MultiPass

Have you ever had one of those Leeloo Dallas weeks where the shit is just too much?

There’s a new plagiarism scandal in the M/M Romance genre. You can read about it here, here, and here. Here’s the author’s page on Amazon: I’m sure each of her books will be scrutinized over the coming weeks to determine how many lawsuits are needed.

Many of my friends are retaliating to the claim that no one can be that prolific and still be original. Yes, you can. I know hardworking writers who pound out 5k a day or more, which is 35k words a week. That amounts to about two books a month. Lazy fuckers who pretend to write have an easier time of it, that’s for sure, but there are many hard-working writers out there who can, and do, write A LOT. But, honestly, did we really need another scandal in the M/M world? People just stopped talking about the Josh Lanyon name debacle. Brad Vance said it best, here. What’s in a name? Everything. I’m named for my beautiful, graceful great-aunt. I could have chosen her surname and pretended to be a man, but I want people to know I’m a woman. 

I’m a woman who writes gay romance, and there are many others out there just like me. Yes, there are also men who write the genre, and I read and love them, too. I’m drawn to good writing. It doesn’t matter what’s between the writer’s legs, but goddammit, I don’t want to read or think about sopping wet vaginas, which is why I chose to read and write this genre. No offense to those of you who DO want to read about vagina. To each his/her own. That’s why we need diverse literature. Now, there is also a disruption on Goodreads’ M/M Romance Group, a closed group for fans of the genre. A slave/owner romance has struck a chord with black readers, and the group *may* have handled this badly.

I can’t give you a link or quotes on this one because I deleted my Goodreads account this week (for other reasons, I assure you. I’m going through a social media cleanse of sorts.) All I can say is this makes me very sad. Why is it that any disagreement among our own group is greeted with an “If you don’t like it, you can leave,” attitude? People are hurt. They have valid opinions. While I understand why you would not take down the offending story, you could still cater to healing those who are hurt, maybe with a conversation thread between the author and the readers? As I said, I have no idea what has transpired, since I no longer have access. This is all just hearsay, which is also sometimes a hindrance to our group.

I know for a fact that there is piracy, however. Three counts of it, so far today. Sharing a book you bought with others for free is piracy. You are not the fucking library. Putting someone else’s art up on your website for others to buy without the author’s consent is also piracy. Sharing a book online for free, just by copying and pasting the book to a website, is piracy. Fantasy pirates are awesome. REAL piracy is NOT COOL.

After reading all the anger and frustration in my Facebook feed today, I found one positive blog from Kade Boehme. Like Korben Dallas, Kade made me believe in humanity again. 

Authors are people. We are human. We make mistakes. Sometimes, we may not be on our best behavior. I’m not unfriending anyone who has a differing opinion on the above situations. I hope you will give me the same benefit of the doubt. I love you all. #spreadpositivity