new month and a change… I hope!

Current work: nonfic; MH duo book 2
Listening to: Nick Drake
Reading: The Bride Hunter, Amy Appleton (enjoying so far)

Am very glad it’s September. Not because I want the kids back at school tomorrow – we haven’t had time to do half the things we’d planned to do – but because life in August was utter, utter pants.

Today it’s a new month. And hopefully a new beginning.

Actually, it’s started in a very surreal fashion. I was taking a break from the current book yesterday (which, thank God, has started to flow) and thought I’d see if there were any new reviews of my current releases. (Yes, I know. This is a STUPID thing to do because I admit that, like many authors, I do take it personally if the review’s a bit meh.)

And I discovered this fanfiction stuff.

It was written in Portuguese and the ‘shipper’ chose Harry Potter as the hero and Hermione as the heroine. OK, so far – not my characters. BUT… the credits also state that the original story is adapted from Strictly Legal (aka Atração ardente - or in the US Mistress on Trial) by Kate Hardy. I had a quick look through, and although I don’t speak Portuguese I could make out the gist of it. Yep, my book.

I think I’m flattered. (They’ve certainly said nice things about me in the reviews… I did go to Babelfish to translate ‘Eu li o romance da Kate Hardy, é ótimo’ – and it came out as ‘I read the romance of Kate Hardy. It is excellent.’) But there is the question of legality. Fanfic, where someone makes up a new story using someone else’s characters, I can understand. There is creativity involved. But simply doing a search and replace on names, using someone else’s story? Hmm. Not so sure about that one. Even though it does say 'not for profit'...

The new Radley signature bag comes out today. Unfortunately, DH saw the email from my favourite supplier. I have husbandly instructions to behave. Even more unfortunately, my daughter is a complete and utter grass, so if I do manage to see it and I like it... the chances of sneaking it into the house and pretending I've had it for ages are pretty slim. Mutter, mutter. Might go bookshopping instead.