American Dust sounds better... Let justice prevail...
I was surprised when my editor recognized that I had been plagiarized by Jeanine Cummins with her commercial novel, American Dust. She said I should look into it and I jokingly said, "If it starts with a little Mexican boy in the toilet, I'm suing!" I was joking of course. But there it was. And what followed were too many similar scenes and frameworks borrowed from my novel. I was particularly surprised how similar our endings are. I ended with the critical phrase American Dust, she American Dirt. Both symbolizing them making it to America. It was funny at first. Coincidences? Writing about the Mexican Immigration Experience, a woman and a little boy. A bloody lip on first encountering the Cartel. Meeting a handicapped friend the same age. Bizarrely similar setup for a Post Card scene and a Necklace scene. 17 similar plot situations. I wrote my novel in 2016. In fact, I published this novel in 2016. It took me 13 years to complete. While it has mu
