( October 22, 2007 ) - Spokespersons for author Dianne Miller today announced that "Insatiable: The Rise of a Porn Star" (July 2007, St. Martin's Press), the debut novel by former adult film star Heather Hunter, allegedly plagiarizes a manuscript Miller wrote in 2005 called "Insatiable Desires." Hunter hired Miller to write the manuscript after her initial efforts at penning a semi-autobiographical title failed. Miller was never compensated for her work or alerted that her manuscript had been sold.

The storm surrounding the erotic novel was triggered over the summer when the book began arriving in stores. Hunter, who has author credits for the book along with co-author Michelle Valentine, began a publicity tour on behalf of St. Martin's Press during which she described the story as chronicling the life of a young porn star. The similarity of the plot line to that of Miller's manuscript prompted her attorneys to order a side-by-side comparison of the original manuscript with the published novel. The analysis revealed that the vast majority of the novel was lifted, word-for-word, from Miller's original manuscript.

Miller, who characterized her working relationship with Hunter as friendly, admits that she was caught off guard by Hunter's brazen violation. "When I first heard that Heather had written a book called 'Insatiable' about a young adult film actress, I thought it might be a coincidence. I considered her a friend and didn't believe she would do that to me. Unfortunately, I later had to acknowledge what was going on." Neither Hunter's team nor St. Martin's Press have responded to recent inquiry letters Miller has sent them about the matter.

Writing has been Miller's passion since elementary school, when she won a short story contest in first grade. The daughter of missionaries, Miller has lived all over the world and enjoys writing escapist and fantasy fiction featuring settings and landmarks she has visited. A former acquisitions editor for the imprints Indigo, Therion, and Indigo After Dark, Miller was also a marketing representative for Genesis Press, Inc. for several years. She has published a collection of erotic short stories entitled Passion's Bedtime Stories and has written a second collection entitled Passion's Fire. She is currently working on a full-length fictional work set in ancient Egypt.