Status: Clever marketing scheme
Kathleen McGowan claims to be a descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. That belief would make her no different than all the other people in this world suffering from delusions of grandeur, except that she's managed to leverage her extraordinary claim of ancestry
into a major book deal. Simon & Schuster will soon be publishing her novel,
The Expected One, with a print-run of 250,000 copies. The book is a loose fictionalization of her claim. She wanted to publish it as nonfiction but explains that she couldn't do so because "she couldn't make public the sources she developed while researching and writing her book."
Many might view McGowan's novel and ancestry claim as an extraordinarily brazen
Da Vinci Code rip-off. But not so, she says. And she's quite right. I think it's actually a
Holy Blood, Holy Grail rip-off (as was the
Da Vinci Code itself). And I have to hand it to her that it is a clever way to cash in on the religious thriller mania that
Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the
Da Vinci Code have inspired.
As proof of her ancestry, McGowan says that she's had visions of Mary Magdalene. She also claims to have genealogical records passed down through her family during the past two thousand years. But, of course, she's not sharing these documents with anyone.
What I find interesting (though not surprising) are the comments in support of her ancestry claim from the editor-in-chief of Touchstone and her literary agent. Her editor says,
"Yes, I believe her. Her passion and her mission are so strong, how can she not be?"
And her agent says,
"She spent 20 years of her life researching this subject. You have to give her any benefit of the doubt because she's totally rational. I believe her absolutely. She had total credibility with me from the very beginning."
In other words, her editor and agent seem to be arguing that as long as someone is fanatical enough about what they claim, then they must be right, even if they offer no evidence to support what they're saying. Unfortunately, most of the people in the world probably would agree with this sentiment.
Comments
This woman is either bullgoose loony, like my pals on Pennsylvania Avenue or she's a very savvy self-promoter.
So far, McGowan [the author] is offering only her word about her lineage and only hints at her proof. In addition to the visions, she says, she has discovered that her family is related to an ancient French lineage that traces its roots to Jesus and Mary Magdalene's descendants. Legend holds that Mary Magdalene settled in France after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. "That's all I'm prepared to say right now," McGowan says. Some members of her family, she explains, want her to respect their privacy and not discuss it.
Despite the lack of hard evidence, McGowan's supporters include her literary agent Larry Kirshbaum, who left his position as CEO of Time Warner Books in December to start his own literary agency. McGowan was one of his first clients and he helped her get a seven-figure, three-book deal with Simon & Schuster.
Kirshbaum believes McGowan when she says she is a descendant of Mary Magdalene. "I feel she's entirely credible," says Kirshbaum.
McGowan originally planned to write "The Expected One" as non-fiction but says she couldn't make public the sources she developed while researching and writing her book.
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I would add there is precedent for agent Kirshbaum in this situation. As CEO of Warner Books he also oversaw the Little, Brown imprint. In 1997, the imprint was going to publish a book titled "The City of Light," which was purportedly based on the diaries of one Jacob of Acona, who was said to have explored China ahead of Marco Polo. The book had been published in England, but right before its release in the U.S. it was about to be debunked in a NYT book review by Jonathan Spence, a specialist on China at Yale. Kirshbaum withdrew the book from publication to avoid embarassment. The author, David Selbourne, consistently refused to produce the diaries that were purportedly the basis of his book, which of course raised strong suspicion that the whole thing was a hoax.
Likewise, regarding this woman's book, USA Today has the following quote: "I'm always a little suspicious when people say, 'I've got all this information but I just can't tell you. If you only knew, then you'd believe it, too. So just take my word for it.' That's not how scholarship works," says Marvin Meyer, a professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
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On Jacob of Acona and Little, Brown see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_of_Ancona
AND
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/19/reviews/971019.19spencet.html
George W. Bush says he has proof that Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, except he can't let us see any of the top-secret evidence.
Bush's deputies say all the people they're imprisoning without trial and torturing around the world are a threat to our national security, except they can't let us see any of the top-secret evidence.
... Nope, I can't see any similarity there.
Here's my geneaology. What can we make of this together? I like that approach much better.
Just the facts, ma'm.
Maybe Kathleen's "sources" and inspiration for this story haven't been in France, as she claims, but on the internet all this time under the guise of others who had their geneology clearly visible long before, but never engaged in all the hype.
Under such circumstances, I'll wager a bet the lawyers will get all the money.
Seems McGowan has been trying book ripoff schemes and making money at it for years. Three, count em, three previous encounters with the law in her past life as an "author" getting material in questionable ways.
Can't imagine how editors at Simon and Shuster got so hoodwinked.
Such is the sad decline of good literature and good editors in the USA.
Cameron, I know McGowan. This is all lies. You post these lies as if you really like to promote the agenda of those posting the lies. How can you read something and post it as if it's true? If you picked up the paper tomorrow and the headline read "Cameron is a drug dealer" would you want everyobe who read that to post it all over the internet without saying this may not be true? Its lies, you know it's lies but those with an agenda use lies and propaganda to liable others. You are helping them. Maybe that is your agenda. Is it?
This is not about liable.
Criticism is one thing. Liable is another.
Do you know the difference? The information is from first hand accounts.
Let's look at the book reviews first.
The good book reviews at amazon are not from established reviewers, just one shot deals..highy suspicious.
The bad book reviews say McGowan can't write. The book is awful. Material appeared in other books before hers that she claims she "never read."
Did McGowan forget her numerous appearances in the Gardner forums and others?
Leaving her husband and children to cope with
babysitting, laundry, mortgage payments and food bills while she wanders half dazed on French "expeditions" wearing expensive perfumes and designer shoes, she gets visions. Most rational grounded people dont leave their families in dire situations to indulge themselves and most sane people just don't get visions from famous people just before they release a new book. Once, maybe it could be believed, but two or three times?
And over here folks,I have this bridge for sale.
This can't be slander and liable on the internet because these are statements directly from McGowan herself, and from people who had first-hand knowledge about her. No liable there. Just facts.
USA Today has the following quote:
"I'm always a little suspicious when people say, 'I've got all this information but I just can't tell you. If you only knew, then you'd believe it too. So just take my word for it.' That's not how scholarship works," says Marvin Meyer, a professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
The good reviews may be very good (especially if written by the author and her family as some have suggested) but the bad reviews tell the real truth.
Finally, there are the unanswered questions to Simon and Schuster. Is this a "first book
"Please be very very wary of anyone who puts herself on a book cover in full technicolor with a title like "If you could see what I see" or whatever whatever elititist tripe. Ick. ""
Then she goes on to advise us all that only her visions are valid, according to her and her book:
"There is an element of 'Truth against the World' that makes it imperitive for me to speak out against the phonies that become superstars in the name of 'spiritual publishing."
Oh my God. What elitist dillusions are these in the mind of McGowan?
Suzzanne Olsson is posting all these lies. You will find her hate splattered all over the internet. She can be found at the following address
http://www.therefinersfire.org/challenging_suzanne_olsson.htm
Also go to
http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/former_irish_news_editor_direct_descendant_of_jesus/P25/
Click on the names longbow,tom,joe and you will see this is the same wacko who
I read that the man had a gun and so the cops fired in self defense. I then found out from paying attention to the story months later that the man was not armed but was shot because hel looked like a terrorist.
People have agendas like yours. They post a few lies and then quote each other. Suxanne Olsson quotes Robin Crookshank, Crookhank quothes Theresa Welsh and visa versa. Then you all come here using different names and continue lying. People are on to you just go to http://www.theexpectedone.com and click on Guestbook.
"I'm a decendent from Santa Claus."
I asked your predecessor for a lot of things when I was a kid that I never got.
You OWE me, mofo!
The same forum members even published a paragraph from McGowan's book (ya know, the only part of the book anyone says was well-written it was a quote from the Kolbrin)and pages from Olsson's website published two years before..and it's almost a perfect match. Even 'The Way' of Yesua was published first by Olsson.If all this is added togther it adds up to a LOT of copying!
Olsson wrote a public letter to McGowan that is on the internet and sounded very stressed that McGowan did these things.
No matter what Simon and Schuster 'claims' to tell McGowan (and I doubt they'd make such a claim without first having a legal hearing) it's for the law to decide, not for Kathleen McGowan to decide..and not for S & S to decide if the work was taken from Sue Olsson.
I haven't seen any claims that Olsson did anything to McGowan, but if someone published even one line of my work and claimed it was their own, and got a heap of money for it, I wouldn't be as nice as Olsson. I'd have slammed their arse into court and blasted their names all across the front pages, and exposed them for what they really are long before this.
What have you been waiting for Sue? I think you have been too kind to McGowan for too long.