I have been following the Cassie Edwards brouhaha with interest via GalleyCat and Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Edwards is a writer of nearly 100 historical novels who has allegedly lifted descriptive passages from earlier works by others to reuse in her own books with little change and no attribution. Edwards has stated that that she didn’t know she was supposed to credit such sources, telling the Associated Press that “When you write historical romances, you’re not asked to do that.”

The last time this sort of thing came up in the romance field was when Janet Dailey plagiarized the work of Nora Roberts. In that case, Dailey eventually apologized, blaming it on “a psychological problem that I never even suspected I had … I have already begun treatment for the disorder and have been assured that, with treatment, this behavior can be prevented in the future.” (more…)