CIRCES CUP RELEASE!

This breaking news deserves an all cap headline!  Circes Cup published a greatly expanded version of LA Port Caves on Amazon. Somehow it seems everyone here missed it. 

I've read all three volumes and I believe it is the finest epic in our genre.  Everyone should buy it, review it and urge him to keep writing. He left it on the verge of a new story. 

I think we missed it because of a radical title change.  Here is the link: www.amazon.com/Drysau-Ceudodol-Trilogy-B...nton&s=books&sr=1-17

 

lfan wrote:

This was discussed on the Discord. This is NOT Circes other than the first two parts mostly lifted verbatim from his original tale posted here on SWM. 

I’ve spoken with Circes on more than one occasion about this and while he was aware of the authors alternate ending, it is not his nor is he linked to it on Amazon in terms of sales.

Im not saying that it is not worth purchasing, I’m just saying that this is not supporting Circes by purchasing it. 

Elf

 

So someone copied the author's work without their permission and put it up for sale on amazon? I presume they've already filed a plagarism complaint with Amazon?

Yeah it's definitely not Circes Cup. The story is a by an author named Peter Benton ... and no, Peter Benton is not a pseudonym for Circes Cup.

If you do want to see a recent story from Circes Cup however, this is his latest foray back into writing ... a dip of his toe back into it so to speak.

www.deviantart.com/willjmalo/art/Water-P...th-Abigail-982036301

I agree, let Circes Cup handle it himself unless he asks for help ...

But this brings to mind the subject of story and character ownership and ethics. I steal borrow heavily from Shadar's Aurora Universe with the understanding that I will not profit from the use of his characters or the fictional world(s) he has built. And I would be unhappy if someone lifted the Kiraling story from SWM and used it to make money.

How would people feel about putting copyright notices or symbols, ©, on stories? That idea just popped into my head, bypassing the part of my brain that examines ideas to determine if they are reasonable or fatally flawed.

anonxyzus wrote:

I agree, let Circes Cup handle it himself unless he asks for help ...

But this brings to mind the subject of story and character ownership and ethics. I steal borrow heavily from Shadar's Aurora Universe with the understanding that I will not profit from the use of his characters or the fictional world(s) he has built. And I would be unhappy if someone lifted the Kiraling story from SWM and used it to make money.

How would people feel about putting copyright notices or symbols, ©, on stories? That idea just popped into my head, bypassing the part of my brain that examines ideas to determine if they are reasonable or fatally flawed.

I used to put copyright notices on all my stories. But then someone took a bunch of my stuff and put his name on it, ignoring the copyright, and republished behind a paywall. I poked at it a bit and discovered that I could hire a lawyer and get them to take it down after proving my copyright. But that costs money. I decided that since I was doing this for free (and for an occasional bit of feedback or praise), it made no sense for me to spend real money to go after someone who was making a few illicit bucks off me. 

So I changed my copyright to say (tongue in cheek) that my stuff is available to use anywhere in this universe as long as I'm notified of the galaxy and planet used (iirc). And to acknowledge me as the original author in whatever they do with my work, either the prose or the ideas/characters. Not worth going broke fighting over zero. More fun to just keep writing and hope that maybe one of my stories traveled a path or created a new path that it wouldn't have with me, and maybe found someone else who enjoyed it.

In the end, my greatest joy is inspiring someone else to try their hand writing their own stories, whether in my little universe or their own. 

Shadar

 

So, this is my fault. I found the books on Wattad first and read all three on Amazon.  

The books are well written and I assumed they were by the original author.  I know Peter Brenton put a huge amount of work into the project.  I assumed he was Circes and was really shocked to read this thread. 

I apologize for anyone I accidentally offended with this post. I probably should get on Discord.


 

Hello all,
Peter Benton here. I see quite a bit of dust kicked up by a misunderstanding, so let me speak for myself.
Like most of you, I was quite struck with CCs story, then on DA, as being of unusual quality. However, I felt it remained incomplete. Like many of you, I was watching for updates that never came. So I began to think that if I wanted a satisfying ending, I have to write it myself.
I got in touch with CC and he agreed on me to revise and extend his story as I saw fit in an attempt to make it palatable to a greater audience by expanding the story arc.
I decided that the original story rather than the revised one held more promise to fit it into a greater context (gender relation issues, socially engrained male identity, mind/body conflicts, the religious underpinnings of patriarchy etc.) and for bending it into a romance type of superwoman story, largely because there is no precedent out there for this in novel format. In that regard it is incredibly innovative. To carry a novel, you need to tell a story beyond exploring the sensuality of power, and CC's story was the only one I'd ever seen to have made a lot of headway in that regard.
First, I did about a year of editing the original story line by line to near professional proofreading standard and along the way changed quite a lot of the scenes for greater impact and organic evolution of action, added new ones (in particular some SciFi elements, like transposing the mind/body problem into an human/alien conflict sprinkled with some spiritual allusions), deleted some that didn't serve the ending I had in mind, and ironed out some character-development, plausibility, and consistency issues. This effort forms Book 1 and 2, the ending of the latter fundamentally changed to organically segue into the endgame I had in mind. Those two are about 2/3 CC and about 1/3 me. Also, a completely different Prologue was written for Book 1 which right at the outset gives the story a completely different slant.
In that context it became necessary to move location and title as well to make sense (e.g. why is it possible for Julia and Howard to emerge on another planet where English is understood?)
Book 3 is 100% mine. It drives the story to an ending that CC agreed to as a legitimate one, though he would have ended it in a much less romantic way. I for one would like to see how he would end it, but at this point it's been a long time coming.
CC has received the files ahead of time and I have his written permission to publish with attribution in each book exactly as he wanted it: reference to LaPorte, but not to his handle Circes_cup. As to commercial implications, CC indicated no interest in dealing with that. Royalty sharing would require him to reveal his true identity to the publisher/distributor and/or to me which he does not want. His concern for his privacy ranks higher than anything else to the extent that I am not allowed to share even his e-mail address.
I remain open to any alternate arrangements at any time should he change his mind. The last of my intentions is to detract from CCs merit. I merely feel that this story is so good that someone should try to expose a broader readership to it, and it seems that the task has fallen on me. Time will tell whether I was the right person to try it. By now I have learned that writing a book is only half the job, the other half is finding readers in a world where 3 million books are published every year.
If you want to help you will not be hurting CC but benefit the genre. If you want more people writing higher quality material like this fans need to step up to motivate authors. This is not about sales at this point or financial incentive. Every penny I make here goes right back into marketing. Nor should you just buy a book and read it and think by spending a few bucks you supported someone. I can do very well without those few bucks. Instead, you have to post thoughtful reviews to draw more readers in, to generate demand, to generate writers, to generate more demand etc.
With that I hope to put an end to unfounded speculations. Further thoughtful comments and engagement is very much invited.
Thanks for tuning in,
Peter
 

Thanks guys.

Larafan is correct: Peter Benton has my permission to use the material, as well as to modify it to better suit his conclusion of the story. There should be a ‘used with permission’ attribution at the front of each book.

My motivation in this genre has always been to take something I enjoy and share it. I am certainly not interested in turning all this into income, and as a very private person, am loathe to draw more attention to myself. Given these motivations, the outcome at which Peter and I have arrived is just fine with me.

Thank you all for sharing your excitement and the story and your concern about maintaining integrity in our corner of the internet.

As Ballen mentioned, I have been toying around with creating some short stories for the AI artist Willjmalo. And who knows, someday I may even finish LaPorte Caves in my own words. However, I’m not at a point where I can make any promises.

Thanks again everyone!