STOP THE MADDNESS The possibly real Madd Ronald, Seltzer (inset)

By the time Seltzer set about hoodwinking her editor at Riverhead, Sarah McGrath, she'd already practiced her story on an AOL journal titled "berious b", which appears to have been created four years ago. "Berious b" was "jus some basik thoughts and perspectives, bree style without apology." There weren't many entries, but what Bree—screen name "blastedagronaut"—did post was interesting. Like her "All About Me" section on the right side of the page, which began "im jus a gurl...a simple one at that. i was a soldier once, but i think i am semi-retired now. dont doubt that i am doing my work still, only what that work is has changed..."

Compare that with Margaret Seltzer's MySpace "About Me": "I'm just a simple girl. I used to think I didn't have a lot to say, until one day I was blessed with an opportunity to share my experiences ..."

In an entry posted on January 3, 2005, Peggy "Bree" Whatever wrote the following:

i jus got back to eugene from LA and it seems like as the sayin goes not much there changes but the time an the date. they put all these headlines about how violent crime is down by 14 percent, but there were 516 homicides in LA last year as opposed to 511 the year before so how do they figure. we all know this past year been ugly and we seen a lot of good people fall.

i wanted to strike up some links to some cool stuff my homies be doin...

She gave a couple of links, one of them to MaddRonald.com. Bree followed up: "madd ronald got some my writin on his site under newsletter so go ahead an peep that if u feel. meanwhile lets all try and stay focused and positive in this new year."

OG Madd Ronald, by the way, appears to be a real dude. Ronald Chatman, aka Madd Ronald, was in prison as of December 2007, according to his MySpace page. He sometimes writes for a webzine called StreetGangs.com, and videos of interviews with someone using a similar street name can be purchased via StreetGangs.com. Another MySpace page was created in his name in October 2005, but it tracks to Eugene, Oregon, where Seltzer lives. Madd Ronald never mentions the quaint Pacific Northwest abode.

Madd Ronald was kind enough to blurb Peggy Seltzer's now-offline website for the now proven-bogus foundation, BrotherSisterHood.com. The Madd one wrote this about Jones: "Margaret Jones is a product of the hood. She has seen her share of desensitizing events and hardships, enough to be a soldier in the fight against poverty, oppression and ignorance."

In the author interview with Seltzer that was on Penguin's site until this literary charade was exposed (said interview can be read here, and it's hilarious, in hindsight), Seltzer explained why she altered some words in her book, like "berious" for "serious," perhaps: " ... I want people to understand how deep-seated the hatred really is between CRIPs and Bloods. CRIPs celebrate C-days rather than B-days (birthdays) and Bloods smoke bigarettes not cigarettes. The hate is so deep that, as a Blood, you automatically change the spelling in words with a c in them."

If you haven't had enough of Peggy Seltzer's "Bree," you can check her out online by viewing her Yahoo profile, where she illuminates the darkness with her favorite quote: "B, remain solid an dont ALLOW no negaholic cast a web of doubt on your strive."