According to the National Criminal database, Ms Kirby is currently serving ten years’ probation for half a dozen theft offenses, all occurring in Texas. They range from misdemeanor bad checks to 3rd degree felony theft. Kirby’s probation is due to end in 2012.

Wow…

This certainly explains Kirby’s “flexible” notion of ethical conduct and her inability to understand the concept of conflict-of-interest. She’s a common criminal. I’m not a lawyer, but I am surprised that a court finding that she defrauded authors doesn’t constitute a violation of her parole.

Lee

This all comes via an officer of the court in Michigan and is a matter of public record in Michigan and in Texas. It has been published elsewhere online and comes directly from court records.

Last week, when civil bailiffs went to seize the property belonging to Light Sword Publishing and Linda Daly, located at the home of William and Linda Daly in Westland, Michigan, Linda Daly scampered on down to the courthouse where she filed a hand-written motion to stay the seizure of properties, claiming that all property belongs solely to her husband Bill, and that she has not been able to do any work, nor has she had any income for the past five years due to health problems. The motion for stay of seizure is dated October 24, 2008. The motion does not list an attorney for Daly or for Light Sword Publishing. By affixing her signature to this statement, Daly has presented to the court the absurd notion that this information is true and correct. By doing so, Daly has put off the right and proper disposition of Light Sword Publishing assets until after November 25, 2008, when a court hearing has been scheduled where the trier of fact will determine the veracity of this statement.

Daly’s affirmation is contrary to the fact that she is the sole proprietor of Light Sword Publishing. Over the last 2 years she has caused to be published over 20 individual titles, all represented by her company. She has hired staff, produced digital pdfs for print, negotiated with print companies, and received inventory. She has distributed these titles to book outlets. She has developed marketing materials, sent out mass-mailings, operated a chat session on Saturday nights, solicited authors for more manuscripts, and done all of the other things incumbent to her position as CEO and owner of Light Sword Publishing. Ms Daly acting as Light Sword Publishing produced royalty statements for the authors contracted to her company and has paid out royalties on the books that have been sold. Numerous of her company’s titles are currently for sale on Amazon.com as well as other online outlets. They are also available for sale on the Light Sword Publishing web pages. One former client of hers has sold, according to Daly, herself, thousands of books.

Having read many of the court documents surrounding these matters, I have every confidence that the court will order that this seizure go forward. My only question now is whether or not Light Sword Publishing Company’s assets won’t just sprout wings and fly away–to a relative’s home or a storage unit, for example–before the court can take possession.

Additionally, I am in receipt of court records from the state of Texas regarding one Bonny Lorraine Kirby–the self-same Kirby who is the former Vice President of Light Sword Publishing and the Advertising Director at Affaire de Coueur. According to the National Criminal database, Ms Kirby is currently serving ten years’ probation for half a dozen theft offenses, all occurring in Texas. They range from misdemeanor bad checks to 3rd degree felony theft. Kirby’s probation is due to end in 2012. Kirby has now left the state of Texas and is purportedly living in Arkansas.

Make no mistake about it, this is the same Bonny Kirby who arranged for reviews and articles about Light Sword titles to be prominently placed (as in ‘on the cover’) in Affaire De Coueur Magazine during the time that she was VP at LSP. She is the same Bonny Kirby who reportedly wrote a NSF check to the Michigan attorney who was hired to defend Light Sword Publishing and its principles in the lawsuit so richly discussed in these pages. The check was uttered on a Light Sword Publishing account, and, like Light Sword, was dishonored.

Authorities in Texas are going forward in their attempts to recover assets from Ms Kirby.

If a review for any of my books had come under this kind of scrutiny, you’re damn straight I’d be asking some questions. Kirby and Daly have made these people look like idiots.

A practice which Linda Daly put into place before Bonnie Kirby arrived on the scene was to have each author pre sale 100 books. This was the working capital to have them actually published. To my knowledge, Mari Sloan was the first to achieve this to its fullest, but it backfired because Ms. Sloan had them order through Amazon instead of LSP

.>>>>>

So THAT is what it was all about? It makes perfect sense to me now. Silly me! No one told me I needed to pre-sell 100 books from the LSP website to make my release date a reality. And here I thought that all of the grief I was getting from Linda Daly and all of her statements about “when and IF the book is released,” made AFTER setting a release date and beginning pre-orders, was because of the serious mistakes made, one in which my first name was misspelled on the spine of the cover. She made me SO nervous after the first 30 or so sales to her website that I TOLD my friends and relatives to buy from Amazon and I ordered my own pre-sale books from Amazon. Not to even mention that they had a better price and I could get them there cheaper than MY AUTHOR PRICE from LSP AND they didn’t charge anyone’s credit card until they were ready to send product.

NO wonder she was SO POed about my Amazon sales and tried not to pay me any royalty on them. Not to mention that she tried to stiff me for the royalty from my sale to Crime Time books, purchased for the Los Angeles Festival of Books. What a maroon. She actually CAUSED her worst nightmare to happen, with me.

I do know that she never read my book, which was recommended to her by her senior editor, who loves it to this day. She had designed a hideously blue cover for it which at one incarnation had waves of murky blue stuff seething in the background like some sort of atomic waste and the senior editor asked her “What IS that stuff in the background?”

“Why, that’s the falls!” Ms. Daly replied. “The Beaufort Falls!”

“But Linda,” the editor told her, “there are no falls. Mari states in the first chapter that ‘there are no falls in Beaufort Falls’.

I wasn’t there but the editor had a good laugh about it with me after I was out.

Mari

Yet, here it is two years later and the truth comes out. Think back to when Lightsword first went public, why did they go through so many Vice Presidents? One of them helped educate Linda (who claims to have an 8th grade education) on the bones of the publishing world which she chose to ignore and another was the daughter of the senior editor (who only wanted to do graphics), and then Bonnie Kirby arrived. Did anyone hear of Lightsword Publishing before Bonnie Kirby, Advertising Director of Affaire de Coeur, came in the picture?

Linda Daly claimed she was ‘paying it forward’, but deep down she only looked after herself. Many authors went under their own publishing company to launch their books. Linda Daly supposedly had an agent. So why didn’t a traditional press pick her up?

There was one book submitted and pulled because the author didn’t believe Linda had anything to offer him. This book would have been the best of Lightsword, and possibly given a good name for the small publisher. Linda Daly became greedy and wanted an extended contract with the author and all media rights.

It is my opinion that Linda chose to represent authors that made her own writing look good. The only way to prove this is if you would read each of the fourteen books published by LSP and shared my opinion or review of each. I also remember how excited Linda Daly was when Affaire de Coeur agreed to review her “Dove” series. Then the next thing I knew, Bonnie Kirby was coming aboard.

A practice which Linda Daly put into place before Bonnie Kirby arrived on the scene was to have each author pre sale 100 books. This was the working capital to have them actually published. To my knowledge, Mari Sloan was the first to achieve this to its fullest, but it backfired because Ms. Sloan had them order through Amazon instead of LSP.

We can all second guess what happen at Lightsword. The truth is Lightsword’s CEO became more unethical with each submission received. One lie built upon another until it was out of control. Lee Goldberg’s claims aren’t off the mark. He isn’t bitter; Mr. Goldberg is simply using his voice for others who have paid their dues to become a part of the writing world. Unlike Bonnie Kirby and Linda Daly who made the claim they were helping writers. He is by getting the facts out to many readers and writers.

If Lightsword continues to want to help others maybe they should join Green Peace. Or better yet, follow Linda Daly’s “Saint Michael” to church and take part in confessing how many people they truly screwed, and take the penitence and show their authors some remorse.

Tell me something, Goldberg. How many publishers take out paid advertising in magazines or on websites where reviews appear?

Many. Advertising is what allows these magazines and websites to survive. The difference is that Newsweek, Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and sites like Bookgasm, for example, don’t allow publishers to buy reviews or editorial content under any circumstances and have strict rules barring their reporters and executives from having a financial interest in the books they review and publishers they are reporting on. Those magazines abide by codes of ethical conduct. Affaire de Coeur clearly does not, since they allow publishers to buy reviews and editorial content and they allow the magazine’s executives to have a financial interest in the books and publishers they are writing about. I hope this clears up any confusion or misunderstanding you might have had.

NickleShy wrote:

The facts are plain. Bonny Kirby and Linda Daly were business partners. Bonny Kirby was, simultaneously, the adverstising director at Affaire de Coeur. Four consecutive issues of Affaire de Coeur Magazine featured reviews, interviews, covers, and photographs of Light Sword Publishing titles and its authors/principals. Overwhelmingly, the reviews of Light Sword titles were glowing. Affaire de Coeur even printed the review of a children’s book published by Light Sword, something it had not done in the past, or since.

Linda Daly was featured by Affaire de Coeur as some kind of literary pundit when the truth is that she has no literary background, no literary education and no success, beyond a short shelf life as a Publish America author.

[...]So, I find it very hard to believe that any unbiased professional magazine searching for copy would ever consider featuring her and her apparently overwhelming desire to ‘make authors’ dreams come true’.

Because they aren’t an unbiased or remotely professional magazine. That has become painfully obvious from the comments left here, on my blog, and on Writer Beware by Louise Sneed and Bonny Kirby.

Kirby engaged in an unethical conflict-of-interest. But the ultimate responsibility for all of this rests not with Kirby but with Sneed, who is the publisher. She clearly has no respect whatsoever for her readers or the journalistic integrity of her magazine. If she did, she would have fired Kirby by now, issued an apology to her readers, and instituted reforms to make sure such a blatant and unethical conflict-of-interest never occurs at her magazine again.

Lee