[font class="headline"]She says she "internalized" the words from the other author's works. Gee, in my day we called that "plagarism", not [/font][font class="headline"]"internalizing" or "borrowing". She f*cking stole what someone else wrote and is now trying to claim she did it without realizing it. Sorry, I'm just not buying it.
[/font][hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"][font class="headline"]Young Author Admits Borrowing Passages
[/font] [font class="date"]Apr 24 7:11 PM US/Eastern[/font] [font class="byline"]By HILLEL ITALIE
[/font] [font class="byline"]AP National Writer
[/font] [/p] [font class="story"]A Harvard University sophomore with a highly publicized first novel acknowledged Monday that she had borrowed material, accidentally, from another author's work and promised to change her book for future editions. [/font][/p][font class="story"] Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," published in March by Little, Brown and Company, was the first of a two-book deal reportedly worth six figures. But on Sunday, the Harvard Crimson cited seven passages in Viswanathan's book that closely resemble the style and language of the novels of Megan McCafferty. [/font][/p][font class="story"] [img]vny!://www.breitbart.com/images/2006/4/24/D8H6LMKOI/D8H6LMKOI_preview.jpg" align="left" hspace="3" vspace="3"] [/font][/p][font class="story"] "When I was in high school, I read and loved two wonderful novels by Megan McCafferty, `Sloppy Firsts' and `Second Helpings,' which spoke to me in a way few other books did. Recently, I was very surprised and upset to learn that there are similarities between some passages in my novel ... and passages in these books," Viswanathan, 19, said in a statement issued by her publisher. [/font][/p][font class="story"] "While the central stories of my book and hers are completely different, I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty's words. I am a huge fan of her work and can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious. My publisher and I plan to revise my novel for future printings to eliminate any inappropriate similarities. [/font][/p][font class="story"] "I sincerely apologize to Megan McCafferty and to any who feel they have been misled by these unintentional errors on my part." [/font][/p][font class="story"] The book had a first printing of 100,000 copies. [/font][/p][font class="story"] Viswanathan, who was 17 when she signed her contract with Little, Brown, is the youngest author signed by the publisher in decades. DreamWorks has already acquired the movie rights to her first book. [/font][/p][font class="story"] Viswanathan's novel tells the story of Opal, a hard-driving teen from New Jersey who earns straight A's in high school but who gets rejected from Harvard because she forgot to have a social life. Opal's father concocts a plan code-named HOWGAL (How Opal Will Get A Life) to get her past the admission's office. [/font][/p][font class="story"] McCafferty's books follow a heroine named Jessica, a New Jersey girl who excels in high school but struggles with her identity and longs for a boyfriend. McCafferty is a former editor at Cosmopolitan who has written three novels. [/font][/p]
