My Recent Comments

Jayejean: Allison's a chapter mate of mine, so I feel sort of bad that I haven't read all of her books the moment the came out. This one started really slowly for me, but it's gotten better the further into it I am.

Lady A, I'm the same way. Sometimes I absolutely can't wait to read a book, and others, I'm content to add it to the range. I have a lot of books that have been waiting a while. :)

Candy, who made the initial post about this over at SBTB, has apologized for the fact that her tone may have been off. The point is, she apologized. And from that point forward, the women who post the news have been nothing but professional, IMO.

Some of the commenters have crossed the line into unpleasant and unprofessional, on both sides of the argument, but the people doing the actual reporting have done their best to stay out of that.

There are many people saying that it should have been handled privately. I completely disagree. As evidenced by the initial response from Signet, they would not have done any investigation at all, had there not been ongoing information coming out and public response. It was only after people wrote letters to the CEO that they revised the initial support they gave Ms. Edwards and announced that they would look into the charges.

This is not a whisper behind your hand sort of issue, IMO. It needs to be in the public eye precisely so it can't be shrugged off and excused.

Yes, of course if you do research, there are only so many ways you can put the information you've discovered into the text. However, as a writer, you ought to be able to *at least* do so in your own words.

Again, Ms. Edwards copied many passages word for word. This does not mean paraphrasing. This does not mean that she read something and then rewrote it in her own words. She copied passages exactly as they were written in the source material.

I'm sorry, but that's not unintentional and it's not acceptable. Nor, to me, is it a grey area. Copying word for word without attribution is plagiarism. That's black and white.

I think that the majority of people are not asking for Ms. Edwards to be brought down, Certainly, speaking only for myself, I'd like to see her held accountable. I would like to see an acknowledgement from the author that she's done something inappropriate and a sincere apology to those she's stolen from.

Her publisher is now investigating the matter, which is crucial. I would like to see some sort of acknowledgement of the sources she's used on her books.

I think those are reasonable expectations.

If you look at the evidence, it's been clearly shown that Ms. Edwards lifted several passages from other writer's work, without changing the word order or structure. This was discovered by a reader who noticed a change in tone, from narrative to factual, not someone on the blog.

But it doesn't really matter who discovered it. Copying another writer's work word for word, without attribution, is plagiarism, plain and simple, and plagiarism is wrong. Period. You don't have to agree with the Smart Bitches style, but the fact that Ms. Edwards has been caught doing this, in more than one book, is indisputable.

I know about it and have been following the story. I've posted a few times on Dear Author.

What Ms. Edwards has done is wrong, in my opinion. I have no desire to "throw her under a train" as someone accused recently. I don't know her, so I don't hate her or anything like that.

But as a writer, plagiarism is one of the things that I absolutely do not stand for.

I keep far fewer books than I read, no matter how slow that might be. In order for me to keep a book, I have to:

1. Really enjoy the story, characters, writing style, everything, If I laugh or cry while reading it, it's got a good chance of staying.

2. If it's autographed, I'll keep it, unless I really didn't like the book. This means I do have some keepers that are not favorites, but what can you do?

3. If it's part of a series, I'll likely keep the book at least until I've read them all, just in case.

 I'm sure I have other criteria, but those are the three most important ones.

I have Memoirs of a Geisha in one of my piles of unread books too and haven't read it yet either. Maybe I should make a list like this too.

But that would break my system... ;)

I've read a couple of books where panties have been torn off, and my thought is always ow, yes. Buttons on blouses don't bug me as bad, but panties?

 Mine don't rip that easy. Unless they're made of paper or that edible fruit leather stuff, I don't think any do.