Oprah Book Club claim by Mass. novelist was fictional

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. --A Cape Cod official admitted he made an "error in judgment" by claiming that his self-published book had been selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club and that he had been interviewed by the talk show diva.

Bill Schneider, Provincetown's administrative director of tourism, even posted a transcript of the purported interview with Winfrey on his Web site, though it later was taken down, the Cape Cod Times reported Thursday.

"Crossed Paths," was self-published by Schneider in March, and recounts the story of two men who fell in love in the 1970s. One later committed suicide.

A spokeswoman for Harpo Productions, Inc., Winfrey's studio, said Schneider never appeared on the show and the book was never listed on Oprah's Book Club.

"I acknowledge an error in judgment, in my attempt to memorialize (in my book) someone very special who didn't get a chance to finish his life," Schneider said.

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Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com