Reality vs Fiction ... And Some Fun

This whole thing is beyond enough. I'm firmly convinced that if I tried to write this as fiction, few would believe it.

I've posted several times about this plagiarism issue. Having been kind of behind the scenes as the story has unfolded, it's been a sad and fascinating journey.

As a further update to the drama, Rachel Nunes (the author who was plagiarized) reported that she had been in contact by Army veteran Chase Weston about the article he wrote that Rushton also plagiarized (you can see details in John Dopp's post here).

The Westons were appalled to discover what had happened. Mrs. Weston wrote an open letter to Tiffanie Rushton and asked Rachel to post it (you can see it here). It's heartbreaking to read.

And if that wasn't bad enough ...

Last week I posted an update that included a list of plagiarist Tiffanie Rushton's sock puppet names. You can find the post here. Someone who appeared to be a parent of one of Rushton's students posted in the comments that the names of the sock puppets were children from Rushton's class!

I notified Rachel, and they were able to check the school's yearbook and, sure enough, they were. At the request of that parent in a subsequent post, I redacted the surnames of the students. John Dopp, when he found out about it, did the same on his post.

I understand that Rushton--finally--has been put on administrative leave by her school district. Once again, a plea to everyone not to attack the woman. It's in the hands of the court now. Others could be taking action against her too.

I hope this raises some discussions at family dinner tables about plagiarism and identity theft.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On a happier note, I spent the weekend at the iWriteNetwork writing retreat. Something fun that we did was do the "beats" from Blake Snyder's Save the Cat while we watched the movie Iron Man.

View from the front

Kitchen and One Gathering Area

Hot Tub and Grill - Yum!

Gathering on First Night

Almost the entire group.

What did you do this weekend?

Plagiarism Update

Tiffanie Rushton aka Sam Taylor Mullens

Sam Taylor Mullens, the woman caught plagiarizing author Rachel Nunes, has been identified as a Utah school teacher by the name of Tiffanie Rushton. She's been served with a summons to appear in federal court. Some of the things she's been charged with include:

* Copyright infringement
* Defamation
* False light
* Injurious falsehood
* Harassment
* False advertising
* Deceptive trade practices

Evidently she faces statutory damages in the neighborhood of $150,000.00, if the case if successful. That's in addition to damages for every sale of the infringing work, damages, and attorney’s fees.

It's also my understand that the schools take quite a strong position on plagiarism. She could lose her job.

Through the course of this whole thing unfolding, people kept talking about sock puppets. In case you don't know what that is, it's when someone creates false online identities and uses those to post about products, in this situation, books.

Lucy Evans
Jennifer [REDACTED]
Macey [REDACTED]
Abigail [REDACTED]
Abby [REDACTED]
Abigail [REDACTED]
Jennifer [REDACTED]
Mercedes [REDACTED]
Emma [REDACTED]
Bethany [REDACTED]
Moonshine and Books
Simple Book Reviews
Elle [REDACTED]
Gibby [REDACTED]
Hailey [REDACTED]
Hannah [REDACTED]
Ky [REDACTED]
Rylee [REDACTED]
Sierra [REDACTED]
W [REDACTED]
Aubrey [REDACTED]

It seems Rushton was also soliciting manuscripts under some of these, so she could review them. This is a cautionary tale about authors giving out their manuscripts in the hopes of getting reviews and ending up being plagiarized.

Plea - Rachel has asked that people not attack Tiffanie Rushton. It's in the hands of the court, and we should let it play out there.

John Dopp wrote a great article about the whole situation here.

David Farland also wrote a post here. He has suggested that he might stop buying indie books now because the issue of sock puppets seems to be so prevalent. I think that's a bit of an overreaction. I don't use sock puppets to boost my reviews, and I know a bazillion legitimate indie authors who don't use sock puppets. David Farland is a hybrid author now, as is Rachel Nunes. Should she be punished twice?

What do you think? Are you so put off by this whole situation that you might not buy indie anymore?

ETA: It appears that Rushton has used the names of some of her students for her sock puppets. A parent has requested that I remove the last names to protect the children. I have done so.

Plagiarism Update

Dang, here I go posting an extra time during the week. Again!

As horrifying as last week was with the plagiarism that was followed by cyberbullying against the victim, this week has been so heartening to see people rally behind Rachel Nunes (you can read her story here).

NY Times bestselling author David Farland, who has met Rachel at a few writing conferences, suggested to her that she start up a litigation fundraiser so she could go after this person. He talked about it Monday on his Kick in the Pants post (click here to read it), and he put his money where his mouth was by donating $500. Click here for the direct link to donate.

Litigation of any kind is expensive. Plagiarism litigation can be especially so. If you can help share the word, it would help a lot. Even donations of $5 can help--if there are a lot of them.

This isn't just Rachel's battle. It's a fight for all authors.

Here's a sample of Rachel's book and the plagiarized ARC.

Rachel's original work.

Sam Taylor Mullen's Plagiarized ARC.

And here's a screen capture of the attacks against Rachel's other books on Amazon (some are under Rachel's pen name. These were all done by one person the day the plagiarism came to light.

In response to these attacks, author Candace C. Bowen created a Facebook group, Author Against Plagiarism and Cyberbullying. She's been keeping followers up to date and posting some interesting articles about the issue.

Plagiarism - The Story Continues

Since I've been following this drama as it has unfolded, I thought I would share Rachel Nunes's side of the story.

Click here.

Please read it. And watch your back. They've vicious.

ETA: One of the reviewers who outed the plagiarist has been being attacked, so she's posting side-by-side pictures of Rachel's original and Sam's stolen version.  You decide.

Click here and here.