Choices, Choices

Some interesting things in the world of authors and artists today.  I saw this one buzzing around the internet and I was frankly astonished at this one.

I'll summarize and you can look up the links for yourself, if you find it interesting enough.

There is a writer, LK Rigel who wrote a book, called Spiderwork, the second in her Apocalypto series.  When she finished it, she hired an artist, Nathalia Suellen from Brazil, who painted her the most AMAZING cover.  Some time later, Sasha Illingworth of Harper Collins approached Nathalia about her cover.  She wanted to buy it for a book in development for her own house: Bewitched by Alex Flinn.  Let it be here noted that Illingworth did not act on orders by Flinn.  Flinn had no idea.

Nathalia refused the $4000 offer to buy her cover, for the simple reason that the cover had already been purchased by Rigel.  She felt it was selfish and underhanded for someone from such a large publishing house to try and buy a cover that was already being used by another author.

To make matters worse, Illingworth also asked several questions about Rigel —her country of origin and her genre.  Perhaps seeking for their purchase to go unnoticed?

When Alex Flinn revealed the new cover of her work in progress, several people were shocked to see it was a very close replica of the original work that Nathalia had created.  So close, in fact, that she was sure someone had been hired with the sole purpose of copying her original work.

As you can imagine, a firestorm erupted.  Everyone was talking about it.  How could a large publishing house like Harper Collins do something so underhanded?  Nathalia had all the correspondence to prove what their original intent was.  I don't take the same attitude that Big Publishers think they are better than the lowly independent authors, but several others have mentioned it.  I DO think that Sasha Illingworth should be fired, because I have a hard time believing that any of her managers would have approved of what happened.

And now Harper Collins is having to deal with the fallout.  Well, as soon as Alex Flinn heard about what happened, she pulled the cover (or HC did).  But that hasn't stopped the story from getting out.  I feel bad for Flinn.  How mortifying.  She was so excited about her new book and had NO idea the cover was someone else's, essentially.

Here are the links:
Nathalia Suellen's Blog
The Passive Voice
Dear Author
Goodreads commentary from Nathalia

In a quick ROW summary: 94,000 words for Aeris.  I've been sick, so my words have been few.  Hope to make up some ground next week, but there's only 1 week left till my due date, so we'll see.

Happy Reading!

Just another update: writing, ROW, and life.

Things are better in our household than they were a week ago.  Thank you all for the kind words.  We had family staying with us for about two and a half weeks, but now the house is quiet (relatively -I have a 3 year old, after all).  Nothing is normal or will be normal for a while, but at least now I'm not privately freaking out about sending myself into preterm labor from the stress.  So that's good.

Stress relief around my house?  I wish I could say it was writing.  Sorry, ROW, I'm failing miserably here.  I'm at 92,500 for Aeris and no closer to the end of this book.  The good news is, I've been writing again.  The bad news?  I just can't see where this book is going to end.  It's kind of become a joke among my friends and family.  "How many words is it now?  How much closer are you to the end?"  I think I will have some major, major editing to do to get this thing down to a size that people will actually want to read. hahaha

On a happier note, stress or not, the garden keeps growing, and I keep harvesting from it.  Basil, garlic, potatoes, squash, beans, even some sad little tomatoes!  I am also the youngest Suzy Homemaker alive, in that I just put up a dozen jars of apricot jam, another dozen of peach apricot, and some applesauce from an early apple tree.  This week I'm looking at doing a batch of plum jam, YUM.  I love plums, but I've never done plum jam before.

I have to get all of these done now, because pretty soon (2 weeks or so from now, I still can't believe it!) there will be another child around here demanding my attention!  So excited to have my stomach to myself.  I think I'm probably the only person I know that detests being pregnant.  I love being a mom, and all the mommy stuff that comes with it, but pregnancy is just the pits. hahaha

I have done a lot of reading.  There have been a lot of nights of no sleep, so I've put in some hours there.  I won't list everything I've read, because not all of it even got a review from me, but here are a few I enjoyed and wanted to share:
Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel (I kid you not, this is the first time I haven't had to look up her name!) 4 stars  (Also picked up a book from her other series to read)
Fire by Kristin Cashore got a rare 5 stars
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly also 5 stars (I didn't even mind that it was first person present tense!)
Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card got 4 stars

All worth reading, depending on what genre you're into.

Recently purchased books, that I can't wait to read:
Cross my Heart by Katie Klein
Gifts of the Blood by Vicki Keire
Days of Sacrifice by Stacey Wallace Benefiel
Divergent by Veronica Roth
A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

Hope to have better news of my word count on Wednesday.  In the meantime, Happy Reading!

Quick Update:

For the curious:

No baby yet.  If this baby boy comes before August 24th, I will be extremely disappointed.  :)  And irritated.

Instead, my husband and I have found ourselves embroiled in not one, but two family tragedies.  Because of these, I haven't written in a week, my word count is stuck at 91,000 and we are both emotionally worn out to the point of exhaustion.

I don't want to call it quits on ROW80, but I don't know exactly how this is going to play out, so I may not be on here for a while.

Hope everyone is well.  Check out my newest reviews on Goodreads, I've read some GREAT books of late and it's worth knowing what they are.

Happy Reading!

PS- When the baby does come, I will have someone post an update here for me, so everyone will KNOW why I'm absent for so long.