Incubi need razors!

[erastes]

Lovely review for Standish, from Tina Anderson, a writer I much admire.  Thanks, Tina - and I absolutely adore that you've got a picture of Regency Blackadder at the head.  They look like they are reading the book.

Bizzarre today, I've got what feels like stubble rash. Itchy red and hivey-All over my mouth and chin.  Unshaven Incubus, do you think? 

I took your advice and deleted my free trial of WoW. I have enough distractions and although I was literally drooling over other rogues who were up to, like, level 65 (I stalked one for a while, he was so bloody hot) I was just failing miserably at it, dressed like the N00B I was, and unable even to find a wine shop... then I went for an explore in the country and here's a tip - Don't go wandering in a place called Duskwood when you are only level six and the spiders can kill you with one chomp.  Anyway, best I keep away from it! It's not like I don't have a PSX and a PS2 and a Gamecube....

Spotted on ERECblog - The owner of Blu-phi'er takes his ("lazy, childish, assholes") authors to task.  If you want to see what kind of publisher not to submit to? This is it.

Where there any m/m winners at the Passionate Plume RWA awards?  No? Didn't think so..... *sigh*

Comments

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

Wow, another publisher to avoid. :P

Were there any m/m entrants in the RWA's Passionate Plume awards...? Were there any entrants in any of RWA's awards? They've never struck me as terribly supportive of m/m romances, which is why I've never thought seriously about joining.

Angie

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's a good point, actually. I think that Laura Baumbach and others are members and in fact attended the convention, and I assume they would have entered.

It puts me off joining (another major reason being the name of the organisation!!) to be honest, too. But then - if we don't infiltrate these places, we'll NEVER change anything...

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

Oh, and great review! :)

Angie

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

You have a good point too. When I have a few more things out (more length -- the romance genre on the het side is all about the novels, and I don't have any yet) I'll consider it again. I just hate giving money to an organization that would treat me like a red-headed stepchild. :/

Angie

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I wish I had known you had joined Wow, I'd have told you to build a character on Staghelm and hooked you up. I got a bunch of highbies there. I don't personally find it too big a distraction. I am such a driven person when it comes to my writing, that WoW helps me force myself to take a break between projects. Then, I don't have the other game systems to add to the distraction...

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Incubus... I'll bet not. But has your wandering boy been head-butting your chin? Is there poison ivy in England, or plants blooming right now that you're allergic to? We got poison-ivy from the dog once, and it was no fun.

flu-buyer.. I mean, bluphier... Law of averages says there must be some lazy, etc. writers... but a .. pardon me, did he say he was a publisher who expects the writers to pay him?? It's bad enough that most writers have to pay for promo material without much control over content or appearance--if he's expecting writers to pay him, he's not a publisher, he's a printer--a vanity press, at best, and a flaming jerk to boot. Thanks for the warning--though I have to say if his communication is always as error-studded as that pompous epistle, that would be warning enough. For this chucklehead to call someone else 'childish' is really astonishing.

m/m winners at RWA? Ha. I don't know if the rules specifically exclude m/m entries; I think they're written very diplomatically, and the lavender-tinted glass wall is made clear to the judges... but not in writing. I'm sure m/m lead characters would disqualify a book from any chance of winning. It would upset too many of the self-appointed arbiters of morality.

Yes, I know many m/m writers talk about how nice and accepting and tolerant their local chapters are. I'm sure that's true. But until that attitude makes it out of the local chapters and into Nationals - and more importantly, into the rule book - it doesn't count for much.

What puzzles me is, what is keeping all those sensible, tolerant, helpful people from withdrawing from an organization that discriminates against so many authors and forming a new writers' organization that does not discriminate? It's not as though romance writing is such a tiny field that there can be only one group. If romance is 40% of the book market, and gay romance is even 5% - that is still a lot of books. The top sellers at Amazon in gay romance are often in the top 5,000 seller rank. That's not a small market.

The infiltration strategy is a good one, and I respect people who have the patience to go that route. For myself... I don't have the time, energy, or money to spend courting an organization that tells me I am qualified to send them my hard-earned royalties for dues and event registration, but refuses to consider my work good enough to be considered on an equal footing--an organization who has a significant, vocal contingent with seniority and power that would completely exclude my genre if it could. No, sorry. There are enough of those battles to be fought in the real world.

If RWA were honest enough to offer full-participant dues for boy-meets-girl and cut-rate, red-headed stepchild dues for people writing the books that some of their leadership considers socially unacceptable, or if they offered second-class-citizen convention tickets for people who want to come even though they know they aren't allowed to ever sit in the winners' circle... Well, no. I still wouldn't join, but I'd at least respect them for their honesty.

If being outside RWA means I sell fewer books (and I don't think that's necessarily the case), then so be it. RWA and RT function very well for conventional boy-girl romance, but I think readers seeking m/m romance have already found other ways to find the books they want. I think writers of same-sex romance should start a separate organization and throw our own parties.