Alleged Response from Cassie Edwards Issued via MySpace

Thanks to Nikki, who posted the following in the comments of our previous entry, we have the text of what is allegedly a response from Cassie Edwards issued via her MySpace account:

Original Message
From: Cassie Edwards
Date: Jan 11, 2008 11:58 AM

Hi, Lisa,
I just got on My Space and I found your wonderful encouraging letter. Thank you for believing in me, for I have done nothing wrong. My publisher is standing behind me 100%, for they know my work better than anyone, and they know that all romance authors who use research for historicals have to use reference books to do this. My readers love this accurate material about the Indians. And if I couldn’t use this material my books would not be worth anything to my readers who depend on me.

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. And I am honoring my great grandmother who was a full blood Cheyenne. 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. And do you know? I feel picked on now as our Native American Indians have always been picked on throughout history. I am trying to spread the word about them and what do I get? Spiteful women who have found a way to bring attention to themselves, by getting in the media in this horrible way.

Right now I am getting hit from all sides….CNN, The New York Times, AP, everyone who those women could think of to contact. And what is also sad is that a fellow author, has spoken up and condemned me.

Thanks again for your support. When I am feeling stronger I plan to write a bulletin on My Space, but right now I am totally drained of energy from what has been done to me. I hope that you will tell your friends, who are so much also mine, the wrong that has been done to me, and tell them that I will get through this. I will be found innocent and vendicated of any wrong.

For now, it's all too raw and horrible, but I will be alright.
Love, Cassie

Categorized:

General Bitching...

Comments are Closed

  1. MamaNice says:

    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!

  2. dillene says:

    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.

  3. 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.

  4. Victoria Dahl says:

    “fast PACE” Eek!

  5. Julie L. says:

    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

  6. Ashirin says:

    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.

  7. Octavia says:

    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.

  8. Wendy says:

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

    And the whole Ć¢ā‚¬Å“when IĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢m feeling strongerĆ¢ā‚¬Ā thing is a bit overdone isnĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢t it? Not to sound mean, but is she going to swoon next?

    But really, this just canĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢t be her. I agree with the otherĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢s whoĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢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.

  9. Eirin says:

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

    That’s just…

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

  10. EmJay says:

    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.

  11. Chrissy says:

    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.

  12. 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.

  13. Lisa says:

    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

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“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

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“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!

  14. LadySnarky says:

    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.

  15. Octavia says:

    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.

  16. Gwynnyd says:

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

    p.204

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“Indian corn and sweet flag in the swamp, are the descendants of beautiful spirits who still live in them.Ć¢ā‚¬Ā

    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?

  17. Donna says:

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

  18. Lisa says:

    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

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“But I will tell you this now Ć¢ā‚¬ā€œ 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.Ć¢ā‚¬Ā

    Algonquin Legends of New England, p.376

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“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.Ć¢ā‚¬Ā

  19. Donna says:

    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.

  20. --E says:

    Congratulations! You guys are “those women”!

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

  21. Meezergrrrl says:

    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.

  22. Aemelia says:

    please bring a bucket…I think I may be sick

  23. Lisa says:

    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

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“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.Ć¢ā‚¬Ā

    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

    Ć¢ā‚¬Å“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-Ć¢ā‚¬Å“

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

  24. NHS says:

    PW has a new article about it including the myspace statement

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

  25. 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.

  26. J.C. Wilder says:

    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!

  27. Jill Sorenson says:

    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.

  28. Susan W. says:

    From what I remember of my Native studies, there actually is some debate among Native peoples about whether theyĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢d rather be called Ć¢ā‚¬Å“IndianĆ¢ā‚¬Ā or Ć¢ā‚¬Å“Native Americans.Ć¢ā‚¬Ā Of course, IĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢m sure theyĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢d rather be identified by their actual nationĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢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.

  29. 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.

  30. Eirin says:

    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.

  31. Eirin says:

    but we have something like a quarter century of editors who didnĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢t have enough respect for her or her readers to find this stuff, and gave her implicit permission to continue doing what sheĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢s been doing

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

  32. fiveandfour says:

    Of course, IĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢m sure theyĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢d rather be identified by their actual nationĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢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!)

  33. SandyO says:

    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.

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


  35. but we have something like a quarter century of editors who didnĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢t have enough respect for her or her readers to find this stuff, and gave her implicit permission to continue doing what sheĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢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.

  36. NHS says:

    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.

  37. Eirin says:

    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.

  38. SandyO says:

    Just remember do not accept blankets from those women. šŸ˜‰

  39. Delia says:

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

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

  40. CJ says:

    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.

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