AUTHOR NOTE

I have been plagiarized eighteen times in the last two months. For this reason I've taken down everything but the first chapter for my long stories, so I can preserve my timestamps and the reviews' timestamps and prove that I wrote the stories first.

The timestamps have been incredibly valuable because I've had to contact various websites: Lulu, Scribd, Wattpad, Quizilla, Esnips, etc. I've also found my work on FP, FFN, and private blogs and forums. In almost every case, I had to provide my legal information (name, home address, phone number, etc) and fill out legal forms.

Overall, I've been plagiarized about 25 to 30 times. I put up with it at first, but after one of the plagiarists tried to sell my work on Lulu, that was it for me.

I've co-created a Livejournal community with fellow FP writers who were plagiarized as well. As of now, we currently have me, SamanthaNicole, angelsandaffects, JD Allen, simonexsays, Kendal, and Em Wolf posting. Le Meg will start posting as well. We have over 900 members.

At first, I wasn't really keen at creating a Livejournal community, but by now I've really realized this is the right answer. It's friends-locked and private, which means the public can't view our stories. That really cuts down on the pool of potential plagiarists.

Furthermore, a person has to apply to join our community and before we can accept that person, he/she has to provide online information first. So, if a plagiarized copy of my stories comes out of the community, I will know for sure that it's someone from the Livejournal group. Plus, with the 900+ members, we can find the culprit more easily.

The Livejournal community is so much more interactive and personal than Fictionpress. It's got a smaller and intimate atmosphere, so that may appeal to some of you guys who would like to join :) Also, it provides the loyal readers another opportunity to continue reading my stories. The plagiarism has punished me a LOT, but it's also punished my loyal readers :( Now, this is a solution.

I must warn you guys that I do not currently plan on uploading my old stories to the LJ community, but of course that can change anytime in the future. Please do not ask me to send you copies of my stories because I would rather keep them to myself for now.

One final thing - we are not looking for silent readers. Our Livejournal community is very different from FP. We don't want people to join and then have them stay quiet forever. We want them to participate in our discussion questions, memes, polls, contests, etc. We'd like it if they reviewed us sometimes :) This community is for the writers and readers to interact with each other.

So, keep that in mind if you join the community :) We will be deleting inactive members if they have been quiet for a couple months. (If they have a good reason like family vacation or illness or such, they need to let us know and we won't delete them.) Additionally, we are not looking for readers who have never read us before.

As to the joining instructions...

1. You need to get a Livejournal account first. It'll take you only a couple minutes to sign up for one. Without it, you cannot log into our Livejournal group and read our stories. Remember, this community is open only to members.

http: // community . livejournal . com / plagiarismhaven

2. Fill the entry out with your information, along with your FP name, your email address, and the other pertinent bits we require from you.

http: // www. emailmeform. com / ?formid=446010

Once we accept you, you must LOG INTO the Livejournal community. Remember, the LJ community is friends-only and locked and moderated, so the public cannot view the stories :)

I hope you guys understand my decision. Please feel free to contact me via email, Livejournal, PM, review, twitter, or my personal website. Check my FP profile.

It's been an incredible journey, and I sincerely mean that.

Thank you so much!