The Dimar Project Index

Just What is the Dimar Project?

Dimar is a world that is owned by everyone, copyrighted to no one - like the legends of King Arthur. But, unlike legends and myths, it's a science fiction world created recently to meet the needs of interactive online writers and game players who want to create stories together without the legal baggage of property ownership and copyright.

What can I do to be part of Dimar?

Write. Draw. Roleplay (RP). Game. Enjoy!

What can I do with the Dimar items I make?

Well, you can sell 'em, show 'em, make 'em public domain...Really whatever you want.

Why are you doing this? Why did you give your whole novel to the public domain?

Why did this come about? Read a long-winded rant by Dee. :)

Anyone and everyone can (and is strongly encouraged to) write about/draw about/sing about/play in Dimar! Come join the fun!

To learn about Dimar, please visit the core documents:

Dimar: Lost Waters - The novel
(prolog and glossaries can be very helpful for learning about what Dimar's about)
Dimar Art and Explanations

How did this start?

It all started when I got tired of participating in a certain Fandom. (Fandom is when you write about another author's characters.) When you write fandom, you don't own your work. The author who made the original series does. The rules are often very strict for how you can write in another person's world, and you can't distribute your work publicly or sell your work.

So, bored, I sat down and in 3 years off and on managed to write my first novel, Dimar: Lost Waters. It was pretty good, but not perfect (as most first novels tend to be). So, no publishers would take it as it was. It seemed like a waste to just keep the book under wraps with the hope that some day, some publisher might take a shine to it after I edited it. I wanted everyone to see what I'd made! And, since I loved fandom writing, I wanted to have a new group of people to share stories with, but without all the headaches of 'Owned Fiction'.

The breaking point came when the author of the Fandom group did some pretty bonehead things that ruined the group I was in (firing the two best editors I've ever seen, for instance...). Then, seperately, she decided to threaten to sue me over my fan artwork, and threatened other artists for the same thing. This was enough. I left her fandom completely.

I had a revelation: Because of the 'net, fiction needs to be free! Folks need a safe place to share a world together without all the strings and hassles of copyright and trademark. This isn't about money. It's about people, community, creativity and sharing. And, there's no reason a public domain or shared work can't make money too... It's a hard concept to wrap your mind around, but imagine if the words and ideas in a work were free for everyone in some format, but the book (the paper, the medium, the CD-ROM...whatever) is what you paid for when you bought it? This is what the whole Linux Concept/Gnu Public License is all about. Information should be free!

So, I've thrown my novel into the Public Domain. This means anyone can print it, sell it, write stories based on it, draw pictures based on it, do whatever. We all own it.

Unlike Gnu Copyleft/Open license, what you create with the Dimar concept you fully own. However, I encourage you to put your work under the Gnu licensing system. My future Dimar works will be covered under this license, and I may place an edited form of Lost Waters under this license too.

This web page is dedicated to all the people out there who understand sharing, and the need for the public domain -- especially in creative matters such as fiction, fan fiction and artwork.