Buzz Worthy News
This week in Buzz Worthy News: Lessons on Marriage from YA books, Twitter kills Juror B37’s book deal, Veronica Mars book spin-off in the workds, Florida parents and a Dr. freak out and call Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson child pornography (it’s possible your head might explode), more plagiarism and LOLs even out our week.
Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two. For new releases and cover reveals of all the best Young Adult fiction, check out our Sunday post: How New Titles.
Books
What YA Books Can Teach About Marriage
Margaret Bristol from Bookish.com was preparing to get married and didn’t know where to turn. Well, what else in the world is there but Young Adult novels? Natural place to turn!
And whilst Margaret did find some lovely lessons, of a sort, such as:
Marriage lesson: Beauty is only skin-deep. As much as you tuck, pluck and cinch–like the protagonist Tally–you will eventually age. It’s an old cliché, but when you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, make sure you’re as attracted to their inside as you are to their outside.
And
Marriage lesson: When you open yourself to new experiences, you never know what you might find. America would have never have met handsome prince Maxon if she hadn’t signed up for a “Bachelor”-style competition for his hand in marriage. While Mer is totally resistant at first, the warmest parts of this novel are when Maxon starts winning her over.
I can confidently say that YA novels will actually probably teach you almost nothing about marriage. This is almost certainly not a place to turn for actual marriage advice, people. Just… don’t. Marriage and the fantasy world of teenage love have almost nothing in common.
The Public Stopped Juror B37 From Publishing a Book
Juror B37 decided to bravely step forward and express to the world exactly what is wrong with it. Amazingly, she didn’t even realize that was what she was doing.
“I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods, and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done,” she said.
“But I think his heart was in the right place. It just went terribly wrong. If anything, Zimmerman was guilty of not using “good judgment,” the juror said.
“I believe he (Martin) played a huge role in his death. When George confronted him, he could have walked away and gone home. He didn’t have to do whatever he did and come back and be in a fight.”
My head hurts.
Two days after the trial, Juror B37 had herself a literary agent, Sharlene Martin and was all set to write a book on the experience. Because the only thing worse than the fact that she seems to think it’s reasonable that Zimmerman shot dead a seventeen year old boy that he’d hunted down and engaged a fight with, is that she was trying to capitalize on it. Thankfully, people didn’t seem inclined to put up with that shit.
When people protested on twitter (led by @moreandagain) Martin rescinded her offer of representation:
“after careful consideration of the book project with Zimmerman #JurorB37, I have decided to rescind my offer of representation.”
And then she posted this message from Juror B37.
“I realize it was necessary for our jury to be sequestered in order to protest our verdict from unfair outside influence but that isolation shielded me from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of this case. The potential book was always intended to be a respectful observation of the trial from my and my husband’s perspectives solely, and it was to be an observation that our “system” of justice can get so complicated that it creates a conflict with our “spirit” of justice. Now that I am returned to my family and society and general, I have realized that the best direction for me to go is away from writing any sort of book and return instead to my life before I was called to sit on this jury.”
Of course, Juror B37. Of course.
Dear #JurorB37: Twitter killed your book. It's okay, though, it was in self defense, and our heart was in the right place.
— Amanda B🤨wer (@heyprofbow) July 16, 2013
The other jurors were quick to distance themselves from Juror B37’s comments.
Veronica Mars Book Series Spin-off
Great news for all you Veronica Mars fans! Not only do you have an awesome movie to look forward to, but now there’s a two-book spin-off series in the work!
The books will be an original mystery series featuring a grown-up Veronica Mars and characters from the series.
The plot will pick up where events of the forthcoming Veronica Mars movie, slated for a 2014 release, end. Publication of the first book will be timed to the release of the movie and will likely arrive in spring 2014. Thomas will develop and co-write the series.
I’m not sure if this really is good news or not. Don’t let my mock enthusiasm and my constant abuse of exclamation points fool you, but perhaps it’s not the best time to mention I’ve never seen an episode of this show. *hides*
Publishing
J.K. Rowling’s Pseudonym was Leaked by Dude Trying to Impress Wife’s Best Friend
So, I guess if you’re looking for a good way to ruin your career as publicly as possible, shitting on one of the world’s most popular authors is certainly one way to go about it.
At least, that’s how it was for Chris Gossage, a partner at Russels. When he told his wife’s best friend (I REALLY hope they’re not best friends any more) that J.K. Rowling was writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, he probably didn’t expect her to tweet that attorney-client priveleged-like information to a freakin’ reporter from her own personal account.
This is all probably worse considering what an amazing person J.K. Rowling is. Not only for all her charity work, and the multitudes of money she just gave away, and the way she speaks up for single mothers on welfare and just about everything about her!
“We, Russells Solicitors, apologise unreservedly for the disclosure caused by one of our partners, Chris Gossage, in revealing to his wife’s best friend, Judith Callegari, during a private conversation that the true identity of Robert Galbraith was in fact JK Rowling.”
If your law firm has to release a statement like this because of you, then you have probably officially lost at life.
After Callegari learned the news from Gossage, she then allegedly tweeted the information to a Sunday Times of London reporter. Callegari, a suburban mother of two, has since deleted her Twitter account (@JudeCallegari), as well as her Facebook. She is apparently married to a partner at the law firm K&L Gates, which represents AOL, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs.
Callegari, it’s hard to be an even worse person than a lawyer that discloses personal information about clients of their firm, but to then go and do this? That is a sucky thing to do. Sucky x1000.
Rowling’s statement about the incident:
“A tiny number of people knew my pseudonym and it has not been pleasant to wonder for days how a woman whom I had never heard of prior to Sunday night could have found out something that many of my oldest friends did not know… To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. I had assumed that I could expect total confidentiality from Russells, a reputable professional firm, and I feel very angry that my trust turned out to be misplaced.”
We’re sorry on behalf of humanity, Rowling. Very, very sorry.
On the positive news (for someone) a signed, by Robert Galbraith, first edition of The Cuckoo’s Calling is selling for $6,188.72. I kind of wish I’d taken up an interest in mystery novels by ex-military fathers before now.
Entertainment
G.R.R. Martin Smashes ALL the Guitars
Proving that even if you’re a 65-year-old, over weight guy WHO SHOULD BE BUSY WRITING THE NEXT GAME OF THRONES NOVEL, you still have time to smash a guitar like a rock star. Example 1: G.R.R. Martin.
Game of Thrones novelist George R.R. Martin smashed a guitar at w00tstock 5.0 in San Diego last night, interrupting musicians Paul & Storm as they sang “Write Like the Wind (George R. R. Martin).”
As Martin stomped on the wreckage of the guitar, author Neil Gaiman appeared, shouting his famous catchphrase: “George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.”
Look, Gaiman, just because you and G.R.R. Martin are Gods of Nerds, and just because the whole, “WRITE FASTER!” thing is something that is consistently yelled desperately at G.R.R. Martin, doesn’t mean you get to tell us what to do, okay?
Nobody gets to tell us what to do. But we totally get to tell G.R.R. Martin what to do. That’s how the world works.
Controversy
The Biggest Leap in Logic: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is Child Pornography?
Are you ready for your head to explode this morning? Awesome.
Kelly Jensen of Stacked wrote a very well-written article on Book Riot called What are Grown-Ups Afraid of in YA Books. In it, she disputes claims made that certain YA books promote activities that are generally discouraged by society, like say, rape, child pornography and gun violence:
Teens don’t read books like Anderson’s or Ness’s, Blume’s or Cormier’s, or any other books published as YA each year as how-to guides. They don’t read them as prescriptions for how to engage in violence or how to join gangs or how to be promiscuous (which only ever applies to teen girl characters anyway). They’re smart enough to know the whole story matters. That challenges and situations matter in context — their adolescence.
Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? I thought so too. That is, until Dr. Richard Swier jumps in the comments to back up his claims that Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson promotes child pornography and rape and why it should be banned from schools. Of course. A book following the experience of a teen who was raped, how she dealt with the aftermath and how she learned how important it was to speak up about the attack, is totally promoting rape.
His argument shows a blatant disregard for the use of a dictionary and basic 3rd grade logic.
“Speak promotes “group rate abortions” on page 30. Other examples of bad behaviors in the book are: “Student steals late passes” (theft) – page 26, “sleep with the football team on Saturday night and be reincarnated as virginal goddesses on Monday” (promiscuity)- page 29; “slit my throat” (child suicide) – page 32, and “the crowd bumping and grinding the horny Hornet heinies” (group sex) – page 141.”
Err… so, add lack of understanding sarcasm and context to the mix.
“Speak also contains graphic language including: “bitch”- page 20, “Asshole” – page 28, “pissed” – pages 30, 64 and 74, “Bitchy”- page 163. Other words and phrases used throughout the book are too graphic to include in the column.”
Wait. Are you telling me teens CURSE? Motherfucker! What kind of world are we living in?! How dare Laurie Halse Anderson portray teens correctly in an attempt to create realistic and relatable characters. Oh wait…
If you are up to reading through the 218 comment thread, it’s quite the mind fuck. It quickly became clear that Dr. Swier had NOT even read Speak, but was basing the assumptions purely off of a parent’s account (I honestly doubt that parent read the book too) and that a debate with him would prove utterly pointless. He was later blocked and permanently banned from Book Riot after a few bigoted comments on gay people.
How anyone can be a doctor and not understand the difference between “portrayal” and “promotion” is beyond me, but I suppose Voltaire was correct: “Common sense is not so common.”
Oh and did I mention Dr. Swier was an educator from the Great State of Florida? Chew on that.
“So What I Plagiarized! Just Give Me the Benefit of the Doubt, OK?!”
Another bout of plagiarism has surfaced, this time affecting author J.P. Barnaby’s Aaron. J.P. was on her way to RAW when she was notified of the book Shane by Michael J. Wagner was a direct copy of her novel. The book has sense been removed from Amazon, but it copied not only the story, but her dedication page as well. J.P. detailed her account along with screenshots on her blog:
“The longer I thought about it, the angrier I got. It wasn’t about the money. The man had even stolen my dedication and supplanted it with someone else’s name. Aaron is my soul. He came to me one night and woke me from a sound sleep to tell me about his monsters in the dark. He shared his story with me because we have the same monsters. By stealing my words, and taking my experiences, he tried to take something from me. But I am no longer that scared little girl hiding in the closet from her monsters. Sweet little Trish isn’t here right now, honey—it’s all JP now, and you will not take my boys from me. Aaron deserves better than merely being tossed aside while someone else steals his identity. Spencer is a strong and brilliant character who fought all his life to be who he is. You will not take that from either of them.
You picked the wrong book, my friend.”
And what did Mr. Wagner have to say for himself? In an Amazon thread he claimed he had no knowledge it was plagiarized as he had hired a ghost writer and that everyone should just give him “the benefit of the doubt.” Of course. It’s the old I’ll-hide-behind-the-invisible-ghost-writer move.
“I hired a ghost writer to write for me, I had no idea she was stealing work from others. I’ve contacted all parties involved.”
Funny considering the fact that he read and wrote a review for Aaron on Amazon, you would think he would have seen the book was plagiarized if he indeed hired a ghost writer.
Sadly, this is not the first time Wagner. The Telling by Eden Winters was also completely ripped by Wagner and published under the same title. Shortly after, review appeared from Wagner’s “editor” claming that Eden was the real thief.
Image credit: Eden Winters
Eden posted about the incident on her blog:
And yes, this book was written about an actual person–me. That’s why it was too personal to sell and I gave it away. I poured my soul out in The Telling, and through the writing found my way back from a lost path. It will forever hold a special place in my heart. No one can take that from me.
Benefit of the doubt? Survey says…
Goodreads Being Sued Over a Member’s Image Use
I know we were all waiting for this to happen, but a photo agency is now suing Goodreads for 150,000 because a picture of Dalton Rappattoni, a member of the boy band IM5, was posted in Goodreads group. The group in question has a total of 4 members who are most likely minors.
The lawsuit, one of several filed by BWP, appears to be part of what some describe as a “copyright trolling” operation in which image owners use software to find unauthorized use of their photos on the internet and then work with law firms, sometimes on a contingency basis, to demand large sums of money. In the last year, federal judges have begun to take a dim view of certain aggressive trolling tactics.
And no one has gone after Tumblr or Pinerest yet? But a Goodreads FAN group totally makes sense! The image has been removed.
I have no idea who these IM5 guys are because I couldn’t find anything on Wikipedia (AKA my bible), but my google-fu skills have determined they are a group of Justin Beiber lookalikes who enjoy Disney Princess cosplay. And with that, I leave you this sadistically entertaining video:
LOLs
Warm Bodies Parody
We haven’t done this section in a while, but whenever we run across a spoof by The Hillywood Show, we can’t resist in sharing. This isn’t exactly a new video (posted back in May), but it’s hilarious nonetheless! Enjoy!
Maze Runner Cast Members Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It, Yo
Bahahahahaha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ni-JIdg0aY&feature=youtu.be%22
That is all.
LBBA Reviews
The Girl in the Wall by Daphne Benedis-Grab
Reviewed by Rachel of Moosubi Reviews
****
In conclusion, The Girl in the Wall was not only a novel that entertained me, but also one that tugged at my heart and captivated me. Though at times maybe not as believable, the characters and suspense were crafted expertly. If you’re a fan of YA contemporaries or thrillers, you have to pick this up! Because, as cliche as this might sound, though the cover might not give the best impression, the story inside is definitely what counts.
Ashleigh Paige
Some days, I hate Twitter with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns thanks to the people Public Shaming exposes me to. Then they do stuff like kill Juror B37’s book and I love it again. Is that unhealthy? I don’t know if I care anymore.
If I remember correctly, someone comes out of the woodwork every few years to call Speak child pornography or get generalizing and say all YA is evil and dark and dirty like that. Ugh. There are some legitimate issues in YA to complain about like the rampant rape culture and how demonizing science is getting more common, but nope, they want to make up issues that aren’t even there and complain about THOSE. Thank goodness people like us are here to talk about the real problems.
That “what YA can teach me about marriage” thing makes me want to propose a fun post to Usagi that gathers such nuggets from books we’ve read. I know one right off the bat: “Any marriage can be successful if you work at it. Even one where your husband kidnapped and tortured you twice and you never had a thorough discussion with him about what all that torment did to you.” (The Glass books by Maria V. Snyder. That part NEVER gets old.”)
Sugar & Snark
I cannot express to you how happy the Veronica Mars books will make me! Thank you for the news 🙂
Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog
The whole Book Riot post made me LOL so hard. I can’t believe that “doctor” can even tie his own shoes in the morning. Using his logic (and his biblical beliefs he was shoving down everyone’s throats), the Bible MUST promote rape and murder, amirite?!
Love seeing yet another author-person blame a ghost writer for plagiarism. Makes me wary of indies. And this is not the kind of publicity they want as a group in general.
Fangs4Fantasy
Not only is marriage and the fantasy life of teenaged
love not the best bed fellows but I’d like to keep it that way. One of the
things that perennially concerns me about YA romance is the idea that you can
meet your one twu lub forever at 16 and that means you can drop everything –
school, family, friends, duty to save the world with your magic powers – to be
with his tortured soulfulness. Teenagers tripping down the aisle never does it
for me
That book would have gone on a 2 for 1 sale with Mein Kampf.
It would be beyond my limit, not only would I never read such filth, I wouldn’t
even enter it into Cuddlebuggery’s suggestion section – and I’ll put almost any
dire, brain-rending nonsense in there. Also I don’t buy she didn’t understand
the “depth of pain” she wouldn’t have thought of selling a book if she didn’t
know how notorious it was
Protected Attorney-client privilege and Twitter should
not mix. Honestly I despair that this man apparently became a partner in a law
firm
I don’t get people nagging George R R Martin. Y’know what
he does every time you criticise him? He kills a Stark. And when he’s run out
of Starks he’ll kill another character you love. Then he’ll make some MORE
characters, make you love them THEN KILL THEM! Then he will use magic to bring
them back from the dead and KILL THEM AGAIN. And it will be all their fault!
Can someone tell me again when “Young Adult” came to not
mean “adult” and start meaning “teeny tiny lickle innocent children?!” Dark
shit happens. Evil shit happens. And it happens to teens. Sometimes showing the
darkness and overcoming that darkness is really empowering and challenging.
Sometimes exposing these evils as evils is something powerful to encourage rather
than plugging our ears and screaming “NO NO NO IT NOT HAPPENING”
And if writing about something meant endorsement, someone
really should have arrested Agatha Christie as a serial killer.
Also, books full of sunshine happiness where everything
is stars and rainbows and no-one has sex or uses bad language or faces any kind
of conflict at all are very very very dull.
More plagiarism?! Don’t they realise the only way they
will get away with it is if the book is so obscure no-one will read it – in which
case what is the point? The more people read it, the more chance there is of
someone noticing the copying until it becomes inevitable. And benefit of the
doubt now means “believing something utterly implausible”? Uh-huh
Copywrite trolls – oh how I hates them. They give the law a bad name
Hillywood is always good J
angelasanxiouslife
Love your news!! did you read the comments on the post about goodreads being sued????
Also… George RR Martin is always fun at Comic Con San Diego. Glad he was having a good time like always (and he really does need to write some books, he isn’t getting younger.)
I had never heard of copyright trolls!
Steph Sinclair
angelasanxiouslife BHAHAHA! The guy talking about cyber bullies? Yeah, he was rich.
Heartless_Lyn
“Because the only thing worse than the fact that she seems to think it’s reasonable that Zimmerman shot dead a seventeen year old boy that he’d hunted down and engaged a fight with, is that she was trying to capitalize on it.”
I had to step away from the news when I read the story when it came out. I had to, because I thought I would start vomiting up blood.
Christina @ Christina Reads YA
Oooh, thank you so much for this post. I do round-up posts too, and I’ve just learned about a lot of useful info. to include, like the J.K. Rowling article. I can’t tell you how many people have insinuated over the past couple of days that Rowling released the name herself, and that just infuriated me.
“I’m not sure if this really is good news or not. Don’t let my mock enthusiasm and my constant abuse of exclamation points fool you, but perhaps it’s not the best time to mention I’ve never seen an episode of this show. *hides*” Lol. I’ve seen a few episodes and I openly admitted in a blog post on pop culture references in YA that I’m a pop culture fail. I don’t understand its popularity… so it’s okay, we’re in this together, Steph.
“I can confidently say that YA novels will actually probably teach you almost nothing about marriage. This is almost certainly not a place to turn for actual marriage advice, people. Just… don’t. Marriage and the fantasy world of teenage love have almost nothing in common.” You mean I can’t expect a sparkly vampire to appear at my window and watch me sleep for all eternity? Dammit, Steph. I thought I had something to look forward to!
Lol, thanks for the parodies, too. That Hillywood one makes me really miss college. For a moment, I actually thought it was my lab, since the layout was so similar. Anyway, LOL at the fast food store. If only I could be that cool and be involved in something like that.
Christina @ Christina Reads YA
Oooh, thank you so much for this post. I do round-up posts too, and I’ve just learned about a lot of useful info. to include, like the J.K. Rowling article. I can’t tell you how many people have insinuated over the past couple of days that Rowling released the name herself, and that just infuriated me.
“I’m not sure if this really is good news or not. Don’t let my mock enthusiasm and my constant abuse of exclamation points fool you, but perhaps it’s not the best time to mention I’ve never seen an episode of this show. *hides*” Lol. I’ve seen a few episodes and I openly admitted in a blog post on pop culture references in YA that I’m a pop culture fail. I don’t understand its popularity… so it’s okay, we’re in this together, Steph.
“I can confidently say that YA novels will actually probably teach you almost nothing about marriage. This is almost certainly not a place to turn for actual marriage advice, people. Just… don’t. Marriage and the fantasy world of teenage love have almost nothing in common.” You mean I can’t expect a sparkly vampire to appear at my window and watch me sleep for all eternity? Dammit, Steph. I thought I had something to look forward to!
Lol, thanks for the parodies, too. That Hillywood one makes me really miss college. For a moment, I actually thought it was my lab, since the layout was so similar. Anyway, LOL at the fast food store. If only I could be that cool and be involved in something like that.
judy10001
I lol’d so hard at the Disney Dudez XD Also, that Juror B37 best get down, her stupidity offends me greatly.
Love you guys, thanks for the news!