If you post it, they will steal it! It's that simple.

I recently joined FaceBook. Again, it is all about my book and the networking necessary to promote it. I have actually pretty much ignored it, since I joined, but now my family is sending me “friend” links so I went back on it, for the second time.

Then, the big hype that FaceBook is going to steal your content.

PEOPLE: If you post it, they will steal it. What makes anyone on earth think that there is any way to keep people from stealing your work, your words, or your art?

I did national art shows for years and I once saw an artist, nearly break his neck, jumping in between his precious artwork and a woman with an Instamatic camera. I talked to him later and he was very concerned that someone was going to steal his work and make prints. I have news for him, no way was an Instamatic camera of high enough quality to make saleable art prints. I freely would pose by my paintings or give permission for photos of them to anyone who did not have a $6,000 camera on a tripod. Then, I want my cut.

People who grab a picture want them because they admire the work and they wish they could do it themselves. I have heard of someone who was snagging pictures of polymer fairies, off eBay, and making needlepoint patterns to sell. That was wrong. But, it’s hard to stop that. You could obscure your artwork by putting your name across it but that is so distracting. They are going to steal it. Take my word for it.

Having my artwork visible and open for theft on my website is something I quit worrying about, when I discovered the print screen button on my keyboard. This works even on sites that have their graphics protected. Not that I would use it, mind you, but I have checked it out and it works. So, get over it.

Nothing is sacred. Nothing is protected. The very first time I went to find out the cost of a cell phone, the person in front of me refused to give her Social Security number to the man selling the cell phones. She walked away without a phone and we had a good chuckle over her thought that he could not have her number. He even told me how he could have her number right now, if he wanted.

My mother cuts up all of her address labels, of course mom has a thing with cutting up paper, but she is ensuring that no one gets her address. “Have you ever looked in the phone book, Mom?” Why would anyone dig through your garbage, when they can just look in the phone book?

Beside my young adult novel, I have a mystery that I would like to polish up and put out there. I started and nearly completed it a long time ago. When I found out that you should not put anything on the internet, giving away first rights, when you are going to be submitting it, I thought of my Mystery and the fact that I had entered it on an on-line book site once, long ago. I could not find it anywhere and I thought,” that’s good.” I will tell them it is no longer out there.

But, you know what; there is never a time when something you have posted is ‘no longer out there.’ Google recently had their tenth anniversary and so, to honor it, they posted all the stuff you could access when they were first in business. Yep, the first first chapter of my mystery was right there- ten years later, an eon in the life of the internet.

Summer flowers

Master's daughter and I are on a roll right now. She is catching my omniscient first person, that should not be there, and keeping me on track. So, I thought I would just share a summer flower today.

Are there real people in your book?

I am sorry, that I have been gone so long from blogging. I have had a touch of the flu here, as well as working with my camera (it is fairly new). I need to really have it down as I am taking wedding pictures, for my niece, in two weeks. I did her mother's wedding photos, oh so long ago.

But, back to the book, I wonder how you 'see' your characters.

Are your characters based on real people?

My book is set in a fantasy world but I definitely use real people for inspiration. Sometimes it’s just a face in a magazine, sometimes an actor and occasionally, I am inspired by someone I know.

As a portrait artist and some-time doll maker, I have always collected photos of interesting faces. I search through this file for faces that say they belong to my character. Usually, already have a good solid description of their character first and use the picture to make them come alive for me. I am a visual person.

One character in my Middle Grade novel, was giving me trouble. I had a description, but for some reason I just could not “see” him. He was a wooden character; without a personality. I decided it was time to find his face.

Nothing in my file fit, nothing spoke to me. It was a voice that finally did it. And, readers of my personal blog Savanvleck’s Weblog have my permission to start laughing, but this is how it happened.

I was watching that extra disc of information that they put in the Lord of the Rings I and III, and other, movies. I was making some notes and not watching it really, just listening and I heard my character speak. I looked up to see they were interviewing Viggo Mortensen. His every day, non-acting voice, was the voice was my character. It was the first time I had heard his calming tone and my charcter came alive and said, "This is who I am." I finally found “the” face.

The really odd thing was that when I went into my character charts to see if I needed to update his description, the only thing I had to change was his eye color.

I almost always have a picture for my character, even if it is a sketch, and a lot of the personality quirks of my three protagonists fit the three boys in my house; obviously real people. Which, is not surprising as they were the inspiration for the story and, in some ways, it is their story.