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Ohmygod that is so hot.

Shadow Bear responds: "What I have observed of them, myself, is that these tiny animals breed in early spring when the males roam the night in search of females." As the ferrets bound off into some distant bushes, he continues: "Mothers typically give birth to three kits in early summer and raise their young alone in abandoned prairie dog burrows."

Shiona: "I read that ferrets stalk and kill prairie dogs during the night. Using their keen sense of smell and whiskers to guide them through pitch-black burrows, ferrets suffocate the sleeping prey, an impressive feat considering the two species are about the same weight." Shiona shivers, upset by the thought of the cute animals locked in mortal combat.

Sensing her vulnerability, Shadow Bear knows just what to say: "In turn, coyotes, badgers, and owls prey on ferrets, whose life span in the wild is often less than two winters … They have a short, quick life."

Wow, that is some bad dialogue. It stands out as clunky and awkward even by the standards of romance novels. That's because Edwards didn't write it. I did.

I traveled to South Dakota in the spring of 2005, flying into Rapid City airport, renting a car and driving to Wall, where I checked into a dumpy motel overlooking an industrial yard. It was as unromantic a location as you could imagine. At night I went out looking for ferrets with biologist Travis Livieri, one of the nation's foremost experts on the species.

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: SheilaE @ 03/21/2008 1:55:56 PM

    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

    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

    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.

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