RWA GLBT Chapter?

[erastes]

I just got a pied wagtail on my birdtable!  Never had one of those before. 

Just had this pop up in my inbox.  I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment. I'm all for subversion from within, but it's $100 to join--and with the pound so weak, that's like £70, a huge investment. Plus there'd be a fee for joining the chapter, and...well...I suppose I don't really want there to be a gay ghetto.  Granted there are other "specialist interest chapters" such as Gothic, Regency and Chick Lit - but all of those genres are universally accepted within RWA already. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, it's probably a good idea and Laura makes a good point, as always, but ... well, I don't know how I feel. I might just join the group and see what people are saying. Undecided and skint of Norfolk.

"Permission to forward to interested parties.
Authors of GLBT romance,

"I truly believe to achieve recognition for our genre within RWA we have to be a part of the official process and take part in the organization at a professional level. A few of us within the genre have created a google group to gage the interest in our community for support in establishing a GLBT RWA Chapter. Goals for this chapter include establishing a place to for authors of GLBT to network, learn more about what is happening in the romance industry concerning our genre, provide support and education for the authors, create a place for publishers and agents to reach the authors of this genre more easily, create workshops geared toward our writing needs, and possibly even organize writing contests at some point down the line.  These are only a few of things we can accomplish together.

If you write GLBT romance and are interested in creating and supporting a chapter that focuses on the GLBT romance genre please consider joining the group so that the degree of interest can be assessed.

You do have to be a member of RWA to belong to a special interest RWA chapter but for now, we just want to see if there is sufficient interest to warrant the large effort of creating, maintaining and promoting the chapter. Whether you belong to RWA, are thinking of joining the RWA or just want to know more about the possibilities, please consider clicking on the link below and joining us for discussion.

http://groups.google.com/group/rwa_rainbow_romance_chapter?hl=en
sincerely,
Laura Baumbach"

Comments

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I did not get this email. I don't know any gay male author that did.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It was posted on various yahoo groups, not sent to emails, I think.

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

My first question would be from a realistic point of view: if I pay money, what do I get in return? What's in it for me? What benefits would this have?

have we not already enough networks and networks for free? Is not the whole internet capable of social networking and interaction and many-way communication? What does a RWA chapter do? In fact, what's the point of being a member of the RWA in the first place?

And so on. I like questions.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Marquesate, you asked one of the questions I wanted to say when I was posting e.g. "what's in it for me for £70..."

[feed-your-muse.livejournal.com]

I second (third?) your and Marquesate's question - what's in it for me? I@m not currently a member of RWA (and if I go the route of joining a writer's organisation it's more likely to be the RNA instead) so I'd have to pay both the RWA fee and then whatever chapter contributions are required.

I can't see that it would be worth it unless they do something in return for all that money.

Merry
=^..^=

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The more I think about it, the madder I get. Yes, it gets a toehold in the organisation, and that will probably be a good thing, but this is 2009 for god's sake. GLBT should already be accepted as part of everyday life - I suppose I feel like that because over here it would be an OFFENCE to discriminate in this way.

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

Well said. Perhaps equality issues should be pointed out.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

It was posted on ManLoveRomance's group list, and there are a number of gay male writers on that. Are you on any of the romance promo lists?

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

They've been being pointed out for some years now. Take a look at Laura Baumbach's blogs about the last couple of RWA conventions.

I respect the principle of working from the inside, but it has to be a group with significant influence. And since RWA eschews contact with teh icky Gay, I don't think they've got as much clout as they want people to think they have.

Add to that the fact that these chuckleheads keep changing the membership categories to find new ways to exclude people who are published in e-formats and POD, and I think RWA looks and acts like one great big frilly dinosaur.

This isn't sour grapes; Ransom qualified me under their old rules, the Running Press contract qualifies me under the new ones. I just don't see much point in sending $ to an organization that discriminates.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

I think I run with a different crowd of gay male writers.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I thought that as a publisher you might be in the promo loops. But it's up on the Speak Its Name list, too, post #1410. You're on that, I think.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yes, there I see it.

There are just waaaay too many promo loops. Most are aimed at the m/m titles as opposed to gay fiction, though.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

RWA is a private group, and it is free to set its standards any way it likes. But this recent round of redefining "published" to make sure epubs who were accepted last year are no longer ... it reminds me of nothing so much as a clique of middle-school girls who don't want the new kid joining their club. "So, all we have to do is make a rule that anybody who wears Guess jeans can't join because those aren't kewl any more..."

I can't for the life of me find any interest in joining a group that jerks people around that way.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

There are too many of them, and I suppose Speak only adds to the confusion, though we've had a pretty good response from folks who like glbt historical fic--at least half of us don't consider our work "romance" in the strictest definition of the genre. Since my books are m/m and published through romance publishers, I've wound up on a number of lists that I only visit occasionally. But they are useful for genre promotion.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Agreed :)

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

I cannot help thinking that the more segregated groups there are in existence, the less we move forward as a society and the more tempted people in general will be to judge, discriminate and perpetuate the notion that somehow gay people [such as myself] are ‘different’.

Notwithstanding the amount of stuff you could get off Amazon for seventy quid, but that’s by the by.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

And since this letter is about membership in the ROMANCE Writers of America.... small wonder that crowd didn't receive it.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Yes.

It's interesting to see the group dynamics at Saints & Sinners. The various crowds so rarely interact with each other. Rather sad, really.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

And what's a pied wagtail, anyway? Any relation to your Tits?

[enolabloodygay.livejournal.com]

Pied wagtails are cheeky little black and white birds (no relation to tits, as far as I know) who fly in a flirty sort of way and bob backwards and forwards as they run in short bursts on the ground - or at least, the scores I have in my garden do!

Charming little things which make me smile every time I see them, but I'm sure a real ornithologist would despair of my description of them! :-)

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I'm no ornithologist, but I love to watch the little guys at the feeder. Our cardinals seem to bo south for the winter, but the sparrows & chicadees stay year-round.