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May 15, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #14: Detecting the Dark Side of Language

Here’s the fourteenth installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #14: Detecting the Dark Side of Language
By W.J. Elvin III
May 15, 2009

wwiip6-200 It’s 2 o’clock in the morning in London as my email comes breezing in to interrupt John Olsson’s musings. Olsson interests us because he’s an expert at digging out the secrets of deceptive documents, anything from anonymous hate mail to plagiarized books.

My note found him puzzling over hidden clues in regard to the character of Bernard Madoff, the big Wall Street toad whose secret life involved scamming multi-millions from clients.

Might a keen observer have spotted what Madoff was up to, before it all fell down? Olsson pondered the name, “Madoff.” Odd, the wanderings of the mind in the wee small hours. “Made Off”¦,” he supposed. “Bernard made off”¦”

Well, John, maybe you’re on to something. And, believe me, you can throw LiteratEye readers a long one and they’ll be out there to catch it. But we better at least start a little closer to the line of scrimmage.

And so, down to business. In Olsson’s case, business is The Forensic Linguistics Institute and his studies are usually of a very serious nature. You can get a fairly good idea of what it’s all about from his new book, Wordcrime. Continue reading “LiteratEye #14: Detecting the Dark Side of Language”

May 8, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #13: The ‘Heaving Bosoms’ Interview

Here’s the thirteenth installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #13: The ‘Heaving Bosoms’ Interview
By W.J. Elvin III
May 8, 2009

visual-200 Last week we were wallowing around in the recent uproar in romance novel blogdom over prolific and popular author Cassie Edwards. Seems there’s something fishy about her writing, as in, some of it belongs to other writers.

Edwards has sold over ten million books. Each book, we could guess, has been read a dozen times or more as it passes along to girlfriends, sisters, cousins, used bookshops, hospitals, on and on down the line. So, conservatively, maybe a hundred million readers had a whack at noticing Edwards’ serial plagiarism, across a couple of decades of her writing career. But there was nary a peep until Smart Bitches and their posse got on the case.

And here to tell us about that discovery and its repercussions is Sarah Wendell, co-author of the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog and the new book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels.

Continue reading “LiteratEye #13: The ‘Heaving Bosoms’ Interview”

May 1, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #12: Is That a Ferret in Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Glad to See Me?

Here’s the twelth installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #12: Is That a Ferret in Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Glad to See Me?
By W.J. Elvin III
May 1, 2009

beyondheavingbosoms You’ve probably already ordered the new book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms, so I won’t go into a lot of spoiler detail. But, then again, maybe you’re new to the lusty, earth-quaking realm where the “heroine’s irresistible Magic Hoo Hoo and the hero’s untamable Wang of Mighty Lovin” collide in pulsating passion. Welcome.

This week we are looking into how the feisty Bosoms authors blew popular romance novelist Cassie Edwards out of the water. Edwards has over ten million books in print. Her unraveling involves ferrets.

Bosoms’ subtitle is: “The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels.” It’s by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan, the bright and clever brains behind the Smart Bitches/Trashy Books blog.

Their beat is the fattest fiction genre with the biggest profits in book publishing. Critically, sometimes hilariously, sometimes academically, they review romance novels and the unique and often enough weird world of romance writers and readers. It’s a world where you’ll encounter Cassie Edwards and the ferrets. Continue reading “LiteratEye #12: Is That a Ferret in Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Glad to See Me?”

April 24, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #11: Motive for Murder

Here’s the eleventh installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #11: Motive for Murder
By W.J. Elvin III
April 24, 2009

“I felt at the time like someone would have to die, that drastic measures were called for, but I didn’t know who.” … “I even thought of the possibility of killing people who were not involved in the fraud schemes at all “¦ And I could tell the fraud victims I was too busy with those deaths to come through on the frauds. The whole idea was not to get caught for the frauds.” (Quotes from Mark Hofmann noted in the book, “Salamander” by Linda Sillitoe and Allen Roberts).

Mark W. Hofmann Mark Hofmann would be considered a celebrity genius of literary forgery and fraud if he hadn’t flipped out and killed some people. As a result of the murders, he’ll go down in history as a warped and callous ogre.

Before going on, I’d like to clear the air about one thing. There’s a mistake I’ve been making for some time in referring to Hofmann as “the greatest forger of the past century.” George J. Throckmorton brought it to my attention in one of the few books about the case that I’d overlooked until recently, “Motive for Murder.” What should be said is: “Mark Hofmann was the greatest forger of the last century who got caught.”

Obviously, the truly great forgers will remain forever unknown.

Aside from that, the most interesting aspect of Throckmorton’s book is, as the title suggests, his exploration of Hofmann’s motive for the killings. Continue reading “LiteratEye #11: Motive for Murder”

April 17, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #10: Poetic Injustice

Here’s the tenth installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #10: Poetic Injustice
By W.J. Elvin III
April 17, 2009

682_dean_no_date-200 Every generation has its crop of dazed and confused kids, looking for somebody to be. Years ago, the actor James Dean was somebody to be. And then, at the age of 24, piloting his new silver Porsche 550 Spyder, he left us wannabes behind and headed for the stars.

So I was enthused, in a nostalgic way, when I discovered a book, “Rebel With a Pen: the Poetry of James Dean.” How wonderful. I mean, that was the Beat era, so I figured reading Dean would be reminiscent of Jack Kerouac and the “sporadic bop prosody” poetry gang.

Not exactly.

The fact is, James Dean didn’t write these poems. But you won’t learn that from the book’s cover, where all indications are that it’s genuine James. Continue reading “LiteratEye #10: Poetic Injustice”