Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things—web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist—but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise.
Her fiction has variously been recommended for a Nebula, a finalist for the Spectrum, placed on the secondary Tiptree reading list and chosen for two best-of anthologies; her art has appeared in RPGs, magazines and on book covers.
Her current focus is new business models for artists and independent marketing and distribution innovations. It’s an exciting time to be working in the arts, with expanding choices for creative professionals willing to capitalize on those opportunities! Her first crowdfunded fiction project kicked off in 2004 before the word was even coined. M.C.A. has experimented with everything from “choose-your-own-adventure” style serials online to kickstarting creative projects and is looking forward to future experiments in using technology to bring art directly to the audience.
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M.C.A. Hogarth also has a wiki page at WikiFur and a wiki page at MCAHWiki.
Hello. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, and I absolutely love your stories and your art. I fancy myself a writer, but you have a talent with storytelling that I could only wish for.
I am very impressed with your most recent kickstarter success, and I was wondering if you could give me some tips on creating my own successful crowd funded project. I know that you’re busy, and I appreciate your time. Thank you!
Hmm. Those are good questions, Dan! Let me consider them, and maybe write up a post about them for everyone to read. :)
Hi,
Hope this helps. I used to work for Games Workshop. I know what bullies they are. They have the niche market on table top war games as they bully all others into obscurity. Reading this on Wikipedia was interesting. Have a look, see what you think. It could be used as ammo against them. And if you do get anywhere fighting them sue their asses off!
The earliest known use of the term “space marine” was by Bob Olsen in his short story “Captain Brink of the Space Marines” (Amazing Stories, Volume 7, Number 8, November 1932), a light-hearted work whose title is a play on the song “Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines”, and in which the protagonists were marines of the “Earth Republic Space Navy” on mission to rescue celebrity twins from aliens on Titan. Olsen published a novella sequel four years later, “The Space Marines and the Slavers” (Amazing Stories, Volume 10, Number 13, December 1936), featuring the same characters against Martian space pirates, and using a spaceship with active camouflage.[2]
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_marines (copy and paste this link in to your browser address bar to go straight to it.)
Greetings Ms. Hogarth. Many people are jumping up to take your side, including Cory on Boing Boing. As a fellow Sci-Fi writer and a former Jarhead, just let me say…GW is about to reap the whirlwind. If I were you, I would get a cheap kindle version of your book up there as quickly as possible. I have notified many Marine Corps resources. To quote Firefly..”They can’t take the stars away from me” nor Space Marines from you, or Senator John Glenn (among others.) Good luck, and Semper Fi
I fully intend to fight this by creating a Space Marine serial and posting it on my own website. I wonder if a kickstarter project could be created using a book of art and stories with all the proceeds going to a legal defense fund to fight this one? If that’s a project that could happen I’d happily support it in anyway I can with time or talent (I don’t have much treasure right now, sorry).
Good evening Ms. Hogarth,
I would like to communicate with you privately regarding the issue you are having with GW. If you are interested, please email me at rodrigueziplaw@gmail.com or call me during business hours at 320.533.3444.
Henry Rodriguez, Esq.
Dear MCA Hogarth:
My name is Dave Simpson, I host the youtube channel “Gamers on Games” ( http://www.youtube.com/gamersongames ). I’ve been keeping up with your recent developments regarding the situation with Games Workshop. I’m curious if you’d like to come on my channel and talk about the situation, give your side and your thoughts. We’d love to have you tell your tale and help to garner you more support.
We’ve already published our thoughts, but would love to hear it straight from the source.
I sincerely hope to hear from you. And I hope this honestly works out in your favor.
Sincerely,
Dave Simpson
Dwmsimpson@gmail.com
http://Www.youtube.com/gamersongames
Dom,
as helpful as that is, Trademarks only last for 50 years, so the term used in those stories and even Heinlein using it in 41 would have expired when GW trademarked the term in 95.
Now, as to this, I agree that going after the book is kinda dumb, as there is no way that one would associate the Authors book with a Space Marine from the 40K universe. But, it would have been the same if the book had been called “Spots the Superhero”. Not to take away from the this story, but Marvel and DC co-own that trademark and do the same as what GW is doing here. This is from the Guardian online
“American comics creator Ray Felix is, according to an interview he did last week with crispcomics.com, “currently locked into a trademark battle with Marvel and DC over the word ‘superhero’. For those of you not aware, the Big Two co-own the word superhero (super-hero, super hero, and all variations)”
it is in the same article as the one talking about the Space Marine story.
Here is hoping for a reasonable and amicable outcome.
One word Crinsonshark “D’oh!”…back to the drawing board. Plus I learnt somethining today. Trademarks only last 50 Years. However, interestingly, GW designed and produced their Space Marines from 1984 onwards. So if any trademark had been in place for the others, then aren’t they being hypocritical? :roll:
Hey Miss Hogarth, my heart goes out to you in this time of uncertainty and crass behavior from a self-loathing gaming company. What a shame Games Workshop is so thinned skin and greedy, they really should just let this go. You fictional work clearly has nothing to do with their IP….despite a lot of their gaming fluff being borrowed from Tolkien and Moorcock. I used to really enjoy buying their minis and products, not so much these days. I hope you come out on top and GW goes back to pooping out their over-priced plastic pellets.
Be well. :wink:
Hi M.C.A.
As an aspiring writer myself I can well understand the importance of IP. But this is more than a mere step too far, it is corporate piracy by GW … they have tweaked things ‘just enough’ to keep them out of the limelight for years and now they expect to be able to bully people into respecting their rights to IP that isn’t theirs in the first place? Good on you for fighting this, and a big thanks to all those helping.
Maybe someone in the MoD/DoD can start proceedings against GW for their use of guns and tanks in their games, or a historical reenactment society can demand that they stop using swords, maces and bows. I’m sure if they want to open this can of worms there is plenty of scope for others to hit them where it hurts with it.
I have been, and will be following this to it’s conclusion, and I really hope you come out on top.
Mike