Copy Me & Risk the Consequences

I was shocked when I saw this email message from WordPress I received.

Well, that was unexpected. It turns out that I will be able to purchase half a candy bar at the Dollar Store after all. Could it be that the WordsAd advertising I have enabled on this blog is actually paying off? Let’s take a peek.

Uh, no. In fact, WordAds revenue is headed in the wrong direction. Why, oh, why do the advertisers have to read this blog before deciding where they spend their advertising dollars? Maybe it will help if I stop blogging disparaging news about WordAds.

Anyway, I dug a bit further and found that a blog reader ordered my published short story titled “Elvis Has Left the Building.” You can, too! Just click this link to visit my Published Works webpage and order away. It was the first short story I wrote, and I still like it.

I polished up the story, corrected the 117 misspellings and punctuation errors, and emailed it to my customer. And what do you know, she liked it! Oh, by the way, she wrote a story, too. It is for a writing contest. She shared it with me. I liked her story, but the title seems vaguely familiar … “Elvis Hasn’t Left the Building.” Where have I heard a title similar to that before? And the character is an aging Elvis impersonator who has to decide if he wants to continue. That plot seems oddly similar to some other story that I recall reading or writing or both.

My editor read it and called it derivative of my story. I have another word for it – plagiarism! I’m not sure if I am flattered that there may be plagiarism involved, thrilled that there is another person in the world who just coincidentally thinks and writes like me, or if I am going to sue. Oh, the pain and suffering that I’ve endured that I can sue for since I uncovered this alleged foul plot to steal my intellectual property, although I am not sure intellectual can be applied to anything I have ever created.

I’d get my lawyer involved, but Rudy G has his own legal trouble with which to deal, and my back-up attorney is busy defending January 6th insurrectionists. Hey, they work cheap!

I think for now I’m just going to cheer on this anonymous reader and hope our her short story wins. And maybe another one of you readers wants to purchase my story so I can afford a full candy bar from the Dollar store.