Move Over, ‘Meerkat Manor’

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.

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.

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.

Shame on you for using a term as archaic as "Trashy Romance Novels". It might not be an in depth look at something as intriguing as say, ferrets, but it's still hard work writing genre fiction! Something you obviously know nothing about.

So is there really a book about ferrets? And if so where can I get a copy?

So is there really a ferret book? If there is where can I purchase it?
Raylene Hampton....ujustpushplay@att.net

As a Newsweek reader and Defenders of Wildlife member, i was curious about this story! Tolmes wrote an amusing article. THe romance novelist ought to apologize for this and donate fto Defenders of WIldlife. Tolmes b emusement of being quoted (unattirbuted) was priceless..

OMG! This is one of the funniest articles I've read in a long time. I am both a Defenders of Wildlife supporter and a trashy romance novel fan. While Paul Tolme could simply have erupted in anger and followed through with a lawsuit (rightly so) I LOVE the fact that he went out and bought this novel,then took the time to read through it. His comments are hysterical ~ what an entertaining writer!

OMG! This article is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. I am a Defenders of Wildlife supporter and a long time reader of trashy romance novels as well. Kudos to Paul Tolme for his entertaining outlook on the blatant plagiarism of his black-footed ferret article. While he could have just erupted in anger and a lawsuit (rightly so), I love the fact that he went out and bought the novel and actually read through it. His comments throughout this article are priceless!

Well this is just rediculous. It sounds to me like she is just a lazy writer. They teach about plagiarism the minute you learn your alphabet. She is, I'm sure, aware of her rights as an author and that plagiarism is illegal. In fact I'm sure she's got a contract that says it in a file folder somewhere. With stories of plagiarism floating around the internet and the news CONSTANTLY she can't plead ignorance. She's not only a plagairizer, but a lousy liar. A works cited page is SOOOO easy to write too. Not to mention, if she had put it in her own words and she had written a works cited page I would have been terribly impressed! Lots of authors do research for their books and that includes romance writers. The more research done the better the book. I have a fitting punishment: Write a 50 page paper on the problems with plagairism, how it hurts the original author and the plagairizer, and why (as every four year old knows) it is rude to be a copycat... all in HER OWN WORDS. Does anyone else hear sinister organ music playing in the background?

This totally shocks me to the core! I'm a literature major and a pharmacy student (random, but it works). Plagiarism of scientific information is rediculously hard and I wonder how much of her high school papers this Edwards woman wrote were plagiarised. Kids write papers about their favorite animals in first grade to get them familiar with the library and their taught that they should not write anything word for word, list facts, and write down sources in a bibliography.... these are FIRST GRADE PAPERS! Not published works. If this Edwards has enough sense to call her lawyer when she's been caught she has enough sense to write a small works cited page and put something CLEARLY scientific in her own words. This is a sign of a lazy writer. Romance writer, researcher, first grader, it doesn't bloody matter. Plagiarism is plagerism and its all over the news (obviously) all the time. Pleading ignorance (which is BS in my opinion) is not a way out. I say we make her sit down and write a book on plagerism and how it not only hurts the original writer, but the plagiarizer as well. And no plagiarizing this time. Seriously. You're a professional writer... how hard is it?

I'm going to try and explain this again. In no way, shape or form did I compare The Eye of Argon to Ms. Edwards' book.
I was simply trying to show how Mr. Tolme's statement of "The prose is standard romance-novel shlock." went from a comment on Ms. Edwards' novel to a comment that described all romance novels as shlock.
Another example would be if I took any SF book at random______(insert title in blank space) and then stated that "the prose in that book is standard science fiction novel shlock."