PublishAmerica author sues Stephen King for plagiarism

It would serve Marquardt right if King sues him not merely for court costs, but also for slander. I would hope the second law firm's withdrawal might open Marquardt's eyes, but if he's delusional enough to see similarities between his typing and King's writing, he's probably delusional enough to spin some paranoid fantasy wherein King bribed the lawyers to drop the case, or something.

Wow. Pro se isn't a good idea in any case, really (unless it's small claims, where an attorney isn't usually needed), especially in a case like this. Two firms dropping representation...makes one wonder why they took it in the first place. This will be very costly for the plaintiff; I sort of feel bad for the guy, but you reap what you sow!

Any word? Its been a week!

MysticWolf12001 said:

Wow. Pro se isn't a good idea in any case, really (unless it's small claims, where an attorney isn't usually needed), especially in a case like this. Two firms dropping representation...makes one wonder why they took it in the first place. This will be very costly for the plaintiff; I sort of feel bad for the guy, but you reap what you sow!

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Sounds to me like both firms saw it not only as a guaranteed loss, but bad publicity and further complications as well.

The document list now shows a Response to Motion filed on June 8th. I can't look at it without paying, so maybe someone with access could?

https://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits...ardt-v-stephen-king/official-court-documents/

victoriastrauss said:

There's a page or so of copyright definitions (from Wikipedia, among others). Marquardt then appears to allege that King himself is a plagiarist, citing on an online bio of King and (this is really sad) a blog post that is obviously an April Fool's joke.

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I was willing to accept that Mr. Marquardt is delusional and ill-informed. Now, I'm not so sure there aren't deeper issues. This is very sad and I'm starting to feel sorry for him.

I'm reminded of a man I once interviewed for a job at our company. On his resume, under "professional associations," he wrote, "I'm a member of the National Geographic Society." He honestly, truly thought his subscription to the magazine meant that.

For reference, this is the letter.

It's already been picked apart over in that thread. No need for further comment. Just referencing it for folks who haven't seen it.

Wow, just .. wow. I hope someone can talk sence into this guy. I ...some people -=sigh=-

If this actually makes it to trial (which I very much hope it doesn't), wouldn't there be a chance PA would be called upon to explain the circumstances of the "send your book to Stephen King" offer? That could be potentially enlightening to all the PA authors who were taken advantage of with the various "send your book to [whomever]" offers.

Dream, I have been HOPING that perhaps someone will be diging into PA.. Asking those kinds of questions....only time will tell...

DreamWeaver said:

If this actually makes it to trial (which I very much hope it doesn't), wouldn't there be a chance PA would be called upon to explain the circumstances of the "send your book to Stephen King" offer? That could be potentially enlightening to all the PA authors who were taken advantage of with the various "send your book to [whomever]" offers.

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I really, really doubt anyone is going to go that far with it. This entire time I've struggled to see what PA's vulnerability is in all this. If this case gets any attention at all, it's going to be about an unknown author suing Stephen King, not about how the unknown author believes his book got to King's desk. The Stephenie Meyer plagiarism case was about Meyer and Jordan Scott, and not about Little, Brown & Co. or Blackthorne, the publisher of Scott's book. There is no way PA's involvement (and in this case neither Marquardt nor S&S is accusing PA of anything) is going to be bigger news than the case itself, which has barely made a ripple in the press as far as I know.

It's going to take something much bigger and involving PA directly as plaintiff or defendant to get anyone's attention. And after ten years of this, PA has shown enough savvy to dodge several bullets. But when it happens, it'll happen big.

DreamWeaver said:

If this actually makes it to trial (which I very much hope it doesn't), wouldn't there be a chance PA would be called upon to explain the circumstances of the "send your book to Stephen King" offer? That could be potentially enlightening to all the PA authors who were taken advantage of with the various "send your book to [whomever]" offers.

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As has been pointed out before in this thread, the 'send your book to Stephen King' offer postdates the publication of both books by several years and therefore is completely irrelevant to this case.

Perhaps the author hopes to drag this out in hopes of selling more copies. Surely, he has sold a few just from the publicity?

Terie said:

As has been pointed out before in this thread, the 'send your book to Stephen King' offer postdates the publication of both books by several years and therefore is completely irrelevant to this case.

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Oops, I forgot that--thanks. Though evidently from what is mentioned above of his response, the plaintiff believes it to be relevant in some way. Just one more rude awakening, I expect.

ETA: Never mind, cleared up by Victoria in the post below. Not relevant, just "peculiar".

It's clear that King owns a time machine and PA knows it. Why else would they not like SF authors? I mean other than a number of them have pointed out PA's shortcomings?

victoriastrauss said:

I feel sorry for him too.

- Victoria

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You are too kind.

Me, I don't feel sorry for him. He is not listening to his own lawyers or common sense obviously.

I really wish someone would interview this guy to see what he is like...

victoriastrauss said:

I wanted to quote the paragraph of the response where he explains how he sent the book to King and than adds that it's "peculiar" that PA later sent him the SK letter, but I wasn't sure about the etiquette of quoting from PACER, so I thought it was safer not to. But based on what I read in the response, he does seem to believe there's a relationship between the two events.

I feel sorry for him too.

- Victoria

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See? Right there is what I mean that this really isn't just simple delusion and basic ignorance. There's something terribly wrong there and that's why I feel sorry for him.

Two legal teams have dropped his case. Reasons had to have been given—at the very least by the second team. I'm sure they also tried to dissuade him from continuing. It can't simply be that he feels he's in too deep and can't quit. Someone else in the background must be pushing and directing this. Just has to be.

That is why I think a professional reporter needs to interview him. See how he responds to questions. Does he answer them or look off camera for advice from someone with him. Does he answer intelligently or does he ramble off topic. Things like that...

Victoria, thank you for looking this up on PACER and updating us. This whole thread has been quite the education for me.

Yes, thothguard, I agree. An interview would shed so much more light on his thinking. In any case, I'm sure this whole thing won't turn out to be quite as simple as I first thought it to be.

Whatever the case may be, I don't think it's going the way he imagined...

Sorry, but continuing after being dropped by two legal teams makes me think it would be more useful if a psychologist rather than a reporter interviewed him. There are so many different personality traits that could play into continuing after presumably receiving two rounds of legal advice to the contrary: the gamut from sincere naïve delusions through just plain ornery all the way to some kind of psychiatric problem. I personally doubt money is his motivation, but other than that I wouldn't hazard a guess.