I am angry,
I am very angry.
I am blowing a gasket, a fuse or any of the other metaphors you can come up with for red with anger. I chuckle at this as I can’t technically turn red since I’m black but you get the point.
This evening started off pretty well. I’m still working on my practice writing in an attempt to propel my Muse from her awkward teenage, acne-filled, bracing wearing years to a more mature young adult when Laurell K Hamilton retweeted a tweet that stopped me dead in my tracks. The original tweet was made by Lorelei James who complained of someone , Alison Gilmore, passing off one of her books published in 2009 as their own. Alison used a website to upload the book one chapter at a time. She was originally a member of http://www.fanfiction.net where she stated she was writing One Tree Hill fan fictions based on Haley and Nate. Except, the works were plagiarized. Here’s what her Fan Fiction profile looked like. Note the Twitter account it is linked to:
When she was found out (at least as it relates to Lorelei’s book, Alison set up a Weebly account and continued to plagiarize there. I was disgusted and shocked at once and decided to snoop because it just seemed too brazen, too insensitive, too callous to be true. First I followed the link given to the website: http://www.ihadthestrangestdream.weebly.com (the website has since been taken down – but more on that later.) Note, there was a link Alison’s Twitter Page directly to this site:
When I checked the website, this is what I was greeted with:
You would see that I highlighted the link to the twitter page @AlisonGilmore where she says that she can be contacted. She says “Hello. I’m just a girl who loves to write. It humbles me that you enjoy it so much”. She has two stories up: Temptation and one called A Bitch Called Fate. The titles may be the only things she “wrote” as both of the works were plagiarized. How do I know this? Well first I pulled up: A Bitch Called Fate. Here is a screenshot from Alison’s now defunct website:
Then I compared it with a screen shot from Lorelei’s book ‘All Jacked Up‘ from my Kindle:
As you can see she copies Lorelei James’ novel WORD FOR WORD except for the change of name. She didn’t even change the flavour of the lip gloss to vanilla or something. Here is the truly sickening part. She created a review section to the website where she accepted compliments on SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK!
If you think that’s bad, do you see the second book on the website? The one she’s called ‘Temptation’. This was also plagiarized. The book is actually called: Beyond Right or Wrong by Renea Taylor. Here’s the proof. First a screenshot taken from Alison’s website:
And here’s a screenshot of the preview of Renea Taylor’s book from Amazon.
Thanks to the amazing power of the internet Alison was found out very easily. But did she apologize? No. She was defiant in her denial and actually took cheap shots at Lorelei. I’m a writer. I might not be the best writer in the world as I’m still honing my craft but writers put their ALL into their novels. The least she could have done was acknowledge the frustration and hurt she caused. This is what she did instead:
She denied involvement and made snide remarks about Lorelei’s genre. Also, she accused us of bullying. She claims she isn’t the same person but we followed the twitter page right from her site. If that wasn’t enough… look at the Twitter profile photo in the photo directly above. Now scroll up to the first photo I showed with the Twitter page linking to the now defunct website. It is the same.
In addition to being really angered I was really happy with the support that all the writers showed for Lorelei James. We all understand how precious our work is and how personal. We all understand that what this silly, little girl (who read for a Literature and Writing Degree ironically) did was deeply invasive and just plain out wrong.
I take comfort in the fact that no matter how long it takes me to hone my craft, I would never resort to stealing someone’s work. I write because I have stories in me that need to come out. I don’t write for recognition or fame which is clearly what Alison Gilmore was after. This is what distinguishes writers from frauds. This is what distinguishes Lorelei James and Renea Taylor from Alison Gilmore.
Tschuss.
PS: She’s stolen an entire night of hanging out (read: writing) Zoe and Liam from me. You must then understand how angered I am. The great this is that the site came down. The good guys won this round.
Rilzy
Adventures of a Caribbean Girl... who writes! 
Just a note she changed her twitter handle to @BelTeltweets it is not shut down, though it does seem that way
I’m so glad for this detailed post. Gonna share on facebook!
Thanks. I think her reaction got me more than anything else. I guess she thinks now her handle is changed and the sites are down she will escape with impunity. And Anglia Ruskin is about to let this girl lose with a degree in Creative Writing? I’m trying to wrap my head around how many things she plagiarized in her three years there.
A degree does not a writer make. She was just outed, anything she does now she has this shadow following her–I wouldn’t want to be her EVER!
Thank you, Bonnie for finding this very detailed post. I’ve had it with thieves like Alison who play the victim card and expect people won’t discover the truth. What’s really upsetting is there are a lot more people like her out there who will continue to steal the work of others and either claim it as their own, or just put it up on their websites to download for free.
Thank you, Rilzy for your post!
Tammy(The Vixen)
Me too. I also think that Fan Fiction does a very poor job of monitoring what goes up. All it took was one search in Amazon and we were able to find the second book (the one by Renea Taylor) which she plagiarized. Someone needs to vet these stories. You just can’t have people thinking they can get away with something like this.
Well if the media didn’t hype up the fact that E.L. James wrote Fifty Shades as fanfic of Twilight, we may not have as many people trying to get away with this stuff. When you see someone take off like James did, it makes others think they can do the same. Everyone wants to get rich and famous without having to put in any of the work to do it.
Great summary of the whole trip down to crazy town with the plagiarizer. She had no shame what so ever. What makes me most upset as a reader of the genre that she is poking fun at is she can just shut down all these account and go and create more and do this to others. This was not her first time. I copied her first chapter and posted it to my FB page before she shut down. Make me so angry word for freaking word.
Me too. The anger is still bubbling in me so badly that you’d think my work was plagiarized. I can’t imagine how Lorlei feels. I get the feeling she has done this a lot. It must be doing it over and over again that has made her so bold. Well, it is either that or she’s a sociopath.
Her comment about the smut really tripped me up as well. She spoke definitely like someone who has never wrote a book – to string together words of any genre, to paint a picture of movement and emotion is talent. I really hope she gets her comeuppance.
Rilzy says: When I set up this blog I promised myself to post every comment – no matter if it were horrible and I disagreed without any editing. However, I needed to edit this comment as it has been confirmed that the poster of this comment was in fact impersonating Dr. Baxter. I have my ideas of who the impersonator might be. But out of respect for Dr. Baxter, I need to make it clear in that she DID NOT make the following comment.
****
For your information, I taught this girl at university and I have advised her to take out a lawsuit against any and all false accusations made against her tonight. It is advisable that you take down this ridiculous website and leave the ‘calling out’ to Ms James and her lawyers. Just because someone links a profile page to a website doesn’t mean it’s their website does it? No I didn’t think so.
It is sad to think that a young girl starting her career would be targeted like this by many, who were not only misinformed by a woman who should know better, but were so quick to throw stones at the innocent. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, as is written in the Bible, you should look that up. It’s not plagiarised before you start.
As for your remark about the university establishment, I will have you know that not only am I and the rest of the department 100% behind Miss Gilmore in any of her future endeavours, we will support her in this case for justice. Nobody should have to fall victim to the kind of bullying that went on tonight. Nobody.
Truly,
[The person pretending to be] J. Baxter.
Dr. Baxter,
I, as a professor, would never support a person who obviously has plagiarized, especially if they were my student. Nor do I know any professor who would do so.
In addition, as is the case for most universities, professors should not and DO NOT give legal advice. I also find it interesting that you and “the rest of the department” have learned about this situation before 8am in the morning and are “100% behind Miss Gilmore”. It’s amazing that you could get support from the entire department before 8am.
My guess is that you are not, indeed, Dr. Baxter. If you are, then please e-mail me from your university account to jchitten@uark.edu so I can extend to you my apologies.
If you are not, then I would say that I do not take kindly to someone using a professor’s identity in order to bolster themselves when they are clearly in the wrong. If someone did that to me, putting my professional reputation and integrity at jeopardy, I would be furious. I will wait to hear from Dr. Baxter, but if I do not, I will be notifying her of this conduct.
Sincerely,
Dr. J.D. Chittenden
Did you get a response? I doubt this Alison girl even has a college degree…unless she stole it from the internet too! **snickers**
Nope never heard from her. And I was serious about contacting the professor about this. It is unacceptable to respond in such a way that makes that professor (who upon reading her qualifications is quite talented) look bad.
I have received a post from Dr. Baxter indicating that she was impersonated. I can’t say beyond a reasonable doubt that Alison Gilmore in fact impersonated Dr. Baxter but she is a very likely culprit. I am doubly disgusted.
Dr / Ms / Mrs / Miss / Mr Baxter,
The course of action I assume you are hitting at is Defamation, yes?
I won’t bore you with the legal test for Defamation save and except to say the gist is that I’ve said something false about user and operator of the twitter handle @alisongilmore which would lead to her being lowered in the estimation of right minded people.
Let’s look at what my blog has said:
1. An individual with the twitter handle @alisongilmore once operated a webpage – which was freely linked to her Twitter website. This Twitter handle was given for persons who read “her work” on the website to contact her and leave comments. This Twitter handle is the same handle used on the user page of http://www.fanfiction.com, where once again readers of “her stories” were advised to use the twitter handle to contact her. The name attached to the twitter handle is: Alison Gilmore.
2) A very quick perusal of both of the “stories” which she stated very clearly on the website to be hers and in fact on that same website accepted commendations were written and previously published by two other authors some years ago.
3) The person operating that twitter account a couple days ago linked a curious reader wanting to find out why the Fan Fiction story was deleted (it was deleted because it infringed copyright by the way) and was linked by the person operating that account to the website so that she may read “her story.”
When the curious reader commended the person for the great writing – the commendation was accepted.
4) Let me reaffirm that the individual using the twitter handle goes by the name: Alison Gilmore
Now, what will be need to be proven is that on a balance of probabilities, the user of that twitter account, with that twitter handle did not in fact plagiarize from these authors. Because as you know, it is not defamation is the allegation is proved to be true. Let me refer you once against to the above listed points. I am not merely saying because someone links a website to their twitter profile page it is there website. However, I believe it to be your website when you acknowledge not only the site but the content of the site and you accept commendations therefrom.
Now if your Alison Gilmore is NOT in fact the Alison Gilmore who handled that account – the post isn’t in any way, shape or form directed at her. It is as was clearly stated directed at the handler of the account who was identified by the name used on that account.
I’m very aware of the admonishment to let he without the sin cast the first stone. I’m also very well aware of the admonishment – thou shall not steal.
I didn’t rush to judgment nor am I a sheep. I spent at least an hour going between the sites before they were all taken down to quadruple check the information that was posted.
If having read the entirety of my post you still maintain the view that Miss Gilmore is innocent, I will not ask you to change your view. However, please do not ask me to fly in the face of logic. It is very clear what has happened here.
Rilzy
For the record, I, Dr Jeannette Baxter, am not the author of the above post (nor of any others to this blog). I ask that the person impersonating me stop immediately. I myself will not engage in any further communication to this blog.
Thank you for clearing that up Dr. Baxter. I shall edit the post to remove any reference to you.
Quoting a bible verse or paraphrasing it is not plagiarism, especially when you give it credit. I’m not sure why you had to bring that up here in this forum but I don’t feel it applies one bit. Whether or not the woman you taught at university is the same one who has claimed the work of another as her own in this case, the fact remains SOMEONE claiming to be of the same name, with the same Twitter handle, linking all the accounts together DID steal the work of not only one, but TWO established authors. You can’t fake those screen shots. Weebly took down the site because it violated it’s Terms of Service.
Complete chapters posted using the exact sentences, story structure and plot points as the original work with only the names changed, is not only plagiarism, but it’s blatant stealing. The works in question are copyrighted. The person who posted those chapters on the fan fiction site and then put them up on their weebly blog/webpage is the one who broke the law in not only The United States, but many more countries around the world. If the Miss Gilmore you know is not the one who did this, and she is indeed a victim of identity theft, then I hope she has her name cleared.
If she is in fact the one who has done this, then she’s going to have a long, hard road ahead of her. Honestly, none of this would have gone this far if the one calling herself “Alison Gilmore” had taken the warnings from Lorelei’s publisher seriously.
I find your defense to be invalid. The above screen captures clearly proves the point. I find it odd that anyone plagiarizes without monetary incentive, but some people do crave adoration purely for the thrill. Your defense is weak. She made a mistake. This has been very well documented. Your sad attempt to request a take down of the truth is very offensive if you are indeed affiliated with a university. Her actions would be an automatic fail in the college I work for and attend as a student. I am also a published author. The latest statistic I’ve seen is that 80 percent of Americans want to write a book. We all know the number who put in the hard work, sweat, and tears happens to be a much smaller number. You cannot teach imagination. I’m sorry she has made a mistake, but for God’s sake don’t encourage your students to do this kind of thing! I shudder to think of the damage you could cause supporting this. I am less concerned with the career of a girl lacking creativity and more fearful for who she will injure in her future endeavors. I am inclined to believe you are the girl herself or just a random friend instead of believing you are her professor. I hope she sees her mistake and doesn’t repeat it. I feel very sad for her. It must be horrible to want something so much you steal it. I wish everyone involved the strength to heal and move on. **hugs**
Gotta say that I didn’t realize that they condone plagiarism in the UK. I went to grad school with someone who was kicked out of our program (during his last class before graduation) for plagiarizing part of his research work. If this is considered acceptable in the UK, I wish I would have headed overseas for my grad program…sure would have been a whole lot easier!
It doesn’t even look like Ms. Gilmore attempted to change ANYTHING in Ms. Lorelei’s body of work.
Brit here, plagiarism definitely not acceptable here. When I was a student a few years ago, there were posters, warnings at the start of some lectures, reminder in the student handbook. At the Freshers Fair, a company handed out free “plagiarism check” CDs. Plagiarism definitely not accepted, and an accusation of plagiarism would be thoroughly investigated internally and externally before being judged upon.
If you want to ask her if she had made the comment above, you can email her at Jeannette.Baxter@anglia.ac.uk
Wow that is so wrong of Alison to try and pass Lorelei’s books as hers. I came across to reading Lorelei’s books because my friends would post her books on a spanish forum and changing the names as well but unlike Alison my friend did say she wasn’t the writer and the stories where copied from Lorelei’s books which she would also put where we can get Lorelei’s books and since then I’ve gotten the books and updates on her other books from Lorelei website. So shame on Alison for trying to take credit for books she didn’t write and trying to make Lorelei look like the bad one when it’s obvious she’s not.
As a writer who has felt the sting of this type of activity, I applaud you for revealing it. The ICT age has yielded many pluses for writers including the ease with which we can connect and share. The flipside is this; people pirating your blood, sweat and sleepless nights with impunity. This is something I am challenged to be vigilant about; it is not to be taken lightly. Kudos on your sleuthing.
Joanne I’m just sooo upset about this. I went to bad mad, I woke up mad. So much goes into writing… so much time, so much effort, so much of you. Even the “new” title she gave the book was ripped off of Lorelei’s book – the last line of the first chapter. It’s just wrong and people need to stop. But you are right – with all the benefits of the ICT age, there are some disadvantages as well.
Thankfully, the ICT age has some answers to the very problems it creates. Google Alerts enable you to track new instances of a phrase or set of words turning up. If you select a phrase from your novel that you’re pretty sure nobody else will have written organically, without a name in it, and put a Google Alert on it, if anyone does try to steal your work in any way which comes up on Google – like forum posts and on websites – you’ll get a notification.
Thank you so much for this Alice. This is really good advice.
I can’t believe what I am reading here…. I think the fact that all the links posted here and on Facebook go nowhere – says it all really.
Am reblogging..x
Reblogged this on ROSALIND SMITH-NAZILLI – aka – THE FICTION VIXEN – and her flash fiction addiction and commented:
This effects every single one of us who write.. What ever the outcome, show your support please..x
Reblogged this on The Cheese Whines and commented:
Some people have a lot of chutzpah, but it’s the wrong kind. Hopefully this plagiarizing fool gets sued at some point. Why put yourself in this kind of situation? I really don’t understand people like this.
I understand the outrage. Some guy named Hemingway stole all of my stuff and now he is famous and few have ever heard of me.
Same thing happened to me–some guy calling himself Wm. Shakespeare
– signed – Chris Marlowe
That’s funny ! Bill and I usta play dominoes every Thursday.
Truly tasteless! What on earth was she thinking? Glad you were able to record all her fraudulent activities before she was able to remove them from the page. I know how much writing means to you therefore was not surprise that you took such great disgust to such an act. Keep on writing! Keep on defending your true love!
Yes. It isn’t often I feel the need to have to blog about something that is going on but I just had to. Especially with the response that was received and the way she and others are trying to make the writer out to be this horrible persons and me one of her cronies.
Reblogged this on Vampires, Crime and Angels…Eclectic Me and commented:
Have to reblog this! As a writer, having your work stolen and portrayed as someone else’s hard word and sweat is the worst case scenario. We all need to be vigilant about this.
Just absolutely speechless!
First of all, Rilzy, I’d like to thank you for posting this with all the screen shots. And I’d like to thank you for your reasoned response to the comment in defense of whoever this is. I’m linking to this and hoping she can’t ever do this again.
Me too. I’m hoping she learns from this. Unfortunately, I’m not too confident. Her eventual reaction speaks volumes.
I reblogged this one too and shared on my FB page and two GR groups. This behavior is deplorable and I’m sure that “Allison” will show up again in some iteration of herself. Sad.
Way to go for investigating all that!!
She should be fined or jailed and make a public apology.
As if a university professor fouls support donating like this. I think she write that twitter herself under a false name. No literary department would support this. I have two degrees and s master in English. I know the university laws on plagiarism and let me tell you no student is supported for stealing an entire NOVEL!!
Well fine Julie Chittenden for “catching out” Dr Baxter! You comment was amazing. There is no Dr Baxter. Do these people think we are really dumb??
Hell would freeze over before an entire department would support a student over this. I would take them all down if I were Lorelei James. She’d my all time favorite and support her 100%.
Stay positive Lorelei!! Thanks to robderful fans like us and your friends/colleagues like Cat Johnson (another favorite of mine) for alerting us to this disgrace.
This is the reason I hate twitter and Facebook. People can screw you over!! Email is enough!!
Hope this thief gets her just desserts. BITCH!!
Actually, Elle, there is a Dr. Jeannette Baxter at Anglia Ruskin University. Here is her bio page from the university’s web site: http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/english_media/staff/jeannette_baxter.html.
I think someone should email her and see if she did make the above comment. She may appreciate find out a student is posting comments on web sites posing as her. Her email address is Jeannette.Baxter@anglia.ac.uk.
It turns out that Dr. Baxter was impersonated. I’m going to take a wild guess at who might have done it.
Thank you for sharing this story. I am outraged that when caught Alison Gilmore will not just shut up.
Thank for such a detailed post and all the screenshots. The fact that AG is trying to play injured party is just deplorable.
I’m sharing the link to this blog on Guilt Pleasures Book Reviews Facebook and Twitter.
Rilzy , as an attorney and fellow writer, I applaud you efforts and I understand how you feel!! I, too, was instantly furious when I was notified of this plagiarism in a writing forum I belong to! I hope that you won’t mind if I repost this in all of my groups! Fantastic explanation of the situation…..you will make a formidable advocate!…….correction…you already ARE a formidable advocate!
Thank you 🙂
Reblogged this on Cristin Harber and commented:
The internet never forgets. Nothing ever *really* disappears. And plagiarism is disgusting. That is all. Maybe…because readers, reviewers, and writers are fired up.
OH YEAH, lesson numero uno, after, ya know, don’t steal people’s shit? Learn a thing or two about PR crisis management, own your sins and move on.
This blows my mind. Check out @Limecello: http://wp.me/p2PzGm-1zi as well.
I reported on Facebook! Great blog! Watching this unfold last night was amazing.
I was following on Twitter as well and posted on my Facebook page notifying my followers what was going on and encouraged them to tweet Alison Gilmore to pull down Lorelei James work. I’m glad the site is now down, but the damage is done now. If she had enough nerve to post Lorelei James’s book online and claim it as her own, I am almost positive she has done this before. Probably passing off other authors work as her own in writing classes etc. I didn’t appreciate her calling Lorelei James’s work smut either.i’ll be keeping an eye out for her to pop up again somewhere soon. I’m going to put a reminder in my calendar to google her every month to make sure the site doesn’t get reposted. Cori- Reading In Pajamas
Yes. I tried contacting Renae Taylor but I don’t think she’s seen my message as yet. Alison stole her work first. In fact you’d see in one screen shot her saying that this was an ‘older’ one of her pieces. This upsets me so much. It is not often I feel compelled to write a blog unrelated to the novellas I post for my friends’ entertainment. In this instance, I had to… or explode with disgust.
Glad you did. It shows all the details of what she did.
Reblogged this on Illuminite Caliginosus.
Reblogged this on alylonna and commented:
This is absolutely appalling. Seems to have been shut down now, but those of you that read and publish stuff online should be aware that it’s happening.
Very poor form. Plagiarism is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to my college classes. To steal from an author = so not cool. And thanks for the screen shots. I think I follow her. Must confirm and remedy.
Reblogged this on D.R. Slaten and commented:
The skinny on an internet plagiarist.
Dr. Jeanette Baxter really does exist. http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/english_media/staff/jeannette_baxter.html?utm_source=jeannettebaxter&utm_medium=url&utm_campaign=redirect&utm_content=staff.englishmedia.jeannettebaxter.aug09.
It’d be interesting to know if she’s really the one who commented.
I would imagine not, for two reasons. First, plagiarism is an incredibly serious accusation in academia. One’s reputation is everything. I know of no professor who would go out on a limb to protect someone accused of plagiarism, without serious investigation first. Her post did not reflect any investigation, it merely said, in effect, “I know this student and she wouldn’t do that and you’re all bullies”. Would you stake your career or that? Because that’s what she did, if the professor did indeed write that post.
The second reason is that her post contains slight grammatical errors. (There are times when being a grammar martinet can be useful.) An English professor, writing in a public forum on a controversial matter, would probably make darn sure that her writing was clear, concise, and eloquent. OK, perhaps not; but to me, the errors give weight to the idea that the post was not in fact made by that professor.
Has Doctor Baxter responded to the direct email yet? I suspect identity theft is even more of a crime than plagiarism.
There has yet to be a response to the direct email. I’m still waiting. I keep rereading the blog post and I keep looking at the evidence that I’ve put out and I find it so hard to believe anyone would completely dismiss what I’ve said as being misinformed and a bully. This girl plagiarized and it worries me when I think of the fact that she might have done this before and she might do this again.
Not only that, but the entire tone of that post was self-righteous and defensive, more so than I’d expect from a professor, unless that person is an idiot. Or way too close to this Alison.
The shot about quoting from the Bible not being plagiarism is very suspect too. Very immature.
As soon as I read it, my first suspicion was that it was Alison herself masquerading as someone else. We may never know for sure.
Reblogged this on Chronicles of a 40-something Nurse Wannabe and commented:
The lesson to be learned here is simple: DO NOT STEAL OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK. The internet is forever.
Oh, wow, her twitter comments are brazen – if it was me I would have had a serious urge to b****slap the chick.
Bravo to Lorelei James for catching and calling her out. I had a work plargiarized once – an original short story that was turned into a Twilight fanfic of all things – and, needless to say, the entire episode left a bad taste in my mouth so I can imagine how much this news/discovery hurt Ms. James.
I think she just keeps changing her name on twitter because @BelTeltweets is now gone and I saw that someone named Alison on twitter with the account @GirlInTheMoon10 had been retweeting all of the tweets that were @AlisonGilmore. I went to that page and then clicked on one of her tweets and it said that it was now gone too. She can run but she can’t hide.
You’d think if she had any sense she’d lay low for awhile. But then, if she had any sense, she wouldn’t have plagiarized in the first place.
I thought at first that she might be a teenager — lots of them at ff.net. But the tweets lack a certain teenagedness. (Hey, I’m a writer; I can make up my own words. 🙂 ) So maybe she’s early 20’s, old enough to know better, yet immature enough to think she can get away with it?
I’m trying to imagine if my name got mixed up with a plagiarizer’s — my tweets would have more begging for understanding and less name-calling.
I put her at around 21. She’s just completed a degree in Literature and Writing at the Anglia Ruskin University. Which sort of explains the comment I got from her irate “professor” accusing me of bullying and telling me to take my ridiculous blog down.
I’ve been writing fanfic since … *checks* … 2008/9. Plagiarism was happening before I started, this was going on while I was actively writing, and it’s still going on now. I honestly don’t know why people bother to steal someone else’s work – it usually results in the wrath of many being turned upon them.
Thank you – genuinely – for bringing this to everyone’s attention. I know if it happened to me I’d be devastated.
Fanfiction.net clearly needs much better controls to ensure this can’t happen again.
This is my issue. I know quite a few college professors. I live in a college town. I went to the head of the English department and showed them this situation. According to him, he said, he would NEVER get involved in this situation. In fact if he saw this accusation that has some valid proof he would have started to research himself and their degree would be officially bending–even if they already graduated.
Second, we all have an IP address. It is what most computer nerds like to call a thumb print of your computers activity. Short of rubbing a very large magnet over your hard drive there is NO WAY to get rid of evidence. Especially, creating a website, twitter, facebook account, or fan fiction page. Unless you have extremely expensive programming your IP address will be attached to all of these sites even after you delete them.
The even more helpful thing is it doesn’t take a computer forensics expert to actually find this information. Computer programers at ITT Tech would be able to track this all down in hours. So, if they really REALLY want to play the legal game–it will not work very well in her favor. All it will take is a run of her IP address to show that she created these sites. An IP address links to your location as well. So, she claims someone stop all your info. Lets just hope that it doesn’t show that it was made from her home, because then that would mean–what? Someone broke into your home and did all this? I highly doubt that. I believe this is a catfish situation to be honest. They have a whole reality show about catfish. I believe Alison has pretended to be this professor to be honest.
I think if you check your comments sections rilzy, it will show IP addresses of all of us that post. I would seriously look up this Jeanett’s IP address and save it. It is just for your own protection.
Bonnie
Thanks Bonnie. I’ve tracked the IP address to Scotland and I’ll keep it saved.
Reblogged this on Lori King Books and commented:
I HAD to share this on my own blog! You can’t deny the evidence that this girl stole from Loralei and Renea. The fact that she denied it has the entire book loving community up in arms. I would love to hear your take on it.
Thank You.
Reblogged this on Lucy's Lit Lovin' Blog and commented:
Just absolutely shocking. I can’t believe it!
If you click on Jeanette’s profile, it’s been removed!!
At 12:45 AM, CDT on 16 June 2013, I retrieved Dr, Jeannette Baxter’s profile from this URL: http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/english_media/staff/jeannette_baxter.html
Im sure glad your not my university lecturer where are your morals??
In fact I don’t believe you. Something smells about your post. Have you stolen Dr Baxters identity??
Rilzy, I hope you don’t mind. I added a link to your post in my blog post discussing the major factor that will combat plagiarism. My link is http://indiscriminatewrites.blogspot.com/2013/06/readers-we-need-you.html. And thank you for posting all of the screenshots. Readers and writers not involved in last night’s shenanigans have the right to the same information we saw yesterday.
I definitely don’t mind. I think people really need to be made aware of this. Especially as it has now been proven she isn’t above impersonating people to try to throw the heat away from herself.
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Scottish author & novelist (1771 – 1832)
For the record – I didn’t write this 😉
New twitter again. @ophelia1014
Believe it or not, this is not the first time I’ve seen this. A guy named Terrell Mims is a half-wit who suddenly started producing brilliant blogs. Come to find out, he was copying them word for word and even picture for picture from places like Cracked.com and claiming them as his own. Same kind of reaction when he was popped for it. Not only that, once he was run off the internet, he came back again and repeated the process. Mental.
Sad fact is that I know even NYT Bestsellers that suffer these blatant attacks. At least with the internet, they are eventually rooted out. I think.
This is ridiculous and as I keep saying the way in which she responded angered me so much.
Plagierists are so brazen any more. The two authors who had their work stolen are fortunate that the guilty party merely posted the work online. Their are authors who have had their work sold as e-books under different titles and authers! The practice makes me sick…
It is sickening.
She needs someone to sue her. That might be the only way to get her to stop.
To summarize what we know now.
1. Alison Gilmore has taken down her website and changed her twitter account to locked account to avoid the inconvenience of having anyone remind her that she was caught plagiarizing.
2. According to Ms. Gilmore it’s everyone else’s fault for cyber bullying her (and she claims everyone is wrong, wrong wrong, there’s no proof even when she was caught red handed.)
/sarcasm
3. Someone impersonated a faculty member at her former university claiming they and the entire dept. was in total support of her. That faculty member is aware they were the victim of identity theft and the plagiarism claims against Ms. Gilmore.
4. Further digging by people researching Ms. Gilmore have discovered that in addition to plagiarizing these two published novels that she appears to have also plagiarized a number of book reviews on her blog from other published book bloggers.
5. On her blog, which she has since either taken down or locked, she claimed that she has been offered a paid internship at W.W. Horten Publishing and that they have offered to help pay for her MA in Publishing. Supposedly, someone has tweeted Horton Publishing a link to at least one blog about this debacle so let’s hope they investigate who they are financially supporting and who’s work for them may be called into question at some future point in time.
In the face of overwhelming evidence, Ms. Gilmore is still claiming to be the innocent victim.
My questions at this point are:
1. Has anyone heard back from Renae Taylor regarding the theft of her novel? She needs to join Ms. James/Armstrong in taking legal action against Ms. Gilmore.
2. Has the University where Ms. Gilmore obtained her degree shown any indication that they are going to investigate to see if these are the only incidents of plagiarism in Ms. Gilmore past? Since it appears that her degree was recently conferred is it too late to sanction her?
3. Most importantly, how can we as a book community stop incidents like this from happening? I keep hearing about it every few months and it seems like every time it happens, the pattern repeats. The frustration of the legitimate copyright holder, the outrage of the community, the self-righteous indignation of the culprit over being caught, but no real solutions. I am sure part of what helped this thief feel inoculated from consequences was the vastness of the Internet, the very thing that also tripped her up but surely there has to be a better long term solution than hoping that someone is simply going to recognize “hey, I recognize that from somewhere else.”
Hey Julaine. I’ve personally not heard back from Ms. Taylor. I’ve tried contacting her via her Amazon writer’s page but that proved to be unsuccessful. To this point the University hasn’t shown any indication that they’ll investigate but I’m assuming that if Dr. Baxter has read the blog post she might actually make some queries especially in the face of her having had been impersonated by a person very likely to be Alison Gilmore. As to your third question, I’m still thinking about it. I’ve been thinking about it all weekend. I do think what you hit on is spot on. There needs to be some accountability. I think people need to see if you do this there will be consequences. I hope this will launch an exercise where we ponder this question thoroughly and find some solutions.
I, too was unsuccessful in finding a way to contact Ms. Taylor to offer my support. So I did the only thing I could do, which is the same thing I try to do, every time one of these incidents come to light; namely I bought her book. I already owned the Lorelei James book in question, so in her case my support comes in the form of her latest release which came out today.
BTW, I made a mistake in the name of the publishing company that Ms. Gilmore claims that she is interning at. It’s W.W.Norton Publishing,Inc. I sincerely hope they take a long look at Ms. Gilmore and her credentials before they decide to hire her. A question of plagiarism on a professional/publishing level would make THIS scandal look like child’s play.
I have no answers for how we as a community are going to stop plagiarists, but as readers we should as be vigilant about where are books/stories come from. Be sure the sites you are accessing are legimate distributors or double check the author’s web pages it you have any doubts. There are a LOT of pirate sites out there unfortunately. Fan fiction and retailers need to be more responsive to takedown notices and take punitive action when plagiarists and pirates are caught. Simply taking down the plagiarized work isn’t good enough. Maybe a notice in its place that it WAS plagiarized and by whom and where to find the actual copyrighted material would be a start. That way people like Ms. Gilmore can’t cry “bullied” and “innocent” to their fans and go on like nothing happened.
I, for one am just heartily sick of watching this happen time and time again and seeing the transgressors get away with it without any lasting punishment.
Sadly, consequences for this kind of thing are few and far between. Cassandra Clare did exactly the same thing–posted Pamela Dean’s published work as Harry Potter fanfic–was caught doing it, and now she’s a NYT bestselling author.
Rilzy,
I thank you for all the hard work you have done on tracking this person. I was unaware until last evening when my daughter notified me of what had occured. I am currently looking into what recourse I have in this matter and again I thank you. I would love to say much more, however I beleive at this point remaining silent is my best course.
Plagiarism and theft of digital books is inevitable. But the book writing/producing/reviewing/reading community is not all that large, even with the vast reach of the Internet.
We combat plagiarism the way we deal with terrorism. We all stay alert to its potential event and investigate and report it immediately when we see it. We watch each other’s backs. We care about each other as professionals. We work together as a community. Blog posts and tweets dedicated to outing acts of plagiarism when they occur is the best plan of action.
Lawsuits are outrageously expensive, and generally not an option for most writers and many publishers. Thanks, Rilzy, for doing such a thorough investigation. Appreciated the information you presented.
Reading all the subsequent comments from my early comment I wish to add to the discussion again. If someone steals and reprints my cartoons from my blog or from book form there is not much I can really do about it and a copyright is fairly insignificant unless there are measurable losses either in dollars made from my work or libel and slander made against me for its illegal, inappropriate or offensive use. If I publish a cartoon on my blog I’ve established ownership/authorship. If published in book or ezine or magazine I’ve established ownership/authorship and if I have an ISBM # that legitimizes my ownership as well so I really don’t see how copyright can help an author unless his/her work is blockbuster stuff. Retaining a copyright lawyer for $10,000 must be way worth the while. If someone is knocking out my stuff in Singapore, for example, I’ll never know about it anyway. My wordpress experience has been quite positive. About a dozen different bloggers have reprinted my things and have always asked for permission and credited my blog so permission is freely given with delight in my network wordpress family.
u am extremely glad I came across this as my mother is Renea Taylor, writer of beyond right or wrong and I called her to let her know that she had been plagiarized! I read this book in 2006 after my mother wrote it before it was ever published and it angers me to no end that people are party enough to do this kind of stuff. I can promise you my mother will be looking into the matter to see I’d there is anything that can be done about it!
wow auto correction is awful! so sorry for all the typos.