(Untitled)

[_lady_narcissa_]

I mentioned that the medium age at LeakyCon was skewed at a younger age than my own. And that there were quite a few younger pre-teens at the conference. As a result, there were quite a few "moms" in attendance with their children. Some were just there as a chaperon, others were quite clearly there for themselves as well and would go off and do

Comments

[ildrinn]

Ahaha! That rugby shirt story is hilarious! :D

[peadarog]

yes... attending a HP conference and he doesn't know Slytherin or Quidditch...

[_lady_narcissa_]

He wasn't attending the conference. This was just a random Starbucks near the convention center which most con goers didn't discover. So it was mainly regulars from the area. Most people in Portland had no idea we were there.

[peadarog]

Ah, OK. Not so strange then :)

[xraytheenforcer]

oh gurl, you just sent me down the rabbit hole of fanfic plagiarism!

[_lady_narcissa_]

Umm sorry? LOL.

Did you read the Bad Penny summaries or Fandom Wank?

[_lady_narcissa_]

Well if you just type cassandra claire plagiarism into the internet search engine you will find way more pages on it than you will want to read. If you want the complete story, you can start here:
http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/8985.html

[chthonya]

Am loving the idea that all Mums (and only Mums) carry plasters, to be dispensed on request! And I'd have loved to see the Rugby man's face. *g*

Your comment on Cassandra Clare reminds me of the double-take I did when I was on the library enquiry desk and someone came to request one of her books. I didn't realise we had them, but sure enough they were on the catalogue and I put in a request - but not without explaining the history to the rather bemused teen who just wanted to read it because she'd heard it was like Twlight.

(I then added myself to the order list and read the first one. Hard to judge it when I'm biased by the diva-like image she had in those days; I might have enjoyed it more had I known less about her. I didn't think it was anything particularly special, but it read well enough and I could undertand the appeal to female teenage urban fantasy fans. Not enough to induce me to read the follow-ups though.)

[_lady_narcissa_]

I had never heard of CC or read any of her fanfic prior to the Bad Penny postings. But I was so off put by her attitude to it that it really tainted her for me. I did end up reading some of the Draco trilogy for my Malfoy Manor presentation because she described it in more detail than most other fics did. I also did end up reading her first original book as well - but I borrowed it from the library. I figured it wasn't right to criticize it without reading it first. I felt I was able to read it with an open mind but I really found it to be mediocre and I am somewhat baffled by its popularity. It isn't that good. And there is a lot of YA out there that is better that doesn't sell as well, which is too bad. Time has proven that some people just don't care about her past so long as they enjoy her stories. But I met a few people this weekend who had never heard of her before and weren't interested in reading anything about her once they had heard about the plagiarism.

[chthonya]

I read the first of the Draco Trilogy, and enjoyed it. But I'm not enough of a pop culture geek to pick up on the references so I felt rather cheated when I found out that a lot of the humour wasn't actually hers. For her to claim that she'd made people aware of it is b****cks.

That said, if I enjoyed the books per se, I don't think her past would stop me reading them (especially from the library), if I had some assurance the work was hers. Good art doesn't always come from people I approve of.

there is a lot of YA out there that is better that doesn't sell as well, which is too bad.

It was ever thus - just look at Fifty Shades... And Dan Brown.

I think the popularity of such books is more down to people liking the characters or the ability of the author to plot. I didn't particularly like the characters in TMI but I could see how they might appeal to the target demographic.