I started looking at the situation with Cornwell's lawsuit against her stalker, Leslie Raymond Sachs.

I had stopped following it for a few years. Then I got curious a few weeks ago. She won her lawsuit. Yet, Sachs has (in violation of court order) continued putting up other websites about it, still making the same claims.

I found that (and correct me if I am wrong) Sachs appears to have self-published his Amanda Poe Mysteries under an imprint called Pussycat Press. He accused Cornwell, initially, of plagiarizing his novel, The Virginia Ghost Murder (1998), when she published The Last Precinct (2000). When he got no satisfaction, he began to follow her all over the internet and spread vicious lies about her.

The website I found a few weeks ago by Sachs has already been taken down. Someone must be watching him.

Not wanting to give money to Sachs by purchasing his book new, I located and purchased a used copy of it. I purchased a new copy of Cornwell's book.

Sachs' book arrived today. The copy is autographed. Not that I wanted his autograph. I only discovered it on opening the book this morning. Large type size means that it is not actually a novel length work, but closer to novelette or possibly novella.

The next thing that I discovered was that the writing was extremely poor.

Which brings me back around to the exact same point I tried to make about Jordan Scott vs Stephanie Meyers.

The nature of plagiarism and the ignorance of the people who are doing the naughtiness of suing name authors.

I will be the first to admit that plagiarism does occur. Sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously.

However, the fact that a book by a name author and an obscure book by an unknown share some basic elements in common does not make it plagiarism. It is not unusual for books to have things in common. No one has a sole ownership on, say, vampires. No one has a sole right to historical events, cultural aspects, or other matters.

There's an online shop that trademarked the word "Thane." Does that mean we have to take it out of our history books and our fantasies? No.

If more than one person decides to write about the same minor point in history, does that make one of them a plagiarist? No.

Some things are borrowed and used so often that they become tropes.

Some people make actual refs to other authors, friends, and works in their novels and stories. I have a mage who lives on an island the size of New Zealand and raises colored sheep. Her name is McConchie. Unlike Lyn McConchie who also raises colored sheep, my character's sheep are green and purple.

One of the largest things missing right now on the internet is a sense of proportion.

Because someone else wrote or did something similar is no reason to assume plagiarism, waste money on lawsuits, or (as in the case of Sachs), subject someone to a wealth of unfair abuse.

Tags: abuse, janrae frank, leslie sachs, patricia cornwell, plagiarism, stupid wannabes

After all these years I can't put all of the pieces right in my head. I have only an image that hit me so hard at seven years old, a month shy of eight, that it haunted my dreams as a child.

But it came back to me again as I was writing a scene of disaster.

Comparing dates, I can see now that it happened around the time that I had polio. I cannot tell you which event came first.

What I remember is the overwhelming sense of panic among the adults (my mother and my grandparents). We were living in Long Beach, California. The navy shipyard there would have been a primary target if the missiles had been launched from Russia.

The image?

Empty shelves. Row after row of empty shelves in the supermarket. My mother trying desperatedly to get enough food to get by if the crisis came to blows. For about five years afterward I used to hoard candy in a box under my bed. I was constantly asking for money to buy candy, but I never ate it. The candy went into the box. Eventually my hoard was discovered hidden behind boxes of toys and taken from my possession.

Tags: cuban missile crisis, janrae frank

Brian Keene speaks on a subject dear to my heart and one I have been talking about in bits and pieces for months now.

There is a wide chasm of quality and direction between an established author bringing out their own backlist and an inexperienced first time writer self-publishing.

Tags: brian keene, janrae frank, self publishing

I just received this email, but the author is far more interesting than the email itself.

I am currently putting together a book that will be a tribute to Forry Ackerman, entitled Cinemassacres: A Tribute To Forrest J. Ackerman, located here http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id402.html which is currently being revised to a different title and guest list. I would consider it an honor if you would agree to do a written interview for the book. If so, I'd just send you some Q&A via email, you'd answer the questions, send it back via email. Easy!
If you might be interested, let me know, and I will get back to you ASAP after the holidays.

Best Wishes for a happy holiday,
Iron Dave

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Iron Dave
http://fictionprodigies.webs.com
http://ligaturemarks.webs.com
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On Line {Contact hours} Monday to Friday - 8am to 2pm Saturday - 9am to 2pm
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Well the name rang some chimes, but I could not remember why. So I googled him and then I remembered a comment from Lewis at the Rusty Nail.

I also checked out the websites he listed in his email.

authorsden

Tags: david byron, iron dave, scam publishers