Romance Writers of America had a brouhaha.
Summers in New Jersey. I loved it when the adults would get together and do what passed for partying in those days. A special treat involved an Irish friend who worked for the New York Daily News. We knew it would be a fun evening when he would grab yet another beer and get on the old upright and do his "I see by the papers" routine. His songs came complete with commentary on the events of the day and often bawdy lyrics which, since it was summer, I was permitted to hear. I'd love to have him back to sing about the Romance Writers of America and their travails.
My wife and I joined RWA back in the days when we were just starting out. That means back in the days when we were still lookng for an agent and before we decided to self publish. We went to conventions and sat through all manner of presentations. It also seemed to be a good idea to enter contests.
At the conferences and from the contests we got all kinds of information. We moved swiftly to redraw out query letter and to utilize the cascade of information coming our way to refine our writing skills. How naive we were!
But a curious things happened with the contests. We got scores ranging from the abysmal to the stratosphere. We were either loved or hated. Finally dawn broke. Romance Writers of America should have been called Harlequin/Sillouhette (H/S) writers of America. We were writing mainstream women's fiction and we were getting advise and being critiqued as if we were writing for H/S lines. An occasional person saw us for who we were. We had revised our query letter as if we were sending queries in regard to a potboiler. Big mistake. It had nothing to do with what we were writing.
Then came the bad advise. I'll highlight a few.
"1980! Nobody sets a book in 1980" - Well folks we did. It was only mentioned once on the first page and we had our reasons. Not worth a negative comment. It was put in like what you see on a movie screen. 1980 was one year after St. Lucia got its independence. Foreigners were coming in to do development work which was why our heroine was there with her husband. It was also before tourism became so important to St. Lucia and so related to the story line in A Dream Across Time. Bad, bad us. Oh yes. It was also carefully designed. Our heroine, Jamie, has twin girls at the end of the book. That leaves us in this very time with two rather dynamic young women who have stories of their own. They are really pistols. Look for them in books near you.
"Nobody sets a romance in the Caribbean" - Golly. We didn't know that. I searched the RWA database. Sure enough nobody sets a romance in the Caribbean. There was one on a cruise ship and one on a nameless island. No mention of the Caribbean. What a pity! The Caribbean is really mysterious and romantic as all get out. Well it was too late for us to move the setting to Bel Air, Maryland which we also know well.
"Married? (Hysteria sets in here.) You can't have a married heroine" - Oops again. We seem to have put a little bit of real life in the book. People do have trouble in their marriages and they end. There is often an adventure involved. Besides, in our defense, our heroine, Jamie, is really straight arrow and all she did until her marriage was over and Andre became available, was to lust after him in her heart. Just like Jimmie Carter. But then the American people voted him out of office seemingly in part because that's all he did. Presidents often do more than that. But we won't go there.
"How can you have Jamie stay with that jerk of a husband, Paul" - Huh? Aren't people supposed to work on their marriages. We could have a 100% divorce rate if everyone walked out when things got tough or there was a crisis. Jamie wasn't a quitter but knew when to quit.
By this time I was getting testy and saying things like, "Maybe these people write romance because they have no romance in their lives." If you quit on life that fast and have no flexibility at all, life will be tough and unrewarding. Those were some of by nicer mutterings. But by now we were getting very clear about the H/S connection and that we were in the wrong place.
Not that we didn't learn anything. We learned a lot. I'm a great believer that we probably can learn the most from people who do things badly. The ones who do things well make it look easy and so we aren't watching and learn nothing. We had become quite clear who we were and what we were writing.
Back to the beginning. From what I could glean, it seems RWA is wrestling with an identity crisis. In my not so humble opinion it is about time. There should be more openness to diversity in writing but we found the organization too narrowly focused. Granted H/S is definitely the largest producer of romances. But there are some of us who write other kinds of romance and we need information and guidance too.
I wish RWA well in their crisis. They will come through it but it can only be hoped that they come through it as a broader ranging organization.
Question - I was sitting at a Mcdonalds the other day eating my bacon, egg and cheese biscuit (I know they are bad for me) when I looked up and saw a poster announcing that kids could get a "virtual prize clue" with their Happy Meal. Does that mean that they are offering a virtual clue or a virtual prize? Either way I think that is a mean thing to offer a little kid.
For Much More Come Visit Us at www.annierogers.com
Summers in New Jersey. I loved it when the adults would get together and do what passed for partying in those days. A special treat involved an Irish friend who worked for the New York Daily News. We knew it would be a fun evening when he would grab yet another beer and get on the old upright and do his "I see by the papers" routine. His songs came complete with commentary on the events of the day and often bawdy lyrics which, since it was summer, I was permitted to hear. I'd love to have him back to sing about the Romance Writers of America and their travails.
My wife and I joined RWA back in the days when we were just starting out. That means back in the days when we were still lookng for an agent and before we decided to self publish. We went to conventions and sat through all manner of presentations. It also seemed to be a good idea to enter contests.
At the conferences and from the contests we got all kinds of information. We moved swiftly to redraw out query letter and to utilize the cascade of information coming our way to refine our writing skills. How naive we were!
But a curious things happened with the contests. We got scores ranging from the abysmal to the stratosphere. We were either loved or hated. Finally dawn broke. Romance Writers of America should have been called Harlequin/Sillouhette (H/S) writers of America. We were writing mainstream women's fiction and we were getting advise and being critiqued as if we were writing for H/S lines. An occasional person saw us for who we were. We had revised our query letter as if we were sending queries in regard to a potboiler. Big mistake. It had nothing to do with what we were writing.
Then came the bad advise. I'll highlight a few.
"1980! Nobody sets a book in 1980" - Well folks we did. It was only mentioned once on the first page and we had our reasons. Not worth a negative comment. It was put in like what you see on a movie screen. 1980 was one year after St. Lucia got its independence. Foreigners were coming in to do development work which was why our heroine was there with her husband. It was also before tourism became so important to St. Lucia and so related to the story line in A Dream Across Time. Bad, bad us. Oh yes. It was also carefully designed. Our heroine, Jamie, has twin girls at the end of the book. That leaves us in this very time with two rather dynamic young women who have stories of their own. They are really pistols. Look for them in books near you.
"Nobody sets a romance in the Caribbean" - Golly. We didn't know that. I searched the RWA database. Sure enough nobody sets a romance in the Caribbean. There was one on a cruise ship and one on a nameless island. No mention of the Caribbean. What a pity! The Caribbean is really mysterious and romantic as all get out. Well it was too late for us to move the setting to Bel Air, Maryland which we also know well.
"Married? (Hysteria sets in here.) You can't have a married heroine" - Oops again. We seem to have put a little bit of real life in the book. People do have trouble in their marriages and they end. There is often an adventure involved. Besides, in our defense, our heroine, Jamie, is really straight arrow and all she did until her marriage was over and Andre became available, was to lust after him in her heart. Just like Jimmie Carter. But then the American people voted him out of office seemingly in part because that's all he did. Presidents often do more than that. But we won't go there.
"How can you have Jamie stay with that jerk of a husband, Paul" - Huh? Aren't people supposed to work on their marriages. We could have a 100% divorce rate if everyone walked out when things got tough or there was a crisis. Jamie wasn't a quitter but knew when to quit.
By this time I was getting testy and saying things like, "Maybe these people write romance because they have no romance in their lives." If you quit on life that fast and have no flexibility at all, life will be tough and unrewarding. Those were some of by nicer mutterings. But by now we were getting very clear about the H/S connection and that we were in the wrong place.
Not that we didn't learn anything. We learned a lot. I'm a great believer that we probably can learn the most from people who do things badly. The ones who do things well make it look easy and so we aren't watching and learn nothing. We had become quite clear who we were and what we were writing.
Back to the beginning. From what I could glean, it seems RWA is wrestling with an identity crisis. In my not so humble opinion it is about time. There should be more openness to diversity in writing but we found the organization too narrowly focused. Granted H/S is definitely the largest producer of romances. But there are some of us who write other kinds of romance and we need information and guidance too.
I wish RWA well in their crisis. They will come through it but it can only be hoped that they come through it as a broader ranging organization.
Question - I was sitting at a Mcdonalds the other day eating my bacon, egg and cheese biscuit (I know they are bad for me) when I looked up and saw a poster announcing that kids could get a "virtual prize clue" with their Happy Meal. Does that mean that they are offering a virtual clue or a virtual prize? Either way I think that is a mean thing to offer a little kid.
For Much More Come Visit Us at www.annierogers.com
posted by Roger | 3:54 PM
