[Prestidigitweeze]

You'd be surprised how desperate certain writers get when they run out of ideas. It was common knowledge growing up that you had to be careful what you said around writer friends if you didn't want them to use it. Any time I've forgotten that, I learned it all over again.

Even here on Mobile Read, people have written to ask if they could use things I'd said. I appreciate the fact they were nice enough to ask, but notice they're not asking to quote my words and ideas. They're asking if they can lift my ideas and words, paste them into their own work and take full credit.

And they're doing this on Mobile Read, where I assume nearly everyone is writing or tries to write.

Next, people will be asking for my car keys.

I also know someone who's an established science fiction writer and had a story published in Omni when another acquaintance was the editor. Years later, a young woman sent my friend's story to that same editor as an unsolicited submission for an anthology, and she did so under her own name. The editor couldn't believe it and promptly told my friend about it. He uploaded a case study, I believe, which I'll try to find and link to after I get home from work.

Happens all the time, just like identity theft.