Well folks, I thought I should officially shut this off once and for all, not that I've retained any readers. I just thought it would be fitting to have a conclusion.
So here's what I was going to do with Vera: She would (as I'm sure everyone guessed) kinda fall for Jack, but she wouldn't be one of those "hahaha I'm a feisty gal who will never compromise; sure I'll go to bed with you" sorts that populate most of these pirate tales. Not much action would take place ... mostly dialouge. It was going to be good, I swear. So in the end (which I never actually worked out), she's "rescued." Jonathon is as a matter of fact alive, but she's now realised that neither man is quite the one for her. Written like this it looks impossibly stupid, but I had pieces written which I rather liked.
So why did I quit? Time ... I didn't have enough time. And then once a long while had passed, I lacked the passion and vigor to continue. I've also started working on my own work. It's at www(dot)fictionpress(dot)com(slash)ardisedanna . I have quite a number of pieces there that are fully mine and which I love.
I can't promise that I won't someday resurrect this story, removing the PotC bits and replacing them with common pirates. And it's not say that I am ungrateful for the start this site gave me on lit. As of yet, however, I'm perfectly content with bidding this place farewell.
And here's something Orson Scott Card wrote on about fan fiction which I have come to quite agree with:
"The time to write fan fiction is 'never.'
"You will never do your best work in someone else's universe, because you're bound by their rules. Furthermore, most universes that people use for fan fiction are dreadfully dumb - one thinks of Star Trek and Star Wars - and most seventh-graders can come up with better ones.
"As for using characters created by another author: That's where you're going to find yourself sued by any author who understands where the financial future of his work lies. In order to protect copyright and potential filmmaking rights, you have to AGGRESSIVELY protect your own authorship of characters, precisely because it is the characters that film companies need to license and protect when your work is filmed. Anybody writing fiction using my characters without my specifically having licensed it to them will be sued, not because I'm mean and selfish, but because this is the INHERITANCE OF MY CHILDREN, and to write fiction using my characters is morally identical to moving into my house without invitation and throwing out my family.
"I care very much about new writers, which is why I strongly urge them never, never, never to waste their time writing stories set in other writers' universes without specific invitation, and even then they'd do more for their careers by spending their time inventing their own worlds and creating their own characters. Piggy-backing on someone else's financial success isn't how you create a career, and the 'experience' you gain is worthless, since you steal precisely those story elements that you must invent for yourself in order to learn how to create workable original fiction."
Ladies, Gents, you have my best wishes on your future careers as true authors. I encourage you to make a fictionpress and be sure to notify me. I would love to read everyone's work again.
