There are numerous people in the world who have been victimized in one form or another and in many minds; the victimization simmers in the sub-conscious mind. I thought I had come to terms with a victimization that happened to me. It is one thing to forgive and this I now do by bringing it out into the open. The victimization I am writing about is one that in forgiving, I am led to tell my story and by telling my story I am no longer a victim. I can freely forgive.

My story begins with a book I wrote titled Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls. It was my first major book and I was delighted with this first edition. The copyright in the book is 2004. In this book I have a Bibliography of books and places on Internet. In fact, 6 pages of extensive research. My message even though it was a work of fiction was to be as factual about events as possible. In the 2nd Edition, I left the bibliography out.

In early 2005 I met author Kathleen McGowan at an event I attended. As we talked, it appeared we had some things in common. She told me she had just self-published her own book regarding Mary Magdalene. I thought this was interesting. I did not think too much about us both writing about Mary Magdalene. In the spring I purchased a booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and I told her what I was doing. When I arrived in L.A., I learned she had a booth on the outer part of festival.A friend purchased her book titled, The Expected One and gave it to me. I was shocked to read that her story line was very much like mine. I began to research her background, and I learned that in some of the Amazon reviews regarding earlier books that her reputation was a more than a bit tainted.

I began reading her book and the more I read, I realized there were too many similarities to my book. McGowan self-published her book in 2005. During this time I was researching the similarities, her book was picked up by the publisher Simon & Schuster. I wrote to the publisher and gave them the parallels of the two books. The reply I received was to the effect that this had happened before they bought her book; therefore, I would have to sue her.

McGowan has been known as a screenwriter according to some. How valid this is, I do not know; however, if she can write then she can also copy someone else’s work. From a June 20, 2005 Amazon Review of The Expected One, the reviewer writes “The entire Argues Gospel of Mary Magdalene that is included in this book is plagiarized from a French book, that the author found in a shop in France.” The reviewer goes on to write, “Conversations with the author on her Yahoo Group will reveal that Kathleen McGowan knows little of what she is talking about and when she can’t answer a question regarding her book, she lies and deletes the membership of the person who asked the tough question.” This was before Simon & Schuster bought her book. McGowan has connections in Hollywood, so I am not surprised.

I went to an attorney who has dealt with plagiarism and was told I had a very good chance if I wanted to sue her. The upshot of this is that it would cost me thousands of dollars and there was a possibility she would win with Simon & Schuster at her back. I had already paid the attorney almost $500 to review the material I had. I chose not to sue. In my mind I knew I had been victimized and I was frustrated. After eight years I have decided to write this article and let people know that in McGowan’s book The Expected One she used portions of my book Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls.

My book is about two women hiking in the French Pyrenees and one falls into a cave. In the cave, using her flashlight she finds a ceramic jar with parchment scrolls. She and her friend take the scrolls out and decided to find someone who could translate them. They wanted to know what they were before they turned them over to the French government. The characters names are Ellen and Jill. Earlier they had met an American businessman named Peter while hiking and turned to him to locate someone who could translate the documents. He happened to know a French priest named Father Sebastian.

I began comparing my storyline with hers and here is what I found: My two women who find the scrolls in a cave are named Ellen and Jill. The males are an American businessman and a disenchanted Catholic priest named Sebastian who has the expertise to decipher the scrolls written in the Greek language. McGowan uses the name Peter as a Doctor Peter Healy who is a cousin and a priest. She also has two women as well as a businessman who is alleged to be Lord Berenger Sinclair of England – a British peer with a seat in the House of the Lords. It is interesting that her characters are two women, a priest and a businessman.

The information she uses from my book is interspersed throughout her book, i.e. “Salvador Dali said that the train station in Perpignan was the center of the universe because it was where these magnetic power points intersected.” Such is a statement in my book. Another is when she writes, “Over lunch in the village of Limoux…” This also is where in the Magdalene Scrolls Peter and Ellen have lunch in Limoux.

In my book, I have Peter and Ellen at the Louvre meeting with Sebastian and Jill at the Mona Lisa. Before they enter the Louvre, they talk and describe the I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid and so does McGowan. She also mentions the Mona Lisa. She has written about Carcassonne where Peter and Ellen stopped. It is as though the travels of my foursome are followed by her characters. The most revealing tidbit in her story was that her main female. Maureen had gone to “a strange hill named Rennes-le-Chateau” and somehow she heard a bell and was led to a large stone wall. “Where a wall of brush and solid rock had stood, there was now an opening, a split in the side of the mountain, inviting Maureen to enter. Maureen inched toward the newly-opened cavern in what had previously been a solid sheet of stone. She was shaking almost uncontrollably. But she continued forward. As she neared the opening, which was big enough for her to stand in, there was a faint glow visible from within the rock. She swallowed her fear at the entrance to the cavern, ducked and walked into the mountain.”

She goes on to write, “She caught her breath immediately upon entering, stunned. Sitting inside was an ancient and battered chest.” Of course, the chest has documents that are written in Greek and they have to be deciphered. Needless to say, Father Peter translated them and as in my book, this sentence stood out, “No one spoke immediately after Peter’s translation of the first book.” There are too many coincidences to what I wrote in 2004. In reading her book, it was as though she had followed the trail of my characters in almost every chapter.

In sharing this, I feel at peace within. Actually I feel sorry for her as she was not a likeable person in her early days according to my research. Shortly after her first book was published she had a website and she posted glowing sentences supposedly from people who had written to her. Some of them were almost identical to some I had received. I thought it strange that she did not put any names to these statements and I surmised she had written them.

As an aside, on Friday, August 11, 2006 McGowan happened to be in Seattle promoting her book. On that day the Seattle-Post-Intelligence posted a full page on their literary section of an interview with me along with my photo and a photo of Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls.

Now that I have exorcized this episode, I give up my victimization and am moving on to greater things. The second book of the Magdalene Trilogy is Mary Magdalene, Her Legacy. Both books have received awards. I am also pleased with a Writer’s Digest Commentary. I entered Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls in 2007 and the Judge’s comment was worth it all. On a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest number and 5 the highest, the book is evaluated. I received a 5 on my plot, 5 for grammar, 5 for character development and 5 on the Cover design.

The judge’s commentary regarding: “What did you like best about the book?” and the judge’s reply was “Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls is a tantalizing story depicting the discovery of ancient scrolls about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Though it covers some of the same ground as the Da Vinci Code, the writing is infinitely better and far more believable. The heroines in the story are more realistic and the adventures described in a true r voice along with a possible time-line—something very much lacking in Dan Brown’s tale. Whether the reader chooses to believe what is revealed in story form or not, the book is entertaining from beginning to end.”

“How can the author improve this book? Reply: “No suggestions—the author knows how to write and tell a compelling and convincing story. Hopefully the promotion for this book will be enough to make those who read the Da Vinci Code want to read the Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls.”

In retrospect, I am happy that I self-published. Not only have I been a two-time winner as an independent publisher, but I am also my author, my researcher, my PR person, and have the freedom to be me and not under the thumb of a major publishing company. Check me out at Amazon on ‘books’ and type in Bettye Johnson to check out my books. Please go to http://bettyejohnson.com.
I am at peace within. ©Bettye Johnson
P.S. When McGowan’s book is purchased, it adds to her royalty. I would prefer that the purchase of my books adds to my royalties. Just spread the word and I will send you kind thoughts. Bettye