Sorry it took me so long

I promised the following prizes for two lucky commenters:

A hat knit by me. (Color will vary.)

Also knit by me, a sort of random (let’s call it a coaster) knit piece where I tried to knit the symbol of the IIC, the school Jacob is taken to early in the book. Opinions vary as to whether it looks like what I intended it to. (OK, by that I mean that no one but me thinks it looks like what I intended it to.) So if you were wondering, it’s a galaxy cupped in a hand. This piece is less useful than ridiculous. But, hey, the winners will be two of exactly three people who have one. So, if I ever become famous, there you go, it’s something weird, but special.

So, who did random.org pick as the winners?

Catherine Lee: Comments all over the place but the one that got the win was on Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews.)

Debby: Comment on Beyond Romance.)

Congrats, ladies! I’ll be in touch about sending out your prizes. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by, to the fabulous hosts, to those who reviewed the book, those who bought it, to Goddess Fish Promotions  and in general to anyone and everyone.

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don’t they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

Kindness ROCKS!

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I’m participating too!

There is no way I could quantify the amount of help I’ve gotten from individual members of the writing community and the community as a whole, either as practical help or just encouragement. So I’m putting all the names in a hat and randomly one. If it’s not you, that’s just luck, not because I don’t appreciate ya’.

Today I’m recognizing RC Lewis! She was one of the first people I met when I started this crazy writer thing. She gave me encouragement and practical advice on an early draft of Fighting Gravity and it meant a lot! She also let me read her manuscript, Fingerprints, and I thought (still think!) is was great. Plus I really enjoy following her blog. She’s a fellow science fiction writer, but even better, to me, is that she’s a math teacher at a school for the deaf. Teaching math in sign language. How cool is that?

So I’m going to send her a $10 gift card for either Amazon or Barnes & Noble, so she can enjoy the book of her choice.

Do you know someone special that you’d like to randomly acknowledge?

Don’t be shy–come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round.

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness?  Let me know in the comments!

One (semi) unexpected stop this week was my success story over on Miss Snark’s First Victim. If you’ve never been over there, WHY NOT? It’s an amazing support network for aspiring authors and a place where readers can weigh in and help new authors reach their dreams. I’m only one of dozens of people who give credit to Authoress for helping them get where they are now, and there will no doubt be many more. She’s a wonderful person, and I have on good authority that she’s really cute too, behind that red hat.

Also a new review went up yesterday:

Michelle Ristuccia: Review on #sffwrtcht

Then there were the official blog tour stops:

Interview on Welcome to My World of Dreams

Interview & Review on The Reader’s Roundtable – Infinity and Beyond

Interview on It’s Raining Books

Guest post on Beyond Romance: The Challenges of Writing Science Fiction

Interview on Wendi Zwaduk

Interview at Kacey’s Konnections

Drawing for the winners of the blog tour PRIZES is coming soon, so hurry over to one of the stops and leave a comment so you’ll be entered too!

And that’s it! There will be a few more things popping up here and there, including a live interview on the popular #sffwrtcht June 27, 2012, at 9:00pm Eastern which I’m very nervous and excited about.

Ruth Thompson
Lindsey Hamilton

They will both receive a signed copy of Fighting Gravity. Congrats again, and I hope you enjoy it!

If you didn’t win, there’s still a giveaway here: The Reader’s Roundtable – Infinity and Beyond

Well, long story short (long versions can be found on boingboing, here, and The Passive Voice, here) it appears to have died a quick death. Fighting Gravity posted the following on their Facebook page:

To Leah Peterson and her fans: Disregard the cease and desist letter that was issued by our lawyers. Although imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, some people have taken that too far and we have had to deal with it. By no means is Leah Peterson one of those people, our lawyers were just doing their jobs and trying to protect our name and trademark. We wish the best for Leah and hope her book becomes a great success! 

(In case you’re looking for it, it has since been removed, though I assume that has to do with the fact that it was attached to a post by someone else that highlighted, albeit respectfully, a negative issue that I personally wouldn’t want on my FB business page either.) But I’ve also had assurance in a private message that I’ll receive an official retraction from their lawyer next week.

So looks like it’s all over, folks. And to everyone’s relief and satisfaction, I think.

Personally, I think Fighting Gravity has been very professional and gracious about the matter and I wish them all the success in the world.

And thank you, most especially, to my fellow authors who took up my cause and came rushing to my defense when it looked like it might become a very unpleasant situation. You guys rock, every last one of you.

I know this won’t be a comprehensive list, because I’m confident I didn’t find every expression of support or defense of my position, and for that I apologize. But here are some who I know went to bat for me:

R.B. Wood

Elizabeth Ann West

Jennifer Gracen

Jesse James (heehee)

Several people on Facebook posted on Fighting Gravity’s wall but I don’t have their names because the posts were removed pretty quickly. I’d like to thank them and the many people who tweeted about it.  Two in particular have my thanks for contacting others they knew could help:

Neil Shurley

BigAl of Books and Pals

There’s a lesson to be learned here, I think. In brief: Don’t piss off authors. They’re not only feisty, they’re articulate.

Thanks again everyone!

Boingboing.net

Read more about it from boingboing here.

And then The Passive Voice addressed it as well:

An Author Receives a Cease and Desist Letter

But all that excitement aside, there’s still a blog tour going on, and here’s the weekly roundup:

Several official blog tour stops this week, plus a guest post on my editor’s blog.

Guest post on Logikal Blog: Why All Writers are Secretly (or not so much) Schizophrenics

Guest post on Kool Queer Lit: Why My Boys are Gay

Interview on Have Novel, Will Edit

Guest post on Lindsay’s Scribblings: Fleshing Out Your Characters

Interview on Francesca’s Mindstream

And a random stop:

On Gabrielle Edits, my editor, Gabrielle Harbowy, let me post on hiring a manager for your blog tour.

“Fighting Gravity v. Leah Petersen, et al. – Trademark Infringement”

Is this trademark infringement?

Now isn’t that what every girl wants to read as she’s sitting at the dentist’s office while the kids are getting their semi-annual cleanings?

Well… no, actually.

The claim is from a live-performance group who assert that my use of the phrase “fighting gravity” as the title of my science fiction novel about a couple of teenage guys in a romantic relationship is an infringement on the trademark for their black-light, gravity-defying illusion performance group.

Right. Everyone with me so far?

If I haven’t said before how lovely and wonderful Gabrielle Harbowy, my editor, and Gwen Gades of Dragon Moon Press are, let’s be clear on that now. Before I could even get my bad-mooded self back home, I had emails from them with research and reassurance that I didn’t need to go have a major freak out.

Anyway, there’s lots of stuff on the internet to explain trademark as it applies to authors and book titles. Here’s a great one at Rights of Writers. The point to note is that, according to copyright law*, it’s only infringement if there can be sufficient confusion between the two. I admit, I’ve never seen them perform, so I may be missing something here, but unless they’re up there inventing laser devices and falling in love with the emperor of Earth and other human worlds, I think the opportunities for confusion are rather rare. (Although black-light on the scene where my guys kiss for the first time could be interesting.)

So, no freak out for me anymore. Just hiring a lawyer, apparently. And a much more exciting Wednesday night than I planned for.

*I’ve since been corrected by The Passive Voice, who wrote a great explanation of the issue, that this is trademark, not copyright, law.

Guest post at Wake Up Your Wild Side: Creating New Worlds for Science Fiction Stories

Guest post at Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess: How Do You Make Science-Fiction Relatable to the Average Reader

Guest post at LASR: SFF Guest Blog: The Things I’ve Learned from the Voices in My Head

Interview at Realmantic Moments

In addition to the official blog tour stops:

This lovely friend and librarian, Jessica Olin, @olinj, let me guest post on her blog: Where Would We Be Without Libraries, Or an Open Letter to Publishers

Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess also reviewed Fighting Gravity.

You know what I didn’t do? Tell the author.

Me? Email or tweet or submit a comment to the author through their website? Oh well they must be so busy and important and wouldn’t want me spamming their inbox just to say I loved their book. Surely they already know that. I bought it, didn’t I? Sometimes I’d even written a nice review.

Well let me tell you now, every time someone tells me they enjoyed my book, every single time, it gives me a little glow of happiness and is honestly more important to me than whatever royalties I might have gotten from their one purchase. I’m not sure there’d ever be any amount of positive reader feedback I could get that would make me start to see those emails or tweets as spam. That’s not spam. That’s WONDERFUL!

So email that author. I promise, they’ll be so happy you did.

Or not.

Have you seen these lovely people who have given me a place on their blog as part of the celebration of Fighting Gravity’s release?

Interview at Lisa Haselton’s

Interview at Dawn’s Reading Nook

Guest post at Guys Like Romance, Too! about putting romance in science fiction.

Guest post at Kristabel Reed’s about where a sci-fi author goes when she needs to get away.

Interview by The Book Monsters

Interview at Rogue’s Angels

Also, several good friends and colleagues have hosted me as well:

R.B. Wood hosted my guest post The Meaning of Life and Other Minutia.

Big Al at BooksandPals let me guest post on Raising the Next Generation of Readers, and there’s a great discussion going on in the comments.

Check them out!

There’s also a Goodreads Giveaway!

Oh, and I think I’m going to give a prize at the end of this tour for whoever spots all the places my name is spelled with sOn.