Lauren M Davis | AUTHORS BEHAVING BADLY

[@ReadswithRachel]

One of my pals has a thread where they read part of Lauren’s work. Apparently there’s a really weird part with an uncle and we’re unsure why Lauren wrote it like this. It’s creepy. x.com/lotsa_matcha/status/1737264880086905172?s=20

[@marocat4749]

Cait coraine seems to have been not that bad, at least in writing? And was actually published, she is no cait corain. not to defend cait coraine

[@opo3628]

@@marocat4749 - Nah. Cait's writing is pretty terrible.

[@Viteaification]

​@@marocat4749Lauren's prose is better than cait by a long mile

[@Lucifersfursona]

“And they’re unsure why she wrote it” Yeah I remember Colleen writing that shit turning out to be Very Real and with Deeply Sinister Motivations Feel like not to quiet part loud but feel like I know why she wrote that Same reason Hoover writes groomers and sexualizes 11 year old girls.

[@rebeccanater]

"powered by the sun" wait till she finds out about plants and calculators.

[@erikdaniels0n]

Lauren is about to sue photosynthesis for copyright infringement

[@justcallmeivonne]

I laughed so hard at this! 😂

[@lordtette]

I thought she's going to flip when she sees Klara and The Sun movie come out?

[@CelticGuardian7]

Beautiful.

[@seanboggs215]

Or Superman, for that matter.

[@mglarson5936]

The mentality of “Marve didn’t talk/pander to me when I wanted her to so I assumed she was hiding something” is PEAK cop behavior lmao

[@vvitch-mist20]

At this rate anytime a white author accuses an author of color of copying them I just assume the white author is racist.

[@haggisa]

Also, the gall to compare her pulling someone over, and them running with a stranger online ignoring your batshit private messages, as if you're entitled to their time and attention. Which is...well, also peak cop behaviour, sadly. This fucking woman.

[@hellaSwankkyToo]

P E A K ! all of her behavior has opps all over it! she is not OK.

[@artsyscrub3226]

Id simply assume that they are dodging me or whatever but if i was truely sure they were stealing id wait for the book and see what contents are in it before i make a case, often sinopsis's aren't super accurate so id wanna read the book first to make sure Then again im also not racist and wouldn't assume the stealing had to do with race, if anything stealing is about jealousy and/or they liked your idea its never about race...

[@CatHasOpinions734]

THIS. Like, people immediately being skeptical and afraid when they know someone's a cop doesn't mean they did anything wrong, it means they watch the news.

[@wendynerd1199]

So wait, the Native Americans swore her to secrecy and contracted her to not even reveal their names, but also were okay with her writing a BOOK about them? This woman makes Cait Corrain look like a mastermind.

[@the_petty_crocker]

"Shutting the fuck up is free" needs to be merch, queen.

[@kbird6208]

Yes

[@haggisa]

When Lauren blurted that out, I chortled like a piglet.

[@heathersmith8549]

I’d buy it!!!

[@erikdaniels0n]

The Authors Behaving Badly motto

[@GrahamRocks]

It'd be perfect on a coffee mug!

[@martymcflown3707]

Her allegory of a cop chasing someone down proving they did something wrong is just--she's not even digging her grave at this point, she's using a giant apple corer on the earth's crust.

[@ReadswithRachel]

This

[@notyourproblem474]

Earth's crust 💀🤣

[@MysteryGeek2006]

*the funny digging the hole metal song starts playing*

[@felixe2007]

Exactly! I can't believe she thought saying that would help her?? And saying she brought up Marve being Nigerian because, as a former cop, she was worried about cybersecurity. That's literally just racial profiling. She's so mad people think she's racist because she's a cop from Mississippi, but every time she tries to defend herself it's like the racist cop mentality keeps creeping out lol

[@merrittanimation7721]

"How dare you say I'm racial profiling! My racial profiling says I'm correct to racial profile!"

[@CadillacBandit]

Lauren ate Panda Express once so she’s definitely *not* racist

[@ReadswithRachel]

You know what I’m surprised she didn’t say something like this

[@kbird6208]

She probably ate actual panda because freedom

[@TimeTravelerJessica]

Nah Panda Express is too spicy for her 😂😂😂😂

[@lrkebuhlolesen402]

I’m deaddd😂😂😂

[@susanburgess820]

😂😂😂😂

[@lajourdanne]

“I’m not racist; I’ve met black people before”

[@ReadswithRachel]

Literally Lauren M. Davis

[@kbird6208]

"I'm not racist, I've met lots of poor and criminal black people before"

[@lajourdanne]

@@ReadswithRachel 🤣

[@heathersmith8549]

She’s even “arrested them” 😮

[@Aro_dynamic46]

“I’m not racist, I’m aware of black people’s existence”

[@microplasticsss]

the plot summary of nova's playlist reads like an extremely convoluted dream where everything makes perfect sense to you while you're asleep but then immediately after you wake up it's completely incomprehensible and you feel a little concerned about your psychological state for like 5 minutes before you forget about it entirely and move on with your life

[@ZimVader-0017]

Why is this so painfully accurate? 😂

[@Aro_dynamic46]

By this logic, everyone who has made a bad boy character with shadow powers can just start suing each other

[@ultraboombean]

Infinity Law Suits

[@Pipkiablo]

I'm just imagining that meme of all the Spider-Mans pointing at each other.

[@cassied97]

Reminded me immediately of people asking Victoria Aveyard if she was upset with Rebecca Yarros for having a MC with grey streaked hair and lightning powers. Like Victoria and Rebecca didn't care it was fans but very similar arguments

[@LenyaGreen]

oh shit, dibs on suing Kishimoto for Sasuke and the whole ass Nara clan for plagiarizing my 12yo self's Her Dark Material OC ...

[@WhiteWolf-lm7gj]

They should. It would be more entertaining than about half of their books

[@KittyScythe]

The fact that Lauren doesn't understand how her behavior is racist is just...yikes.

[@lrkebuhlolesen402]

I was SHOCKED at the paragraph “it seems like she is from Nigeria. You were already going to be an author” - or something along those lines. That’s just… Girl what do you mean lmao.

[@Frogface91]

​@@lrkebuhlolesen402It totally reads as her claiming Marve only got her book deal as some sort of diversity quota rather than skill (imo).

[@lrkebuhlolesen402]

@@Frogface91 exactly

[@pippaesque7906]

I'm sure she didn't mean it this way, but Nigeria kind of is a hotbed of talented writers.

[@notyourproblem474]

Racists never believe they're being racists, many of them genuinely believe that there is nothing wrong with their behavior

[@IloveRUPERT2010]

I yelled out loud when she said "If someone didn't do anything wrong, why would they run from the police? So anyway I tracked her down and harassed her." Babe, what???

[@carolineholland5841]

Average cop behavior and thought process 😔

[@LexTime89]

I feel like this is a fairly average middle class white mindset, because they don’t understand why there would be a need to run away if they weren’t doing anything wrong.

[@angelawossname]

There's a Nigerian youtuber called Babatunde that has a channel called "Africa Everyday". He talks about the problems in Nigeria such as homophobia, misogyny and cyber crime. The social reasons behind cyber crime in Nigeria are incredibly complicated. He also highlights the many amazing and beautiful things about Nigerian culture, such as their sense of community. He shares Nigerian recipes all the time as well. It's really, really spicy, lots of scotch bonnets.

[@bettyunicorn6132]

Sounds fun!

[@ereristark425]

This sounds awesome! Thanks for the rec.

[@angelawossname]

I found him through another youtuber called Atomic Shrimp, and they honestly have the most wholesome bromance/friendship on youtube. He also has videos on folklore and festivals, and how different regions have different cultures. He's also very honest about the socio-econmic problems present in Nigeria. He's a schoolteacher.

[@lutchien]

Scotch bonnet you say??!! 😊😊

[@rocketbilly]

Thank you for sharing this channel! I found them previously through a British youtuber, but I'd lost track of it. His Jollof rice recipe is straight fire and I highly suggest trying it out.

[@JulianGreystoke]

For someone who's not a racist she keeps a really close track of the race of everyone she interacts with... This woman is if "i have a black friend!" was a person.

[@TiffWaffles]

I don't get why race/ethnicity was even brought up in this argument in the first place. What does Marve being of Nigerian ancestry have to do with Lauren thinking that they plagiarised her book? One would think that if Lauren actually believed that plagiarism happened that she would keep her posts discussing the similarities between the two books and actually proving that plagiarism occurred. The race and ethnicity of the other author shouldn't even matter and it shouldn't have been brought up.

[@ajlorentz]

@@TiffWafflesshe thinks Nigerians are criminals thus Marve must be one. She even posts a screenshot of “what crimes come from Nigeria”

[@ShortForMertchel]

It really reminds me of a coworker I had who everyone that he worked with (including me) ended up reporting to hr for some type of inappropriate behavior. He would tell me stories like the one where three boys that he thought were his friends in high school started hitting him "for no reason" and he'd list off their ethnicities every time "one was hispanic, one was black, and one was a jew" and every time I would think "not even teenage boys start punching their friends for no reason". I feel like if Lauren were to tell someone who hadn't heard of this situation before what happened, her story would probably sound similar to his.

[@BlackXSunlight]

⁠@@TiffWaffles She’s weaponizing the “Nigerian prince” conartist stereotype to rack up support for her absolutely wild accusations. That’s why she brought up Marve’s race and nationality.

[@doctoroceanman]

You just KNOW she's patting herself on the back every time she gets through an interaction with a black person without becoming hostile.

[@Yeni.Akinlotan]

As a British Nigerian, that cyber crime line gagged me. I'm cackling at 1am. I'm pretty sure we left the Nigerian Prince scam jokes back in the 2010's

[@teslashark]

I think she is so far from actually namedropping it... I'm Chinese but I think it can be ironic if we readers crowdfund a chieftaincy certificate for Marve.

[@marthademovimaus5140]

Not exactly. These "princes" are still in business but now they use footage from social media apps and crude AI animation to impersonate attractive men and women for use in online romance scams!

[@marthademovimaus5140]

The "princes" themselves are alive and well, doing virtual cosplay (using photos stolen from social media) to catfish money out of their male and female victims! They even use AI to alter footage for fake video calls!

[@softbutterfly_xoxo]

I'm Nigerian British too lol, 'Prince's' aren't even as common as ppl make it seem 🤦🏾‍♀️😂

[@NecrozmaJade]

If she used AI art for the cover, ain’t no reason to believe she wouldn’t use AI to write the story too.

[@streakyanchovy]

I mean, with how disjointed and incoherent everything is I wouldn’t be surprised.

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

I doubt it. This wasn’t a rush job. She’s been working on it since 2013 according to her and I think it makes sense that she’s just been working and working and working on it for years in her own little bubble.

[@streakyanchovy]

@@Financiallyfreeauthor Well that is (somehow) even sadder to hear. I am a novice who’s currently writing my first webcomic, and I am always scared of falling into this trap. I do have a few friends that I consult on writing stuff for this reason, but I’m aware that I’ll most definitely need a wider range of beta/sensitivity readers when I’m done with a complete script. It’s obvious that she didn’t care about any critique she got from her beta readers or editors. Why did she hire them if she wasn’t going to consider their points? Seems like a waste of time on both ends.

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

@@streakyanchovy Yes, it's a trap that we can fall into as creatives. It's important to learn how to take critique without getting defensive and being able to see our work with some objectivity. I think a lot of that comes with practice. But I also think most of us struggle with confidence and not being sure our work is good enough so it's stunning to see someone who is so sure of herself.

[@asexualtrickster]

​@@Financiallyfreeauthor😅

[@faithmoir1637]

"you're a solar girl!" is unironically an exact quote from the games i would play with my friends when we were ~8 pretending to be superheroes/rip offs of winx fairies. the fact that this woman's storytelling/writing capabilities have not progressed beyond that of a third grade group of girls is astounding

[@henotic.essence]

OMG NO WAY BECAUSE ME TOO!!! Did we all have the same life? 🤣 "Solar girl" triggered a VERY distant memory for me 🤣🤣

[@faithmoir1637]

@@henotic.essence i remember one of my friends was “goo girl” and she had poison powers 😭😭 suppose i should tell her to get on marvel and dc’s case about the umpteen characters w poison powers lol

[@Stephnbeans]

not me writing winx fanfic from when i was 14 and my girl’s name was Sola 😭

[@whatteamwildcats4033]

Funny you brought up winx because I started listing people off the top of my head with sun powers. Winx features one. Except shes cooler by virtue of having moon powers too

[@artsyscrub3226]

Better call mlp turns out their princess Celestia is a copyright infringement shes got sun magic

[@jojobookish9529]

"I'm not racist! All I did was publically disparage someone I don't know based on negative generalizations of people of her race and national origin!" Good fucking gods.

[@jasminv8653]

'And I would've done the same regardless of the foreign country they were born in!'

[@nooneatall2418]

"You did not create a controversial piece, you did a racism on twitter." We should use this more.

[@Frenzywonder]

Love love LOVE that she goes out of her way to complain about people calling her a stereotypical racist cop then proceeds to talk about how she saw Marve, a black woman, minding her own business online and decided that she did A Bad and digs into her tweets to find the tiniest shred of guilt

[@zkkitty2436]

literally. Half surprised she didn't mention in the string of self congratulatory tweets about interacting with black people that she pulled over a black person based on vibes and then everyone clapped bc they rEalLy wEre a cRimInaL. when she said she was a cop I was like of course she is.

[@sharkattackathighnoon]

fr, she got so upset over people judging her at face value, right after she judged Marve for being Nigerian. Like, girlie, if you don't want to be stereotyped, then don't stereotype?? genuinely, how hard is that to understand.

[@alexlemaire8513]

it's like Disney trying to copyright day of the dead and Norse mythology. Next, she'll have beef with Apollo

[@Kikimonsterbooks]

Honestly, we should probably all have a beef with Apollo. His arrows did bring disease and well...2020

[@morganwentworth2041]

Love how she's citing her cop experience as helping her investigate this "copyright infringement." Like... You're not making a good argument for the cops here

[@warlocksarecool]

Wait til this lady learns about all the different world mythologies that have characters with sun powers 😂

[@haggisa]

"THE GREEKS STOLE MY OC! HELIOS SHOULD BY COPYRIGHTED BY MEEEE! REEEEEE! AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE EGYOTIANS WITH THEIR RA GOD! WE KNOW WHAT *THEY* ARE LIKE!" - this author, probably.

[@streakyanchovy]

>INB4 She falsely accuses Rick Riordan of plagiarism for having characters with sun powers. …Don’t do drugs, kids.

[@farnregen]

The god Ra: *sips tea*

[@perlyshell]

And guess what, with her weird brain logic, she'll still sue 💀 LMAO

[@calmandfree]

She might just combust.🤷🏾‍♀️

[@BennetRenard]

I mentioned in my red-penning of Lauren's other book "Solar Girl" that she has absolutely NO idea what she is talking about regarding history (she at one point depicts agricultural plantation-based enslavement...in England in the 1700s which is VERY incorrect) and I can see she isn't much better depicting the US. (cont...) There is NO WAY I belive she "met with representatives from native tribes" seeing as she apparently has the Navajo (probably the only tribe she could think of) somehow in...New Orleans despite their tribal lands being in the southwest of what is today the United States. In New Orleans, the indigenous people living in the region would likely have been Chitimacha or possibly other tribes from around what is present-day Louisiana There is also NO EVIDENCE that Navajo peoples ever engaged in the practice of taking scalps. Including scalping is just pure racism here.

[@obsidianpaw2373]

Was the whole book written in 30 minutes?? she literally could’ve googled those things abt the Navajo people and found out that what she wrote was incorrect😭

[@BennetRenard]

@@obsidianpaw2373 It really reads like something a 14-year-old wrote on Wattpad. But she's a whole adult!

[@badluck8741]

As a French person, let me confirm that "Avryll" is very much *not* a French name 😂

[@micah1848]

as another french person, I second this: "Avril" is a French name and is just the translation for "April," but... "Avryll" is just a modern American "mckeyyylaeigh"-ification of an otherwise normal name.

[@Tytoalba777]

I think I see the problem. She confused "French" with "Fairy." Very common mistake.

[@robinronin]

My favorite thing about this, was that tweet about crime in Nigeria. She said something like: “There’s human trafficking and scams in Nigeria!!” and I was like... bestie... I hate to be the one to tell you this... but those things happen in every country... 😭😂

[@kbird6208]

Yes, but in America they just get elected

[@calmandfree]

She forgot Jeffery Epstein and the list existed.

[@ultraboombean]

I live in a town in the american south that is known for being a sex traffic depot lol.

[@quadling3521]

@@ultraboombean out of context that’d be a wild sentence to put a lol at the end of.

[@marthademovimaus5140]

Nigeria and Ghana earned their bad reputations for not cracking down on online romance scams, not for plagiarizing novels.

[@EnragedTiefling]

This is just such "original character donut steal!!" deviantart energy.

[@Abyrae]

And it's a Sonic the Hedgehog trace and recolour.

[@Shackbanshee]

Omg, I left the same comment before seeing yours. Such Tumblr energy.

[@danielbroome5690]

It's got the Sonichu energy too of being an OC created by smashing together existing genre archetypes and existing characters and claiming it's wholly original.

[@rocketbilly]

The moment she said sun-based powers, I was just gagged. Theres so many Marvel and DC characters that rely on the sun, or utilize it, and yet this lady is targeting another rising author and refuses to understand/admit she's being racist.

[@aud7593]

you forgot the 1s in between the !s

[@almostatami]

So Lauren saw what happened with Cait Corrain and said "damn that's crazy. Let me go harass this black girl real quick."😂 I want more silent and mysterious authors in 2024. Rarely on social media and writes phenomenal books. That's it.

[@beeaggro2593]

Bring back the Thomas Pynchon's of the world

[@deen7530]

I want so badly to be a published author and I see these authors who have everything I want just throw it away over petty internet drama

[@LynnHermione]

Sadly they're not allowed that anymore. Editorials expect authors to be social media influencers, in fact if you dont have x amount of followers many wont publish your book. Also they're forced to do promo on their own.

[@AlexandriaDiaries]

She said hold your beer. Imma go crazier.

[@lycianempire]

Lauren out here about to sue the gods of Olympus because Helios and Apollo have stolen her copywritten solar powers.

[@Pandachu123]

Don't forget Ra and Amaterasu! 🤣

[@kellyfish920]

Conservatives when private businesses use the free market for its intended use :🤯🤯🤯

[@JamesELFERS]

She uses "The Last of the Mohicans" as a defense. She uses the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was nonfiction and featured NO scalping as a defense! Astounding!

[@cassiehoffman5858]

Also to add to this, indigenous history is incredibly rich and vast and she’s taking the absolute worst context and caricatures of indigenous people to push a weird narrative 😭

[@ruliak]

Lewis and Clark were known for interacting with the Nez Pearce and other northwestern nations. And she wrote about the Navajo which are in the southwestern US. Literally so racist I cannot believe 😭

[@TiffWaffles]

I think I read The Last of the Mohicans ages ago. It's not a book that I particularly enjoyed, but I do remember the Indigenous representation. The author didn't really do a good job at showing the complexities of the human character in his Indigenous characters, but more than that, both sides were either depicted as evil or heavily romanticised to be good. Still, I'd take that book and read it over the book Lauren wrote... Hell, I'd read all those Harlequin Historical romances with Indigenous/First Nations of the United States and their besotted white European/American heroines they fall in love with any day.

[@chocomelo454]

Also didn't Lewis and Clark rape a teenage indigenous girl... or am I kixing them up with someoje... weren't they the ones who traveled with Sacagawea? I could've sworn I heard that she had ~ mysteriously ~ gotten pregnant during their travels and that at the time she was a teenager

[@angryotter9129]

What is even happening? It’s like everyone is having their crises out loud instead of going to therapy or maybe talking to their realist friend, the one who will tell you when you’re being silly and to stfu.

[@SevenReads007]

Welcome to the internet, srsly so much of the online book drama could have been avoided if the perpetrators had gone to therapy

[@whtalt92]

@@SevenReads007 Going to a therapist costs money. Twitter is free (at least, at the time of writing this comment).

[@jamiepx9]

Man plants should really consider filing a suit against Lauren since she didn't properly cite them for their OG sun power of photosynthesis.

[@ajlorentz]

As a Nigerian, her assuming Marve was instantly a criminal made me sad

[@sakurayankishi9708]

Same but everyone is making fun of her so cheer up

[@bethanychatman9531]

It shouldn't, don't let it. She's a pathetic person. Ya'll have nothing to be ashamed about concerning her and people who think like her.

[@haski002]

I got to the "slavery was the lesser of two evils" bit and I actually had to pause to just. breathe a while. the actual audacity of this woman lmao

[@indominuswrex9465]

That's also where I'm stuck and gagging bc 😭 is this yt lady implying that it's worse to lose your "powers" or whatever than BECOME A SLAVE?! 😭 I have no idea what terrible symbolism she was attempting there and it gave me a headache trying to figure it out

[@NateReadsDiversely]

Even if we follow Davis to Delululand and the agent rejected her work over Marve's because she's Nigerian...good? It's almost as if, as a Nigerian, she would know more about her culture than a white author.

[@rightsarentpolitical]

This is always my favorite exercise with this type of unhinged behavior and claims - giving it a "ok, let's assume for a second ALL OF THAT IS TRUE... here's the actual ramifications of that; thoughts?" LOL Even in a world of their own making, their demands, claims, and fear don't make sense.

[@SaigesArstgo1031]

That was my thought. Even assuming everything Davis says.. Marve clearly states she is writing based on her culture? Whats Davis gonna do, copyright literal religious practices?

[@pauieeepau]

The funny thing is, copyright applies to PUBLISHED works. If it's not online, if it's not in a published book or ebook or audiobook, if it's just in your brain or your drafts or your own personal manuscript no one else has seen, it's not copyrighted. She has no legal basis, so she's harassing Marve just to harass Marve.😬

[@seven4060]

The fact that the only 5-star rating on Davis's book is FROM HER feels like a summary of her personality

[@kbird6208]

Hey, she gave a poor black woman five stars once!

[@JamesELFERS]

Trump supporter? Oh God! Calling them racist ALWAYS raises their hackles!

[@nanettemorton4054]

A bitten pig squeals, as my Grandma used to say

[@bambi9609]

They get more bothered about being called racist than WHY they’re being called racist.

[@SingingMagick]

Her being MAGA makes so much sense

[@hart-books]

And there you have it.

[@SaigesArstgo1031]

A hit dog'll holler

[@user-xd1xo8yy4n]

As someone from MS, this mindset is very common among the "non-racist" women here. They will say the most insane racist thing and then get offended if you say that it was racist.

[@monster-enthusiast]

Imagine thinking sun powers are at all unique and copyrightable.

[@helenakri7282]

Just really goes to show how broad her horizons as an author are. Surely a good sign for the quality and imaginative nature of her works.

[@quadling3521]

(Copy*right*able - super easy typo to make, the best way to remember that it’s right and not write is that it is the right to make a copy of something)

[@monster-enthusiast]

@@quadling3521 oh oops

[@friendlyghosthost1830]

@@monster-enthusiast like trying to copyright the greek pantheon🙄

[@MarielWhalley]

The way she says "white male with bad intentions" and never specify about black folks being "well meaning" or "bad meaning" just speaks everything we need

[@MarielWhalley]

A reminder that we as white people are racist by default because of systematic racism. Perhaps of a black person says we are being racist, maybe we should hear them out.

[@mattywren]

Dear LORD not her saying that her racism towards indigenous peoples is because of reading The Last of the Mohicans (which I'm pretty sure is FICTION) and first-hand accounts of settlers. I'm studying English Lit in Canada, and we had a full term course dedicated to Canadian and Indigenous literature, and I did in fact read some of these first-hand accounts. Jacques Cartier, literally KIDNAPPED INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, including the son of the chief of that particular tribe, and brought them back to France to "civilize" them and get them to convince their tribe of how great Europe was (yikes), which they did not do (obviously), and were subsequently murdered for (double yikes). Not to mention the reports of the Franklin expeditions tries so hard to paint the particular Indigenous tribe as badly as possible when they're the only reason ANYONE from that doomed expedition survived in the first place. Those reports were all written by European settlers, most of which who tried SO damn hard to make Indigenous peoples seem horrible when the actually content, if you look at it critically, showcases that, actually, the settlers were the horrendous ones. If she read those and came out of it with any belief that indigenous peoples were the bad guys, she clearly did not engage with the texts critically at all, most likely because they confirmed her already racist preconceptions

[@carolineholland5841]

I’m a historian, and I find so many people fail to understand that firsthand accounts and other primary sources can be biased or bigoted 😭

[@tsuki3752]

so real. all written accounts about indigenous people are biased, and anyone who knows anything about indigenous peoples would KNOW that. there are plenty of resources made by actual indigenous people, whether from the tribe she was researching or not, that can help at least get her to understand the complexities of colonialism’s texts and how they affect indigenous peoples. and she should be reading their accounts anyway, it’s like asking someone from china to explain how white mississippi culture and language is, it’s just not gonna work 😂

[@kalka1l]

Not just fiction but Cooper’s racial purity position was slathered all over his works.

[@ratgurl1]

the idea that her totally real indigenous proofreaders would’ve approved a Navajo man casually using a slur intended for Native women??? extreme worms for brains!!!

[@fridaytax]

The Last of the Mohicans is DEFINITELY fiction, written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826, nearly 60 years after the events depicted in the novel. Cooper was a white, college educated man from New Jersey/New York who was writing about "noble savages" as was the fashion of the time. It might be a classic, but is hardly a reliable source of information about indigenous tribes of the Americas.

[@DeneceTheSylcoe]

Ive never been more motivated to write my story featuring a MC with sun powers 😂

[@archanashreedhar5089]

You're copyright infringing my thoughts. Please stop I'm a cop lol. 😂

[@turtle_goddess9522]

This literally got me out of my slump💀

[@ZimVader-0017]

Do it. DO IT

[@junerose7868]

the best motivation. i hope its going well!

[@music_YT2023]

So a crazy MAGA ex-cop thinks 1. hackers in the past accessed her Apple ID, 2. used this ID to distribute her unpublished fanfiction to the masses, 3. everyone and their mother read it AND could under that nonsense, 4. people thinks her writing and 'plot' is so amazing, that they immediately set out to plagiarize it? It hurts my head 🤣

[@kbird6208]

They stole her ID and did nothing beyond releasing an unedited story to someone

[@music_YT2023]

@@kbird6208 They must have paused and thought, 'yes, this is the most significant treasure of them all,' and left the rest of the data behind.

[@lignjahal]

This is one of those dramas/book summaries that becomes less intelligible as it’s explained. Thank you Rachel for being our guide to this chaos.

[@mswifeycatlady7583]

Exactly all of this

[@xRaiofSunshine]

It sounds like it was written by ai too ewww

[@erikdaniels0n]

Literally lmaooo

[@indominuswrex9465]

I was so confused the whole way 😭 like what is HAPPENING in this story Lauren

[@sofiastj]

I think Lauren stole MY IDEA because five years ago I wrote a book about the sun and the moon and shared it with no one. She INFILTRATED MY BRAIN and STOLE MY WORK 🤣

[@amylemcoauthor]

I also think she stole the idea I was going to have about a paranoid, bigoted knob main character-writer who was suing a stranger who plagerized....and then it turns out it was really just a bot on X 😅 oh lawd, that was too confusing for me to even follow

[@Woahufoundme]

Uh ohhh someone contact Scott Cawthon! She clearly stole the idea from Security Breach!

[@PugandOwn]

genuinely impressive for one person to be such the platonic ideal of Cop. the racism, the paranoia, the dunning-kruger black hole, so perfectly encapsulated in - for some godforsaken reason - a single wannabe author. truly this world is full of wonders.

[@nerdjournal]

She really takes racial profiling to a WHOLE new level, doesn't she? Wow.

[@calmandfree]

It's almost impressive how she doubles down in her delusion.

[@hannahelizabeth2883]

did you see the excerpt of the scene she wrote where her black character gets transported back in time to see her enslaved ancestors? my jaw was literally on the floor. she's doubled down on it too, to no one's shock. the bigotry is just mind-blowing 🤯

[@karastired]

I GASPED. She put TEN YEARS putting this story together.

[@glh5622]

I am deceased. I hadn't done the math. Help. 🤣😭

[@queenmarshmallow8013]

I love that when she was told she was being racist she brought up examples of her helping bipoc people which is inherently racist. Like, girl just apologize, and move on.

[@Jubilee-Helix]

Winx Club has a main character (called Stella) whose main power source is from the sun. And I also went to this group of people called Seijins from this cartoon called “Skyland” who absorb energy from the sunlight and use it for special abilities like telekinesis, mental control, astral projection, energy blasts and some electric rays.

[@zbcrazy]

What the - I literally am a Certified Fraud Examiner who deals primarily with cyber fraud, and that didn’t cross my mind at any point when seeing Marve is from Nigeria 💀 Almost like….that’s completely irrelevant to this entire debacle lmao

[@teslashark]

Jesus fuck, these days American cybercrime is full of "I'm an American soldier in Belgium" or the like

[@helenakri7282]

Not to mention that plagiarism of fiction novels is like several legal ballparks away from any form of cyber crimes. But no, if it happens via internet, that must be it! This woman totally saw my apple ID and decided to go snoop if iI have any unpublished masterpiece she can rip off by *checks smudged note on hand* making a back YA character with extremely generic source of powers.

[@clarkispotamia]

You know in SpongeBob where everyone is yelling “bald bald!” I’m over here yelling “COP COP” every time you read off one of her tweets you didn’t even need to say she was a cop it’s just the way she speaks.

[@deadseraphim1989]

the cover is so obviously ai generated it's painful

[@basementdwellercosplay]

It also looks like a wattpad cover

[@makennanugent9665]

Ai generation is actually way more powerful and could generate something more aesthetically pleasing. This looks like someone in 2006 making a simple mock up in ipiccy. Though a very simple and bad AI could do this, but it looks like a teens wattpad cover

[@vvitch-mist20]

She could have made the cover herself. I've made all my covers by hand using public domain images.

[@ReadswithRachel]

Oh she admits it’s ai generated and she’s not remorseful at all

[@vvitch-mist20]

@@ReadswithRachel Can't expect all that much from an author who is proudly Anti-Vaxx, tbh.

[@adrasthe314]

"Intention is not impact" YES, THANK YOU! People really need to understand this, harm can be and often is accidental, when someone calls you out abt this, that doesn't mean they think you're an irredeemable asshole, that means you did harm, they called you out and you need to make ammend and, most of all, do better next time. Avoid doing harm this way again at all cost. It's just as simple as that

[@leightoningstrike6971]

So excited to hear Rachel's take. My best friend and I read her "rough draft" for Solar Sisters on New Years. It's definitely anime-antivax fanfiction reskinned.

[@ReadswithRachel]

It’s WHAAAAT

[@leightoningstrike6971]

She describes a character as having "Ash Mauve" eyes, so I googled it. And all the top hits were an anime boy who fit the character description perfectly. Also, all the action is described like someone trying to recreate an anime fight. As for anti-vax stuff. "Army men stormed through the halls calling out, “Principal Hodges! Principal Hodges!” “Everybody, put your back up against the lockers!” Boots thudded on the polished floors of the high school, and the swish of Army uniforms barreled into Nova’s classroom. “All of you into a single file!” “I demand an explanation for this!” Ms. Harper positioned her body between the army and her students who stared past her with mixed wonder and fear. “One of your senior students has never been vaccinated with a single shot!” “That’s not a crime!” the teacher leaned in closer to intimidate the enlistee. “That’s for the Army to decide today, Ma’am. Now comply.” The soldier’s voice hit Nova’s ears like a stone, and her eyes widened." Nova not being vaccinated because of her mom's beliefs is an inciting incident.

[@infinitecurlie]

​@@leightoningstrike6971...Omg. 😳

[@vvitch-mist20]

Ew. She's Anti-Vaxx. Embarrassing.

[@InukiKousetsu]

​@@leightoningstrike6971 This is so wild 😂 I've read fanfics way better than this

[@cabrielleholden]

"Clothed in navy denim to the hips." I'm never gonna not think of that every time I put jeans on.

[@nickhoffman9256]

"I wrote a chatacter that wields the sun so anyone who uses that idea is stealing" *laughs in Greek mythology*

[@thefeelingoflookingataclea932]

Also thank you for introducing me to Marve. A book based on Yoruba stories would have my younger self weep with joy.

[@sutaretagais]

It's middle grade, but Rena Barron's "Maya and the Rising Dark" is based on West African legends ala Percy Jackson. The series is worth a read while waiting for Marve's.

[@thefeelingoflookingataclea932]

@@sutaretagais Thank you for the recommendation 😊

[@biteofdog]

Lauren has that police energy, where she willingly applied for a job and became a police officer, but feels like the public should kiss her ass because she is a police officer.

[@missxfaith]

It’s usually a real bad sign if you have to repeatedly assure people that you’re not racist…

[@artyyariii]

she accuses her of plagarism of something thats not even in her book???? girlie i am so confused help get a grip touch some grass sit in the sun or smth i-

[@Alice-ii6gl]

“Shutting the fuck up is free.” 😅 Always love your commentary Rachel.

[@lilil9752]

If she actually proceeds to sue Marve, I wonder how the charges “stole my sun powers” would look on a legal procedure

[@BreezeAntix0922]

😂😂😂

[@Karma20XX]

When I was a kid in the late 90s, I had several OCs with sun and star powers too. Complete with fics, comics and art. I also ran into other girls with OCs that had similar powers alllllllllll the time. Turns out we all loved magic and pretty things. Who knew? 😂

[@kayscontentcritiques8384]

This is why we try to stay in our own communities because some people truly cannot see us succeed. Esp black women. Dealing with some people is so exhausting, Leave us alone. This lady was excited about her story and her black joy was just too much for this white woman to see.

[@treeshapedsnacks4078]

I absolutely saw that too. She could not stand to see a person of colour get everything she wanted. (Skill, adoration and fans)

[@marthademovimaus5140]

Why make this your excuse to be a re-segregarionist idiot? Joy isn't a color. Besides, there's no "we"! You don't even know these people and I bet that Nigerian author wouldn't mind taking non- blacks' $ for whatever nonsense she wrote!

[@indominuswrex9465]

Reminds me of the Blerdcon debacle

[@marthademovimaus5140]

So you're re-segregationists who think emotion is a color?

[@marthademovimaus5140]

@@treeshapedsnacks4078 She thought she was plagiarized and got mad. We have no proof she was until we put the two books side by side. We have no proof she was racist unless she was plagiarized by both white (control group) authors and black authors and treated the groups differently.

[@Hexphile]

"You're a Solar Girl Harry!"

[@chocomelo454]

"IM A WOT??"

[@captainhope]

I love when people criticize her, she pulls the "um, actually I had a job that specializes in that so i know what I'm talking about 😤" like, no you didn't lmao

[@BanjoJill]

The way the 'Nova's Playlist' title is just slapped on an AI-generated book cover is giving me hives /j.

[@SenshiSunPower]

It's a default template on Amazon.

[@DustyMusician]

It's giving me hives /srs. Itch-inducing

[@Heather_Duke]

I feel like it especially stands out when you see all of the very pretty art for Marve's book.

[@Heather_Duke]

I feel like even the people who write novels/fanfic on Wattpad for zero profit make better covers than Lauren's. Like, they'll find a very pretty actress/actor/model/whatever that they like or maybe design their own.

[@pochaccocino]

​@@Heather_Duke as someone who has been making fanfic covers in photoshop since i was 13, yes. yes we do.

[@KatieColson]

There wasn’t a single second to catch a breath. I kept gasping at every other sentence. This is wild and absolutely unhinged.

[@lizabethhampton4537]

"You're a Solar Girl!" sounds literally pulled from my shitty ass 9th grade WIPs. That's shit I would write while being dimly inspired by the concept of Sailor Moon. Edit: her cat didn't deserve this

[@NadirEatsRocks]

This is reminding me of the lady who sued Critical Role for "stealing" her OC because one player had a character with rainbow hair

[@Aro_dynamic46]

It was worse, it was over a character names Opal who had an opal necklace. Because that’s a super original concept

[@atanvardecunambiel8917]

@@Aro_dynamic46 At least it led to the Oops All Opals charity stream.

[@helenakri7282]

If that was the case that would be just peak 2007 Deviantart OC Do-Not-Steal! situation, lol

[@ZimVader-0017]

She should sue Barbie next. They have a doll who has rainbow hair 😂

[@xenbonzacura5897]

@@Aro_dynamic46 don't tell this chick that there's a character named opal in steven universe with *two* opals on her

[@craftducky]

Lauren only referring to black people as African-Americans is a hint she does not engage with black people often.

[@opo3628]

In addition to the AI cover art, it's been pointed out that Lauren likely used an AI tool to write her entire novel for her, and then she merely went back through it, touching up what the AI had crapped out so that it made at least some amount of sense.

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

She said she started working on it in 2013. I don’t think she rushed it, I think she over wrought it.

[@opo3628]

@@Financiallyfreeauthor - She may have conceptualized it back then and perhaps even laid a framework for it, but the bulk of her novel is *clearly* the work of an AI tool -- all the telltale signs are there. Besides, I'm not inclined to believe *anything* that comes out of her mouth.

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

@@opo3628 I am very sensitive to people saying something is clearly AI because there's a review on a book that I worked on for 14 years saying they are "pretty sure it must be written by AI" because of the writing not being emotional enough. It feels like a real slap in the face to have that review on there. The writing might not be to her taste but that doesn't mean AI wrote it. That said, I do hope to everything there is that my writing is better than this woman's! Eeek.

[@SaigesArstgo1031]

@@FinanciallyfreeauthorPeople aren't saying this woman's writing is AI because its not emotional or anything. It has objective flaws that an author wouldn't do. A PE teacher switches gender 5 times in the span of 3 pages. She over explains things like gym flooring and never introduces the main character. A person will be riding in a cart then suddenly not. Within one paragraph. Not even a long paragraph. This isn't, per my belief, just bad writing. Its what chatgpt does when given too vague a prompt and allowed to go on too long. If you don't believe me go look at the wonderful man who red penned her book. Its.. confusing. Its not human. Its inorganic. It literally sounds like chatgpt

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

@@SaigesArstgo1031 I must admit that does sound like what AI would do

[@tyghe_bright]

Man, the multiple ways Miss Lauren fails to understand copyright law. Totally wild. 1) You can't copyright an idea. Her book could have been a best seller and she still wouldn't have grounds for a copyright claim against someone writing a character with the same vague power 2) You have to prove that the individual actually had reasonable opportunity to have read the work you are claiming was stolen 3) "Sun powers" are, as many have pointed out, far from unique to her book And that's not even touching on her *virulent* racism

[@marthademovimaus5140]

There has to be a lot more in common than a general concept. There have been some successful lawsuits of this type, I believe one was against the movie Coming to America. I don't think this lady's that much of a racist. At best she's tone deaf. Trying to prove you're not racist is a loser's game, though. Like a public apology, no amount will ever be good enough.

[@NightEyeStudio1995]

She didn't just pull the "I have black friends card." Oh no, she brought out the whole 'I'm not racist but' playdeck!

[@hellomrforrest]

Hey Rachel! Thank you for talking about AI art. As a children’s book illustrator, the whole AI art thing has really been upsetting, so it’s nice to see people in the book space talk about the harmful aspects of it ❤ thanks again, and great video as always!

[@thecatlurking]

I lost it at "God knew my true intentions". Honey, God won't rep you, publish you OR edit your book. We need a bingo card for Authors Behaving Badly.

[@carnationcarnivore]

Its hilarious how she thought going "Sure I accused all of nigerians for being cybercriminals, but i would've said the same thing about someone from China!" Would absolve her from being racist.

[@pauieeepau]

Btw the other book that Marve's book is likened to, right beside the Ember Quartet, is The Final Strife. It's the first book in The Ending Fire trilogy, and it's a sapphic book inspired by Arabic and North African cultures, about blood magic and castes/colonialism. I still don't have book 2, but book 1 is great! I love the twists and character dynamics. The main couple are red/blue sapphics, and the third main character is a trans girl with her own storyline. They're each pretty cool in their own ways. Check it out if you want more diverse fantasy💕 I've also just bought more books based on West African myths and African mermaids, so I look forward to adding Marve's if I have a chance to get it.

[@thecatlurking]

Omg that sounds amazing, putting it on my list.

[@TheEclecticHerbalist]

If her ebook was unedited and had a lot of errors, and readers reported those, and she never corrected them, that is more than likely the reason they removed the ebook.

[@lizhopk]

You know, whenever I feel bad about my writing, the books you go over always make me feel better lol

[@erinlewis6901]

I have a minor in religious studies and I did take classes on native american religions and my professor literally told us that sometimes certain nations trust secrets to non-natives and the non-natives publicize it anyways. He said we'd talk about some of those things because they were now considered public but he did acknowledge that there are some things that are closed off espeically because of the habit non native americans had with doxxing this information. Additionally, he said he couldn't tell us anything specificl about the cultural traditions around girls becoming a woman + menstruation in, I think it was Lakota Nation but I could be wrong, because they wouldn't teach it to men and he was a man so we were taught like, the specific building made for them, but nothing about what went on in that building. so the fact that she said she had a source and was entrusted with secrets but publicized it anyways seems a big red flag to me. Especially since the information she put in her books seems to be all bad things and all things that more often than not reinforce negative sterotypes. Like scalping is not a secret. I jsut gotta ask this question for all the people who go blue in the face that they're not racist: why is it when you represent something that isn't you, it's always just the bad stuff and the sterotypes? I just figured I'd leave this here in case anyone wanted to know what a real experience between non-natives and native americans actually can look like

[@ZimVader-0017]

I don't remember which tribe this was, but they were in the plains. Some paleontologists found the fossilized remains of a little boy, which they identified as being part of that tribe centuries ago. They contacted the tribe and the elders requested the return of the child so that he could have a proper burial. They asked for the ritual to not be recorded and the place to not be disclosed, and the only thing the paleontologists were allowed to say was that the ritual was successful. They were allowed to be present during the burial as they had been the ones to find the child, but nothing else.

[@sophiemarie4682]

I hope Marve's release day is just amazing for her! She did not deserve all this shit. So excited to read her book!

[@MarveMicheal]

Thank you!

[@danielbroome5690]

I found it VERY funny to discover that her character was named Nova, considering Marvel has literally had a superhero called NOVA for decades now who has sun-related energy beam powers (nova force). Obviously, not to mention that basically every primary deity or mythical hero in history has been associated with the sun in some way or another in basically every corner of the globe from Ra to Amaterasu. And even speaking in terms of fantasy, it's arguable that Gandalf wielded the same flame of creation that made the Sun of Arda. He even namedrops that he's the wielder of the Flame of Anor, Anor being the Elvish word for SUN, and he also secretly wore Narya, the great elven ring of fire on his finger to complete the allusion to being powered by the Sun. And Robert Jordan had a legendary hero character in 1990 in the Great Hunt called Amaresu (Obvious Amaterasu parallel) who fought with a Sword of the Sun which glowed in her hands and burned her enemies to dust and who was the female dualistic mirror image of Rand Al'Thor who is the male champion of light/dragon reborn and who "glows like the sun" whenever someone sees his destiny or sees him channel at full strength.

[@apocrypha5363]

4:54 "You will be hearing from ONE of my attorneys..." Lauren... Only a handful of very rich and influential people have *multiple* lawyers on retainer... And those people don't have to self-publish their books.

[@CarlixAlfonzo-su7rg]

It's so funny(but at the same time, infuriating) how EVERYTHING, EVERYONE iscorrecting her, gets a response of the type: "no, I did this", "no, I save black children", "no i used to sell banned books" "i used to have an african american lawyer", "I used to be in a case of cybercrime in Nigeria" , like, C'MON STOP IT ALREADY WITH THE BS AND ACCEPT criticism. I'm just... I'm just so mad.

[@kbird6208]

Surprised she didn't say "I used to be black"

[@courtneypeel9153]

“Shutting the f up is free” HAHAHAHAHAH RACHEL

[@ReadswithRachel]

ZERO DOLLARS FOR SILENCE

[@Jules.Rae.Author]

As a Nigerian author living in Nigeria, this whole situation made me laugh.

[@anautilus2004]

34:12 Wait so let me get this straight. The white girl on the cover of NOVA"S PLAYLIST wearing HEADPHONES isn't Nova like any sane person would think after reading the title, and it's not Lydia the WHITE GAMER GIRL like that one reviewer thought... it's the slave from the 1780s? What? Why does she have headphones?

[@caorlimoes]

Me when I succesfully predict what's gonna happen in a tv show and think the writers can read my mind

[@katieschreyer3737]

The self-report that she's only sold two copies of her book is CRAZY

[@Viteaification]

NOBODY read that shit and yet she's being copied?? her ego is the size of Jupiter

[@noahrotter]

“You’re a solar girl!” “But what’s my power?” “You can control the sun!” “…” “What like…the whole thing?”

[@DivorceDecreed]

I usually stay FAR above the book drama, but this controversy kept popping up on all of my timelines and I found my way to this video. I LOVE the way you broke this down. I was so confused about all of this talk surrounding this, and why it was even happening, until I became aware of just how many authors DON'T know that you can't copyright certain things like titles, ideas, or CONCEPTS. WOW... I'm really shocked. And yeah, my protagonist is a Black girl who can call on and wield the power of ANY Sun in every galaxy, and I wrote and got that book published (for the first time) in 2015! Over 9 years ago! Soooo.... I guess I'm gonna have to come after Lauren for climbing into my head or somehow hacking into my computer or... I dunno, using an idea that is UNIVERSALLY known? Oh lordy...

[@josephfernandez8015]

All that #sungate has done is give a really fantastic WoC debut author a chance to get more exposure and book sales. Her fantasy debut has shot right up to the top of my must read once it comes out.

[@Heather_Duke]

So using Lauren's logic, does that mean she stole from the creators of ATLA with the firebenders? And from Superman's creator as well? The cover of Nova's Playlist doesn't even LOOK like it may have anything to do with the sun. It just seems like a YA novel about a teenage girl who finds her identity or deals with her emotions through music (based off of the title and headphones). But yikes at the summary for what the book is really about. Having Avryll enjoy her life as a slave makes me uncomfortable. Especially since Nova's Playlist was written by a white woman.

[@maximumbees]

i also thought of firebenders like? hello????

[@Heather_Duke]

@@maximumbees Yup! Listening to this and what Lauren was accusing Marve of, I was like, "wait, firebenders get their abilities from the sun." They draw their powers from it. Lauren is acting as if she created the very idea or something when it's existed long before her.

[@ZimVader-0017]

She should sue Disney, too. They had a show on their Redix block that had THREE characters that had powers that charged with the Sun. And a bunch of mythology, too. Is she going to sue the Greeks and the Egyptians for Apollo and Ra now? They have solar powers.

[@Heather_Duke]

@@ZimVader-0017 Oh, exactly! There are so many shows and movies and mythologies with characters that have abilities that come from the sun. It's truly not a new concept at all. She acts as if she invented it.

[@blueberryf1nch969]

As someone who has worked in the literary agent industry...A LOT of major agents run their businesses out of their homes, especially after COVID. If you look up many major authors' agents, you will see a lot of people whose offices are in their houses. A lot of literary agents don't actually make that much money (they work on commission, a lot of books take more work/labor hours than what they end up selling for, most agents have "pet projects" that they focus a lot of attention on even if the genre doesn't sell well) and a lot of agencies are based in large, expensive cities like New York or LA. Unless they're an extraordinary huge agency that's raking in a lot of funds, working from home is often the most sensible choice, and it allows them to focus more funds on the authors they work for/advocate for.

[@invadernav3422]

I was SO eagerly awaiting your coverage of this. What kind of audacity does someone need to have to think you have any kind of monopoly on the idea of SUN POWERS. And then the blatant racism made me go 'ah, there's the reason for the audacity'. What an unfortunate trend we've had lately!

[@thomasakagi7545]

You'd think a cop of all people would understand "anything you say can and will be used against you".