Did you SEE this AP article yesterday?  Nora Roberts came out and spoke about charges of plagiarism against fellow author Cassie Edwards.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_en_ot/books_romance_writer_4

I'm always a little freaked out by plagiarism charges, because I know my work is fraught with ideas I got elsewhere.  I start to second guess myself--did I see a scene like this in a movie once or, more likely, did I read it in a book when I was fifteen?  

But I went and looked at the comparative passages and this is a whole different ballgame.  It appears that whole pages and paragraphs were lifted into a manuscript, then the author added "She said" and similar phrases, maybe changed a verb or two.  Ayeee.

Plagiarism is a touchy subject for Nora, who has been pirated more than once, and I suppose press people pestered her for a quote.  What surprises me is the amount of work done by the owners of the blog who first reported their findings. Which, incidentally, is one that I read occasionally, although I've been busy and missed the whole Cassie Edwards debacle. They even joke about the amount of time they spent on it (and I DO quote):

 Kate and I promptly ran to Powell’s to obtain more Edwards novels and spent pretty much all of Saturday afternoon and evening combing through four novels to see if we could find any more Eerie Similarities. No, we didn’t have anything better to do with ourselves. Yes, our dorkery and geekiness are legion. Yes, we’re masochistic fools.

  http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/cassie_edwards_extravaganza/

Since the AP article has a link to the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog site, I would imagine their readership is through the roof. 

Scary stuff. 

Fears of plagiarism accusations aside, I want to be 1) a big enough author to be noticed by the Smart Bitches and then, eventually, 2) a big enough author that AP stringers pester me for a quote about it.