Jillian Chantal

Had discussion at Silken Sands with a new acquaintance and learned a very hard lesson.  I was talking about one of my character’s aliases in my manuscript, Runaway.   Any way, this woman looked at me and said, “I love that name. I’m going to use it.  I need a name for a secondary character.”

I was absolutely shocked that she would consider doing that, much less announcing to me that she was going to do so.   I just am floored that someone would do such a thing.  The bad thing is, she already has a contract for her story and mine is just under submission as a full request.  So, if mine gets picked up, it’ll look like I am the one to take someone’s character name. And it is such an unusual name, it WOULD be noticed.  I am just so sad.  I would have hoped for some professionalism.

So, lesson learned.  I’ll no longer be so open to sharing.