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Samtember ‘23, Post-Canon SamBucky, 10K Words

Summary:

When Bucky had asked if Sam minded if he took the lead on his special day because he wanted everything to be a surprise, Sam had been, well, surprised. No, they hadn’t been together on Bucky’s birthday, but Sam had insisted they hang out, and the whole thing was like pulling teeth — not the hanging out part, but the celebrating Bucky’s birthday part. So, yeah, Sam was definitely a little surprised by Bucky’s offer, but he had readily agreed. Birthdays were pretty much tailor made for surprises, and Sam wasn’t any more immune to enjoying them than anyone else.

Or: Sam just wants to have a good birthday, Bucky just wants to give Sam, well, everything, and Sarah just wants Bucky to get it together.

SamBucky, Alternate Universe, Complete

Summary:

Bucky just about choked on his drink when he looked up into the mirror behind the bar and saw his crush walking through the entrance. Even though he’d come out to drown his sorrows, he wasn’t drunk… yet, not even close, but he felt like he must be experiencing some sort of alcohol induced delusion. What else could explain the fact that Sam Wilson was in the same bar as him, at the same time as him, alone, instead of celebrating the holiday with his flake of a boyfriend?

Or: Sam’s trying to be a good boyfriend. Bucky’s trying to be a good friend. And Riley’s just trying to save his own neck.

The Death Toll of the Earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria may have reached 20,000 people, and that’s outside of all those who are injured and lost.

If you could donate PLEASE do!!!

Here’s a post full of charities you could donate to, but I’ll add my own trustworthy ones here:

Islamic Relief:  teams are on the ground right now providing emergency food assistance, shelter, medical supplies to hospitals and clinics, as well as blankets and tents for those made homeless by the quake in Turkey and Syria

Molham: The team at Molham are currently on the ground helping displaced families in Turkey and Syria who have been affected by the earthquake   

Turkish Red Crescent: The team are distributing essential aid to those affected by the earthquake across Turkey.

The White Helmets: The team are on the ground in Northwest Syria searching for survivors and removing the dead from the rubble.

Turkey Mozaik Foundation: Attempting to provide immediate relief and medium to long term recovery to survivors of the earthquake. 

MSF: remaining in close contact with the local authorities in northwestern Syria and with the authorities in Turkey to extend their support where it’s needed. They’re providing essential life kits to displaced people in the region

Rated E // 8.6k words // AO3

Professional baseball player Sam, professional rugby player Bucky, a sports magazine Body Issue, lots of unresolved history

The dummy copies came in a few days before the debut and dinner. These were the kinds of things people could point out a misspelled name or complain about a bad photoshop job. It was also where publicists could leak out interview details and athletes could accidentally post a snippet of a picture to social media. It may seem like a parasitic relationship with the magazine, but that early-access attention and buzz helped sell more copies than the prestige and history of the issue.

Sam hadn’t looked at it yet. He’d grabbed the mail before running out to a practice and left it in the kitchen. He was not surprised to come home and find Riley flipping through it. Well, flipping might be generous. He was staring at one page with a fine eyebrow raised intently.

“Did they edit out the gap in my teeth?” Sam asked, setting his things aside and dumping his keys and earbuds by the door. 

“You made such a fuss out of it the one time it happened, I don’t think anyone else will ever make that mistake again,” Riley said drily.

“And I’ll throw a fit again if it ever does.”

“Can I go to the dinner with you?” he asked suddenly.

Sam looked up at his friend with, first, delight and then apprehension. “Why?”

“Well, you just said everyone would be there, right?”

“Should be. It’s part of the contract. Minus, y’know, professional commitments or whatever.” Sam eyed him warily and tried to see what Riley was staring at. Riley snapped the magazine shut.

“Good. Let’s go. You’re right. I should see some of the guys again.”

“Give me the magazine,” San demanded, swiping for it around Riley’s shoulders.

Riley kept it out of his reach for a few seconds before he hissed and ducked his head out of the way, handing the magazine off in favor of getting an ice-pack brace for his neck. “You’re on page 43.”

Sam flipped to the page. Stared at himself, blushed, then stared some more. They’d used both pictures that Sam liked, one on each page of the spread while the interview ran down the center columns. He skimmed that for inaccuracies too, though he had a publicist for that.

“This looks fine. Why are you…” He flipped the page and came up short.

Grinning back at him was a ghost from the past. Sam’s brain was only supplying thighs thighs thighs thighs thighs thighs thighs thighs as a running monologue, so he wasn’t sure he was really staring at his first college boyfriend. Except that wasn’t really true either. He’d know Bucky with his eyes closed probably.

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!