the things you find in Newsweek

Apologies, dear Reader(s) but this week has seen the start of a new semester and I've been busy teaching a new set of undergrads while wondering how on earth the Library could have "forgotten" about all the books and articles I had asked to put on reserve. In other words, Real Life has gotten in the way of entertaining yous. But, fear not, for I'm back.

I was skimming through Newsweek just now, trying to find an article for my class tomorrow when I ran across this:

"Move Over, ‘Meerkat Manor’ A nature writer suddenly finds himself at the heart of a hot plagiarism scandal." by Paul Tolme.

What's it about, yous ask? Well, here's Tolme:

"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."

He goes on..."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."

Apparently a famous romance novelist plagiarised the works of others, including Mr. Tolme.

Mr. Tolme's full story is here. He's actually a rather amusing writer (despite his tendency to characterise romance novels as trashy rubbish, a characterisation not helped by that particular book's cover)