This just in:  Amazon is going to start selling fanfic, with royalties to be paid to both the author and the world-creator.  Color me… bemused?  Uncertain?  Confused?

Like many authors, I have an uneasy relationship with fanfic.  Although my first serious-to-me writing effort was a sequel to The Lord of the Rings (drafted when I was thirteen years old), I’ve never been serious about fanfic, and I’ve never participated in any of the many online communities dedicated to the craft.  As far as I know (and that’s the way I’d like to keep it), no one has created fics in my worlds.

As a lawyer, I’m not as rabidly anti-fanfic as most.  I understand the difference between copyright and trademark law, and the defense of estoppel (which applies to the latter, but not the former.)  While trademark owners can lose their marks if they don’t enforce against infringement, the same standard does not apply in copyright law.

Mostly, I just don’t understand the allure of fanfic.  I invest a tremendous amount of time, effort, energy, blood, sweat, tears, angst, etc. into creating my fictitious worlds.  I don’t understand the craving the pour all of that into someone else’s world.  It feels … like a cheat?  Like a waste?  Like…  A bunch of things that sound really negative, but I don’t actually mean them that way.  What I mean is, I don’t have the resources to do my writing and fanfic writing, and I don’t understand the investment some people make.

So.  I suspect that Amazon’s program is going to open the door for a lot of public discussion about fanfic.  It’ll add a lot of pressure to authors who have publicly demanded their work not be ficced.  It’ll raise some questions about plagiarism and continuity and, and, and…

Maybe I’ll go pop some popcorn.

I know I had a weekend around here, but it seems to have slipped away, while I was blinking…

We spent all day Saturday down at the Smithsonian, attending a seminar on “Neighborhood Walks Through London.”  We’re going to London later this year, so the presentation was particularly welcome.  The charming presenter did a great job of highlighting major and minor sites in her home town, relaying history, bits about art and architecture, and generally making me wish that my trip could last for about three months.

Yesterday, I continued the salute to Britain by indulging in afternoon tea with the incomparable Christi Barth.  We had a lovely time at the Park Hyatt (although both of us stuck with rather traditional teas, rather than the $150/cup “there are only three bricks of this tea left in the world” or the nearly as expensive “this tea is harvested only on the third night after the full moon”).  The Park Hyatt provides a buffet of savories and sweets, which allows customers to avoid their least favorites (egg salad, for me…) and to indulge in extras of their favorites (cheddar-scallion-bacon scones and goat-cheese-artichoke crostini for me).  The savories were actually somewhat better than the sweets, which is not my usual experience at tea.

I ended up taking the Metro downtown both weekend days — rare, given the system’s spotty weekend coverage.  Somewhat frustratingly, there was a scheduled break in the line between my station and downtown — they used shuttle buses to bridge the gap.  I walked the difference both directions on Saturday, but I availed myself of the shuttles on Sunday.  The buses are an annoyance, but they run *very* frequently, and the Metro staff are extremely friendly and helpful (and there are *thousands* of staff to guide people, or so it seems.)

Back home for the evening, we power-watched Masterpiece Theatre’s MR SELFRIDGE (although we still have the last double-episode to view) — a not-entirely-successful soapy biopic about that Chicago man who opened the Selfridge department store in London in the early 20th century.  I’m not at all enamored of Jeremy Pivens’ acting choices, and I’m suspicious of a lot of the social rules depicted, but I *am* intrigued by the transition of retail that the show presents.

In between all that, I almost finished reading Lea Nolan’s CONJURE (a fun high-middle-grade, low-YA book, with pirates, curses, and Gullah magic).

And that’s the weekend that was.  How about you?

Last October, I attended my local science fiction convention, Capclave, where I had the good fortune of being interviewed by Jean Marie Ward, for Buzzy Magazine.

Jean Marie has now posted her interview for all the world to see:

http://buzzymag.com/morgan-keyes-interview/

It’s interesting to me, seeing how I convey on camera.  We were in a dim lounge area, with a lot of background noise; the video actually came through more clearly than I expected.  There *is* something a bit funky with the recording of my voice — I sound like I have a rather pronounced lisp, which I don’t, in real life.

In any case, take a peek at the video, if you want to know more about Morgan Keyes, DARKBEAST, and what’s coming up next for Morgan and Mindy!

We had a pretty quiet weekend around here — at least, not much to write about.  In a word, our weekend was:  Baseball.

On Thursday afternoon, we went to see the Nationals beat the Tigers.  (This was a makeup game, after the original got rained out on Tuesday.)  The game was exciting — it all came down to the very last out, with Prince Fielder at the plate.  After, we went to Five Guys for dinner, where I indulged in a burger and fries and didn’t even think about feeling guilty

On Friday, relatives came to visit from North Carolina, and we went to see the Nationals beat the Cubs.  I was surprised to find that two games, back to back, weren’t too much for me.  I suspect that the two wins helped that to be the case!  We sat one section over from our usual seats.  (Enter long, boring explanation for why there isn’t an usher posted near our usual seats.)  It was fun to watch a good usher properly handling the crowd — helping people find their seats, holding them in the aisle until breaks in play, etc.  I ended up tracking down the ushers’ supervisor — both to compliment the usher we saw, and to try to remedy the lack of an usher in our usual section.  I was pleased with the customer service, at least the lip service ::wry grin::

On Saturday, I went to see the yarn bombing to which I had contributed several pieces over the winter.  Then, on Saturday evening, I watched BULL DURHAM with our visiting Carolina relatives.  I haven’t seen the whole movie in a long time, and I was surprised by a couple of things — how much baseball I’ve learned since the last time I saw it, and how utterly unquotable-in-a-family-blog most of the dialog is.  I think it’d be about a one-hour movie on TV, once they deleted all the lines they couldn’t satisfactorily bleep…

I’m reeling a bit from the discovery that this is a Monday, and it’s time for me to head to work.  Nevertheless, it’s Writing Day, so I’d better settle down and get my words in – 5000 is today’s target!

So?  Did anyone have a more exciting weekend than mine?  (I like to give you easy assignments, once in a while )

I’m over at Magical Words today, talking about the details of writing a synopsis.  Essentially, I provide line by line instructions for creating a strong synopsis for agents, editors, art departments, etc.  Stop by and see what you think — and leave a comment or two!

http://www.magicalwords.net/mindy-klasky/synopses-the-nitty-and-the-gritty/

Magical Words is a website by writers for writers (and readers who want a behind-the-scenes peak at the process of writing.)  Regular posters include David B. Coe, John G. Hartness, Faith Hunter, and Misty Massey, with regular guest posts from Lucienne Diver, Diana Pharaoh Francis, and Carrie Ryan.  We’re always happy to see new faces in the crowd, so don’t be shy!