"When The Most Successful Author In Romance Judges Others"

Dudes, stop posting on here, the blog has MOVED!

Awwww....they make it so damn easy for me to be.... well...me...

Anyway, since author, Deborah Smith (I believe she wrote the award winning book, Crossroads Cafe) has much to say for herself, I thought I'd give her comments the exposure they deserve, cuz you know, I'm nice like that.

Thanks to the Anon commenter who posted this link of a cached Amazon post that she wrote, presumably, at the height of the CE Love Fest.

This is what she had to say:


"Hi, y'all. I debated whether to post publicly {K: Ooops, too late, and Google forgets nothing unfortunately} about this tempest in a teapot in the romance world, because the last thing I want is to be eviscerated by Nora Roberts' avid fangirls. But there's a quiet little stream of conversation in the world of romance writers as to why Roberts, unquestionably the richest, most award-winning, most successful romance novelist in the world -- in fact, one of the most successful novelists in the world, period -- hangs out at a blog site called "Smart Bitches," where the topics include open attacks on authors so far down the food chain that one wonders how Nora has time in her busy career to even notice they exist.



Now Roberts has weighed in (via an interview with the national press) on a controversy surrounding old-school historical author Cassie Edwards. I don't know Cassie Edwards; I've never read one of her many (nearly 100) historicals. But so far as I can tell she's a hardworking, 71-year-old author who's never slammed any other author in public. To the best of my knowledge Ms. Edwards is considered a rollicking good storyteller who likes to write westerns and pirate novels. She does not appear to have any pretensions, and her fans clearly love her books.

But -- according to reports launched by the Smart Bitches bloggers, who admitted beforehand that they don't like Ms. Edwards' old-style books, and have spent considerable time making jokes about them -- the author "plagiarized" bits and pieces of research material. The horrendous offense? Some passages about (I'm not kidding) buffaloes and ferrets. Looking at the passages myself, all I see is a writer who maybe should have paraphrased some research info a little better. I don't see malicious or greedy intent; I don't see "plagiarism" in any serious legal interpretation of the charge. If there's more to the issue than that, I haven't seen the evidence.

But I kinda doubt that Ms. Edwards' success is built on her nature writing. I kinda doubt she sat at her computer thinking, "If I use this other author's description of a buffalo, I'll sell ten times more books."

But now this grandmother (and accomplished violinist) is fielding national wire service inquiries about her alleged misdeeds. And Nora Roberts -- unsolicited, unharmed, with no personal beef with Ms. Edwards in any way, as far as I know -- has stood up atop her unassailable pile of money and awards to say -- in the national media --that Ms. Edwards appears to have committed plagerism.

Why does Roberts feel compelled to play lawyer, judge and jury regarding a fellow author? Roberts has achieved a level of good fortune 99.9 percent of authors can only dream about. But does that make her not only the spokeswoman for the romance genre, but also its enforcer of public condemnation for unproven offenses?

Not for me, and not for thousands of other hardworking authors trying to earn a living down here in the trenches, that's for sure."

And on that bombshell, I'm off to the pictures with TTG. I may even buy a violin with my popcorn whilst I'm out. :)

Updated to add: Here at Karen Scott Central, (thanks to AztecLady) we've realised that Ms Smith's motives may not have been so pure after all. She was the lady who 'jokingly' accused Mancusi and Maverick of encouraging pedophilia by wearing their school girl outfits, at the height of the RWA Swanhat-gate Lovefest last year. She originally posted on the SBs blog, but here's her comments at DA.

Now we know why she's hating on Nora and the SBs so much; she's getting them back for making her look stupid and clueless. *g*

Would You Trust Your Book, Or Your Royalty Payments With That Woman?

Remember how earlier this year, Teresa Jacobs, CEO of the now defunct Mardi Gras Publishing, lost her damn mind? No? Well she's the madam who wrote that she'd closed down MGP, "due to a lack of finances, hormonal females, and bitching".

Well, apparently she's started up a new publishing company called LA Media. I was wondering who the hell would be foolish enough to trust her with their books, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that one of the authors was a lady called Jaden Sinclair (the other author was Teresa, herself under the guise of Teresa Wayne, and some bird called Savannah Black). Now for some reason, that name seems very familiar to me, can anybody shed a light on who she is? Didn't she engage in a full-on rant trying to defend Jacobs and MGP?

Anyway, I found her Teresa Wayne blog, and I must admit, I was tickled pink when I read the blog post entitled Vengeance is Karma. She writes:

Hello my dear readers!


I have been gone for quite some time and now I am back to continue my writing career with a blaze of glory.
My previous venture with Mardi Gras Publishing was a huge lesson learned, and one I care not to repeat or discuss.
Many ebook related folks have found it necessary to drag the failer of MGP and its owner (me) in the dirt in a very unforgiving, one-sided fashion. Constantly including my writing name (Teresa Wayne) into their one-sided acqusations. My writing had nothing to do with MGP...Hummm....


Personally, I feel I owe no explanations, outside of what was given to my authors during the closing of MGP. I have not in the past, nor do I intend in the future, to seek any sort of vengeance. No need to. My vengeance is karma.

Apparently LA Media also provide proof-reading, and various other editorial services. Nuff said. *g*

In other news remember The Dishing Diva, AKA author, Rene Lyons? Well apparently she's also decided to start a a new publishing company too. It must be something in the air.

I must say though, I was most gratified to see the following stipulations on the site:

DSP will NOT consider:


Pedophilia: Such a book will not be considered in any form.
Rape: Rape for titillation is not acceptable.
Necrophilia: Sex with the dead will not be considered for publication.
Bestiality: Sex with animals is not accepted. This does not include shape shifters in human form.
Incest: Self explanatory.

Now if she'd banned daddy/daughter play, I would have been in seventh heaven, but alas, I'll have to make do with her banning rape play and incest. *g*

It seems scarily easy to start your own e-pub these days. If I was an aspiring author, there's no way I'd give them my work until they'd been published for at least three years.

I'm wondering how long they'll both stay in business?

And before anybody mentions it, yes, I did indeed notice who the first commenter on the Dishing Diva post was. Ahhh, the good old days of rampant sucking up eh? *g*

Just In Case You Didn't Know Who Patti Rebmann AKA AP Miller Is...

Here are ten million people you can ask. According to Patsy anyway.

"I really wish I knew where you were getting your information from Karen. I have never been fired for any editing position I had nor have I been rejected for my work, Let's see...How about you query Tamara McHatton, Rochelle Webber, Dawn Seewer, Karen Simpson...I can go on hunny...you can contact Tina Haversham at Extasy, Kathryn Struck, Dick Claussen, Rene Walden...Need I saw more?

No matter what you do you cannot touch my credibility...My agent is Belinda WIlliams at Literary Lifestyles and my Director is Michael Maxx Kelly...Go ahead open your big mouth some more, and contact all these people...Caridad Scordato, Irene Petersen...they know who I am...Oh let's not for get Deb Mullins, Cris Janssen, Jan Jansen, Eloisa James...shall I go on or is this enough for you? Now I strongly advise you to shut your mouth before you wind up with a leagl suit on your hands for slander."

Well, it was all going so swimmingly, until she threatened to sue me. Big sigh.

You can follow the entire conversation via the comments link.

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving...

"It's all about the comment count right Karen? You stir shit but never smell it. You don't moderate or join the discussion you start. Those are human beings posting there on your blog some of them genuinely trying to understand and to be understood. As hostess you have a responsibility to your guests, even the rude ones.

And yeah - this last go around you have slam dancing unattended now over there pretty much ended my interest in anything you might have to say in the future. You are absolutely right. I don't like it and I won't be checking back again. No loss to you so it's all good.


You are brave and wise Sara. I stopped posting there because Karen starts an issue and then sits back quietly letting her guests get hammered. Kate otoh always actively joins the discussion. That's the difference between a discussion blog and a flame fest. Took me awhile to figure that out."

Cindy Cruciger AKA Ferfelabat, Kate Rothwell's blog

"For some reason I always pictured Sarah as a dishwater blond and tall. Of them all I have to say Jane doesn’t even come close to what I thought she looked like. I was guessing mid 40’s, WASP. Was I WAY wrong. Sybil looks like a cross between Renee Bernard and Sherilynn Kenyon."

Cindy Cruciger AKA Ferfelabat, Ferfelabat.com

"51. Selah March Jul 17
Oh, look, gang. Apparently Jane thinks that because Ferfe asked the question “bloggers and fans don’t usually show up at RWA, do they?” (although she SAYS RT, I’m assuming she means RWA National, since that’s what her whole post is about, but God only knows, I guess) that means she/we don’t WANT bloggers and fans at our writing conferences. Could someone point me to where any of us said that? Please?

(insert Dear Author Link)

Methinks it must be one more instance of poor reading skills on someone’s part. Or assuming facts not in evidence. I’ve seen this phenomenon before. Recently, even.

(Insert Avidreader's link)

Reading comprehension: It’s not just for third graders anymore."


62. FerfeLaBat Jul 17
"It’s comments like that that made me think she was a 40 yo WASP. Classic disdain. You can’t buy that. You have to be born with it and it takes years to perfect. Also one of the reasons she makes my top ten scarriest blogger list.
Oh sure. She looks all harmless and cute. But pretty soon she’s gonna get mean and then there’ll be a million more of her."


"Sigh. What does it say about me that this seems to be the only blog where a discussion of Candy’s cleavage can be carried on for over two days? Nothing good, I’m sure. I’m seriously hoping Karen exceeds that so I can pretend that this started there and then whistle off into the sunset all innocent like."

Cindy Cruciger AKA Ferfelabat.com, 17th July 2007