The Great Cassie Edwards Scandal

[meganbmoore]

For those not familiar with what I'm referring to: Cassie Edwards is a romance author who writes rather bad Native American romances with titles like Savage Longings, Savage Beloved, Savage Moon and Savage Dream.  I am not ashamed to admit I read a few in high school.  The reason I am not ashamed to admit it is because they're one of the main things that got me to realize that popular and good were not synonymous, and that thinking a book others loved was bad was a problem with the book, not with me.  Because of her, bad native american romances are my limit.*  Well, that and things like rape, alpha male pressuring the doormat into submission, abuse and other squick and annoyance factors.  Oh, and boredom.  You can be great or awful and not hit hot buttons and I'll read, but the second you start to bore, we're done.

Anyway, recently, one of the lovely ladies at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recently sat down with some of her books with a friend, who reading them, noticed that some of the passages didn't fit with the rest of the prose.  With a few minutes in google, they discovered that they were directly lifted and minimally paraphrased from various sources without credit.  According to crumpeteer, apparently she even plagiarized one of her author's notes.

Here is the introductory post.

Here is a document with comparisons between the original texts and Edwards's books.

Here is a link to an article containing Edwards's response, which includes this gem: [Edwards] acknowledged that she sometimes “takes” her material “from reference books,” but added that she didn’t know she was supposed to credit her sources. 

Here is a letter posted to myspace, allegedly by Edwards.  I'm fond of this part: The sad thing is that I am writing these books now in a way to honor our Native Americans, past, present and in the future. And I am honoring my great grandmother who was a full blood Cheyenne. She would be so proud of me if she could read what I am writing about the Indians who have been so maligned for so long. And do you know? I feel picked on now as our Native American Indians have always been picked on throughout history. I am trying to spread the word about them and what do I get? Spiteful women who have found a way to bring attention to themselves, by getting in the media in this horrible way. 

There are several other articles at the site, and I think they're adding as more come out.

ETA:  I forgot to mention:  the best part of the plagiarism is that the copied texts are used as DIALOGUE.  Yes, academic and research texts are, word for word, used as dialogue.  No wonder the dialogue was awful.  Also, interesting links in comments.  Scroll down to  estara's comments.

*That and vampires who sparkle in the sun and willingly attend highschool over and over.  I'm sorry, I tried to give Twilight a chance and at least read the first chapter in Hastings, but I just couldn't.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I feel picked on now as our Native American Indians have always been picked on throughout history.

Yeah. 'Cause accusations of plagiarism are equivalent to, say, genocide. *twitch*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Personally, if her great grandmother read her books, I hope she'd rip into her for the racism. They're all "the native american is great and strong and noble and mighty and always right and can save all with the power of his glorious wang, and the white are evil and weak and corrupt unless they are persuaded to revel in the glory of the native american...and if they're female, admire the glorious wang."

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

That's assuming her great-grandmother even really WAS Indian, which while certainly within the realm of possibility, is nonetheless the sort of thing that sets off MAJOR skepticism alarms to Native folks, particularly when the grandmother is claimed to be a "princess", when the claimant seems to have all sorts of romanticized/New-agey notions about wanting to be Indian, and/or the claimant is using their supposed Indian ancestry to absolve themselves of any charges of racism -- all things that Edwards seems to be guilty of. Call me a suspicious, cranky bitch, but I've seen this sort of thing often enough that it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if her supposed Indian heritage turns out to be about as genuine as a dreamcatcher mass-produced in China with plastic turquoise and dyed chicken feathers.

...and if they're female, admire the glorious wang.

*sniff* Topsoil? (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-to-write-the-great-american-indian-novel/)

[morwen_peredhil]

I feel picked on now as our Native American Indians have always been picked on throughout history.

*rolls in the martyrdom*

So funny I can't even get offended.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's even better if you've read the books and encountered her blatant racism. Except it's racism against whites, so it's not supposed to count.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I really liked the way Meljean Brook adressed the issue:
http://meljeanbrook.com/blog/archives/490

By the way I really like the two novels of hers I've read so far, didn't much like the short story. Am eagerly awaiting the third novel.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify: Brook's novels I like.

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

I think I did read one of these when I was younger. I remember someone named Jack Savage and a girl who was married to an old baron in england, or something, never consummated the marriage and nearly popped her own hymen with a knitting needle (to prove she was married) before meeting Jack, who provided the service. Or something, maybe the marriage didn't happen and she'd just said so. I don't care that I don't remember.

However, I'm caught again by the sparkly vampires. They willingly go to high school over and over? You neglected to mention that part before, and I'm horrified. That's just... not realistic. I think even people who peaked in high school wouldn't want to go back.

I'm reminded of a really bad straight-to-video horror movie I watched about a fraternity-deal that turned out to be a bunch of immortal guys partying at a small liberal arts college for decades.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes...romance novels are ever so big on widowed virgins.

And yes, from what I'm told, the vampires willingly go to school over and over. I like the crack and cheese to mock in vampire romances, but I just can't go there. Or to the sparkly vampires.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Why the hell would anyone willingly attend high school over and over? For any reason? I mean, you could aim to get perfect marks in all your classes once you have the information down pat, but the actual environment would make the challenge unbearable.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it has something to do with maintaining a connection with humanity and the modern world, but I can't bring myself to find out.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

She stole from Longfellow! That is the latest, she lifted the first lines from Hiawatha. LOL. That is so famous we even had a translated into Russian text of it at home and a lot of people could quote the lines in Russian. LOL.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I just read the NYT article by the guy she stole the ferrets talk from. If he's to be believed(and why not, he read it, I didn't) his academic paper on black footed ferrets was used as a post-coital bonding conversation.

"Oh honey, I have been won over to the cause of the Native Americans by the power of your Mighty Wang, let's academically discuss these cute little animals, sounding like we're quoting from a textbook."

"Why yes, my Formerly Misled White Woman who has been saved from prejudice and racism and who is abandoning civilization because my Mighty Wang is far mightier than that of any white man's, let us clunkily quote from a textbook and woo each other with dialogue no normal human would be caught dead using outside a lecture."

[chomiji]

That's right, I'm gonna honor my great grandmother by stealing other people's hard work in her name!

> sigh! <

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And by encouraging racism in my books(but it's against whites, so it doesn't count) and saying that people who expect me to own up to plagiarism are no different from people who commit genicide.

[madame-manga.livejournal.com]

Plagiarism being one of my hot buttons, I won't rant in your journal... but oh my God, could that woman be any more of a tool? She hits all the notes -- everything from the full-blood great-grandmother to the "u r jelluz of my wonderful work and trying to get attention". How old is she, twelve? O_o

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, feel free to rant about it here.

And you forgot the racist button.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

You know, I learned to reference academic material when I was in HIGHSCHOOL. Come on woman. Did you NEVER take an English class? That "didn't know I was supposed to reference" malarkey makes me want to vomit.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

They start telling you to in junior high, then go into great detail in HS. then MAKE IT YOUR LIFE in college. There is no excuse.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a romance reader -- it's only been in the last two years and with lots of encouragement and guidance from friends who could steer me away from the cheese -- so until recently I never even knew who Cassie Edwards was; the cringing and urge to vomit whenever I saw all those horrible cheesy "Indian Romance" covers of Fabio clones in too-much bronzer and buckskin-designed-by-Hollywood was too severe for me to even pick the damn things up and snark at them, let alone notice and remember the names of some of the chronic offenders. But you can bet that this Indian girl sure as hell did not feel "honored" by such offensive cheese being put forth.

And then I recently met via LiveJournal a bunch of other Native gals who happened to be avid romance readers -- and CE kept coming up in a discussion of the worst of the worst among all the offensive Indian romances; bad as I'd thought these things looked just from the covers and titles (sorry, Cassie, "savage" is NOT a compliment!), folks who'd actually suffered through reading some of them assured me the contents were a million times worse. Reading through all of their descriptions, and searing my retinas browsing through some of CE's cover galleries, was enough to burn that name onto my brain...enough so to remember it and cackle gleefully when I saw this break on Smart Bitches and then Fandom Wank. Once a thief...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

To be fair, we probably can't blame her for the title. That's more publishing.

But yes, her books are far, far from the best thing to honor native americans with...more like the opposite end of the spectrum.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Most of my thoughts have already been said above, but I will just add, I am so glad to find someone else who hated Twilight - such a fantastic cover, but I couldn't get past the first 100 pages and wanted to smack the main character so hard.

As I said before... "I mean, if you're going to allow your mother to say 'fuck it' to her parental responsibilities, at least own it, you know? Don't act like moving is some horrible unavoidable tragedy. Also, did the author actually expect me to believe in a romance between a vampire and a chick who can't stand just the smell of blood? I think that was the point I laid the book down in disgust. "

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I couldn't make it past the first page.

[lilac-breeze.livejournal.com]

I am far too amused by all this. Thank you for bringing it to my attention; I can't wait to see where this goes. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, click the links to her statements, I beg you.