Hey!

Glad you're still around. I know you took down your other stories, but are you planning to leave this one up since it wasn't finished?

omg... i feel so bad for what happened! I wish I can go hunt those people who dared to plagirized your story! I really hope you will get published so that I can keep your story in novel form and bring it with me whenever I go!

As of right now, I'll get a twitter account so I can stalk you everyday.. lol..

Good luck for your future plans! And I'm looking forward to Bri's story.. Sounds so interesting!

Thank you!

Sure, I'd've loved to read the whole thing through, but this summary and the Bri snippet are the next best thing. Again, I wish you the best of luck with writing and getting published!

(And I've always loved a good cliché, so it's great to hear that you aren't abandoning FP completely and for ever...)

You can't possible imagine how bad I was feeling as I red this whole thing.

All that was going through my mind was, 'my god, this is probably one of the last things I'll be reading from Myrika in FP'. I'm seriously heartbroken because you're totally the best out here in FP. I was anxious to finish reading SW and the next RV story.

By the way, I don't know why, but coming from you, the end in SW doesn't surprises me, but I'm honest with you - it makes perfect sense for me :)

Myrika, if you don't hurry to publish something (out here, or in FP, which I doubt, I guess), I'll curse you!

Ahah, seriously, I do hope to see some work of yours soon :)

Thanks for all the wonderful stories, and the next ones to come, I'm sure ;)

Don't tease me, but I cried when Grant and Quentin made up. I think Quentin is my favorite of all your characters because he's so pure at heart...if not everywhere else :p

Ugh! I'm so furious at the plagiarizers for ruining this for me (and the rest of us, but mostly just me :p)!

Bri's story looks to be amazing as well. Hopefully, one day, you can publish each of the River Valley stories. They're so much more than the cliched high school dramas.

wow, 13 cases of plagiarism? at least they've all hopefully been removed..i'll be on the look-out for any other cases of plagiarism ;] you can count on us (aka your fans)! anyways, it's good to know that you havn't completely abandoned the thought of writing on fp/ff ] can't wait for you to update your "new and long entertaining cliche" because i'm definitely a fan of your writing ;] ~Peggy

Thanks for the update. Good luck! I'll look for you on the shelves if you ever decide you want to try publishing.

~JLuna

Dear Myrika,

I'm a loyal reader of a few different stories written by a few select authors on FictionPress, but I've never been much of a reviewer. Your updates and notes have finally inspired me to review. At least there's something positive coming out of this whole plagiarism mess, right? :-)

I have to say, quite honestly, that I think you've made the best possible decision you could have under the circumstances. Nothing on the internet is secure, and unfortunately, you've learned that firsthand. But even if all of this plagiarism had never happened, I think there eventually would have come a time when you would have needed to take down your work from FictionPress anyway. From what I know of the publishing industry - which is, I must admit, woefully little - they do not tend to appreciate not being the "first" publisher of any work. Learning that even a prior copy of your work still existed or had ever existed online, although in your name, might actually hurt your changes of getting published. Posting only a few chapters of your most popular stories is a good move for you, but I would seriously consider taking everything down if you ever hope to have these pieces published. (Just my 2 cents! Take that for what it's worth. Which is about 2 cents.)

I'm sure that posting your work to FP has been both a headache and a joy, but I think that perhaps what you were originally looking for when posting here was validation - assurance that yes, you can write, that no, this whole writing thing isn't completely beyond you, and that yes, there are people out there who can appreciate your work. Now that you have that in such a big way - ironically, being plagiarized, though I'm sure it doesn't feel that way, is a huge compliment - maybe it's time to move on. Rather than posting work online, find a writer's critique group in your area, or form an online group confined solely to you and other FP writers you trust and admire. Other victims of plagiarism might leap at the chance to form such a group. While you won't have thousands of people reading your work, you don't need them. Honestly. You know you can write. Getting reviews like "so good. right more!" from people who clearly cannot spell might be flattering, but it's not useful. You are a talented writer, but you do need to polish your skills. Obviously, there are some FP readers and authors who can provide that for you, but the vast majority cannot. So find a forum that really lets you improve and takes your goal of getting published seriously.

I've truly enjoyed reading your work and I will miss it, but like I said, I think this is a positive thing for you. Best of luck in the future and I hope to see you in print someday!

Much love,

Jessica

(P.S. - I've never been published, but at any given time, I have about 14-15 writing projects going on at once. I'm still working up the courage to show them to anyone but my sister-in-law. This doesn't give me much leverage to discuss publishing, but I do understand how much you love your work and how much it would hurt to be plagiarized like that. Here's hoping it never, ever happens again!)

Well, that was tragic to hear about all the trouble you've been having. Nobody blames you for doing what you have to do, despite how drastic it has all been. I'm sure you have been really hurt by all of this. Each story is a part of your soul, and I can't imagine what it's like to have them stolen and, for lack of a better word, "abused." But I wanted to say thank you for sharing your wonderful talents with your hundreds, maybe thousands, of readers. I can't tell you how happy it has made me to see the alerts in my email, and to enjoy a few minutes of reading every time I do. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get around to every story, and I can only imagine how much more you will improve with time and practice (you're already supremely fantastic!). I wish only the best for you, and hopefully, I will someday see you in legitimate print! Good luck!

So no posting Bri's story right? That would ruin all the stories in the RV series, right? I'm wrong to get my hopes up right?

Hope is a cruel friend of mine. :D

wow, it feels like if i have red a story in a story. good luck with publishing your work. i really enjoy it.

sandra

Beautiful as always. I didn't really see the Nicky and Grant ending coming, but it's all good! I'm sad that Grant wasn't able to go out of state, if that's what he really wanted.

Bri's story sounds very tempting too. ;) If you never post the full story a quick wrap up summary will be sufficient.

-hugs- Keep on battling the plagiarists!

Oh no! I'm terribly sorry for your legal problems . . . I can't say I can relate to this, but I do understand the steps you've taken to prevent anything else to happen.

I'll miss all of the permanently deleted old stories, although I'm happy to say I read and enjoyed them all before this issue came up!

Thank you for leaving us the end of Still Waters, even though it would have been lovely to read the whole thing. I really hope you actually have a chance to post Bri's story somewhere, or at least find some other means of letting us read it, even if it takes a while. And I look forward to hearing from you with a cliche.

MK

I'm so glad you wrapped up SW! I would have been wondering what would have happened for a long time. I really liked how you ended the Grant and Nicky romance. I feel like if you had just made them end up together it would have been too fake; there are so many things they have to work out. The only thing I didn't like was the Amy story. It's frustrating that they didn't call the police because she abandoned her child and stole their money. I know they're family, but those are BIG, felony mistakes. Even though you only provided a summary this time, I think this story is still as good as all of your others. You wrapped up your story lines with believable and interesting endings. You're a great writer. I'm excited to read any fluffy, cliche story you throw at us next - if you do.

I can't say I'm all that interested in reading Bri's story, but I love all the other characters so much that if you write it I'll probably read it. The only story of yours that I never read was Eidolon because it just held no interest for me.

I'm glad your plagiarism cases have been taken care of and I hope you don't come across any others.