Dear Internet,

Last week I attended Romance Writers of America (RWA) annual conference in Niagara Falls, ON. I went solo as Mr. Lisa was working, and while he could get the time off, he told me the last time he was in Niagara was over 30 years ago, and it was a shit show then, so he could only imagine what a shit show it would be now. I thought he was exaggerating (as he’s wont to do), but turns out he was actually right! It is Vegas of NE Canada, and I don’t mean this in a good way. Tourists everywhere, waayyyy too many people, overstimulating, taxes upon tax (my average bill had between 18-21% tax on top of goods and services).

I’m venturing into conference content that would be better served on AMUN. I’ll pick this line of thought next week!

So, yes, I’m at a writing conference, and what did I learn?

A lot, it seems!

The first session I attended was on diversity in romance. They had people representing BIPOC and LGBTQI+, but no one on body diversity, neurodivergence, or someone who has a mental illness. I am so fucking fed up with presenters concentrating on a few marginalized groups and not taking into account or even mentioning other marginalized groups in their presentation. Now, do I expect that every presentation, workshop, or seminar to include all the marginalized voices out there? Of course not, that’s fucking impossible. But, body diversity, neurodivergence, and mental illness are not tiny groups. 23% of Americans have some form of mental illness. This is not a small group!

It was a publisher that put together the panel with their authors representing BIPOC and LGBTQI+ romances, so I don’t blame the authors, but I surely do blame the publisher for not doing better. I sent the publisher a private email (via their contact page, which probably doesn’t work) and finger-wagged at them, telling them to do better. I don’t expect a response.

I also attended a session on building an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) team, which was overwhelming. I’m not there yet, but I have the info when I do. Additionally, I attended seminars on the evolution of romance, building your target audience, and utilizing contests as a marketing tool. Additionally, I presented on Saturday morning on research beyond Google and AI.

One of my chapters hosted a Frugal Con for its members while RWA’s conference was taking place. Every day brought a new topic, and lectures were delivered via email. I could use the extra cash, so I taught, “The Edwardians (1901 - 1914): Bite-sized Intro to the Modern Age.” I sent three email lectures over the day, and I got a lot of good responses from the chapter members! It turns out that one of the members is writing Gaslamp fantasy, which is a type of fantasy set in the Victorian or Edwardian era, so my bite-sized lectures really helped clarify some things for her. (The member said I went above and beyond when I gave her the link to my resources, which as a librarian, I preen for.)

I was so jazzed about digging into the Edwardians again after, no joke here, years of having my story on hold. I brushed up my resources page for the Edwardian cozy mystery I started nearly a decade ago!

(A new book on the Edwardians, The Edwardians: Life & Times of the Golden Age, by Nicola Rippon, is coming out in November. It’s short (under 250 pages). You can pre-order it at Amazon or bookshop.org. I’m curious as to what this book has to offer.)

Well, okay, not entirely true. The Edwardians have not been far from my mind. This same writing chapter hosted a writing contest earlier this year, and I began a new story, an Edwardian romance, about a woman whose husband dies. She reunites with her true love, who also happens to be ten years younger than her. The marriage was of convenience, so no love was really lost when the husband died (nor any bad feelings). Heroine meets her hero when she’s 36 and he’s 26 at a masquerade ball. She had just gotten married, and while she was not in love with her husband, she did respect him, so she removed herself from a potential messy situation. 10 years later, the husband is dead, she’s applying to study law at University College London, and she comes across the hero again who has never forgotten her. Of course, there is a HEA. It wouldn’t be a romance without it!

Now, to do a side-step here, I had a conversation with a board member of another chapter I’m in, and she said she was stepping away from all chapter activities as well as possibly not renewing her RWA membership. She said chapter responsibilities took up a lot of time, and she hasn’t written in ages. I thought this was a good idea myself, so effective September 1, I’ve stepped away from unnecessary volunteer opportunities. This means, more time to write!

I’m also downgrading which writing groups I’m a member of. I’ll stick with RWA and several of the chapters as I get a lot out of them. I’m probably going to ditch Michigan Writers because their lack of response time to emails (aka zero), updates on events, and the seeming snobbishness towards genre fiction has pretty much pushed me into I give two fucks land. One of the board members is nice, but he trots out the “we’re all volunteers etc,” and you know what? Fuck that excuse. If you cannot or will not make the time to do the work you volunteer for, don’t volunteer! It’s that simple!

(I once asked what my dues paid for and got crickets.)

I’m also going to step down from Great Lakes Fiction Writers as well. While they are really warm and welcoming, they concentrate their in-person events and conferences in NE Ohio, so I don’t get to participate.

An annual romance contest will start accepting entries come September 1 and I have the wherewithal to enter! The beginning of my contemporary romance I started earlier this year for the Harlequin contest (and did not enter) and a historical I started sketching out also earlier this year (the Edwardian mentioned above) will be my entries. (There are six categories and you can submit to more than one category.) My editor already worked on the contemporary romance so I just need to finish her edits and have another pass and then start the historical and get that edited. Max word count for each is 6K words which is totally doable.

I have until October 1 to submit. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize in each category is a shiny certificate and best of the best wins $100. Now. It costs $30 if you’re a member and $40 if not to enter the contest. What are they doing with the money?

Yes, how people spend my money is a thing! I would like to know how my money is supporting your cause!

I mentioned in an earlier issue that I hope to complete a novel by end of this year and getting the entries ready for the contest will help with that. I’m going to continue writing the contemporary and continue research on the Edwardian. I have enough material to get going so I’m not completely hopeless.

Okay! So! Next issue in a few weeks, I hope to have some word counts for you and where I’m at with the actual writing.

lisa x