More plagiarising politicians are biting the dust.
First of all, the commission at the university of Bayreuth, which was supposed to investigate the Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg plagiarism case (extensively blogged about in these pages), has published its report, which states – unsurprisingly – that yes, zu Guttenberg did indeed plagiarise.
Also today, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, another politician suspected of plagiarising her doctoral thesis, has resigned from her post as the vice president of the European parliament and also from her party office. Ms. Koch-Mehrin’s party, the FDP, is currently in the middle of regrouping and reorganizing itself, and it is widely believed that as a protegee of the outgoing FDP head Guido Westerwelle Ms. Koch-Mehrin was pushed to resign by incoming party head Philip Rössler.
And now for some writing and genre links:
Paul Jessup has some thoughts on narrative and linearity.
Juliette Wade has an interesting post on character relationships.
Ripping Ozzie Reads, a group blog of Australian fantasy authors, asks “Is fantasy a bit of a boy’s club?” I actually found this post, while tracking back a Twitter mention of one of my posts.
There is a discussion about indie publishing or – as they call it – digital self-publishing going on at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
What I find notable about this discussion is that many of the commenters are reluctant to buy a self-published e-book by a new-to-them author. And I can partly understand that reluctance, because being burned by amateurish or just plain bad books hurts, even if the book cost only 99 cents. Still, this reluctance is something that indie authors will have to overcome.
As for my own e-publishing venture, expect an announcement very soon.