Hi, I’m Lynne Freeman.
This isn’t how I imagined we would meet.
Instead of celebrating a newly published novel, I am providing a place for you to find publicly filed documents in my lawsuit against my former literary agent, Emily Sylvan Kim and Prospect Agency, Tracy Wolff (who is agented by Emily Sylvan Kim), Entangled Publishing (who received my manuscript), and Macmillan, as well as links to the articles about this case.
Court Update January 14, 2025 Order
This case is going to trial. Here is an excerpt from the order:
“There is a genuine dispute as to whether a defendant copied parts, large or small of Freeman’s work. There is a genuine dispute as to similarities between Freeman and Wolff’s work, particularly in a degree indicative of infringement and copying. There is a genuine dispute as to whether defendant Kim aided Wolff write the [Crave] series…
In this case, one of the counsel for the defendants recently colorfully proclaimed that her client would not join any settlement. Presumably, it will only accept unconditional surrender. Trial by jury, following the steps set forth in section four of my individual rules of practice, is a time-tested, neutral fact-based process for resolving disputes… The Court approves it as the proper choice for this case.”
Excerpt from August 1, 2024 Order by the magistrate to the trial court:
“BMR 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 each share probative similarities with the Crave series, and no reasonable juror could find otherwise. The similarities—some more probative than others—add up to raising an inference that Crave’s authors copied Freeman’s works. In both sets of works: the heroine lives in Alaska after moving from California in the wake of losing close family members, including their fathers, in a tragic accident; the heroine believes she is human but later learns that she is a supernatural half-witch key to maintaining the balance between good and evil; an evil vampire kidnaps the heroine and bites her; an evil vampire has trapped the heroine’s paternal family member in a non-human form; a mean girl spikes the heroine’s drink; and more. Absent copying, one would not expect two works to share these kinds of similarities.”
13 of my characters and 11 of my character names such as the Bloodletter, Marise, Fiona and Collin are used in addition to plots, subplots, and scenes.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS IN THE SIMILARITIES DOCUMENT - PAGES 3 and 4
On this website, I’m posting a number of different materials so that you can form your own opinions. You can find:
The Court Order
The First Amended Complaint
FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT DOCUMENT
My Brief Responding to the Defendants’ Arguments
Expert Reports Filed With the Court*
Marlene Stringer - Expert Report
Christine Witthohn - Expert Report
*These reports will not be used at trial
The Similarities Document
Excerpt from the Similarities document:
Both tell essentially the same story in the first-person voice of an approximately seventeen-year-old girl from San Diego who arrives in Anchorage, Alaska after an accident kills her family members. Her last words with her family were in a fight and she feels guilty. The accident was in a type of car that crashed and fell a long distance. She suffers panic attacks and anxiety from the trauma of her loss. She now lives with the only two family members she believes she has left who are both supernatural witches which she doesn’t know because she has been kept ignorant of the magical world. She will later learn that she has a maternal green-eyed grandmother (and is the descendant of a twin goddess through her) and a father / grandfather (with smokey-gray / smoke-gray eyes who is the voice she hears in her head talking to her) both of whom are alive in each work.
The heroine believes she is human at the beginning of the story in both works. She is halfwitch by blood though she is something different. She is a creature not seen in their world in ten generations (BMR) / 1,000 years (Crave series) who can shift forms, has magic in her blood, and whose very purpose is to restore the balance among the warring factions of supernatural creatures. The war between the supernaturals threatens the human world and has caused serious storms. The heroine is a queen and a unique being whose kind are protectors of all creatures, including humans, and they don’t take sides (BMR) / can’t be swayed (Crave) by either side in the strife between the supernaturals in order to protect the balance.
CLICK TO READ THE FULL SIMILARITIES DOCUMENT HERE
Similarities within a Scene
Sample of a scene comparison between BMR drafts and Crave, book one. Note the choreography. This scene occurs between the heroine and two guys who are supernatural creatures, which she doesn’t realize when she sees them. It’s winter in Alaska and cold, and the guys aren’t dressed for the winter weather. They remind the heroine of “80’s rockers.” This sequence occurs in the first BMR drafts toward the end of the story. It is then moved up to the first big action scene in the subsequent drafts toward page 50, and is also the first big action scene in Crave toward page 50.
KEY:
Yellow indicates identical or almost identical words used within the same comparative sentences
Cream indicates similar words or similarity of meaning within the same comparative sentences
Pink indicates page number proximity within 50 pages of the same events occurring in both books. Crave is 571 pages; the various versions of BMR vary between 400-600 pages.
Indices
Book Summary Index
The Character Indices
Heroine’s Female Nemesis Index
The Language Indices
BMR x CRAVE language index - Exhibit 46
BMR x CRUSH language index - Exhibit 47
BMR x COVET language index - Exhibit 48
BMR x COURT language index - Exhibit 49
Katy Waldman interview
Click here to hear an interview with Katy Waldman who wrote the New Yorker article about my lawsuit. The last 30 minutes of the podcast are where you can hear what she thinks.
Texts between defendants