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

When I first subscribed to AdC I received a magazine containing an article from Light Sword that was 1) old, 2) available for free on the internet, 3) an advertorial and 4) in my opinion substantial misleading and in places factually incorrect. Not to mention written by a press already widely disgraced.

That is when I started blogging about the tainted content issue of which bought reviews are only one example. That is also why I did not renew the subscription.

And in answer to another point, there are good reasons for not having a model where you charge for ‘expedited’ or ‘additional’ services even if the base service is free. It has an insidious effect on the impartiality of the review and is one fo the reasons a number of review websites are run by less than stellar people fleecing self- and small press published authors for all they will pay. The author needs to look after their own interest but that doesn’t make paying for a review good idea. Rather they should learn to get their ARC out in time or choose a publisher capable of doing so. One need only look at the busibness advice online about how to ‘make money with a review site’ to see the sleaze (e.g. get reviewers to work for free, start with free review and ramp up charges latter, do no work, make money! Yay!–no mention of informing readers or selling books)

Inform yourself with the facts, then speak to me, and I will answer.

Ms. Kirby, the complaint filed against you, Daly & LSP is, in fact, public record; not hard to find, just takes time and a reason to attain it. I’m armed with facts. Care to have a go at it?

Inform yourself with the facts, then speak to me, and I will answer.

Ms. Kirby, the complaint filed against you, Daly & LSP is, in fact, public record; not hard to find, just takes time and a reason to attain it. I’m armed with facts . Care to have a go at it?

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. Having been the recipient of her bulk emails regarding her company’s releases, my only comment here is that the woman needs to go back to school. English 1A would be a good place to start. 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’. Especially if they took a look at her web pages. I almost gouged out my own eyes after reading them today.

One of her ’staff’, according to the Light Sword page, has ideals deeply seated in her ‘psychic’. She is also obviously allergic to complete sentences, as there is not a single one in the paragraph I’m talking about.

I know I’m rambling here. But the suggestion that this whole thing isn’t what it seems is horseshit. Pure, number 1, grade A.

You are a dishonest, defamatory, tin-eared coward, and I hope all reviewers shun your crappy fanfiction in future because you shit on the people who have kept your ‘writing’ career afloat. And when your name comes up in conversation, I will make sure I mention your behaviour here, and how little you care about the truth, or evidence, or fair play, or decency. You make me sick, as a reviewer and as an author. I feel diminished for having engaged in conversation with you because you are such a poor specimen of what a decent human being should be.

But aside from all of that, you like me.

Lee

It really doesn’t matter but for the fact that in the Sept./Oct. 2007 AdC magazine reviewed a children’s book that just happened to have been coincidentally published by LSP. That same magazine was handed out by the LSP booth members at the Texas Book Festival in November of last year to people for advertisement. That’s how I got a copy of the magazine.

It is common for AdC to review children’s books that have not been published by LSP? I think not. Has it been a common practice to advertise a children’s book in AdC? I think not. Anne, even on your website, you mention that the site has adult content and anyone should be 18 years or older to view parts your site. That is taking responsibility to insure that those who go to your site are age-appropriate.

However, when a book review is done by a young boy and that review is put in a magazine that has adult content and erotica something is wrong here, unless there’s a kid’s section that is routinely printed with books published by other publishing companies. And there is no such animal, I hope, that has children’s sections in adult/erotica magazines, unless of course it is in Thailand where sexual exploitation and sexual violation of children’s rights are commonplace.

I too have re-read the blogs and have found nothing that accuses the re viewer’s with wrong doing. I certainly don’t think that the young boy who reviewed the book was coerced to give the book good ratings.
I think that the salient question was whether the involvement of Kirby with LSP violated journalistic ethical standards. And without all the verbiage how could there be a question in any one’s mind about the connection of Daly with Kirby when the first and only time a children’s book was reviewed just happened to be published by LSP?

And Lee, you have a child, would you want your child to be given AdC as an advertising tool for a children’s book? Of course now, the advertising department of Mars that produces M&Ms has now sexualized M&Ms I guess, the thinking is that sexuality now can sell children on products as well.

But I digress, Daly and Kirby were associates based on the fact that AdC included a children’s book in the magazine published by LSP for the first and hopefully only time. That is the connection and the violation of standards. And the fact that LSP books did not always get 5 star ratings indicates to me that the reviewers themselves were innocent. But what is not innocent nor ethical was the non-disclosed relationship between LSP and AdC that gave preferential treatment in the magazine itself to the books published by LSP. Having a children’s book reviewed in AdC published by LSP should be proof enough. And it’s hard for me to believe that no one apparently sees that.

How often — if ever — do you think one of those purchased reviews is going to be negative?

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

A few? Many? Almost all?

Doesn’t your logic follow for all venues which accepts paid advertising and also publishes reviews? Say, for instance, the Times Literary Supplement? The New York Times?

And yet they manage to (a) keep the advertising revenue flowing and (b) produce honest reviews. Why is that?

You are again repeating the calumny that the reviews in AdC are affected by Bonny Kirby’s business interests. Not ‘could be’ – ‘are’. And again, you are only offering bombast and supposition as your ‘proof’. You don’t have any proof. You don’t even understand what proof is. All you are interested in is protecting your reputation, and if you have to libel every other person in a discussion to avoid admitting you’ve screwed up, you will, because you don’t have the balls to apologise. It takes courage to say ‘yeah, I got that wrong’. The words ‘I’m wrong’ have probably never dribbled past your lips because you don’t think you can ever make a mistake.

I’m done with you. You are a dishonest, defamatory, tin-eared coward, and I hope all reviewers shun your crappy fanfiction in future because you shit on the people who have kept your ‘writing’ career afloat. And when your name comes up in conversation, I will make sure I mention your behaviour here, and how little you care about the truth, or evidence, or fair play, or decency. You make me sick, as a reviewer and as an author. I feel diminished for having engaged in conversation with you because you are such a poor specimen of what a decent human being should be.

Because that, IMO, would help clarify the very pregnant questions around the general practice of AdC tying reviewing to advertising

Kirby, as well as several authors, have already told us that there is. And Kirby says that if a review comes in “late,” the publisher or author has to buy an ad to get a review. In addition, the magazine explicitly links reviews and coverage to ads in their pitch to advertisers:

To compliment your ad and review we also offer interviews or articles. If you would like an interview let us know 3 months in advance so it will go in the same issue as your review and ad.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. But wait, there’s more. They also offer:

Book cover ad.–This is the cover of the book that goes right beside (or above or below) the AdC review of your book.

Obviously, no publisher or author is going to buy a book cover ad to go alongside a negative review. So it’s clear what Affaire de Coeur is offering here.

Authors or publishers can also have their books reviewed after they were published as long as they buy ad:

We do not review books after publication unless it is done in association with an ad

How often — if ever — do you think one of those purchased reviews is going to be negative? If the review was negative, how likely is it that author or publisher will ever advertise with them again…or feel they got their money’s worth for the ad that they bought? What’s the incentive for Kirby to risk alienating a client?

The clear tie between advertising and reviews, as well as the blatant and unrepentant conflict of interest in their editorial coverage, vividly indicates just how sleazy and unethical Affaire de Coeur is…which is why I outed them on my blog, instructed my publisher to never refer to their rave review of my book in any of my publicity materials, to never use it as a published blurb, and to never send the magazine any of my future work.

Lee

But I am sure all of this attention for Linda Daly, and the rave reviews for Lightsword Books (four out of five of them got four stars or better), had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Bonny Kirby, the co-owner of Lightsword Publishing, is also the vp of advertising and a critic for Affaire de Coeur. No sir. It’s just one of those happy coincidences when good things happen to good people.

I don’t think *anyone* here is suggesting that. Obviously there is something going on. The question is what, exactly? For example, were positive reviews of LSP books ordered, or was it more that any negative reviews didn’t go to press? Were certain reviewers hand-picked or simply invented (i.e. other folks disguising themselves as staff reviewers) just for the LSP books?

And as one anon author said above, where is the rest of the AdC management in all this? Because that, IMO, would help clarify the very pregnant questions around the general practice of AdC tying reviewing to advertising. Which, it seems to me, is really the credibility question here, and which, again, loops back to AdC management and the way they set review (and reviewer) policy. Is LSP an example of this or an anomaly?

Sept/Oct 2007 – The cover features the jacket of Lightsword author CJ Parker’s FUGUE MACABRE and a photo of Linda Daly.

Nov/Dec. 2007 – There’s another photo of Linda Daly on the cover.

March/April 2008 – Linda Daly IS the cover story and so is her book Lightsword book DOVES MIGRATION.

But I am sure all of this attention for Linda Daly, and the rave reviews for Lightsword Books (four out of five of them got four stars or better), had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Bonny Kirby, the co-owner of Lightsword Publishing, is also the vp of advertising and a critic for Affaire de Coeur. No sir. It’s just one of those happy coincidences when good things happen to good people.

I’m sure that Ann is absolutely right about the impartiality of the critics who reviewed Lightsword books for Affaire de Coeur. I also am confident that none of those critics could possibly be a nom-de-plume for Bonny Kirby, who also reviews books for the magazine, because that would be unethical and fraudulent.

It’s clear to me that if any Affaire de Coeur critic gave a Lightsword book a one or two star review it would have been published. Why do I know that? Because clearly Bonny Kirby and Affaire de Coeur aren’t favoring Bonny’s publishing company in any way whatsoever and are conducting themselves in an entirely ethical and above-board manner.

Lee