NEWS

Now that I've shared the news with my fabulous and fierce taskmasters on Patreon, I'm free to blather with near-reckless abandon: I have filed to trademark my pen name - this name of Tansy Undercrypt (filing means that I am registered and pending; everything that I have ever written and create now falls under this (TM)).

It is not an action driven by ego, but by a desire to protect myself. In academia and publishing, plagiarism is a heinous crime, punished by dismissal and formal derision at the very least. In media development, however, it's "verification that you had a great idea and can move on" (yep, an actual quote)... and I find that shocking and deplorable. I go back and forth whether it should be called theft or intellectual r@pe, but I do not agree that it's a quick 'go you' shoulder hug from someone who felt free to take your artistry and shove it into a hole in their resume created by the epic failure of their originality.

Trademark law has a very clean and clear comeuppance structure for infringement and other violations.

To the casual eye, It looks like "The Night Therapist" was ripped off in 2019 as a concept for a web series (with some simple changes made). A careful review of each episode (10 in all) is underway, scanning for dialogue and unique details lifted from the microfictions. It's entirely possible that a great idea occurred simultaneously to two people who were listening to their inner closet monster at the same time; if so, GREAT. If not, I think the celebrity co-producer will get the letter before a courier delivers the faux writer's copy to their home.

Regardless of how it all turns out, I do not like to dwell in fear (I like to relish it, have a good shudder, shake it off, and eat a Thin Mint) and the filing helps me to feel that I have taken a strong action in my own best interest - escaping creative paralysis in a bog of worry.

Like calls to like here and we are similar in a myriad of remarkable ways. Thank you for your encouragement and support of my art; please accept my admiration and enthusiasm for yours. It deserves its rightful place in Making and, when you set it down, may it lie undisturbed.