And the Waves Continue…

Kristin Nelson just posted on her blog about Harlequin weighing in on RWA’s decision. They are changing the name to the self-publishing arm to something without Harlequin in the name. Still, not sure how that’s going to help since, you know, it’s still Harlequin behind all of it. (You can read the rest of the letter from the company on the Pub Rants blog).

 Also, Mystery Writers of America has come out and said pretty much the same thing as RWA, but going one step further: declining future membership of any writer who is already legitimately published by any of the Harlequin imprints.

One word: ridiculous.

I understand the reasoning, but it seems to me everyone’s forgetting about the author in all of this.

If Harlequin and its imprints become “illegitimate” in the publishing world and agents stop submitting to them, that’s dozens of doors closing for authors currently looking for traditional publication. It will become even harder to become published (if one doesn’t count self-publishing).

Of course, the harder it becomes to be published traditionally, I see more and more writers turning to self-publishing. Perhaps this was Harlequin’s plan all along, although I sure hope not.

Anyway, let’s hope for the sake of all of us writers out there aiming for publication that this all settles soon and a truce can be reached. Right now, the battle’s still raging, but perhaps it’ll come to a better end.

Shockwaves in the Publishing World

Normally, I don’t really post about this kind of stuff since I figure most of you who read my blog probably read the same industry blogs as I do.

If so, I’m sure you’re very aware of the whole Harlequin furor. Agent Kristin Nelson explains it best on her blog, so I’ll just summarize. Harlequin announced the launch of a new vanity publishing line called Harlequin Horizons.

Yes. A vanity press.

 And you know how those are often frowned upon in the publishing world. Publishers Weekly also has an article here that summarizes it.

Unfortunately, this is creating some serious backlash in the romance realm.  As Kristin Nelson posted about today, RWA has basically said that Harlequin is no longer an “eligible” publisher, since they now have a vanity press arm of the company. They’re still allowed to come to the conference and whatnot, but they will not be able to have conference resources (like editor appointments, promotions, etc) So…that also means that any author published by Harlequin and any of the dozens of imprints is knocked out of line for a RITA award, since they don’t recognize a subsidy/vanity publisher.

At least, that’s what I’m getting from the brief announcement.

While I understand RWA’s standpoint on this, I wonder if it was more of a knee-jerk reaction. There are many very legitimate imprints of Harlequin– from Harlequin Historicals to Steeple Hill–just go to their website to see all of them.

Kristin Nelson posted the announcement by RWA on her blog today but I’ll also post it here as well:

Dear Members:
Romance Writers of America was informed of the new venture between Harlequin Enterprises and ASI Solutions to form Harlequin Horizons, a vanity/subsidy press. Many of you have asked the organization to state its position regarding this new development. As a matter of policy, we do not endorse any publisher’s business model. Our mission is the advancement of the professional interests of career-focused romance writers.

 
One of your member benefits is the annual National Conference. RWA allocates select conference resources to non-subsidy/non-vanity presses that meet the eligibility requirements to obtain those resources. Eligible publishers are provided free meeting space for book signings, are given the opportunity to hold editor appointments, and are allowed to offer spotlights on their programs.

With the launch of Harlequin Horizons, Harlequin Enterprises no longer meets the requirements to be eligible for RWA-provided conference resources. This does not mean that Harlequin Enterprises cannot attend the conference. Like all non-eligible publishers, they are welcome to attend. However, as a non-eligible publisher, they would fund their own conference fees and they would not be provided with conference resources by RWA to publicize or promote the company or its imprints.

Sometimes the wind of change comes swiftly and unexpectedly, leaving an unsettled feeling. RWA takes its role as advocate for its members seriously. The Board is working diligently to address the impact of recent developments on all of RWA’s members.

We invite you to attend the annual conference on July 28 – 31, 2010 in Nashville, TN, as we celebrate 30 years of success with keynote speaker Nora Roberts, special luncheon speaker Jayne Ann Krentz, librarian speaker Sherrilyn Kenyon, and awards ceremony emcee Sabrina Jeffries. Please refer to the RWA Web site for conference registration information in late January 2010.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Gaylord Opryland!

Michelle Monkou
RWA President
RWA Alert is a publication of Romance Writers of America®,

So, what does this mean for the tons of authors who are published by all the different imprints of Harlequn? Does that equate them to a “vanity press” now? I think it’s wrong if it does. While I understand RWA is making a point here, and I get their stance on vanity presses, I don’t think they should extend this to all of the Harlequin imprints that are in fact legitimate. And I think RWA will be alienating a HUGE segment of their writers if they completely disregard novels published by any of the other Harlequin lines.

I would think this may also have repercussions on agents submitting romance author’s manuscripts for publication. If all of Harlequin imprints are seen as illegitimate in the publishing world, that’s a significant amount of publishing doors closed for authors hoping to see their book in print traditionally.

Do you think I’m reading into it a little too deeply? I hope I am! I’m also hoping that things will be more clear after the dust settles.

Anyway, what is your opinion on this?

If Money Didn’t Matter…

If money didn’t matter and you could do any job in the world, what would you do?

I saw this question on Lisa and Laura’s post a few days ago about growing up. It got me thinking…

As much as I’d like to say writer, there’s something I would choose over that:

An archeologist

Not surprising though is it? I simply love history–it’s a passion of mine very close to writing (which is why I write historical fiction–perfect blend of both passions, right?). I’m such a documentary geek; I’m always searching for them on Hulu and YouTube as well as on Netflix. I will watch a riveting documentary on the discovery of an ancient discovery over my favorite movies any day.

I think that’s also why one of my favorite blogs to follow is author Michelle Moran’s (Cleopatra’s Daughter, The Heretic Queen, Nefertiti) History Buff. Basically, she posts links to fascinating history stories found in the news.

I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent there, reading the stories, then finding another link that leads me to another interesting story and so forth…and I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent daydreaming, thinking about traveling the world and helping on an archeological dig…

Anyway, I’d like to pose this question to you. 

If money didn’t matter and you could do any job in the world, what would you do?

If you’re like me and have two great passions–history and writing–or even more, that’s OK too I’d really like to see your answers!

Common Errors in the 1st Draft

Every first draft has common errors, like telling instead of showing, too many adverbs and adjectives, pacing issues, etc.

While we as writers know we must avoid these, I find that during NaNo, they are my constant companions Much of what I’ve written falls under the massive error of telling instead of showing–and I know it even as I’m writing it–but in order for me to get the story out, I don’t bother myself with sitting there and trying to word it correctly.

A mark of an amateur?Maybe, maybe not. At this point I don’t really care. I know I’m going to have to edit it, and I recognize where there are places of clarification/research/overall crafting that needs done. But I’ve shut the inner editor off, for the time being, and told myself NOT to concern myself with such issues. Sure, it’s taken until week three of NaNo to have finally silenced temporarily the inner editor, but it normally takes this long for me

I’m hoping come December my inner editor doesn’t decide to pout and stay silent…

When you’re writing your first draft, are there any writing rules that you ignore–at least temporarily?

The Death of a Character

Yesterday I was pretty frustrated with my NaNo project. That generally occurs at least once during the month of November, and the second week is right around the time it hits me.

So I took a step back, wrote a little over 700 words, and let my mind just rest. And when I didn’t concern myself with all the book’s issues, the ideas for the rest of the book were born.

I have to kill off one of my characters.

As in the case of most of my mini-writing epiphanies, the idea came to me while in the shower. Perhaps it’s the hot water or the steam stimulating the creative juices.

The others I just systematically got rid of as they were adding nothing to the story; this one however will actually die in the course of the story. It’s heartbreaking I have to do this, especially since I know how hard it’s going to be on my one character, but the story advances better. If anything, it’ll also help make Miyuki more human after she witnesses how a family is affected when a loved one dies–something she never gave any thought to before.

This will be, oh, probably the third or fourth person that will end up dying over the course of the book. I don’t like killing off my characters like that but if that’s where the story is taking me, then that’s what needs to be done.

I Want to Pull My Hair Out…

Warning: Massive rant ahead about my rough draft. If you should continue reading, consider yourself sufficiently warned.

As I get farther and farther along in my first draft, more and more questions around the storyline keep popping up as I’m writing.

And I’m beginning to feel a great deal like this woman below…

I’ve been assaulted by so many questions that I’ve had to make a running list of them. I keep changing things so that the story really doesn’t flow at all from the beginning to the current chapter (most important one being the fact the entire village and family that my MC is staying with is highly hesitant towards her, thinking she may be some sort of supernatural creature–which she is. Of course she has to try and convince them that she isn’t in order to be trusted).

That’s going to be an editing nightmare.

I had to add a minor subplot because I had to give the antagonist some more depth to her character.  I use “antagonist” loosely because while she’s a threat, she’s not a significant one–the main one is my MC’s own nature–you know the whole, man vs. self thing. Still, she’s a thorn in Miyuki’s side.

I’m also shifting around some village hierarchy and may be putting Miyuki in the village headman’s family–the village headman currently being her love interest (and still rather new in the position since his father was killed by her that winter before). If that’s the case I need to see if that meant they had servants and whatnot.

Considering this is a small (like less than 200 people small) village, they probably wouldn’t have been much higher than the surrounding countrymen; they also would’ve still been in the same caste, even if they were “higher end” farmers. Caste system in feudal Japan was very strict and to limit my research woes, that’s why I’m placing all the characters in the farmer’s caste as well as setting it in a small enough village where I don’t really have to worry about samurai and any other higher castes.

Of course that’s the plan now; the way this book is going, it could be completely different by the end.

I know, I know, I shouldn’t worry about it–just keep writing through it. But sometimes all the changes are hard to keep up with! And it’s scaring me to think about what I’ll have to deal with after the first draft is all done…

Movie Trailers

Because I can think of nothing else to post about today, here are some movies I’m looking forward to seeing.

This one I think I first heard about from Victoria Dixon or Jeannie Lin (I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly who!)  It intrigues me simply because it’s historical and it’s set in China. And the effects look amazing. Granted, it may take me a little while to figure out who is who in the film because Chinese names always throw me for a loop initially, but I’m willing to spend the $9 to go see this. Plus it’s one I actually got Phil to say he’d consider watching with me–yay!

This next one will have to be one I go to on my own, or try and find someone who likes historical romance:

I can seriously watch this trailer all day.

And finally, because Tim Burton movies are trippy and often amazing, I’m looking forward to this one coming out in March:

Obligatory NaNo Update and Word Wars

I’m officially past the 20K mark at 21,367. Very, very soon I’ll be hitting the halfway point

I also have to say that engaging in word wars with a fellow writer during this time is especially great for getting the story out and duct taping that inner editor’s mouth shut–at least for a short period of time. I generally engage in one of these battles once or twice a week with my younger sister who is also taking part in NaNo.

What is a word war? Well, you pretty much see who can write the most in a given period of time. Sis and I generally do half hour increments, though sometimes they are a little longer (we always specify the ending time during our phone call). The moment we hang up, we type as fast as the fingers can carry us.

The first word war I beat my sister with a count of a little more than 1100. Yes, 1100 in 30 minutes IS possible (I triple checked it). This time around, sis won with a total of 1400 (I had a little less than 1000). We battled for about 40 minutes. Getting a high word count in a short amount of time is certainly possible if you’re willing to be a little mean to that inner editor of yours.

Kreative Blogger Award

Thanks goes to Victoria Dixon for nominating me for the Kreative Blogger award. Victoria has an awesome blog that seeks to promote Asian-themed fiction–something that’s very near and dear to my heart.

 

Now I have to send my award to others.

1. Fellow writer Anna Scott Graham and her blog Non Fictional Chronicles of a Fiction Filled Life. Great blog of a fellow writer’s journey.
2. Jessica Nelson at BookingIt. She’s writes Christian romance and often has posts about how to improve your own writing as well as asking questions. It’s a great interactive blog, for she often responds  back to you in the comments.
3. Patti Nielson is another writer friend who often ties in some sort of every day life event with writing. Another great blog!
4. Lynda Schab at On the Write Track. She’s very informed about the world of Christian publishing–from freelancing, to greeting cards, to fiction writing and contests. She has great giveaways quite often too!
5. Courtney Vail at ~Creative Burst~. A wonderful blog full of great writing advice. She was actually one of the first I followed when I got started blogging myself.
6. K@ The Flighty Temptress. She lives and works in Japan and has great posts (and pictures) of all the adventures she’s been on. I must admit, I’m always a little jealous reading her blog. So I travel vicariously through reading her posts.
7. Last but certainly not least, Sara Raasch at See Sara Write. Certainly one of the funniest and most creative blogs out there.  She’s also repped by the well-known agent Kate Schafer Testerman (Also known as Daphne Unfeasible) from KT Literary.

Definitely check out these amazing blogs!

Wordle Fun

So I got bored and went to the uber fun site Wordle to see which words were most prevalent in the 18K I’ve written thus far for Lady of the Snow.

Well there can be no question on who the main character is… And I suppose it’s pretty obvious who some are the other more prevalent people are in the book too.

That was fun. I think I’ll post more of these as my word count grows, just to see how the word sizes change and if other words become larger.