Month: January 2009

RITA Controversy Makes PW Blog

The controversy about the new “mass-produced” stipulation in RWA’s 2009 RITA contest has reached the Publishers Weekly Blog. Makes for interesting reading, and you can share your views as well, if you wish.

I’m glad the RWA office appears to have clarified the confusion surrounding the return of disqualified books. Yes, they will be returned. From RWA, via the blog :

A rumor is circulating that RWA refused to return disqualified books. That is not true. They have either been returned or are in the process of being returned. The mailing of the RITA books to judges was a priority for the staff, delaying some returns, but any member who contacted the office with this question was told that her books would be returned.

As for returning the entry fees, that’s another issue. When you enter the contest, you sign a box stating you have read the rules. Despite the confusion surrounding the new mass-produced stipulation, it appears RWA is sticking to their guns on this matter.

By the way, a blog post and petition begun by author Kristen Painter led to the Publishers Weekly blog post. You can have a look at Kristen’s petition here. Information about why she felt it necessary to spearhead the petition is on her blog.

There has been talk on one of my chapter forums about whether or not to protest this latest kerfuffle by returning one’s box of RITA or Golden Heart entries, thereby refusing to judge. I do respect individual choices, however, to me, sending back entries as a form of protest hurts the individuals who entered the contests more than it does RWA, and who’s to say that members whose books weren’t disqualified don’t share the same philosophies as members who are considering returning their packet of books? Also, it’s the RWA office staff that then has to run around and find more judges for the returned entries. The staff has nothing to do with the change in rules. However, they must enforce the change.

Every RWA member must make up her own mind how to protest, if indeed she wishes to. For myself, I have no intention of returning my box of RITA books. I do respect the right of others to send back their box of books, however. Meanwhile, I am 2.3 books into judging my packet of 8 or 9 books, and I’m enjoying the process very much.

Happy Belated Inauguration

I intended to watch the Inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday. I really did. After all, I watched most of the debates and I watched the election, and I wanted him to win. Yet for some reason I can’t identify other than January 21st sounds to me like a much better date for an inauguration than January 20th does, I missed it completely!

I’m pleading the “I’m Not American So it’s Okay to Miss the Inauguration” Amendment.

Or I’m pleading ignorance.

Take your pick.

Resurrecting Tell Me Tuesday

I’m resurrecting Tell Me Tuesday for the next few weeks, until I host my next Guest Blogger (Susan Gable, for those interested, who’s visiting February 9th, for those not inclined to check the schedule in the sidebar). So please share your news—good or bad. How’s the writing going? The non-writing? Great, horrible, indifferent?

As my faithful readers know, I took a Blog Holiday for most of December. Because My Liege’s work and the kids’ college/university didn’t start until Jan. 5/6th, the Blog Holiday extended as well. When I returned to my work in progress, I found it difficult to sink back into the characters. So I spent a good week editing from the beginning of the manuscript (I’m about 2/3 – 3/4 of the way through the writing of the whole thing). This gave me the opportunity to tighten and apply comments from The Suzannah contest, which the manuscript finaled in recently (and the finalists are currently being judged by an impressive array of editors and agents—eek). Interesting, I found the first several chapters required the most tightening. Even though I revise as I go, until you’re deeper into the manuscript it’s often not easy to see what can be tightened or deleted in the beginning. It became evident that the more I grew to know my characters and discover the plot, the easier it has become to tighten as I write. This gives me hope for the remainder of the book, but no doubt when I finish I’ll find all sorts of areas in the chapters I’m writing now that can be tightened as well. It’s a can’t-see-the-trees-for-the-forest sort of thing, I guess.

Now I’m back into fast-drafting and revising new scenes, plus revising scenes that I fast-drafted back when I fast-drafted the whole manuscript in chunks. I had a big chunk of novel missing in the middle-to-end part that I’ve been working on writing these past several weeks. It’s interesting that a great number of the previously fast-drafted scenes I’m encountering as I proceed through the book STILL work. Others, I notice I’ve already used the information in new scenes and can delete the old ones. So, a bit of double-writing happening, but not enough to really annoy me.

Okay, that’s me. Who’s next?

Published
Categorized as Writing

Agents Who Write

I accidentally found out while surfing the web a few months ago that agent Lucienne Diver is also a writer (in case you’re wondering, the link leads to her writer’s website, not her agenting website). (Want her agenting website, too? Sheesh! Okay, okay!). She’s represented by Kristin Nelson, has a couple of short stories and a novel with Five Star published under the name, Kit Daniels. Her first novel as Lucienne Diver, VAMPED, releases this year.

I already knew that agent Roberta Brown publishes as Kate Angell, and Deidre Knight publishes as, well, herself. I know there are other agents out there who are also published writers, but their names escape me at the moment.

Some authors are dead-set against having an agent who writes. I confess I used to think that way, too. Now, my concern is much more along the lines of how would OUR author/agent relationship work and thrive regardless of whether the agent is also a writer or not? Personally, I would not discount an agent who writes, but I know there’s another viewpoint. If anyone cares to extoll the pros of NOT signing with an agent who writes, I’m all ears. Is having an agent who writes an advantage, a disadvantage, or…it depends?

Celebrity Birthdays

I had a birthday Tuesday. Yes, I’m nearly officially old. Next year I really will be officially old, but for now I’m just practicing. Well, “old” to me is actually 80, so I have a few decades left until I’m geriatric old—lots of time to practice!

I like to read an annual horoscope for my birthday, but we don’t get a newspaper Tuesday, so I was forced to google. I didn’t find an annual horoscope, because I got sidetracked discovering that I share the same birthday as Patrick Dempsey, who is currently enjoying a fresh burst of fame as Dr. McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy, one of my Thursday night must-watch TV shows (the other is ER—yes, I love doctor shows, but ER has requested a DNR order this season, sob). Ooh, how exciting—P.D.’s cute, talented, and he has hair!

So then, of course, I had to google more extensively, and thanks to starpulse.com, I found out I also share birthdays with:

  • William Hung (that guy who sang She Bang during American Idol auditions years ago, back when I didn’t watch A.I. but his singing was plastered all over TV-land)
  • Orlando Bloom
  • Nicole Eggert (was in Baywatch, which I never watched, so I don’t really know who she is, but she sounds like a good egg, heh, heh)
  • Penelope Ann Miller (recognize the name, but that’s it)
  • Trace Adkins (yes, I knew there was a reason he nearly won Celebrity Apprentice last year!)
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus (which explains why her Seinfeld-era Elaine dance is strangely similar to my chicken imitations)
  • Trevor Rabin (a guitarist with a band named Yes I can’t recall ever listening to, but at least he’s musical)
  • Richard Moll (it says he was born in 1943 and is a voice actor, so I don’t think this is the same Richard Moll who was on Night Court, a show I adored)
  • Rip Taylor (Oh, my God, why does that fit so well? And why couldn’t I have gotten Red Skelton? I loved Red Skelton as a kid)
  • Charles Nelson Reilly (of game show fame, like the old Hollywood Squares, and another, um, unique personality)
  • Robert Stack (now deceased, but they listed him anyway).

Well, I don’t know, these folks share some mighty fine company, don’t you think?

What celebrities are born on your birthday? It’s far too easy to find out, I discovered. Just plug “celebrity birthdays DATE” and you’ll get a whole spate of sites.

Lovely RITA, Meter Maid

Or, should I say, contest.

I have a lot of reading to do over the next few weeks, because I received my RITA books yesterday. This is the first year I’ve volunteered to judge the RITA contest. Last year and previous years, I judged the Golden Heart. Considering this is the second year I’ve entered the RITA myself (last year as Cindy and Penny, this year just as Penny), I decided the time had come to volunteer to judge. As much as I yearned to continue judging the Golden Heart, I confess I don’t have it in me to judge two contests at one time, so I had to choose.

I received 8 or 9 books—yikes! All but one are in one category, and then there’s a lone baby from a second category. It’s interesting, when you receive all but one book from one category, to note the publishers within that category. However, I can’t go into my observations here, so as not to ID authors and publishers. I’ll have to discuss it with Elle Muse. She’s very discreet.

Before I get to the RITA entries, I’m still reading a wonderful book by Bronwyn Parry, an Australian writer who won the Golden Heart in 2007. Bronwyn’s romantic suspense with a mainstream feel, AS DARKNESS FALLS, was published by Hachette Australia this year. I’d love to include a link to Amazon for everyone, but unfortunately the book isn’t distributed in North America. So if you search on Amazon, I think it’s listed as out of print or something. But it IS in print—just in Australia.

How did I finagle a copy, you ask? Hachette had a contest for five people to win copies of Bronwyn’s book, I happened to enter (because I really wanted to read it), and I happened to get chosen as one of the lucky winners. Yay for me.

Oh, and before I forget, today is the last day you can comment to enter to win a copy of SECRETS, VOLUME 26: BOUND BY PASSION, including the novella, Exes & Ahhs, by Kate St. James, who is the author of the week at Candy Ready’s Red Hots. Excerpts from Exes & Ahhs went up yesterday and today—so hop over and check ’em out. Yes, you have to comment (there, not here) to enter for a chance to win, but the winner is getting chosen tomorrow, so if you want this last chance to enter, take advantage of it now. NOW, I tell ya!!