By now, those of you invested in the book blogger world have undoubtedly heard about what's happened with The Story. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books posted earlier today ousting her for plagiarism. I didn't believe it; the evidence was scarce at best and Kristi? Not Kristi.
Turns out, yes Kristi. But also no Kristi.
Everything here has been vague and nonspecific. I just know that accusations are being made, and Kristi doesn't seem to be denying them or accepting them.
But her post brought up something that I want to point out. There is a lesson to be learned here, one that everybody needs to understand right now.
It is okay to say no. It is okay to say you have run out of time to blog about something. It is okay to say hey, somebody accused me of this and I haven't done it, but I've taken their posts down out of consideration. It is okay to post what you need to and to not post what you need to.
I learned a long time ago that I wasn't going to have time for every post that I wanted to make. I learned a long time ago that some people do shitty things on the Internet -- this isn't the first time I've seen a blogger plagiarize/be accused of plagiarizing, and it probably won't be the last.
Normally I'm outside the bubble of blog drama. But this one stung. I loved Kristi; I loved The Story; The Story is always what I wanted WORD to be. Big and loved and helpful in every way that counted.
And this stings badly; bone-hurting, stomach-wrenching hurt. I don't know if she did plagiarize or not. Everything is vague and fuzzy and not well explained.
As for the hurt, I don't know why. I don't even read The Story regularly anymore. But it does.
But understand one thing, bloggers.
If there is a problem, always be open about it.
Secrets have this nasty way of coming to bite you in the ass.
Please, if something is going on, don't sweep it under the rug. Just admit it happened and try to move on.
And never do something because you think you have to, especially if you know it's wrong.
It just ends sadly for everybody.
Edit: To clarify my actual relationship with Kristi, I met her at BEA last year. She's the only person I've ever been starstruck by, mainly because I loved her blog so much. She's who I wanted to be. She's a woman who used a YA book blog to help the world, to help kids who were sick, to spread the love of reading. How could I not want to be her?
To clarify my position on plagiarism, those who have plagiarize are automatically blacklisted. The Story has been deleted from my sidebar until further clarification arrives.
Edit: A few comments have been borderline shaming/bullying/cruel, so they've been removed. Talk about the situation, don't attack the person. It sucks, yes, but just because the situation was unprofessional doesn't mean you have to be.