DIARy of a fic fiend | official blog of kilby blades

Since people still e-mail me asking for it, and since I am still tagged on social media several times a month in reference to it, I’m going to tell you the story of Facebook Friends. More accurately, I’ll tell you about the journey that Facebook Friends took from its origins as a fan fiction in 2008 to become an original fiction in 2018.

Unbeknownst to most people, Friended is the book that made me decide to publish original fiction. I make the distinction around “original” fiction because I spent years writing fan fiction in about five different fandoms. I’ll date myself by admitting that my first fandom was Dawson’s Creek…

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If you live in Romancelandia and also hang out on Twitter, chances are you barely made it through your morning coffee before hearing about #CopyPasteCris. Cristiane Serruya is a Brazilian “author” (notice the sarcastic air quotes) accused of plagiarizing a long, long list of very well-known actual authors such as Bella Andre, Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan.

Before Serruya deleted her Twitter account, screen shots that I’m going to trust are not hoaxes showed Serruya’s apology. In a twist proving that real people are so much weirder than fictional characters, Serruya stood by her claim that she herself did not plagiarize.

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I can cop to the fact that I have a habit of disappearing. Not going anywhere for real, just sequestering myself in my cave. When I’m in the middle of an unfinished story, my cave is the textured glass patio table on my back deck. It’s warm enough in California that I get to write outside for most of the year. In the mornings, it’s Lady Grey. In the afternoons, I drink decaf. In the evenings, it’s (clearly) wine.

But the cave is a harsh place. I don’t feel quite human while I’m in it, and when I emerge, I look like the woman in the picture: I’m bloodied, I’m injured and I’m in yesterday’s clothes, but hey, at least I’ve still got nice boobs :)

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It’s very possible that I will one day become known as the “crazy awards lady”. Think crazy cat lady, except instead of harboring dozens of feline friends, I’ll be hoarding my awards. In my mind, I’ll be some grotesque combination of Gloria Swanson in “Sunset Boulevard” and Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” If I’m lucky, I might even get a William Holden lookalike to poke around.

That fleeting moments of recognition are the best that authors can expect is not so much notion as fact. In a business this saturated, with margins this thin, soul-crushing disappointment has become the norm. I’ve met authors who can’t sell brilliant manuscripts; newbies who have been hoodwinked by crooked industry pros; but the most common, most insidious, and most tragic fate is simple oblivion.

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I follow Angela James on Twitter--Editor-in-Chief of Carina Press, thoughtful reader, good citizen, and a generally entertaining person to follow. An interesting discussion thread popped up from a benign statement than rang true to me: maybe what we call Romance shouldn't have to end in HEA. The range of responses that this musing earned was fascinating and varied. Primarily, many like-minded respondents agreed. Real life doesn't always end in HEA, a fact that dozens of respondents didn't feel cheapens the value of a great love story. It's possible (maybe even probable for most of us) to experience an epic love that isn't meant to be.

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As you know, I’ve been on a bit of a tear about supporting diverse romance. In light of what's been happening with the RITAs and even articles that have been showing up in the New York Times, it seems that we have a long way to go before diverse authors get some of the credit they're due. This is not a problem that can be solved in a single day, and, at some point I'll publish a more sweeping article about how I believe that readers can change a few habits to support this cause. In an attempt to address this on just one front, I took to GoodReads and did some thinking about how I can better-support diverse authors on this platform.

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