Pat Tomlinson launches Plagiarism accusation over 'Phoenix' novel
Pat Tomlinson launches Plagiarism accusation over 'Phoenix' novel
He probably shouldn't query to Tuscany Bay Books anytime soon.
On August 29th of this year, fate’s favorite piñata, Patrick S. Tomlinson, was forced to finally accept the conclusion we all knew was coming. Regarding the settlement of his legal dues stemming from the ill-fated lawsuit we first reported on over a year and a half ago, following months of bluster and denial, he at long last #PaidQuasi.
As we all now wait for the enforcement of lawsuit payment 2: Google Quash boogaloo (originally for $11,023, now $18,236.24 at the time of this writing), it seems that the great saga of Pat vs. The Pests had finally come, for now at least, to its ignominious end. Despite spending the months prior going on a media blitz that included appearances on national news outlets such as NBC News and Inside Edition, as well as multiple high profile podcasts, the whole thing had ended not with a bang, but the sound of a check being torn from its book.
One might think that going through a sound legal shellacking might humble a person, or at the very least, make one a bit more gun shy about throwing around accusations on social media of some random person or another being a fascist stalker cultist.
But this is Pat Tomlinson we’re talking about here.
It seems he’s now added “plagiarist” to his list of stock accusations, specifically leveling the term at Richard Paolinelli, the author-owner of Tuscany Bay Books. On September 6th, Lori Jeneski, author of the novel Phoenix, which is published by Tuscany Bay Books, commented on a post by the official All Caps Comics Twitter account about news of Tomlinson’s legal case. In response to Janeski expressing doubt that Tomlinson had “learned his lesson,” Jackie Singh, the Igor to Tomlinson’s Dr. Frankenstein, weighed in:
Tomlinson wasn’t far behind:
The accusation was pretty rich, given that Tomlinson authored a book titled Starship Repo which shares the title of another (complete) series of sci-fi novels by Will Tate, and if we’re going to get into covers, a saying about pots and kettles comes to mind . . .
Paolinelli saw the interaction, and naturally took exception. He’s also apparently caught up on Pat lore:
Then Paolinelli went ahead and mentioned the SWATtings, Pat’s equivalent to Jack Ryan hearing the phrase “Would you kindly?” (Pat, this is a reference to the 2007 video game BioShock).
The cover for Phoenix was designed by Matt Margolis, a graphic designer who also writes for PJ Media. He briefly popped into the replies to explain his process:
And after a bit of further verbal sparring, Paolinelli bid Mr. Tomlinson a gentlemanly fare-thee-well:
What is posted here is the gist of the interaction within its meant context; if you feel like reading the entire melodrama live, you can follow the whole thing on Nitter.
When reached for comment, Mr. Paolinelli remarked, “He can fuck all the way off and die. You don’t accuse me of stealing.”
Janeski’s Phoenix soared up the Amazon ranks, hitting #46 in the Science Fiction Adventure category as of this writing, thanks both in part to the drama surrounding it and a mention by none other than Larry Correia, who is essentially the Bizarro World version of Tomlinson (Pat, this is a reference to a DC villain; he hasn’t been in any of the movies yet, wasn’t sure if you knew him).
The Kindle edition for Phoenix is part of the Big BasedCon Based Book Sale, and is available here if you’d like to snag it at a discount:
Tomlinson, for his part, would move on to other projects, such as boldly announcing via a grand 13-tweet flourish that the identity of one of the alleged stalker-cultists harassing him was none other than one Robert Prongay Jr., whom he claimed to be the son of the “Mr. Softee” murderer Robert Prongay. He would eventually backtrack after being told that the photo he posted was actually a headshot of Boardwalk Empire actor Adam Mucci.
For the time being, the matter seems to have cooled and it looks as though the spat isn’t making any further movement towards litigation. But as I’ve learned when it comes to things in this corner of the fandom, expect the unexpected.
Add him to the list of boneheads whose books I'm NOT likely to chase down at the library this autumn.
When I heard about this, I immediately went and bought an ebook copy. It was on my list to read anyway, this just expedited the purchase process.