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[Agent] Cheryl T. Pillsbury

Caro

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One of the reasons they get a lot of attention is that it's an unvarnished reader opinion written by literate people who can explain clearly why they did or didn't like the book, and they're not afraid to say that they didn't like it.

Another point is that if one of the other reviewers did care for a book more than the other, they will sometimes write a second review to reflect that variance of opinion. It doesn't happen that often, but it's interesting when it does. The reviews are always "This did/didn't work for me" and are very clear about this being a reader's reaction.

Jane has also now edited her post to quote from the excerpt of "Of Atlantis" that was posted by Lanaia Lee just above a picture of the first page from David Gemmell's "Dark Prince." Yup, it's the same.
 

Soccer Mom

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I find it quite interesting that so much of this is being laid at the feet of someone who cannot be found. It's too easy to point the finger at a known scammer who is AWOL.

I'm withholding my judgment in this as far as Lanaia is concerned, but Cheryl Pillsbury has no business holding herself out as an agent. If she was the go between for Lanaia and Hill, I question whether Hill was even involved or if it was all her. That's not an accusation. It's a question. It will be interesting to see where the evidence trail leads.
 

Monkey

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For those who click on brianm's second link ( post # 50 ):
To truly understand the horror of it all, you should read the responses in chronological order...start at the bottom of the page and work your way up.

That way, you'll get to see the agent threaten with some sort of 10 fold curse, claim "I'm Wicca" (the correct term is "Wiccan"..."I'm Wicca" is like saying, "I'm Christianity"), then admit that, no, she's not really Wiccan. You'll also see her threaten everyone with her "lawyers", then later admit that, no, she hasn't filed anything with any lawyers. It's all pretty classic.
 
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DamaNegra

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I don't have any sympathy for her. When it was first called to her attention she maintained that it was her writing and that she had witnesses that it was her writing. The ghostwriting part didn't come out until it was beyond obvious that the opening was plagiarized.

So, she was trying to scam people by passing off another's work as her own even if she did think she had the copyright to the work. She may have only been trying to scam the six friends or family that would have bought the book, but its still a scam.

Her physical circumstances may be unfortunate, but that doesn't buy any sympathy from me. Might sound harsh, but I think there are a lot of people out there that are deserving of it.

I don't hold any sympathy for her based on her physical circumstances. I can understand her initial reaction. Think of how PA authors react when confronted with the fact that their publisher is a scam. At least she finally came out with the truth, she was honest enough to admit to a mistake even after her initial defensive reaction.

IMO, this battle should be against the agend and the ghostwriter, not Lanaia.
 

herdon

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I don't hold any sympathy for her based on her physical circumstances. I can understand her initial reaction. Think of how PA authors react when confronted with the fact that their publisher is a scam. At least she finally came out with the truth, she was honest enough to admit to a mistake even after her initial defensive reaction.

It's a bit different situation than the PA author scenario. A PA author wants to believe in PA because they have invested their hard work in PA. When they defend PA, they aren't lying, they are stating their beliefs.

Lanaia was confronted about her opening being stolen from another work. Her response was that it absolutely wasn't, she wrote it, and she had witnesses that could prove it. If we believe her story about having it ghostwritten (and I'm not saying she's lying about that), she still lied in her initial response because it wasn't her writing and she knew it.

I think there is a big difference there. Most PA authors I don't consider lying when they defend PA, they are stating the truth how they see it (colored by their belief). Lanaia was lying when she was confronted. She obviously didn't want people to know she had a ghostwriter who wrote the first part of the novel (and perhaps other parts of it), and she was trying to keep that fact secret in her initial denial.

Now, I'm not calling people to arms for continued bashing of her. She's obviously gotten the raw end of two bad deals with scam artists.

But, at the same time, I can't gather much sympathy for someone who was trying to pass something off as if they'd written it when they knew they didn't actually write it.
 

DamaNegra

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Just imagine what it would've felt like, one day waking up and having the whole of the internet demanding your blood. She got defensive, that's it. She then admitted to her mistake and admitted the work had been copywritten.
 

herdon

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I only wish I could wake up with the whole internet wanting my blood 8(
 

xhouseboy

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I find it quite interesting that so much of this is being laid at the feet of someone who cannot be found. It's too easy to point the finger at a known scammer who is AWOL.

I'm withholding my judgment in this as far as Lanaia is concerned, but Cheryl Pillsbury has no business holding herself out as an agent. If she was the go between for Lanaia and Hill, I question whether Hill was even involved or if it was all her. That's not an accusation. It's a question. It will be interesting to see where the evidence trail leads.

But didn't she state somewhere that she made payments to Hill through paypal, and that he had represented her since 2005, but when unable to sell her first book he then offered to assist her with writing and placing the second -- for a fee, of course.

This has got Hill's MO all over it, right down to the forged acceptance from the bogus publisher.
 

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mea cupla. Didn't see the WB blog. That is totally Hill's MO. I'm just so distrustful of this "agent."
 

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I am saddened to see this apparent re-emergence of CH's activities. (although if he'd started that ghostwriting commission in 2005 then he started at the same time as his crashed H&H agency.

I am one of the 47 former writer clients of the Hill & Hill lit agency, who have gathered ourselves into a forum for support and moving on. We've published an anthology and many of us have met in person since black September 2006.

I'm asking Lanaia Lee for some evidence that her Christopher Hill is our CH, but an auto reply says she is taking a break from the Internet. I don't blame her.

I also have contacts with journalists, one of whom wrote The Times articles on CH. I am holding back until I know for sure it is CH although I admit it seems likely.

Geoff
 
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JerseyGirl1962

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I came across this late last night...and I was so boiling mad :rant: at those two shysters that it took me a while to get to sleep.

I've nothing but sympathy for Lanaia. Shame on the other two for taking advantage of that poor woman.

~Nancy
 

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Let me get this straight: Lanaia is a good sister/friend of Pillsbury, and has been for a number of years. They also share poetry publication together. Pillsbury is a self-proclaimed agent, who is a (four-times) vanity author (PA twice), and is currently Lania's agent. Was it Pillsbury who hooked up Hill to Lanaia?

So then Hill ghostwrites a fantasy book for Lanaia and charges $400 per month for a period of two years, or...it takes two years to pay the bill off, of which the real total to write the book can't actually be determined.
Let me first say, Tri, that it's not my intent to pick on you in this post. I'm just using what you've said above as an example of what seems like a general trend in the conversation about this affair--people are citing information they picked up from other people, who may have picked it up from blog comments based on a mis-reading or misunderstanding of the original source--which in the case of the info above, is me.

Here's what Lanaia told me.

- Hill solicited Lanaia directly in 2005 to become his client. Pilsbury had nothing to do with it as far as I know.

- Lanaia didn't pay ghostwriting fees to Hill for two years. She paid them from sometime in the fall of 2006 through May of 2007.

This is all discussed in my post on the Writer Beware blog. The correct information is out there--it would be nice if people checked it, rather than relying on what they've read second-hand.

It's fascinating in a way to watch this. It's like a whisper line. The story that's taking shape in the Internet consciousness is starting to diverge more and more from the actual facts of the situation (as far as those can be determined).

As I said on my blog, I think one reason that people are heaping so much abuse on Lanaia (who, I believe, has been disgracefully taken advantage of and doesn't deserve the beatdown she's receiving) is that the situation gives them the opportunity to say about her all the things they really think about scam victims and fake-published authors, but can't normally admit to for fear of seeming mean and elitist.

- Victoria
 

wordmonkey

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I wonder, just aloud and not trying to pick a fight with any one (I'm a lover, not a fighter) how the folks who have sympathy with this "author" (and when I say author, I mean "alleged plagarist") would feel if it were their book she lifted from.

Or if you want to be more generous, that she claimed to have written but somebody else lifted?

Or she paid to have somebody write but was lifted?

See even if she is a victim, she STILL tried to bluff it out and claim the work. And would that have been OK were it YOUR book involved?

And really, does anyone know who Mary Lanaia Pillsbury is? Is she real at all? One and the same? Two different people? Three? Is she even really married? Have that medical history? Even own a Jack Russell?

Trust, but verify. And there seems very little here that CAN be verified. And after so many lies, should we even given the benefit of ANY doubt?
 

victoriastrauss

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See even if she is a victim, she STILL tried to bluff it out and claim the work. And would that have been OK were it YOUR book involved?
For heaven's sake. This is all getting so hugely out of proportion. Have a look at the context, people. One plagiarized chapter in a vanity-published book that fewer than 100 people will ever see. Everyone is behaving as if this is Nora Roberts and Janet Dailey all over again. This really is more equivalent to the kind of plagiarism that happens in fanfic. When was the last time the Internet was abuzz with indignation over that?

But what do I know. I only have actual documentation to extrapolate from.

- Victoria
 

JulieB

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- Lanaia didn't pay ghostwriting fees to Hill for two years. She paid them from sometime in the fall of 2006 through May of 2007.

Thanks. I saw that on your blog and kept trying to wrap my head around the "paying for two years" idea. (I'm on deadline, so I'm a little slow on the uptake on anything that isn't project-related.) I suspect people are confusing that with her statement that she worked for two years on the book.

I do feel sorry for Lee, but I also wish she'd at least have the good graces to take down the material from her web site. It really does appear that she's been taken advantage of here, and I hope her lawyer is well-versed in IP law. If not, I hope he/she refers her to someone who is, for her sake.
 

victoriastrauss

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Yeah. She wrote to me last night about my blog post, and I gave her some advice: tell your "agent" to shut the fuck up, and take that excerpt off your website YESTERDAY. Not heeded, apparently.

- Victoria
 

badducky

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I think the internet whisper explosion has more to do with how your excellent advice is just being ignored, Victoria.

It isn't your fault. And, there's just not much you can do.

Unsurprisingly, these individuals seem to have poor judgment, and the inability to recognize when its time to let people with actual cred quietly hold the banner for them.
 

necia phoenix

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Yeah. She wrote to me last night about my blog post, and I gave her some advice: tell your "agent" to shut the fuck up, and take that excerpt off your website YESTERDAY. Not heeded, apparently.

- Victoria

In reading over your posts on Hill, the ones from 2006, I noticed you had mentioned a woman working with Hill back in the day. Now does this fit the pattern? This woman Cheryl, her agent, has a few strange ways of typing from her posts over at Making Light. Could there be some sort of connection between them? You said Hill contacted Laraina. How did he find her? duh...just reread your post and realized you'd already stated that. sorry. :gone:

I am morbidly curious. Thank you for clarifying information btw.
 
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