, there you have it. Four books I’m excited about.  Obviously I’m also excited about the fact that Sanctuary is officially on sale on April 6th, too, but this is my fangirl reader post so I’ll flail about that later.

What books are y’all excited about over the next couple weeks? (Or over the past couple!) I can always use more books to buy. 

Originally published at Moira Rogers = Bree + Donna. You can comment here or there.

Three cheers! Sanctuary Unbound is finalized, awaiting only the final draft of the cover. (I’ve seen the first draft, and it’s gonna be sexy! This may be my favorite cover of the series, though gosh knows it’s hard to out-do Cry Sanctuary!)

Finalized means we did our revisions, a few rounds of edits with Anne Scott, editor extraordinaire, and then went through line edits and cleaned up anything else that we might have messed up while addressing line edits.  Then we pick excerpts…our excerpts for the Samhain website are usually some bit from the first chapter and have to be PG-13, which means Anne almost always sends me something and asks me to remove all variations of fuck or shit.  I think the Crossroads excerpt had 9 of them.  This time, only 1!

It’s a lengthy process, and by the time we’re through it we never want to see the book again…luckily that usually fades before release day rolls around. (June 1st! Ack!)

This is the end of the current Red Rock Pass storyline, though it’s not necessarily the end of the series.  These four books were all one pretty tightly knit arc from start to finish.  We have a few more ideas we’d maybe like to write later on, but they’d probably be set a year or two after the 4th book and might center around slightly different characters, though plenty of familiar faces will be around.

Not right away though.  We’re scheduled straight out to 2011 already!  Here’s a peek of what Samhain releases we have coming up:

• April 6th: Sanctuary. This is a print volume of Cry Sanctuary and Sanctuary Lost.
• June 1st: Sanctuary Unbound. (Digital) Red Rock Pass #4, which ties up the events of the first three books and features Adam Dubois, vampire lumberjack, and Cindy Shepherd, Red Rock’s tough werewolf doctor with a troubled past.
• July 13th: A Safe Harbor. (Digital) Building Sanctuary #1! This book ties in closely with Sanctuary Unbound and also features Adam in a minor role, as well as a much younger Gavin.  Set in 1933, it follows the heroine, Joan Fuller, as she fights against the growing corruption in the werewolf packs with the help of a gang of werewolf former-bootleggers led by Seamus Whelan.
• October 12th: Undertow. (Digital) Building Sanctuary #2. The second novella in this loosely connected series.  These stories are a bit different than our Red Rock series, focusing on the more mundane struggles of werewolves trying to build a sanctuary hidden away from the human world on an island off the coast of Maine.
• November 2nd: Crossroads. (Print) Southern Arcana #2. Crossroads will be out in print on November 2nd, and it’s already available to pre-order on Amazon! Of course, it’s already available now as an ebook pretty much anywhere you want to look.
• January 2011: Deadlock. (Digital) Southern Arcana #3. Alec, that crazy bastard rogue alpha, is the hero of Deadlock.  The heroine is Carmen Mendoza, psychic half-blood daughter of a prominent political shapeshifter family.  Expect violence, magic, explosions and some very dirty sex.
• April 2011: Sanctuary Redeemed. (Print)  This is the second Red Rock Pass print volume, containing Sanctuary’s Price and Sanctuary Unbound.
• August 2011: Though we’re still finalizing a title, the first two Building Sanctuary novellas should be available as a print volume!
• November 2011: Deadlock. (Print)  If all goes according to tentative schedule, Deadlock will be available in print in November of 2011!  This far out, though, dates are always subject to tweaks. 

So, that’s an awful lot on our upcoming schedule!  And we haven’t started scheduling digital releases for 2011 yet beyond Deadlock, though there are plenty more ideas we have.

Phew.  Actually, just looking at that, I think I need to go take a nap.  (If only I had time to!)

Originally published at Moira Rogers = Bree + Donna. You can comment here or there.

I’ve had a crazy day! I helped Ann Aguirre launch her new website, I made my hubby adopt a kitten and I read about 1/2 of Kelley Armstrong’s first YA book. (Also thanks to Ann Aguirre, who let me pick 3 books that I’ve been meaning to buy from Amazon for my birthday. YAY!)

There are a few contests floating around. Like:

• Win a print copy of Crux!
• Get in on ARe’s HUGE Spring Contest! We’re the featured author today!
• Book Chick City’s having a Men of Urban Fantasy week and Keith Melton is giving away a copy of Blood Vice. For all of Keith’s many evil faults (like the fact that he’s bribing Alisha Rai to turn against me. HARUMPH) he writes a damn good book.

Also, random kitten picture!

Originally published at Moira Rogers = Bree + Donna. You can comment here or there.

Viv Arend is a rocking lady who never fails to entertain me, so I’m so happy to give a shout out to a fellow werewolf junkie who is also edited by the fantabulous Anne Scott! Today’s release day for the third book in her Granite Lake Wolves series, and she gave me a nice kissing excerpt to share. Muahahahaha! (Mine is still an evil laugh.)

“Wolf Games” by Vivian Arend

Buy from MBaM!
Read An Excerpt Online
Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 978-1-60504-968-7
Length: Novella
Price: 3.50
Publication Date: March 23, 2010
Cover art by Angie Waters

True love’s path never did run smooth.

Granite Lake Wolves, Book 3

After seven years of total denial, Maggie Raynor’s body—and her inner wolf—are in full revolt. Weak and shaky, she literally falls into the very large and capable arms of the Granite Lake Beta, Erik Costanov. The last thing she wants is a mate, particularly when just looking at another wolf scares her to death. And one as big and sexy as Erik? Really bad idea, no matter what her libido says.

Erik expected to meet Maggie in Whitehorse to escort her to the home of her sister, his pack’s Omega. Sheer chance puts him in the right place at the right time to catch her, but the realization that hits him with the force of a full body shot is no accident. She’s his mate. An even bigger shock? She wants no part of him—not until she resolves her issues.

She’ll have to work fast, because they’re both selected to represent the pack during the premier sporting event for wolves in the north. Not only will she have to work as a team with Erik, she’ll have to face down her fear of wolves. Let the Games begin.

Warning: Contains uber-sexy werewolves of Russian descent, reluctant mates and exotic travels through the Yukon wilderness. Includes sarcasm and hot nookie under the Midnight Sun.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at Moira Rogers = Bree + Donna. You can comment here or there.

Okay, so a few days ago I was wandering through my webstats and checking out the various keyword searches that lead people to our website.  If you write or blog about any sort of hot or erotic content, chances are you get a lot of stuff like this (NSFW):

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at Moira Rogers = Bree + Donna. You can comment here or there.