Trademarking and Price Gouging

I am currently in the process of trademarking subtledemon and difik. The reasons for this are ones I never thought I'd be facing.

First, I kept receiving emails from an individual somewhere in Asia, telling me that someone was looking to buy/register subtledemon as a domain name in Asian countries. What did I know about registering a domain in Asian countries? Nothing.

I still don't know a lot, but it appears that you have to have a business or business connections in Asia to register a domain in Asia. Yeah, I started sweating. Did I think this was a ploy to bilk money? Yeah, I thought that too.

While I have no interest in connecting to or running a business anywhere except where I am, I figured I ought to protect myself as much as possible. I already had domains purchased/registered for subtledemon.com, .info, .net., .org, .biz, .co, .mobi and .ws, so what's a person to do?

I started the process to trademark not only subtledemon, but difik, because I'm selling merchandise through/under both. Hopefully that will go through, but it takes nine months to go through the trademark process, and who knows what might happen?

My good friend/proofreader/part-time assistant, Joe, suggested I also lock up difik as a domain name, since we were looking to do the same with it—trademark, etc.  It was a good idea. HOWEVER—

Difik.com had already been purchased and was available for AUCTION, at a minimum bid of $200. I was a bit upset, as you might imagine, because you can buy a domain name for around $10 a year. Maybe less. I called the company I buy my domain names from, and asked them what this meant. They explained that somebody else had bought/reserved difik.com. They didn't say it, but it was likely somebody who intended to sell it at a profit.

Yes, I ended up offering a little over the asking price. This morning, I received a counter-offer—for $1400. No, thank you.

Yesterday, I went ahead and purchased difik.biz, .co, .info, .mobi, .net, .org, .us, .me and .ws. In other words, all the others I could get my hands on, because unlike difik.com, they were available. And I'm still going forward with the trademarking process for difik. I also had all those domain names linked to subtledemon.com. Go ahead, do a search for difik.net. You'll go straight to my website! If somebody wants to use difik.com for $1400, feel free (after paying $1400 of course). If it's a business, good luck on getting all the other domain names—I have those. I can't imagine an individual paying $1400 to use difik.com, but if they want to be gouged, I have no control over that. If the trademark goes through, I don't know what implications that might have, but we'll see.

Honestly, I write much better (and easier) when I'm not so angry I can spit tacks hard enough to attach shingles to a roof. I never imagined, either, that coining a word or phrase could result in so much teeth-gnashing and agony. Live and learn. They'll never know, too, that I've been calling them difiks for at least twenty-four hours.

Keep on trucking, everybody. You guys (as always) are awesome!

Interview and Giveaway

Hello, everybody!

Check out the interview I did for mistressofthedarkpath.wordpress.com. It includes a giveaway for two print copies of Demon Lost and other goodies, and the contest is open to everyone, including international readers. Hope you're having a wonderful week and aren't affected by weird weather!

Hierarchy of the Gods

As requested:

The One
The Three
Ko'Ahmari
Ghi'Yisi
Al'Riyu
En'Nurifi
Ba'Mirha
Mil'Karha
Pan'Warha
Nameless Ones
Powers That Be

When the Dark Realm was decreed in order to shape the balance of the created worlds, a request was sent out to the Hierarchy, asking for one from the higher levels to volunteer in the creation of the Dark Realm. That one would afterward be named Lord of the Dark Realm and he would hold sway over all he'd created—worlds and creatures alike. None came forward. Another call came, and still none answered. Finally, Kifirin, high among the Nameless Ones but still a lesser god, offered. His offer was discounted at first, as he held insufficient power. The call went out a third time, and still none were willing.

 

"I grant this power to you," Kifirin's parent, one of the Al'Riyu who loved his child dearly, agreed to lend much of what he held to Kifirin. "This power will return to me, once the Dark Realm is complete. What you hold will be sufficient past that."

 

Kifirin bowed and accepted his parent's offer. The Dark Realm was created, according to Kifirin's designs and expectations. Then, because he had no prior experience at creating the races and held little knowledge of how sentient creatures might grow and develop away from his care, Kifirin made a promise never to interfere with the Dark worlds or their decisions. Thus were sown the seeds of the Dark Realm's destruction.

Demon's Dream Release

Demon's Dream just went live on Amazon.com (U.S.)
Happy reading!

Demon's Dream Teaser

Here's something to keep you busy while waiting for the book.

Happy Weekend, everybody!

"Where are we?" Edward hissed as I led him toward Lissa's kitchen. I didn't even know who worked in it any more.

 

"You're in the palace in Lissia," I said. "On Le-Ath Veronis."

 

"The vampire planet?" Edward stopped dead still.

 

"What are you worried about?" I asked, stopping with him.

 

"They uh, wanted to turn somebody I know, once upon a time," he muttered. "Someone of my race."

 

"I think they're past that," I said, throwing out a hand in a dismissive gesture. "Come on, Lissa will pound somebody's head if they look at you wrong."

"You're sure? And her name is Lissa?"

 

"I am, and yes, her name is Lissa." I gave him an encouraging smile. "Besides, this is keeping me away from a counseling session with the good Doctor Halivar." I couldn't help but feel gleeful over that. "Are you hungry?" I dragged Edward with me until we reached the kitchen.

 

"This is wonderful," Edward sighed after eating nearly all the crepe I'd served him.

 

"I have a Master Cook's license," I reminded him.

 

"You said that. Now I believe it," he said. I heard footsteps and voices approaching and was prepared to make more crepes when several things happened. Lissa drew in a breath when she saw Edward. Flavio, Head of the Vampire Council, stared in shock and Edward blinked at the third member of their party before whispering, "Winkler?"

Truth Is (Stranger Than) Fiction

 At this writing, I have twenty self-published books. In a few weeks, I'll have twenty-one. Yeah, I write (and read) fast. I'm not writing a book a month, plus editing, revising, et cetera, though (although I've come close). You do not want to guess at my mental state or the level of eye strain after that happens!

The truth is—I've been writing for six years, now. Some of you (who've read my blog since the beginning) know that I began writing seriously in my husband's ICU room while he was unconscious and breathing on a vent. I wrote to save my sanity. To get away from the crushing reality that threatened to destroy me at the time. I wrote Adam and Kiarra's story with the sound of air being forced into my husband's lungs and the quiet beep of the monitor close by.

The first twelve books I wrote were about the Saa Thalarr. All twelve of them need to be rewritten, as I was in a learning process then (I've made progress on rewriting Hope and Vengeance, the first one). But that's not really what this blog is about. What it's really about is my characters.

HERE'S THE THING: I've gotten requests from readers, asking for permission to use my characters. Some of those requests aren't very clear as to what they plan to do with my characters should I give permission. Frankly, the whole thing is a little frightening. Therefore, I thought I'd spell all this out as well as I could:

1.       If you have plans to publish any of my characters/races/worlds for personal gain, I will hire an attorney. My characters are certainly products of my imagination (Larentii, Lion Snake shapeshifters, Ra'Ak, etc.) and I don't want to see any of them in anyone else's published book, short story, novella and so on. I will not approve any of those requests.

2.       I (probably) have no control over fan fiction, although I'd prefer that you didn't take my characters out of context or make them do things that their characters would never do (See Stephenie Myers' Twilight series, which turned into a fan fic piece now titled Fifty Shades of Grey). The names are changed, obviously, for the FSOG books, but I've read an excerpt from the original piece, so there you are.

SUMMARY: If you plan to write a fan fic piece for your own personal satisfaction, I really don't have a big problem with that. I've actually written one myself that will never, ever see the light of day, so don't ask. Granted the other author's characters are only in the background, but that's neither here nor there. I sure don't want to upset or step on another author's toes, I just wanted to get the story out of my head. Therefore, if that's what you plan to do, and never intend to publish the story for your own personal gain or twist my races or characters or worlds into something they would never be or make them do things they'd never do (sigh), then go ahead and work it out of your system. I understand writing as therapy all too well.

AND ANOTHER THING:

Please don't send me story ideas or any other ideas (for characters/races/worlds, etc.) I CAN'T USE THEM!!!!! Not only are there legal reasons for this, those are YOUR ideas, not mine, therefore you should write your own story. After all, they are a product of YOUR imagination, not mine, and consequently, nobody will ever know them as well as you do. Writing can be tough at first, but trust me, if you're serious about it, it gets a lot easier as you go along. For me, writing is as natural as breathing, now. So—if there are people holding conversations in your head, and they're a product of your imagination (not mine) then sit down and write it out!

Having said all that, here's an update:

Demon's Dream is coming along, and should hit the projected March 15^th date, if not before (barring unforeseen difficulties). I've also gotten more work done on at least three of the four (so far) God Wars books.

And, if you'd like to meet other fans, speculate, commiserate or verbally trash any characters, story lines, etc., then visit leathveronis.net. There are lots of things going on over there!

Connie

P.S. If you'd like to sign up for the newsletter (where you may get snippets you won't get anywhere else) send an email to joe.scholes68@gmail.com.

Demon's Revenge Release

After the glitch last time, when I posted that I uploaded Demon's Quest and then it took forever to go on sale, I decided to wait until it was actually available to announce Demon's Revenge. Well, in less than four hours, it popped right up. There's a link on my Facebook page, if you have difficulty finding it.

Happy reading and happy Sunday!