Neat article

[Sage]

We made the news... well sort of

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3188813.stm

[Carrie]

Oh nice link, Sage, I took a look at that article..very interesting!!!
I find it odd however how it took so long for it's popularity to nab the attention of the great and good..(although the published writers themselves are obviously well aware of it.) .as from what I understand..(I read FF a long before I started writing it...) fan-fiction's been around for a long time...
I wonder what's triggered off this latest interest..unless it is of course the one millionth f-fic of Harry Potter...groan... (er before any Potterites leap out and diss me...I submit my apology now...
I can understand in a way why writers in particular get annoyed because the written word is much easier to copy and usually the characters are much more fleshed out ...which is why I prefer to write about TV or movies...because there is usually less characterisation ..(in Sci-fi at least due to the action and special effects.) thus I feel it allows for a much freer rein for one's creativity...

[Maltray]

Intreasting article Lt Sage. That article needed more scarlet in it thought. Harry Rotter MOVE OVER you juveinile deliquent let a real man show you how to battle villans... Go Scarlet!

I do wonder what the problem or such authors like Miss Rice and Pracette have. If anything fan fic is going to boost their already great book sales even higher. I know many people that haven't read say Pracette's book Mort.

If someone who hasn't read the books comes across fan fic. Well writen fan fic that is they are bound to go. "Hm I wonder hat the book/s are like?" and are going to go out and buy one.

If I had published a book and people started writingh good fan fic based on it, sure I'd hope it would bost sales in the weay I've described. More book sales is good for you after all!

Just seems rather odd to me they don't like fan fic.........

[Marion]

I recently heard Hanif Kureishi - the author of 'The Buddha of Suburbia' (amongst other books) say that he still worried about his fictional creations - even though he wrote the book years ago. He said - and this is a paraphrase, because I only heard it once, whilst driving home - 'it was strange how, once you had created a series of characters they took on a life of their own somehow, and continued to pester you, long after YOU thought you had finished with them. '
Even the great Jane Austen amused her family and friends by supplying them with details of the lives of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy after they were married... so it's not a new phenomenon.
Presumably, modern writers like Anne Rice or J.K. Rowling, or even Terry Pratchett - who is the author of 'Mort' - feel the same about the characters THEY created.
It's like people messing about with your head - these characters and situations sprang from your imagination, after all.
I can quite understand it, in an odd way; and even though I write fan fiction about characters and situations I had no input whatsoever in creating, I feel very protective of the characters I write about - who I know underneath it all, have nothing to do with the characters I saw on TV and loved, almost 40 years ago.
I am grateful to Gerry Anderson and his brilliant team for creating a world in which such wonderful characters live and which provides me with unending inspiration, enjoyment and delight. I write my fiction, as much from a sense of gratitude as from fascination, but I wouldn't be surprised if it annoys the people who did create the series immensely...
I'm only surprised - and grateful - that they tolerate it at all...

On a more cynical note (because it is ME that's posting this) modern authors have their copyright to protect...