Let's Talk Historicals

Historicals are my passion. If there’s any one thing that I love the best about romance, it’s a great historical. Some of my favorites include A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught, Lord Scandalous by Loretta Chase, Whitney My Love by McNaught and the list goes on. One of the things I love the most about historicals is their magical quality. As I’m flying across the country this week, I'll be revising my latest historical romance in preparation for submission to houses. The resurgence in publisher interest in historical romance is really wonderful for me as I love bringing stories like Mirage and Dangerous to readers.

For me, historicals are magical, I mean I know they’re fantasies, but that’s what I love about them. They transport me to another place and time where chivalry and honor are romantic, despite the realities of the time period. And I’m sorry, but tight buckskins covering hard thighs, a white shirt opened to reveal just a hint of a well-muscled chest—well, for me there's nothing more seductive!

With the RWA convention in San Francisco this week, there will be a number of big name historical authors who will be present. If you’re familiar with Michelle Buonfiglio’s Romance by the Book blog, you know that she’s a huge romance fiction advocate. This Friday at the convention, she’s doing a radio show with several of Avon Books top name historical authors like Sophie Jordan, Lorraine Heath and Elizabeth Boyle and others.

Michelle's Radio Show is set for Friday, August 1, 3:30 pm PDT If you’re on the East Cost, you can catch the show after work because we’re three hours AHEAD of folks in San Francisco (6:30 pm EDT). Click here to hook up directly with the radio show where they’ve even got this COOL reminder feature that you can set so you get an email prompt! Means you won’t forget. How sweet is that?

So dial in and ask some questions about historicals!! Besides, think about how cool it will be to be on Internet radio!

Cooking With The RITA/GH Categories

Whenever RWA’s National Conference rolls each year something generally creates some friction within the organization. One thing that just reared its head then died a quick death because of a missed deadline was a request for the RWA Board to consider adding an ER/E category to the RITA/Golden Heart contests. There’s been some heated discussion about this topic in a couple of quarters, and over a year ago, I posted about why a separate category was needed.

The Ingredients

They say it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, but I rarely do unless new info on a particular subject comes to light. Here’s the crux of it if you’re in the dark. A large number of writers in the ER/E community want their own category in the RITA and GH. The predominant reason I hear is an ER/E category is needed so our work is judged fairly. Writers want to be judged by others who’re familiar with the structure of ER/E. I understand this mindset given letters to the RWR this past year as well as debacles at the AGM over the past few years. I also keep hearing that ER/E deserves its own category since Inspry has their own.

As I understand it, RITA and GH categories are defined based on established subgenres. From my limited perspective and knowledge, my guess is Inspry got their own category because it became an established subgenre. If this is true, then this is the strongest justification for an ER/E category, primarily because ER/E is its own subgenre. It’s been around for quite some time. Ellora’s Cave was founded in 2000 to provide ER/E to readers, and that was eight years ago. I’d say that qualifies as an established subgenre. However, the real question is what the parameters RWA uses to define a subgenre as established. If they only define the establishment of a subgenre based on print publication (which is my guess), then ER/E is probably not be an established subgenre from RWA’s viewpoint, despite the subgenres birth and roots in ePublishing and its continued growth in that medium over the past eight years. In terms of NY print, it’s only been around for about three years. That might not be enough staying power for some of RWA’s powers that be.

Mixing The Batter

Added into the mix are a lot of ER/E works that easily fit into the categories that are already established subgenres. But then I believe that’s true of a number of inspry books as well. All of this still points back to a desire by writers to have judges reading their work who understand the subgenre of romance. Particularly fiction on opposite spectrums that can incite strong emotional reactions (religion and sex, hell doesn’t get any hotter than discussions on these topics!). Further complicating the issue for me is my recent discussion with writers who received their scores from this year’s RITA contest.

In a recent discussion with several ER/E authors, I learned their RITA scores ranged from 4s to 9s with a number of the scores leaning toward higher numbers (7s and 8s) as opposed to lower ones, and I don’t recall any 1s, 2s or 3s either. I pointed out to one of the authors who’d received all high scores except for one low number that she’d done really well given the fact that there are up to 1200 entries allowed in each category (and her category is a popular one). I mean she was sporting numbers over six in all but one score. That’s great given it was an ER/E with some quite erotic elements. I interpreted the results as saying that the judges who read the book were able to look at the book objectively and not judge it harshly simply because it had erotic content. So for me, this discussion on RITA scores seriously impacts the argument that ER/E won’t be judged fairly. Granted, this was a small group of writers, but I’m going to encourage the special interest chapter for ER/E, Passionate Ink, to poll its members for scores so we can study the issue more closely.

Oven Set to 350 Fahrenheit

So has this new information changed my mind completely? No. I can still see the devil in the details, and I am convinced ER/E is a legitimate, fully established subgenre. But I’m not convinced that we can claim unfair judging as a reason for establishing the category. However, I can see the possibility of an entry being entered into say the paranormal category and then SLAM the entry is marked as being in the wrong category because in the judge’s opinion it’s ER/E. This is one of the downsides to having an ER/E category.

New Recipe

What I’d really like to see is something so radical that it won’t ever happen! I’d love to see the RITA’s and GH condensed down to the best top 10 or 20 books out of all entries. Claire Delacroix mentioned that idea to me not to long ago and I loved it. (Claire said 10, but I think 20 would be more fair and well-rounded). There would be no subgenre categories at all. It would be about what the majority viewed as being the top books of the year. On top of that it would make the awards event not so long and drawn out.

Then there’s THIS idea. Why doesn’t RWA work with booksellers to establish a reader-based contest? Yes, RT does this, but I’m suggesting something that is coordinated via the booksellers versus a magazine. This could be a way of promoting romance in a way that RWA’s never done before. Let the reader decide what they consider the best of the best.

The Icing

In the end, it really doesn’t matter, because IMHO, the RITAs and the GH are like the Oscars of the romance fiction world. It’s really nice to be recognized by your peers. The only difference is that our awards don’t generally carry that much weight when it comes to money (i.e., increased reader sales, and I’m not convinced it means more money in advances). I think a final or win in these two contests are more like an accomplishment on a resume as opposed to greater financial gain. It’s earning respect for your work from your peers. While that’s important, it’s the opinion of readers that help us butter our bread. Thus I’m slowly coming to the party with the thought that what my peers think of me isn’t necessarily as important as what my readers think of my books.

See, I was half-baked and I’m still cooking!! LOL

Monica

The Hope List

In less than two weeks, I’ll be winging my way to San Francisco to attend RWA’s annual conference, fondly referred to as National. Claire Delacroix once stated that she didn’t understand the nickname as it always made her think of a horse race. Since then, I’ve been unable to lose the imagery of 2000 women stampeding into a city to discuss, learn and party over the romance genre.

Usually at this time, blogs and websites are loaded with travel tips, how-to-pitch articles, conference behavior or some other type of helpful blog related to National (and they’re heading into the backstretch). However, I’m in a selfish mood, so I thought I’d do a hopeful blog as opposed to helpful.

Hope 1 – That I meet an editor who so falls in love with my personality that she absolutely MUST read my latest proposal. Naturally this hope is just that, as we all know that editors don’t buy books on author personality. I mean let’s face it there are some authors out there who make Mean Girls look sweet, so clearly personality isn’t going to get me sold. So I’m going to rely on the luck factor, which given my life in general is something that continues to elude me. But then, I was born on a Thursday and according to that old adage, I’ll work hard for a living. Yes, I had that term coined LONG before Donna Summer made me famous in She Works Hard For The Money. So luck is a long shot here at best. If I were a horse and you bet on me, you MIGHT want to be conservative in the money you put down. Although I could always be that dark horse that surprises people. I sort of hope I’m that kind of a horse (better that than a cow - see
Hope 9)

Hope 2 – That the DH will be understanding. Despite this trip being a surrogate 2nd honeymoon, I can only pray the DH will understand when I say “I’m tired and I have to get up early tomorrow.” Of course, he’s threatened on many occasions to write his own book. It will be called 101 Ways To Say No. I’m sure he’s at 500 by now.

Hope 3 – That the foggy weather clears by midday on all the days we go sightseeing. I told the DH that the sky in San Francisco is unlike any other sky I’ve ever seen. It’s an indescribable color when it’s clear. I really want him to see it, but given the fact that he’s color blind, I guess it won’t matter if it’s foggy.

Hope 4 – That my pacemaker doesn’t set off every alarm in the airport. All I can see in my head is one of those blue light specials on top of the metal detectors spinning around while the Waaannh, Waaannh, siren alerts people all the way down to the boarding ramp that I’ve been pulled over. I mean it’s not like I can unzip my chest, pull the device out, drop it into a gray bin and pick it up along with my laptop once I’m through security. More importantly, I so do not want to be responsible for someone else’s heart attack if I’m stripped search by TSA officials. It won’t be pretty I can assure you.

Hope 5 – That I don’t do something stupid like open my mouth and insert foot. I’m going to try really hard not to do a lot of talking. Okay, okay, you can stop laughing now. Seriously, I always try to say something intelligent and I generally come off sounding like an idiot. I mean Bridget Jones Diary is the funny side of my life. As luck would have it, all I have to do is open my mouth and follow it with my foot for an appetizer. Of course, this means I can generally get through the main course and dessert without too much trouble. *sigh*

Hope 6 – That I find something intelligent to say if I meet an editor who’s read my work. The same goes for librarians and booksellers. I’m not an industry guru, and I can’t talk about how romance has evolved, nor do I have any deep insights as to the female psyche and why she reads romance. I mean I don’t get Austen, so how the hell am I supposed to understand social commentary disguised as romance? I just write and tell a story. My books don't contain any messages. As much as I despised the Seinfeld show, maybe that’s the story of my life. Much ado about nothing (thank you Shakespeare). *sigh*

Hope 7 – That going to the Sunday’s a Drag Buffet won’t be uncomfortable for the DH. He’s only going to the drag show because I want to go. Some of my best girlfriends have been gay men, and these guys knew exactly how I felt and weren’t afraid to show it. The DH is quite comfortable NOT showing his emotions. So Sunday should be interesting.

Hope 8 – That some famous author will see my badge name and know me because she liked reading one of my books and NOT because of something stupid I said on some blog post or comment. Bad comments are like toilet paper sticking to the bottom of your shoe. Of course, we must again account for the luck factor here. Lucky to meet someone who likes me. Not so lucky if I meet someone who doesn’t like me. Lady Luck has a lot to answer for if you ask me.

Hope 9 – That I’ll be savvy enough not to ask, “What’s a Sarto.” I am so NOT a fashionista, and I prefer comfortable flats over the stilettos the DH would pay big bucks for if he believed for one minute I’d wear them. But then the image of a cow on four-inch stilts just doesn’t work for me. So I’ll enjoy seeing others earning their war blisters as they wobble around on their little stilts while I just relax in my Pagare Menos (that’s Italian for PayLess)

Hope 10 – That I don’t get my hopes up and develop such high expectations for this conference that I wind up having my hopes dashed. When all is said and done, this trip will cost around $2500 (without sightseeing costs). It’s a lot of moolah to be spending for a writer’s conference. Of course if I’d gotten my act together and not waited to buy my airline ticket, it would only be costing me about $1800. But as luck would have it I waited too late to get a good flight out of SFO and so I had to do the red-eye. This then began the domino effect of upping the cost when I convinced the DH to come too. See, I told you Lady Luck has a lot to answer for.