I don't want to be That Guyâ˘, but numerous people have come out at the author of My Immortal. How do we know you are legit. Accusations aside, I think your outspokenness about the situation going on in the NA community is awesome. Before digging around your Amazon and tumblr, I had no idea there was even a problem. Regardless of whether or not you actually are the author of MI, kudos to you for using this opportunity to bring more awareness to the injustices committed against NA people.
Thank you very much for the support. Donât worry about the questions, I think theyâre warranted at this point. I tried to answer this one in the FAQ, but basically: Macmillan is a major publisher. When my agent sold my book to them, they first hired a lawyer (they do not have an in-house lawyer) to legally vet all my claims. He combed through my manuscript for things related not just to My Immortal, but to my childhood.
I wonât go into my childhood, because thatâs not why youâre here, but when it got to the question of, âCan you prove you wrote My Immortal?â I provided him with the original email address with which I first signed up for fanfiction.net. Believe it or not, I still have it. (âAfter all this time?â âAlways!!â) And the other thing I have in my possession, which Iâm very fortunate I never threw away (side note, Iâm a hoarder), is an old, gross flash drive from 2006 with the first eleven chapters of My Immortal on it. Because when we first started writing My Immortal, we were doing it on the school computer. And I had no idea how reliable it was, so I bought like, a $5 flash drive from Best Buy, lol. Once I was in a home with a real computer, I stopped bothering with the flash drive. I may be a hoarder, but my attention span is shit.
The verification process took three days. So, I think if anybody is unconvinced at this point, itâs just because they donât really want to know the truth. Iâm sorry if Iâve ruined it for those people, but in writing about my childhood, there was no way I couldnât write about My Immortal. My Immortal shaped so much about who I am, whether I like it or not (more often than not, I donât). If it bothers anyone, thatâs fine, they donât have to read the book. Anyone who wishes to has my blessing to go on pretending the fic wrote itself, and I promise I wonât bear you any ill will.