Response to "Move over, 'Meerkat Manor'"

    The article, “Move over, ‘Meerkat Manor’” by Paul Tome, was all-in-all humorous. I found the author’s writing style to be candid, clever, and filled with a witty sarcasm that seems to come from a genuine care-free view of the world instead of the spite possibly experienced from his being plagiarized. I greatly appreciated the author’s ability to still see the humor in the whole idea of a trashy romance novel containing a scientific excerpt on ferrets, and even more so how the author felt sympathy for the ferrets who are seemingly forgotten in the midst of the scandal. After reading the article I am left wondering about the author of the novel “Shadow Bear”. What motivated Edwards to plagiarize Mr. Tome’s work, laziness? And why even include the passage, which is greatly out of place and totally unnecessary to the plot-line and dialogue. I would think the passage subtracts more from the story than it adds, and definitely strikes a reader as foreign to an erotic novel. I can’t help agree with Paul Tome’s conclusion that plagiarism tarnishes the craft of writing. Every writer needs to realize that the publishing of their words comes with the expectation from any and every audience that the words writing are crafted by the writer, and no other.