Gemotions

The email sat in Eleanor’s inbox, glowing with a malevolent light. It was from the literary agent, confirming the undeniable truth: Daniel Blackwood, the author Eleanor idolized, had lifted entire passages from her unpublished manuscript. Her stomach clenched. A wave of nausea, thick and bitter, rose in her throat. She scrolled through the side-by-side comparison, a monstrous mirror reflecting her words back at her, twisted and bearing someone else’s name.

She spent the next two days in a blur of furious activity. She contacted her own agent, a woman named Martha, who seemed exasperated, but promised to handle it. Eleanor knew Martha would likely pursue legal action, a process that would take months, if not years. But for Eleanor, that wasn’t enough.

She deleted all traces of her writing from her laptop. Then, she opened a new document. The cursor blinked, mocking her. She began to type. She wrote a scathing review under a fake name for Blackwood's latest novel. She sent it to every major literary website and book blog she could find. She even created a social media profile specifically to spread the word.