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From: lah%ucbmiro@Berkeley
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Spies, Common Ancestry, Blind Luck
Message-ID: <3126@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 18:25:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3126
Posted: Mon Aug  5 18:25:42 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Aug-85 10:37:45 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: lah%ucbmiro@Berkeley (1st Lt. RYN Leigh Ann Hussey)

How many stories I have heard of authors on opposite sides of the
continent coming up with the same story simultaneously!  And mostly
it is, in fact, blind luck.  As for the Gremlins/Black Cauldron beastie
similarity, I've seen neither of them (though the gremlins themselves
are familier to anyone who walks through a toy store these days), but
I would guess blind luck on this one too.

It's happened to me, as well.  Dave Hartwell at Tor decided not to take
a novel I submitted to him, due to a similarity between it and The
Summer Tree, which he will be publishing in America.  The recent
posting which mentioned it says it has five protagonists; I'd be
interested to see how many other similarities there are.  Would the
poster be kind enough to post a review when he's done with it?

Yours in confusion,

Leigh Ann