Move Over, ‘Meerkat Manor’
A nature writer suddenly finds himself at the heart of a hot plagiarism scandal.
When I traveled to South Dakota in 2005 to write a story about black-footed ferrets, I never imagined my words about the little weasels would one day appear in a trashy romance novel. I just wanted to write an informative and entertaining piece about these endangered prairie carnivores.
Three years later my story ("Toughing It Out in the Badlands") is at the center of 2008's sexiest plagiarism scandal.
It all began when a mysterious e-mail arrived in my inbox last week with a link to a romance novel blog, www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com. While reviewing a novel by best-selling romance writer Cassie Edwards, the self-proclaimed "smart bitches" had discovered passages that matched, word for word, my ferret story.
In the Internet age, every freelance writer fears that his or her words will be appropriated without compensation. First I was angry. Then I had to laugh. To see my textbook descriptions of ferrets in a bodice-ripper, as dialogue between a hunky American Indian and a lustful pioneer woman who several pages later have sex on a mossy riverbank, is the height of absurdity.
I rushed out to buy a copy of the book. The cover of "Shadow Bear," $6.99 in paperback, features a shirtless, dark-haired hunk in a loin cloth with a machete strapped to his belt. His abdominal muscles ripple, and wind blows through his long mane. Set in South Dakota in 1850, the book is a tale of forbidden love between a pioneer hottie, Shiona Bramlett, and a Lakota chief, Shadow Bear. "With a passion that is undeniable, they must learn to put their mistrust aside and share their secrets before all is lost," reads the jacket.
The prose is standard romance-novel shlock. Bramlett's bosom heaves. Shadow Bear feels a longing in his loins. On page 195, after several false starts to stoke the furnaces of readers, Bramlett and Shadow Bear finally get down to business. They have sex in his teepee on some animal pelts. Hungrily, their sinuous bodies rock and quake until both explode in rapturous pleasure. When the teepee flaps are rocking, don't come a-knocking.
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Member Comments
Posted By: SheilaE @ 03/21/2008 1:55:56 PM
Comment: Though it seems a bit unfair to stereotype all romance novels as "trashy", I can't fault the writer for sharing their own opinion, espeically if that opinion is based off of what was just read out of that novel. That was terrible! But, it is also not reflective of romance novels of today. Many of romance novels today are written by well educated and/or trained people. Many doctors and attorneys write romance these days. It just isn't the same genre it was back when Edwards started writing romance.
I think the author here should be given kudos for being able to laugh it off .
I also think that Cassie Edwards should have at least apologized when the author called her. It's one thing to be ignorant of the law, but another to be ignorant of simple etiquette. My 6 year old know when she owes an apology!
I felt sorry for Edwards. She got crucified online. I hope she has learned a valuable lesson. I'm sure there are a lot of people who learned from her very media-visible mistake.
Posted By: Xavienne @ 03/01/2008 1:40:36 PM
Comment: You're going to call him out as ignorant after someone plagiarizes his work and then claims they didn't know they had to quote source?
Oh, and FYI? Just because something sells well, doesn't mean it's good, nor classy. Uggs and Crocs are prime examples of this.
Posted By: jacywilder @ 02/19/2008 6:03:17 PM
Comment: For someone who writes non-fiction research related pieces, this piece was certainly not researched. Call romance what you will but it is almost 55% of the paperback market. With those kind of numbers your comments only make you seem small and ignorant.