Summary of the Romance Writer's of America Conference

OK, had a lovely time at the national RWA conference in Atlanta. And now I'm back, refreshed, excited, and ready to kick some ass!

I got a new boss on Monday so it's been a crazy week. Plus I was busy sending off all the submissions I promised people from the conference. I had pretty good success with that and realized I had 10 people to send to!

This entry will be long because I thought I'd summarize the workshops I went to. Spread the knowledge around!

I went to the Sagging Middle and What to Do About It. Basically they said to make sure you have enough plot to keep things moving and escalating right through the middle to the end of the book. I don't mean to be rude, but well DUH. :-) And that you can manage this by raising the stakes for your characters, maybe by pulling an M Night Shmyalan and giving the ending a twist, etc. We didn't really get much from this all so we left early.

Then later on in the conference I went to "I Do, I Do? Challenging couples in Love". Odd title, but a really interesting workshop. Her husband is a therapist that does marriage counseling. The idea is to put more authentic issues between couples in your story. Anyway, she said the top four signs that the relationship is in danger is - Contempt, Withdrawal, criticism, and Defensiveness. She said that withdrawal is the worst sign because then it shows a couple is refusing to even engage with one another.

Then she said that as things escalate, you tend to see some sort of misbehavior from one or both parties in an attempt to either get attention, control of the situation, revenge, or by faking helplessness to get the other's attention and focus. She said each can be negated by an opposing behavior. For instance, if one partner is trying to get attention by misbehaving, then the other should IGNORE it until the partner gives up. If one partner is misbehaving to gain the control in the relationship, then the other partner should relax and not take issue with it - this takes the wind out of the sails of partner #1 because they gain no control.

If one partner misbehaves to get revenge, then the other partner can acknowledge the event of whatever made him/her want to get revenge and apologize. That defuses the situation. And if one partner is faking helplessness to make the other partner have to take care of them (control), then that can be defused by partner#2 reassuring that partner #1 doesn't have to be helpless - he or she can do things on their own because they are (smart, skilled, strong, etc). Once reassured and no longer fearful/insecure, the partner stops acting helpless.

She also made interesting comments about power dynamics between couples - including who gets to decide when they're going to have sex, where and how. That it is a common craving that people have to want their partners to want them so much that they push the issue. I.e., a lot of women (and men!) want aggressive pursuit by their partner, reinforcing that they're sexy and wanted. If the pursuit isn't aggressive, then
some people take that as a sign that their partner is no longer so interested (which may or may not be true) and that can cause problems.

And, that was about it on that workshop. Very interesting, very informative.

I went to Spotlight on St. Martin's Press. The thing they emphasized is that they are pretty much open to anything as long as the writing is good and it is something they can market (i.e. fsome form of what is standard on the market - either romance convention or fiction with romantic elements). Monique Patterson, one of the editors, offered to see any paranormal romance partials we wanted to send her, so I already
sent her Dreams are for Lovers. That was pretty much the summary - they talked a lot but the theme of all the answers was the above.

I went to the PRO retreat and listened to a panel of two authors - Lani Dianne Rich and Susan Crandall. They talked about expectations of when you are published and what actually happened the first year they were. Despite the fact that I was a bit jetlagged still (it started at 6 a.m. my time!) it was a fascinating discussion.They talked about how basically being published doesn't make it any less difficult to
write the next book - that it feels like every book is as terrifying as the first book and you have the same insecurities and doubts. Also, they talked about how
it is also no guarantee that you won't still have rejections, so you should brace yourself for that and not be discouraged. They talked about how it takes an
average of 10 (!) years for a person to get published. I think Christina Dodd talked about that at her luncheon later too. Anyway, it was an enlightening discussion which boiled down to "do it because you love it because that will sustain you during the dry spells" and they also talked about the importance of just writing and pushing through any discouragement you have.

Then Meg Ruley from the Jane Rotrosen agency got up and spoke. She talked about what she likes to see. Personally, I found it all from the perspective of a very well established agent who never has to fight for good books anymore. She mentioned that something like 90% of her new authors are by referrals and she doesn't see the point to query letters. So frankly what she talked about didn't really apply to those of
us who are as-yet unpublished.

Then Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer got up and talked about websites. They said that for a decent website it should cost you about $500 - $5000 depending on the
level of complication you want/need. They talked about the importance of watch for websites you really like, finding out who designs them and what their fees are.
And how the website reflects who you are and your brand, so think about design, colors, feel, etc. so readers can get a sense of who you are. They also talked about the importance of regular updates to keep the site current and keep your readers coming back - and as you get more popular add contests, discussion boards, do chats and prizes. Post teasers of your upcoming books, etc. That was about it.

At this point I had been sitting there for two hours and my butt was numb. So I left to get coffee and missed Nora Roberts. However, there's a fabulous interview in the latest Romance Writer's Report and I hear that she basically said what was in the
interview. Which, by the way, is a kick ass interview.

I went to the Spotlight on Kensington. Again, they gave the line that they'll look at almost anything if its really good, but that they prefer something that is marketable and somewhat in line with reader expectations because that is what they can sell. They briefly mentioned that while the bottom line is money, they love to see unique voices and strong story lines and will consider a wide range of things. They are the
largest privately owned publisher in North America. And that's all I got from their talk. People asked a lot of questions like, "how sexy can we make it?" And the answers were invariably "as sexy as is appropriate to your story" so that wasn't terribly enlightening.

I went to RWA Idol. We stayed for about 20 minutes. What I found interesting was that it was pretty clear from hearing the writing what was wrong with it - and thankfully the editors and agents agreed so this gives me faith I may be able to critique my own work properly someday. Yes, they were blunt, but I was able to guess what they were about to say before they said it. Biggest pet peeves by the editors were: Starting the story with no tension or nothing in particular going on, using odd language
that catches the eye (one lady had written a story that had the phrase "bloody copulation" in the first paragraph, lol. Sounds painful), writing a story that
they can't sell (for instance medievals are highly out of favor right now, so they automatically toss it unless it is extremely well written), not have a good
ear for the flow of the language i.e. choppy, bad grammar, etc., or opening the story with a boatload of description.

As offended as some people were by the bluntness, I have to say that you KNOW that editors and agents do this behind closed doors with abandon and I'd rather be informed about what bothers them than not informed. So it was interesting to hear their unvarnished comments, painful as they might be. Sort of like being
the proverbial fly on the wall.

I went to the Spotlight on LUNA. They talked about the two lines they're filling right now - Nocturne and LUNA (both single title). Nocturne is dark and sexy
and dangerous. They want atmosphere, dangerous alpha males, hot sex. With LUNA they're looking for fantasy romance with romantic convention built into the plot.
They were adamant that they were not interested in only romantic elements (sorry Teresa and Kristen!). Theresa Mary Hussy is the LUNA editor and offered to
take a look at our stuff - three chapters. There were a lot of questions that got answered vaguely "if it's right for your story it's fine".

I went for all of five minutes for the Plotting or Pantsing with Sherilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love Snell and Kim Daniels. I just wanted to see what Sherilyn Kenyon
looked like (LOL). Besides, I know I'm a plotter from HELL. I don't need anyone to help me figure out which one I am, ha ha.

The Christina Dodd luncheon rocked. She mentioned it took her 10, almost 11 years to publish and she did a lot wrong at first. Her main point was that you either keep trying and keep things moving forward, or you let life distract you from your goals. She has a tremendous amount of grace and humor. Oh, and the best part of the luncheon was the "Kiss of Death people would like their skull back". Lol. I guess someone
"accidentally" ran off with one of their crystal display skulls, so they offered that whoever has it, have it dropped off at the front desk, no questions asked. HA. I hope they got it back.

OK, that's about it. Oh, and we had an incident in line to the chocolate fountain where Kristen, Venus myself and this other nice lady, Beth, almost ended up in a brawl. These loud "DIVAS" freaking cut in line and then refused to apologize or leave. Logic prevailed and we decided maybe starting a fight at the Gala reception might not be the best way to get our names out there. :-) However this did not prevent us from being pissy and catty for a while, HA. Fortunately, the chocolate made me feel better and the incident stopped there.

OK, that's all I can think of. If you've read this far, I'm amazed. :-)