Gemini Rising

What's going on with the RWA? P1 -- My own Personal Prelude

Hi all -- I know it's been a while, but there's been drama over at the Romance Writer's of America and I was moved to discuss it. I was going to mention it in my upcoming Romance/Love Newsletter here on WDC, but decided against it, as I think a blog is probably more appropriate.

PRELUDE
I love writing. I have since I was a little kid.I prefer writing mainstream, romance, horror, some thriller and suspense. I have written children's books as well, which, honestly, I just kinda lucked into and I was glad I did.

One of the first 'novels' I wrote was "Destination: Berlin" which is geared to be a thriller/suspense with some romantic elements. I used IUniverse but eventually had to take it down. I believe you can find a rough draft in my portfolio if you look. My writing grew from there, I have several mainstream short stories that were acknowledged by Writer's Digest Annual Competition, "Spontaneous Decision" and "Made in America." I have a historical "what if" still with Lulu called "Across the Fickle Winds of History." In 2009, I was offered my first contract with Desert Breeze Publishing for a paranormal romance, called "The Hungarian." During the Teens, I published a lot of romance stories with Desert Breeze and Victory Tales Press. It was during this time, I explored becoming a member of Romance Writers of America.

What is RWA?

From Wikipedia: It is a national non-profit genre writers association. It provides networking and support to individuals seriously pursuing a career in romance fiction and supports top authors such as Nora Roberts and Judith McNaught.

That was me. It still is me. (though since 2016 I got so busy with real life my writing is sparse. I hope to look at my stuff which is out of publication and update it and finish a couple of writing projects I have started)

There's two programs in the RWA: PRO and PAN (Pro:wrote a novel and queried) PAN: (Published) . I would fit the PRO.

When I was a member, in the early teens, I had a general membership. Membership in RWA is open to those actively pursuing a career in romance fiction regardless of publishing status. A writer does not need to be published to join but must be working toward that goal. At the time, the fee was 80.00 to be a member, now it is 99.00.

I liked the goals of the organization: to support romance writers, especially since Romance isn't a genre that isn't taken as seriously as mainstream or thriller/suspense. Still, I found the whole experience, a kind of "strict" one, do this, do that, to get ahead, feedback was more critical than constructive, and with 2 young kids at the time, they required my attention more than my romance writing (hence, my writing drop off after 2016) and I let my membership lapse.


WHAT HAPPENED NOW IN 2019?

Courtney Milan, a well known romance author of Chinese decent recently tweeted criticizing remarks about another romance author. The other author is Kathryn Lynn Davis who wrote "Somewhere Lies the Moon," in 1999. One of the characters in Davis' novel is of Chinese heritage. Milan called the book "a F*** racist mess."

WHY?

So who is Courtney Milan? Who is Kathryn Lynn Davis? What's the plot of "Somewhere Lies the Moon?" Why didn't Milan criticize Davis in 1999? Why do it now in 2019, 20 years later? And what did the RWA do about it? It is an organization that is about the writers, the romance writing process? What happened to start this and how can be resolved?

I'll tackle some of those questions in Part 2, with my own unique spin on the drama.