More Margaret B. Jones/Peggy Seltzer info:

Gawker has some of her author interview, now vanished from Penguin's site, but found here:

At one point I was showing my agent around my old neighborhood. We were shooting a video for the book. She said it was so much nicer than she thought it was going to be and that people were so friendly. We went to a local park and this couple walked up to us. I could see the camera crew suddenly got nervous. In my head I'm thinking, what do you think is going to happen? But then the couple was nice and all I could do was smile.

Faye Bender, the agent, ducked the LA Times questions. So where's the video?

Tom Ashbrook's On Point on WBUR interviewed her last Friday. He called the book "smart, tender and honest". Oh dear.

Her accent is sort of homegirl meets Southern-fried meets totally fake. She disses Boyz n the Hood, too. Not authentic enough.

NY Times readers want to know about that weeping pit bull tat and point out that the intersection of "Crenshaw and Stockyard" doesn't exist.

Ira Socol points out that the NYT is google-impaired.

Margaret Soltan has a great line about the editor's innocence:

In the book, she describes her foster mother, Big Mom, an African-American woman who raised four grandchildren and a foster brother, Terrell, who was gunned down by Crips right outside her foster mother's home.

Big Mom. What name would have been enough to raise suspicion on the part of her editor? Aunt Jemima?

But let's look on the bright side--at least she didn't rap.

Earlier:

Gangbanger Margaret B. Jones is Really Peggy Seltzer, Valley Girl