A Case of Plagiarism

Rick Moore, a friend of mine, and of some of you, is a highly talented writer. He's also just become the victim of a plagiarist. His short story, "Electrocuting the Clowns,” which appeared in the excellent 2003 collection Beyond the Porch Light, has been stolen by a man claiming the name David Byron. That’s not the name this guy goes under on Facebook. He is apparently selling a work on Lulu that contains Rick’s story. He has several books there, under his two names, so I’m not sure which one contains the story.

Please check out Rick’s post about this plagiarist. This hurts all writers and readers, and diminishes us all.
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Plagiarism

I love writing. I love talking about writing. But sometimes I don't love teaching writing. Out of 27 papers turned in my Writing in Psychology class, four were plagiarized. Two of these were almost completely copied word for word off the net. The other two had substantial sections copied word for word. Because I've dealt with plagiarism before, far too many times, I put information on plagiarism into my syllabus. It's also covered several times in the book we use, and we've had two quizzes about plagiarism already in the class. I start DAY 1 with a discussion of plagiarism, and discuss it again before every paper is due. I tell you, it just hurts my soul a little bit to see it happen despite all that discussion. Not to mention that it adds a lot of extra work to a job that is already pretty tough.

Anyway, three of the individuals were given "F's on their papers and asked to drop the class. I've not been able to contact the fourth yet. Wow, it's just really been fun.

In the meantime, though, I have gotten some good news on my own writing front. "Chimes" got great reviews from: Rick and Kate. Thanks so much to them both. I really appreciate it.

The FDA inspector is here and has all the files. Nothing much to do now but wait. I'll try to get around to a few blogs today.

Best to all.
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I'm Back, again. For a Bit.

I’m back for the weekend. I’ll be making the blog rounds today. Then the grading starts again on Monday. We’re nearing the end, though. I’m looking forward to a break.

Unfortunately, plagiarism reared its head on some papers. Very, very disappointing. I covered the problem of plagiarism numerous times this semester but not everyone listened. That’s about all I’m going to say about that.

On the positive side, I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. It was a neat book entitled Dragons Composed, and it contains a story by me called “Dragon Lost.” The check was nice too.

The book has a great cover, with a kind of an old-timey parchment look. It’s published by Kerlak Publishing, and was assembled by James Ferris. There are 33 stories, some 330 pages. It combines the fantasy and literary genres. These are dragon stories, but unusual ones. My tale features a chess playing dragon but is more surrealism than fantasy. The specifics about the collection are about halfway down on the left side of the screen.

Here’s a taste of my piece: “The dragon came out of a distant rain that spilled like threads of taffy from concrete-gray sky to sober earth. I watched him cross the purple sage toward me, with his gleaming iridescent hide and the triple horns that stabbed from his head like accusing fingers.”

The newest Illuminata was also published. I’ve got a short essay on poetry in it. Click on Volume 7, Issue 2, April 2009 if you’re interested. The link’s at the bottom.

And for another positive, "G" over at Cedar's Mountain has a very nice review of Swords of Talera. Thanks "G!"

And now it’s off to visit my blog friends. I’ve missed you folks.
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