Author says Christian novel plagiarized, sex added

A Utah author says a schoolteacher plagiarized her Christian romance novel, added graphic sex scenes and passed it off as her own.

Rachel Ann Nunes, author of “A Bid for Love,” filed a federal lawsuit in August against Tiffanie Rushton, a third-grade teacher in Layton who wrote an electronic book called “The Auction Deal.”

Both books are about competing art dealers who fall in love. Nunes says Rushton copied her characters and plot, as well as some lines in the work, but added sex to appeal to a more mainstream audience.

Nunes says her suit draws attention to plagiarism in the increasingly popular online publishing world. She is seeking $150,000 in damages.

The Kindle version of “A Bid for Love” was listed as free as of Tuesday.

Rushton writes under the pseudonym Sam Taylor Mullens. According to her Amazon page, she is an “Indie Author excluseively (sic) with Amazon.” The links to her previous books, as well as her Facebook and Twitter accounts, were inactive Tuesday.

Rushton did not return phone and email messages seeking comment, and no attorney has yet been listed for her.