Tag Archives: quentin rowan

What’s J Been Reading? [Feast of Qawl, 23 Nov 11]

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Of course, the big news in the literary world is the passing of Anne McCaffrey. The best tribute (I have read) to this amazing author is by Juliette Wade, who discusses how McCaffrey brought genre definitions into play with her Dragonriders of Pern series.  Also at Wade’s Talk To YoUniverse blog: an excellent piece on how hard choices for your characters require consequences.

Melville House, one of my favorite sources for publishing news, details an intense and disappointing exchange between blogger Jeremy Duns, who outed the plagiarism of Quentin Rowan, and the latest accused plagiarist Lenore Hart.  (By the way, considering that her subject is Poe, Lenore Hart must be a pseudonym, yes?)

BEST READ OF THE DAY: Josh Getzler at Hey There’s a Dead Guy gives us a truly remarkable insight into the writing process by showing us how a writer feels when he’s given the opportunity to enjoy his own writing as a reader.  There is so much that can be taken from this piece (for writers and readers) that I won’t say more.  Go check it out.

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What’s J Been Reading? [RFK’s Birthday, 20 Nov 11]

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Yes, this photo is meant to be self-deprecating. Thank you.

I know you guys (the writers … guys and gals, technically) love yourselves some good query advice.  So, here’s something I read at Hey There’s A Dead Guy: Benjamin LeRoy‘s “Three Tips for Querying! (Because everybody loves a list).”  And, yeah, we do love a list.  Also at Dead Guy is an interesting piece about that unfortunate dust-up over FridayReads.

GalleyCat discusses the movement to create a Literature category at YouTube.  I’m all for it!  And… as if the Quentin Rowan scandal wasn’t bad enough, Melville House reveals yet another case of blatant plagiarism in publishing. Continue reading →

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A Serious Business Question About The Quentin Rowan Scandal

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I hinted at this story a few days ago, with a teaser link.  Essentially, it was discovered that Assassin Of Secrets, the debut novel by Quentin Rowan, contained multiple sentences that were pilfered from other novels.

According to an excerpt from an emailed confession cum explanation, Rowan says: “Once the book was bought, I had to make major changes in quite a hurry, basically re-write the whole thing from scratch…”

Okay, okay. Stealing sentences from other people’s novels (dishonestly and without ironic intent) is a Big NoNo, but what I want to know is why a debut novel that was clearly not ready for publication was already bought?!  More importantly, why was Rowan allowed to “skip the line” in front of other debut authors who are repeatedly told to have their novel ready to go before even considering a query letter to an agent?

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