PATTERSON STOLE MY HEART & WORDS [Best selling author, James Patterson, a plagiarist?]

NY Post - Page Six ^ | March 26, 2006 | Brad Hamilton

[summer]

He's accused of acting like a villain from one of his best sellers.

James Patterson's ex-lover claims the scribe was a callous cad who stole her ideas, character names and even turns of phrase - then dumped her after saying they'd marry....

"He's a thief," [she] Sharp said.

"He copies the material he's reading, taking the best parts. But no one wants to see him exposed. He makes too much money for too many people."

Sharp says that shortly after they started dating, Patterson asked for her help in fleshing out the character Christine Johnson, the love interest for Alex Cross in the detective thriller "Cat & Mouse."
...What she didn't realize, she claims, was that he was secretly poaching ideas and phrases from her letters and from her own novel, based on her life.

Patterson had promised to help get her book published, but then used the material - family stories, descriptions of the horse farm where she grew up, skiing trips - for several of his best sellers, she says.

Patterson, now fighting a second suit by a different woman who claims he stole her work for his Christmas book, "santaKid,"...


...In her manuscript, which was copyrighted but never published,one character bore the grade-school nickname "Dumbo-Gumbo."
"Big ears like the little flying elephant and beaver teeth with lots of gums," she wrote.

In "Cat & Mouse," Christine gets the same nickname: " 'All through grade-school days,' Christine said, 'I was Dumbo-Gumbo. I have big ears, you see. Like Dumbo the flying elephant.' "

..."I trusted him with my secrets," Sharp said. "I don't have a word for how I feel."

brad.hamilton@nypost.com

[summer]

Sharp, a former eighth-grade English teacher...

...She says she ran out of money to pay her lawyers.

Well, since plagiarism is so serious, and since the left is all up in arms over Ben Domenech, the right-wing Wapo blogger who has now admitted to plagiarim in a 2nd apology, perhaps whatever lawyer may be going after this 24 year old plagiarist will also do some pro-bono work for the teacher above who is apparently dealing with a plagiarist, too -- only that apparent plagiarist has several decades more experience as a writer than Ben, gazillions more money, and it seems almost everyone in America keeps buying his books, plagiarized or not.

[summer]

Not that I am for plagiarism, by any means -- but, it seems ironic that some people apparently get away with things that others do not. Not that Ben should have plagiarized. But, I do not see a rush of pro bono lawyers out there, determined to wipe out plagiarism or help a woman like the teacher, above.

[Howlin]

"I don't have a word for how I feel."

She may not have a "word," but I bet she has a dollar amount.

[summer]

It was $5 million she asked for, which I assure you, is not even a drop in the bucket for this author.

[Howlin]

I'll wait to hear his side of the story.

[Alouette]

James Patterson isn't writing his own novels any more. His name is on the cover and his picture is on the book jacket, but if you look closely you will see the names of his writers: "Andrew Gross" "Maxine Paetro" etc.

I think the last book Patterson wrote on his own was "Violets are Blue" IT SUCKED!

[summer]

I think all his work sucks. It is amazing to me he has been as successful as he is.

[summer]

It would be interesting to hear her side of the story, too. Especially since she's not the only one to ever alleged plagiarism against this particular author.

Maybe she will document all her alleged examples of plagiarism by this guy in a new scholarly publication dedicated to plagiarim, www.plagiarism.org

[summer]

It would be interesting to hear her side of the story, too -- especially since she's not the only one to have ever alleged plagiarism by this particular author.

Maybe she document all her alleged examples of plagiarism by this guy in a new scholarly publication dedicated to plagiarism:

www.plagiarism.org

[summer]

PS Sorry for that double post! My mistake.

[summer]

FYI.

[summer]

FYI.

[Our man in washington]

Let me add some original thoughts on this matter:

Not that I am for plagiarism, by any means -- but, it seems ironic that some people apparently get away with things that others do not. Not that Ben should have plagiarized. But, I do not see a rush of pro bono lawyers out there, determined to wipe out plagiarism or help a woman like the teacher, above.

[summer]

FYI.

[summer]

I enjoyed reading your FR homepage. :)

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

Not to excuse this person but how many original thoughts are out there? Are not stories taken from life’s experiences, and most generally those experiences are not all original.

[Physicist]

Bibliopath ping.

[summer]

Well, that's a good question. Some people believe, for example, there are only X number of jokes that you can tell, or Z number of plots for a play.

But, if you're intimate with a person, telling that person unique things like your nickname in grade school, and that nickname then shows up in the other's book, along with details you shared, as you are writing your own book, then, we are not talking about writing anymore. We are talking about theft.

[joebuck]

"She says she ran out of money to pay her lawyers."

This is the giveaway. If she had even the slightest bit of a case lawyers would be lining up to take it on a contingency basis.

[summer]

Perhaps that was the point of the NY Post article -- maybe now, if more lawyers know about her case, someone will step up to the plate and represent her, pro bono. We'll see.