After Judy Maguire sent Dan Savage into the red zone last week by tweaking him about the similarities between her book jacket and a recent cover of The Stranger, novelist Brendan Halpin spotted an opportunity, claiming that some of the advice Savage handed out in his “Savage Love” column “totally bit the plot of my award-winning novel Donorboy!”
“I was wondering how I could score some free publicity by pissing off Dan Savage when I actually found that he’d made it incredibly easy!” Halpin enthuses, tongue planted firmly in cheek. “I demand—demand, I say!—a public apology! (or, failing that, could you write a long, link-filled blog entry about what a moron I am? Please?)”
For the record, I do not recommend this as a publicity strategy. (Even though he just scored, well, this much publicity.)