Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Help help, I’m being repressed!

That’s laying it on a bit thick.

Pointing out copy-pasted paragraphs of statistical information about ferrets:  the smallbox blankets of the twenty-first century.

1) Publishers have published plaigerized works in the past, just ask Nora.

2) I fail to see how such liberal use of someone elses words without crediting sources is honoring Native Americans.

3) I hate when people play the “My race is picked on and now look at me being picked on card”.  It’s has nothing to do with race/creed/color/gender—plaigerism crosses all lines.

3) Candy and Sarah—are you included as part of “those women” sort of reminds me of “the other woman” and affairs. 

In the words of Rhett Butler: “You’re like the thief who isn’t the least bit sorry he stole, but terribly, terrible sorry he’s going to jail. “

To clarify, I meant that I thought Cassie’s response qualified as “laying it on a bit thick”, not the SB’s post.

ZOMG!Opreshun!

It’s not exactly Godwin’s Law, but it’s definitely close. Edwards’ Law, perhaps?

I wonder if some of her Cheyenne ancestors included a Chief Sitting Bullshit?

I’m dots, not feathers, and totally offended on behalf of both!

Was she kidding when she wrote “vendicated”, or was this a typo? I hope so….. happens to everyone in the heat of the typing moment, but if not, it won’t support her cause much if she also has issues with “spellifyin”.

“She would be so proud of me if she could read what I am writing about the Indians who have been so maligned for so long”
Or, you know, what I cut and pasted from countless sources.  Honestly, if she’d just put her hand up and say that she was wrong most people would have a lot more respect for her IMHO.  Given that she’s written 100 books, most of which are probably being run through google as I type, this whole controversy is just going to run and run.

Are the misspellings and other errors in the original?  I itch for a red pen to edit it.

vendicated?  Are her books sold in vending machines?

And I suppose I ought not to pick on ‘alright’, but it seems typical of her general sloppiness.

The comment that amused me the most is “And if I couldn’t use this material my books would not be worth anything to my readers who depend on me.”  - head scratch - I don’t believe anyone ever implied that she shouldn’t use her research, just that she should not copy it verbatim.  The clue phone is apparently still ringing into empty space.

She made a lot of mistakes in the heat of the typing moment: spelling, punctuation, and so forth. (“All right” is not one word!) But I fear lingering on that will make me seem like a mean girl, so I won’t. I’m just surprised that a professional writer wasn’t a bit more on the ball with the “following the rules of written English,” even if she is traumatized by the meany meany Bitches at the moment.

Oh, dear. I don’t think the Bitches are mean at all! That might not have been clear in my last message. Thank you for all your work, Candy and Sarah.

Why do I hope this isn’t really written by her? I think I still have too much faith in humanity or something because the idea that she is trying to say she’s being picked on because of her heritage hurts my head.

No one is picking on her because she says she’s part Native American (isn’t everyone? Whether they really are or not?). They’re “picking” on her because she plagiarized!

I would have a little more respect for her if she just stood up and accepted that she did something wrong rather than blaming “those women” for “picking” on her.

I’m surprised that she didn’t take a page from the Plagiarist’s Handbook and try to claim first that she received permission from the Native authors in some sooper sekrit handshake deal to “honor” them.

Oh hell no.  She did not just place the race card… She’s gone beyond research and reference books, and this “woe is me” letter just makes her look stupid.

I think we have a clear correlation to Snacky’s Law here, what with us being such meanieheads an’ all.

*Somewhere Janet Dailey scurries out from under he rock in search of her own Native American heritage.*

:::rollseyes:::

Even if she were Indigenous, and I believe my evidence shows she probably is not, this is pretty offensive. 

Elle

I agree, Liz.  I really don’t want this to have been written by her.  I want to believe that her response doesn’t boil down to, “OMG, I’m being oppressed for being one-quarter Cheyenne!  It’s a total mean grrls conspiracy!”

The only reason I know about her heritage is because she mentioned it.  I take umbrage with her plagiarism and “noble savage” portrayals, not what race her grandmother was.

And off topic, I was taught that “alright” was, well, all right.  “Alot” was wrong, but not “alright”.  I guess you learn something new every day.

(“All right” is not one word!)

It is if you pick up one of her books in Kroger. Although in that case someone at least made an effort and instead of ‘alright’ it was ‘allright’ but I’m pretty sure the copy editor fell asleep reading that book.

No way that’s actually her. Bad books aside, no one who makes their living writing is going to whine about being “picked on now as our Native American Indians have always been picked on throughout history.”

I don’t buy it.

Also, I’m not familiar with her work, but is she likely to call them Native American Indians? I would assume anyone who actually knows that much about the Native Americans and says she is one wouldn’t use “Indian”, would they?

Can anyone please tell me WHY ppl on other loops and blogs are still insisting that this should have been kept quite and out of the news. I just don’t get it and it’s driving me crazy.

I see in the centrw’, Cassie Edwards, 1alised PDF that a book by an author called Mari Sandoz was plagiarised. Interestingly I was just coming here to report an instance of CE plagiarism I’d noticed, which is from the historical preface/note to a different Mari Sandoz book. I thought I’d read the preview of a CE book on Amazon, you see, to decide if she was as bad an author as she’s made out to be (no comment). Anyway, one passage struck me as suspiciously different in tone. Google books kind of confirmed it for me.

From ‘Flaming Arrow’, Cassie Edwards, 1997 reprint, Signet:

“By 1864, with the United States at war, ostensibly to free the black man from slavery, the white pony soldiers had accepted a policy of extermination for the red man.

This policy had been initiated as early as 1854.

To the Blackfoot, the white pony soldiers had been labeled “squaw killers,” for they had not hesitated to gun down women during their surprise attacks on the Blackfoot villages” - p 11

From ‘Cheyenne Autumn’, Mari Sandoz, 1992, U of Nebraska Press:

“By 1864, with the nation at war ostensibly to free the black man from slavery, the public had been prepared to accept a policy of extermination for the red. This policy was actually initiated as early as 1854 and 1855. It was given impetus by General “Squaw Killer” Harney’s unprovoked attack ...” -p vi

See I can’t spell either. I meant keep quiet not quite.

Pet Peeve - It’s ALL RIGHT…not ALRIGHT

ARGH - She’s a writer (or copier or whatever)... She should know better…or should be copying from better sources.

Managed to mistype my chosen username to contain “creping” instead of “creeping”. Hmph. I am pancake-ing ...

Cornel West doesn’t feel the need to steal whilst working against the oppression of black people. Elie Wiesel did not need to steal while writing his books about anti-semitism.

I don’t care if Ms. Edwards is 100% Native going back to the frickin’ crossing of the Bering Straits ice bridge. Stealing peoples’ work to spread the word about the oppression of Native Americans is still stealing. And I don’t think Ms. Edwards’ dear old Granny would be the slightest bit proud of her thieving ways.

Help help, I’m being repressed!

Bloody peasant! XD

Also: with regards to the spelling/grammar issues noted: I’m sorry, but proofreaders and editors do not exist to fix a lazy writer’s bad habits; they exist to polish and correct typos. Mistakes are one thing, but laziness and the inability to spell correctly are quite another.

Writers are carpenters and their tools are their words and they’d damn well better know how to use them correctly, no matter how beautiful they can spin a phrase. I have no sympathy for an author who cannot be bothered to crack open a dictionary/thesaurus or run a spell check program.

It’s possible that this letter if it originated from the author was written under stress (duh) but that’s no excuse not to fix the errors before going out. Does an executive chef send a dish out half-baked and shoddily presented, just because they’re under stress in the kitchen? Not if they want to keep their job they don’t…

I found this blog after reading a yahoo news article about the whole Cassie Edwards thing, and I have to tell you that I am shocked at how blatant the plagiarism has been. 

Her newest response is so over the top I almost don’t know what so say.  If it weren’t for the plagiarism of “The Laughing Boy” I could almost believe that she sincerely believes that her copy and paste work was doing research, but pulling out the race card and claiming persecution is just ridiculous.

Consider me another skeptic, I’m not sure this is her either. There’s no note from her husband at the bottom.

The Smart Bitches made yet another media outlet. Shelf Awareness tells the tale, complete with attributed quotes.
http://news.shelf-awareness.com/nview.jsp?appid=411&j=371220

Argh, let’s try to keep away from hitting the low blows, eh? The digs at her spelling and her husband etc. don’t make anyone look good.

That being said, I can’t believe Edwards wrote this either. I’d think she’d have contacted her lawyer by now…he/she would certainly have advised against such a poorly argued defence.

Her books trade in on racist stereotypes and she only gets away with it because they’re romance books; the best thing you could say about them is they’re problematic. Does she really want to go down that route? Does she really want a media article picking apart her portrayals of Native Americans? Can’t be her.

I agree that there are many great writers who don’t spell well. Not the issue.

But as an aside… “alright” is an acceptable spelling, and has been for over a hundred years. Sorry, ladies. Just ‘cause you don’t like it, doesn’t make it a mistake!

I’m sorry but I don’t see how criticizing a writer for bad spelling and grammar is a “low blow.” That’s like calling it a low blow if you point out your dentist uses Black & Decker. It’s a valid complaint and is part and parcel with the laziness argument.

Personal digs about appearance, age, etc. however, are.

(And I do apologize… I think it has nothing to do with Ms. Edwards, but grammar & spelling snobbery gets me every time.)

I already emailed this to Candy, but even the bloody introductory AUTHOR’S NOTE of _Savage Obsession_ is plagiarized.

_Obsession_ p. 5, via Google Books:

“The Chippewa, especially the Lake Superior bands, have been neglected by historians, perhaps because they fought no bloody wars of resistance against the westward-driving white pioneers who overwhelmed them in the nineteenth century.

“Yet, historically, the Chippewa were one of the most important Indian groups north of Mexico. Their expansive north woods contained valuable resources, forcing them to play important roles in regional enterprises. They have remained on their native lands, still a proud people, and continue to develop their interests in lumbering, fishing, farming, and mining.

“I found my study of the Chippewa a most rewarding and heartwarming experience. It was a pleasure to write about them!”

*coffsplutterheaddesk*

_The Chippewas of Lake Superior_ by Edmund Jefferson Danziger, University of Oklahoma Press, January 1990 (Amazon has the complete text of this book searchable online), Preface, page ix:

“The Chippewa tribe, especially the Lake Superior bands, has been neglected by historians, perhaps because they fought no bloody wars of resistance against the westward-driving white pioneers who overwhelmed them in the nineteenth century. But, historically, the Chippewa were one of the most important Indian groups north of Mexico. Their expansive north woods contained valuable resources, compelling them to play important roles in regional enterprises such as the French, British, and American fur trade. Neither exterminated nor removed to the semiarid Great Plains, the Lake Superior bands have remained on their native lands and for the past century have continued to develop their interests in lumbering, fishing, farming, mining, shipping, and tourism.”

I agree with Arethusa. I don’t really think ( or at least I HOPE! ) that Ms. Edwards wrote this. I would think that her lawyers would have told her not to comment about this until absolutely necessary. To ANYONE. PERIOD.

Unless of course she wrote it before she contacted them.

Who knows. I just know for myself, this has gone from terrible to just plain sad.

And for the ones bringing up the age thing- My 76 yr. old, full time working, 2 league bowling, hospital volunteering mother would totally disagree. Hell, she wears ME out ( I’m in my 40’s btw. )

all romance authors who use research for historicals have to use reference books to do this.

Yeah, but most of them don’t run paragraphs through the Word Thesaurus filter in order to serve up a nice dish of ‘cut and pasta’.

the sad thing is that I am writing these books now in a way to honor our Native Americans, past, present and in the future.

So she gives all proceeds of her work to Tribal charities?  If she doesn’t, then this sentence means nothing?

CNN, The New York Times, AP, everyone who those women could think of to contact.

Wow, you’all must be incredible multi-taskers; you’ve contacted EVERYONE about her—and yet when did you have the time?  Do the guys on the space station know?  Perhaps it’s time to email NASA.

Has anyone run her My Space letter through Copyscape.com, to see if she jacked it from another writer who’s been caught doing bad things?

I can’t tell you how grateful I am to Cassie Edwards for teaching me the truth about researching historical novels.  I’m off to write myself a novel set in 1930s California.  I hear that book “The Big Sleep” is pretty accurate…

Well neither the OED nor Bill Bryson in his book ‘Troublesome Words’ like ‘alright’ but they both mention it.
Bryson says that ‘even in the most respected papers ‘alright’ crops up from time to time’ then gives examples from The Observer and The Times.

The OED gives it in a quote from Stoppard.

I think I disagree with you anyway, Arlene. I know I read about a journalist on the Times who dictated his copy, because he was so dyslexic they couldn’t decipher it if he wrote it down: I’m wondering if it was A.A. Gill, but I’m not 100% sure.
And I think Agatha Christie dictated her books because she was dyslexic.

I know I’m prejudiced because my dad, brother and daughter are all really dyslexic, but for me an inability to spell is just an inability to spell - it doesn’t mean you’ve nothing interesting to say.

Whether she wrote it or not is def. up for debate - but I am convinced she would most certainly use the term “Indians” in reference to Native Americans - when this whole thing first started I checked out her website, and I believe she used the term in a note to her readers about how her writing career started etc. I think someone mentioned all that has been taken down, but I haven’t bothered to go back and look for myself.

The best thing in the letter for me? How the Bitches supposedly contacted various people in the media THEMSELVES - uhm - didn’t this get picked up by the AP and gained momentum from there?
If not, and Candy & Sarah are truly just media whores, I want to know - have you contacted Oprah yet? I would love me some of that!

But wasn’t Oliver LaFarge (author of ‘The Laughing Boy’) part Native American?  Apparently Ms. Edwards has no problem in stealing text from a fellow ‘picked-on’ Native American.

And I’m pretty sure “a lot” is headed at a very fast past toward “alot”. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s used as one word. Like “to morrow”. Remember that one? An oldie but a goodie.

Okay, I’m gonna have to go blog about this one my own time. It’s totally off topic and so fun! For a word nerd anyway.

“fast PACE” Eek!

I’d love to know what sort of comment Sherman Alexie might have on the situation, considering his past tangle with that “Nasdijj” quack a while ago: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1154221,00.html

With so much actual heinousness(I know it’s spelling something like that)to choose from, picking on her spelling and grammar seems silly and wasteful.

On this “Letter” I mentioned this in the other thread, I find it ridiculous, and reading it just pissed me off.  To say that she’s being picked on for any reason but the fact that she steals other people’s words is silly and juvenile.  To say that she’s being singled out because she’s supposedly Native is disgusting to me.

I think Dear Author was trying to verify whether this was really a message from CE through the person it was addressed to. Did anything come out of that?

Can I make a suggestion? Where it was posted in the comments I saw a line above it that said ‘feel free to pass on to friends’ or something. Maybe it would be wise to include that in the post so to avoid further accusations of taking private posts or emails and posting them? I can see a shitstorm coming from people saying that you’ve made public what wasn’t supposed to be, and though I’m not sure either if this, if it turns out to be by CE, is actually intended to be an official statement, it would be detracting attention from the issue at hand. (run-on sentence ahoy!)

Other than that, I think you have and are still handling this remarkably well. Kudos, SB.

I hope some kind of ‘official’ statement will be issued by the CE camp. Because if this is it? Wow. There are no words.

If that really was by CE then it’s rather sad that she’s stooped so low as to play the race card. I don’t remember any comments made in that vein by anyone (of course I may be wrong about that).

And the whole “when I’m feeling stronger” thing is a bit overdone isn’t it? Not to sound mean, but is she going to swoon next?

But really, this just can’t be her. I agree with the other’s who’ve said it, you’d think she’d have a phalanx of lawyers telling her NOT to say anything publicly about it while they did their stuff to get her off the hook.

She even stole the frikkin’ introductory note to her own novel?!!!

That’s just…

I’m sorry, but that clearly warrants the extra exclamationmarks.

A priceless quote from CE’s MySpace profile: “While growing up Cassie Edwards dreamed of either being a English teacher or a secretary.” Surely someone who wanted to be “a English teacher” can wrap her brain around the concept of plagiarism! Or maybe she’s still stuck on the proper use of indefinite articles.

When a certain dirty epublisher threatened me with a lawsuit for posting their email on my blog, my very well respected lawyer informed me that as long as:

it was truncated
or
it came from a second source

I was cool legally.

That said… maybe asking a lawyer of your own would be smart?  If it’s not her (sounds like her—the racist bs alone…) this could get sticky.

The changes to this line of the Danziger are really interesting. Here’s Edward’s version:

“They have remained on their native lands, still a proud people, and continue to develop their interests in lumbering, fishing, farming, and mining.”

And here is Danziger’s:

“the Lake Superior bands have remained on their native lands and for the past century have continued to develop their interests in lumbering, fishing, farming, mining, shipping, and tourism.”

Notice how Edwards slips in “a proud people” (which seems in line with the portrayal of the “noble savages”) and also deletes the references to shipping and tourism, perhaps because these industries are either not noble or not savage enough.

I dug out some of my CE books and within five minutes found another instance of plagiarism that I don’t think has been reported.  She literally changed a single comma.

Savage Passions
By Cassie Edwards
Published 1996
Dorchester Publishing
Company, Incorporated
ISBN 0843939028

p.204

“Indian corn and sweet flag in the swamp, are the descendants of beautiful spirits who still live in them.”

Algonquin Legends of New England

By Charles Godfrey Leland
Published 1884
Houghton, Mifflin and
Company

p. 339

“The Indian corn and sweet flag in the swamp are the descendants of beautiful spirits who still live in them”

The funny thing is, Savage Passions is about the Ottowa Tribe in Michigan, and Leland wrote about the Algonquin of New England. That’s some meticulous research!

Don’t know if she wrote the letter. Don’t really care. However on her myspace page in her “About me” there are references to her Indian romances and Indian series.

I do find it a bit weird that in the About me portion it’s written as if some one else is writing it. Don’t know about anyone else but if I ever got a myspace and I was talking about myself I’d use me instead of She.

Just found this blog. I think it’s great.

Heh, I didn’t even think of possible legal ramifications (didn’t think there could be any, with the ‘alleged’ and everything - is that naive?). I was merely suggesting including the original headers for the sake of clarity.

Savage Passions
By Cassie Edwards
Published 1996
Dorchester Publishing
Company, Incorporated
ISBN 0843939028

p.204

“Indian corn and sweet flag in the swamp, are the descendants of beautiful spirits who still live in them.”

The added comma is quite misplaced, but the spirits are still beautiful. This is the identical comma error I itched to correct in the letter alleged to be from Cassie.  Is that corroboration or coincidence?

I’ve never posted on this website or blog before, so this is a test.

Gwynnyd, I don’t know.  Here’s another example I just found.  This time Leland is heavy on the comma use:

Savage Passions, p.206

“But I will tell you this now – that the highest ambition of an Ottawa Indian is to become mequomoowessoo, a mystical being who enjoys all highest privileges of humanity allied to the supernatural.”

Algonquin Legends of New England, p.376

“The highest ambition of an Indian was to become a Megummoowessoo, a mystical being, which is explained differently as a fairy, faun, sylvan deity, but which means one who enjoys all the highest privileges of humanity allied to the supernatural.”

Okay, my test comment came out okay. 

I wasn’t going to post about the Cassie Edwards allegations, but when I read that she felt picked on because she was Native American, I had to post.  I don’t like when people use the race or religion card as a reason.  That clearly is not the case in this instance.

Congratulations! You guys are “those women”!

I’m so jealous. I want to be a “those women”!

Oh, come on. 

I read the stuff posted on Dear Jane last night, and it reads like a copy editing revision…  Changing punctuation and omitting a word here and there does not make something original or something not plagiarized. It makes it, well, copy edited.

Any high school English teacher would consider this plagiarism.  It’s akin to re-wording an encyclopedia/Wikipedia article in a book report.  Kids get popped for it all the time.  That’s how they learn the definition of plagiarism with a very firm _DON’T DO THAT!!!! VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DO!!!!_

I’m so annoyed that I can’t even think of a snarky comment to end this post.  Arrgh.

please bring a bucket…I think I may be sick

I think I may have found something copied from a work published in 1978.  It appears to have been published by the Grand Rapids Public Library, and is only available in snippet view in Google Books, which suggests it’s still under copyright.

From Savage Passions, p.206

“A bearwalker was a man or a woman who, with herbs and special words which only they knew, could instantly transform themselves into balls of fire, or assume animal forms. Anthony had explained that once the person was transformed, they were able to travel great distances quickly, and go unrecognized.”

And from:

The Tree that Never Dies: Oral History of the Michigan Indians
By Pamela J. Dobson
Published 1978
Grand Rapids Public
Library

p.82

“man-doz-it to the Potawatomi, can with hers and special words which only they know, instantly transform themselves into balls of fire or assume animal forms. Once transformed, they are able to travel great distances quickly and go unrecog-“

That’s the only text available from the snippet view.

PW has a new article about it including the myspace statement

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6522437.html

From what I remember of my Native studies, there actually is some debate among Native peoples about whether they’d rather be called “Indian” or “Native Americans.”  Of course, I’m sure they’d rather be identified by their actual nation’s name.

I think it’s time we look at this issue in the best light.

At least the Bitches found a historical author who does her research!

A final post because I’ve been following this story WAY too closely and I need to stop.  I defended Cassie Edwards at first, perhaps because I like to believe that most people are inherently good and have honorable intentions.  Call me a Pollyanna, call me a troll.  I can take it.  I can also admit when I’m wrong.  I’m not usually a backpedaler, but in light of the latest evidence, I have to say her actions are indefensible.

From what I remember of my Native studies, there actually is some debate among Native peoples about whether they’d rather be called “Indian” or “Native Americans.” Of course, I’m sure they’d rather be identified by their actual nation’s name.

This matches what I’ve read/heard.

The one thing I’m all but SURE Native Americans wouldn’t consider at all respectful and honoring is all those books titled Savage This and Savage That.

Hello, first post here after lurking a while.  I just wanted to observe the rather interesting fact that this “response” actually rather pointedly refuses to address what she’s actually accused of doing.  It’s all “those horrible people, those horrible accusations, pity me. . .”

As I said on my own blog, I feel kind of sorry for her.  Not that she isn’t in the wrong, but we have something like a quarter century of editors who didn’t have enough respect for her or her readers to find this stuff, and gave her implicit permission to continue doing what she’s been doing.

If some editor reamed her a new one back in the 80s, when they should have, her career probably could have recovered (assuming she could have learned how to write without wholesale copying) and she might have 80-some legit works to claim her own.  Instead, because everyone gave her a pass, she now has a 100-title list of debatable work which will probably be impossible to live down.

If I was her, I’d take one silver lining out of all this.  I would take some comfort that this did not happen posthumously, leaving my heirs a legal mess to clean up and leaving me no opportunity to make things right.

It’s problematical that I can spot two incorrect facts in the PW article addition.

1. The mail is allegedly from CE, something they fail to note.

2. There’s more than one body of plagiarised work that’s still under copyright. The Ferret Thing was copyrighted all along.

Sloppy reporting wont help at all.

but we have something like a quarter century of editors who didn’t have enough respect for her or her readers to find this stuff, and gave her implicit permission to continue doing what she’s been doing

No, sorry. This wont wash. She owns her theft. Her action as an adult, her responsibility.

Of course, I’m sure they’d rather be identified by their actual nation’s name.

Totally off topic, but this comment by spinsterwitch brought to mind the fact that I find the Canadian terminology “First Nations” to be quite elegant.  I think because it recognizes that the Americas weren’t inhabited by a monoculture in the way that “Native American” somewhat implies.

And back on topic, I’m quite hoping that statement didn’t really come from Cassie Edwards because it’d be such a poor reflection on her if it is.  (But hey, on the positive side: no mention of car trunks and the New Jersey Parkway!)

Since my grandmother was half Cherokee, I have as much Native American blood as CE, so I think I can say she’s full of shit.

Falling back on the plight of the Native Americans just pisses me off. 

Next we’ll be hearing her problems stem from her dog dying.

“Smartbitches came to my house and stole my land and gave me smallpox WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGNST!!!!”

but we have something like a quarter century of editors who didn’t have enough respect for her or her readers to find this stuff, and gave her implicit permission to continue doing what she’s been doing

No, sorry. This wont wash. She owns her theft. Her action as an adult, her responsibility.

I’m sorry, I don’t absolve the editors of responsibility here.  When 15 minutes of work by a librarian, or random Googling a review quote, turns up troublesome passages, there is absolutely no excuse for editors missing this stuff for years.

Note, I do not give CE a pass.  She’s apparently a serial plagiarist of high order.  But like steroids in baseball, a fair amount of blame exists for the people in charge who allowed the wrongdoing to continue because of the bottom line.

I’m brand new to SB. I found it through talk on the CE issue on a loop. Although I have been following the situation very closely and think it is an extremely important issue, I would also like to see those reviews, HABO, Cover Snark and other things I’ve been missing out on not knowing about the site.

But like steroids in baseball, a fair amount of blame exists for the people in charge who allowed the wrongdoing to continue because of the bottom line.

I don’t actually disagree with you as such, I’m just loath to let even an ounce of guilt slide of CE by implied permission.

Do I also think an editor should have caught on to this? Hell yeah!

I hang out over at Making Light and I find it very hard to believe that someone like f.x Teresa Nielsen Hayden (editor for Tor)wouldn’t have caught this shit fairly quickly. She’s fearsome sharp. Maybe CE only ever came across young and inexperienced editors.

Just remember do not accept blankets from those women. ;)

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/06/21/video-the-race-flag/

I would like to take this moment to play The Race Flag.

I’m sorry but I have to comment on this myspace response. As an aspiring writer this whole situation pisses me off. Thus far I have been pretty silent.
The mention of “what has been done to her” really gets my goat.
What about what she has done to other writers? She stole from them, like a thief in the night. Now that she has been caught she is playing the victim.
It is tantamount to literay rape.

I hope that Ms.Edwards did not really write this.

Regarding Savage Longings and its heroine, Snow Deer—there is an old song called “Snow Deer.”  Interestingly enough, it’s about an Indian Maiden and her Cowboy Lover.  Some lyrics may be found here:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=7733

I don’t have Savage Longings, so I can’t check it out and see if any lines from the song appear in the book, though ;)

I think Dear Author was trying to verify whether this was really a message from CE through the person it was addressed to. Did anything come out of that?

From Dear Author: “Updated to add: DA contacted, via telephone, a representative of Cassie Edwards to authenticate the statement below. In response, the representative replied that there would be no comment. You can all draw whatever conclusions you want from that.”

It’s not exactly a resounding “No, I never said that!” is it?

LOL!

Yeah, she wouldn’t have to plagiarize if you guys would only STOP INTERFERING WITH HER BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS!!!

I’ve waited for some sort of verification to seriously comment on the statement purported to be from CE.

As she’s chosen the no comment route instead of denial, I have to assume it came from her.

And that it follows the general pattern when someone’s accused of plagiarism.

Denial, excuses, a bid for sympathy and blaming others for the situation they’re in.

I will qualify that in my statement to the press I didn’t condemn Ms. Edwards. I condemned the act of plagiarism.

I still do.

“No comment” is PR-speak for “yes.”

Pardon me while I go shuffle my deck of race cards so that I, too, may use them when I am called on the carpet for misdeeds.

Wow.  I am really grateful for all of your and your readers’ research on this topic.  From The Education of Little Tree to The Blood Runs Like A River Through My Dreams, Native writers are not unfamiliar with outright plaigarism and general theft of our very real history as fodder for some seriously whack white writers’ game.

Marginalization of Native people not only includes the physical marginalization of reservations, but also the academic marginalization to historical prologues and it seems, the artistic marginalization that gives these white writers the gall to subsume an entire continent of a people’s history. 

Two years ago, Sherman Alexie wrote a small essay after the outing of Nasdijj called “When the Story Stolen Is Your Own,” and asked: 

So why should we be concerned about his lies? His lies matter because he has cynically co-opted as a literary style the very real suffering endured by generations of very real Indians because of very real injustices caused by very real American aggression that destroyed very real tribes.

“I do find it a bit weird that in the About me portion it’s written as if some one else is writing it. Don’t know about anyone else but if I ever got a myspace and I was talking about myself I’d use me instead of She.”

LadySnarky, I have a friend who works for a company that manages myspace pages for popular country artists- it’s a service they offer in addition to keeping the artists’ websites updated.  I’ve saved the friend request she sent me from Popular Country Artist, just so I can look at it and giggle at “Popular Country Artist wants to be your friend!”
Maybe CE has a similar setup going?  I mean, myspace is an unparalleled timesuck, and she clearly needs lots of time to do such thorough research.

Nora,

I’ve always liked you, admired your storytelling abilities, and happily bought and read your books.  You are (rightly so) an icon in publishing.

Unfortunately, now I have to add “moral crusader” to the list of things I admire about you, and I fear it’s pushed me over the line into total squee-fangrrl territory. *sigh*  Damn you and your integrity!

Ahem.

Thanks to the SBs, all the Ja(y)nes at DA, and others (not the least of whom are those poor souls who’ve done the dirty work of reading/researching) who have brought this to light and kept it there.  It’s unfortunate that ya’ll have to endure the slings and arrows aimed at you for *gasp* telling the truth.  Mean girls, indeed.

Dak

I’ve been following this, as many of my friends have, since the news broke.  Hats off to the Smart Bitches for uncovering this information, and for standing up and reminding anyone who claims not to know that plagiarism and copyright infringement are WRONG.

As a writer, I can only say that anyone who deliberately copies whole chunks of information verbatim from another source and claims it as his or her own is guilty of plagiarism, possibly copyright infringement, and most certainly theft.

And there is no excuse for stealing someone else’s work.  None.

If anyone wants to check Edwards’ My Space page for updates, it’s here:

http://tinyurl.com/3c98fk

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=109400810

NOTE: you need a faster computer than mine.  I have midbroadband and a computer with, I believe 2 gigs of RAM, but loading the page tied up my computer for a while.

dude.  she’s comparing her plagiarism to the murders, thefts, and persecution of the indigenous peoples of north america?  tell me she did not just go there.

You know, you guys and Dear Author were doing well until you all decided to post this letter.  I went and read the PW article and they haven’t put ‘allegedly’ in there anywhere.  So now this letter is being attributed to CE and no one nows if it really was written by her.

I was going to comment at Dear Author last night when I saw it but too many people were happy to believe what they wanted.

You have clear proof that Cassie Edwards plagiarized and even though some of the comments were a little too personal and gleeful I recognized the wrong committed and like many am wondering at the ramifications while hoping that the romance community does not take the brunt of the fallout.

That said, posting this ‘supposed’ letter without knowing exactly who wrote it makes everything you worked for now seem like gossip.

I refuse to comment on this letter until I know who exactly wrote it.  I guess I am wondering why you posted this - was it to be the first ones out of the gate?  If so, maybe a little commentary about what you both think would help to keep people from just assuming this is fact.

CindyS

CindyS, check at Dear Author—they did try to get confirmation or categorical denial, and got a “no comment” instead. Take it as you will.

I’ll say exactly what I think and that is this letter was written by Cassie Edwards.  We sent emails to three different individuals and place a phone call to an Edwards representative and rec’d a response that was “no comment.” 

If Edwards did not make this statement, she had the opportunity to refute it and choose not to do so.

Ah.  So no comment is now proof.  Anyone figure she’s getting a ton of questions tossed at her now and maybe someone told her all answers were to be ‘no comment’.

No comment is not proof.

CindyS

CindyS - you asked what my thoughts were and that is what they are.  As I said in the post, everyone can draw their own conclusions.  Your conclusion is different from mine.

Are the misspellings and other errors in the original?

Gwynnyd

Yes, the message is posted *exactly* as the original bulletin read.  I verified the exact wording, spelling, etc. three times before posting. 

That said, SB Sarah is right.  This isn’t about the typos, it’s about the content.  As appalling as it is.

Fair enough.

CindyS

Wow.  I’m still stunned, which after a week of this comes as a surprise.

She lifted the intro of her book?

**headdesk**

As to the statement on MySpace, all I can think of is where is her publicist?  If indeed she wrote the note, it makes the situation look even worse.

There is nothing like pulling out a race card to get people, who weren’t interested in the debate to begin with, ticked off for co-opting their heritage as a legitimate defense for what’s been done wrong.

I’m certain she’s likely overwhelmed by the response to all of this and if the note is her’s, clearly she still doesn’t understand the import of what she’s done or she doesn’t care.

Thank you Smart Bitches for continuing to stand up for the rights of writers.  Thank you Nora for being so damn professional despite how hard this must hit home.  And thank you to all of you intrepid souls who’ve done the hours of research to show that this is a serious issue across numerous published works, not a one-time instance.