The Romance Community

I have to say that the romance writer community is one of the best places to feel loved (no pun intended). These authors are so giving, so caring, so willing to share of themselves that any author should feel priveleged to write romance. Authors come to give talks and they embrace their fellow authors as if they were long lost friends. Yes, they do come to sell books and promote themselves, but that doesn't diminish the true grace and gentility they display. I have spent many a day with a author whom I have never met before and always felt as if I were sharing stories with a friend.

Today in my local paper, the books section (a page, not really a section) threw in a gratuitious blurb on Romance for Valentine's Day (because, of course, Romance doesn't exist the rest of the year and it's also not the bigest share of the mass market fiction market--sarcasm, if you couldn't tell). The headline reads "Romance! Passion! Lust!" (not so bad really), then the subtitle reads "Who wrote the book of love? For a mere six bucks you can set hearts aflame and get those bodices ripping". How long will it take for the media to understand that "bodice-ripper "is a term most romance authors find offensive, demeaning, and belittling? I give credit to the article for maintaing a neutral tone, but really out of the three romance novel examples the author gives, one is twenty years old, and the second is twelve years old. At least the third one is a recent publication. And no mention of Nora Roberts. Nor a mention that of the top ten bestselling authors on the fiction list printed that week (And I don't know if our paper reprints the NYT or if they have another source, but the list only covers hardcover books), two are known romance authors.

I think I'm just too sensitive because, really, nothing negative is said in the article. I guess I just want more. So much positive exists in the romance community that I want to celebrate it and extoll it to the world instead of relgating it to a mere Valentine's Day burb.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Crimes against Logic by Jamie Whyte
Give me a Texan by Jodi Thomas, Linda L Broday, DeWanna Pace, Phyliss Miranda
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Yup, it's that time of year again--teaching it to my eighth graders)

Winter blahs

For two weeks I've been battling the blues. Oh, not the serious blues, but the I've-got-no-talent-who-am-I- fooling blues.Sometimes, when life takes up so much of your time and you can't pursue your dreams, it's hard to keep the faith. And if doesn't help when you find people are advising things like Confucius's saying "Jump and the net will appear." That's all well and good when you don't have many responsibilitites, but if I were to quit my job and really pursue writing full time, who the heck would pay the tuition bills coming up next year when the girls hit college? I've been published. I know what those initial advances and royalties pay, and my kids can't go to college on those paychecks.

So until I can leave work and pursue the dream full time, the dream suffers because my soul is being sucked out of me by the demands of the job. It's a vicious ciricle.

And it's been COLD!

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Crimes Against Logic by Jamie Whyte
The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gillman
Seven books and/or novellas for the RITA contest sponsered by RWA (not releasing the titles of those)