Don Granberry <lunohoco@lunohoco.com> wrote:
I have recently discovered that I am very close to treading upon the
turf of Gary Kleppe and the plot line he is using for _Hearts and
Minds_. Gary, I am sorry. If you find what I am doing objectionable, I
will stop writing this yarn and remove what there is of it from the web.
The reasons I planned to use to get the Wrecking Crew into China are
similar but not quite the same, and I had a very different plan of
action for the characters. However, my story is very closely paralleling
your own and is not salvageable if I have to avoid a rescue of the
Amazons altogether. I leave the matter of whether or not I should
continue with _Spreading Wings_ in your hands. Feel free to chastise me
in public or in private if you feel the need. It was not my intent to
plagiarize or upstage you and I should have done a better job of
checking before now.
Okay, I have to confess that I've yet to read "Spreading Wings." In the
last couple of months I've moved to a new city and started a new job,
and have consequently had little time to either read or write fanfic.
So I'm not at all sure what degree of similarity we're talking about
here. If your fic has Ranma and company getting back together after
seven years because Mongol soldiers are menacing the Amazon village, and
Kodachi has been mysteriously powered up and Nabiki is vice-president of
an American corporation and Kasumi is a Shinto priestess, then we need
to talk. :)
But if, as I suspect, it's just some elements in the premises that are
similar, I don't see any reason to worry about it. After all, I started
a fic with Ranma's female side as a genie after Disruptor had already
started one; no one has suggested that I shouldn't have, and if you read
both series you can see that our respective takes on the idea are
completely different.
If you still feel that there's a problem, please write to me (privately)
and we'll discuss it. Otherwise, let's just ascribe any similarity
between our fics to great minds thinking alike, as the egotistical
writer-types that we are. :-)
Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics.html