Chapter 35 I’ll Wait
Starry heard about this later than Dillon and them.
She didn’t go online much and just wrote her new book at home after Edward left to shoot his movie.
Recently, she almost worked until midnight and then continued her work after breakfast every day, as she was having a burst of inspiration in writing.
But today, she got stuck at continuing with the plot, so she turned off the computer and had a nap after lunch.
Probably due to the inadequate sleep before she had this nap for over two hours and found a couple of missing calls when she woke up.
Edward and Catherine both called her four hours ago but she left her phone in her room and didn’t check.
Most of the missing calls were from the editor Scarlet Willis. And there were messages from her on Facebook and Twitter.
It seemed like something huge had happened.
Starry put down the cup in her hand and called back Scarlet.
Scarlet was waiting for Starry the whole day and she was just about to find Starry in person in Araria City if Starry still didn’t call her or text her.
“My god! You finally called! I’m gonna go mad if you don’t call me!”
Starry and Scarlet had worked together for many years and Starry knew her pretty well. Scarlet liked to play but she never called Starry seven times continuously.
“What happened?”
“Did you leave your phone in your room again? Quick! Check on Twitter! That Iris said you had plagiarized her novel in Make a Show!”
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Starry soon read the article Iris posted as she said, “Oh, that.”
Scarlet was anxious about this but Starry still said casually so she didn’t know if she should admire her for it or should be upset about her being okay with this.
“Oh my Starry, didn’t you forget you were popular in the first place because of Make a Show? If that is real, you’ll be doomed! I sure believe you. But that Iris said her novel was posted three months before you.”
“She even posted her manuscript and the beginning of your novels are the same except for some little changes.”
“Well, what did the company say?”
“Do you have proof that you didn’t plagiarize? The company said that we’re gonna talk to Iris and ask her to delete the post and wait for people to forget about it if you don’t have proof. Your new novel is about to be published next month and Only Moon Can Tell is shooting, if she keeps doing this, we’re gonna pay a penalty to the crew.”
Scarlet knew it was a bit harsh but Make a Show was a novel written over seven years ago and it would end up against Starry with the proof even if she didn’t plagiarize.
But Scarlet was still upset for Starry. Starry signed with the company and only got a small part of the copyright so if Starry wanted to fix this personally Scarlet would be with her, “Little Starry, what do you think?”
Starry just read Wyatt’s text, “Just as what Iris thought.”
Starry paused a little, “I can prove that Make a Show was written earlier than hers. And, to find out if this Iris had a pen name as the Discerner. I’ll send you her Twitter number. If she did have this pen name, well, it’s just getting more interesting.”
Make a Show was her first novel which she finished when she just turned 18 but she had already written 100, 000 words when she was 17 and a newbie.
Starry was not allowed to publish it as she was still underage so she just kept it.
When she just turned 18, she posted the modified version of Make a Show online and it had gone popular so the editor came to sign her after a week.
She enjoyed writing blogs and she posted the first 30, 000 words on her blogs on an anonymous user name and set it as private as she was afraid that it would get public. The outline and characters of Make a Show were on her blog just in case someday she would be accused of plagiarizing.
The Discerner was an online writer she knew when she was 16 and this writer had already published two novels but they both didn’t get much attention which was a failure as the writer herself said.
The Discerner was the one who introduced Starry to this novel website. Starry treated her with respect and she let her see Make a Show when it just got finished as Starry was new.
They had lost touch as Starry had to take the SAT. And the Discerner asked Starry if she had published Make a Show and Starry told her no. Then the Discerner complained about this website and turned to another. They had lost touch since then.
But Starry was a nostalgic person and she kept all chatting records from then.
Because she realized she didn’t really know the Discerner and what if she had evil intentions to make her live in misery.
So those records were still kept on a disk although she had changed her computers many times after that.
She had been fine for so many years and she started to think that she had thought the worst of her. But now this Iris came from nowhere.
Wasn’t that interesting?
Scarlet soon got her idea, “You mean, the Discerner copied your novel?”
“Yeah, I gave it to her once before I posted it.”
Scarlet took a breath, “It’s been eight years and now she accused you. You must be careful. Who knows what she’ll do after this.”
Starry smiled a little, “That’s okay, I’ll wait.”
Scarlet knew that Starry sometimes didn’t care that much but she did care about her novels and that Iris clearly crossed the line this time. Scarlet knew it wasn’t going to end easily by Starry’s tone.
“As long as you have a plan. I’ll figure it out for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, please.”
Starry texted back at Wyatt after she hung up the phone, “Okay, how about tonight?”
The plagiarizing issue was so huge that the whole crew got implicated so Wyatt wanted to meet Starry and found out what to do next.
Starry didn’t hover and set an appointment tonight.
Then she read that article Iris posted again, closed the computer, and went upstairs to change clothes to meet Wyatt.