Tweet Tweet Part 2 Or A Dream Come True

This is a continuation of the previous blog entry...

Later that night, Jaid thanked me for posting my comment. She tweeted me and asked if I’d ever subbed to EC. Heart pounding, I replied that indeed I had and come close to getting an offer for a contract once or twice. She said to send her the first chapter of something I was looking to publish.
  
I mentioned my heart pounded. Well, now it quarter-pounded. I know that’s not a word, I’m just trying to convey that I only thought I was about to get nervous. Now, it was official. Jaid Black wanted to read something of mine.

On July 11^th Jaid tweeted me that she was going to read my chapter that night. Did I mention the quarter-pounding heart?

Around 8:30, she tweeted me and told me she replied.

I was scared to death. I checked my e-mail and there it was.

An offer for a contract.

I screamed. I smiled, no—I beamed from ear to ear. To make matters crazier, my husband had gone for a walk and I was alone. I was like a crazy person, giggling, laughing, crying, sighing. On the border of hysteria. I very nearly took off in search of my husband so I could tell him.

Needless to say when he got back, I told him to go read the e-mail. He was so happy for me. We laughed and hugged and cried and laughed some more. It was awesome.

Over the next couple of weeks, I met the Editor-in-Chief Kelli Collins who was super nice. I got assigned an editor, the lovely April Chapman. This is a dream come true. I'm thrilled and excited and honored to be given this chance. : D

Tweet Tweet Pt 1 Or Why I'm Blogging About 50 Shades Of Grey

Twitter has been good to me lately. I've been able to connect with writers/authors/people that I wouldn't have had an opportunity to meet otherwise. Among those people, is Jaid Black of Ellora's Cave.

Late one night, Jaid blogged about the Time magazine article regarding the whole Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon. Like me, she found the article offensive for a number of reasons I won't get into here, except to say, I was impassioned enough to tweet my own similarly-minded opinion to let her know she and I were in agreement.

I said (the article), Does so many hard-working erotic romance authors a HUGE injustice. :\

For the record, Fifty Shades has created a mix of strong opinions. As an author, I’m happy E.L. James has had success with her books. Her success has helped draw readers to the erotic romance genre. On the other hand, I feel she and her handlers have done little to make certain the media understand the genre that’s been so good to her was already doing just fine on its own.

Jaid asked me to leave the comment on her blog. I was more than happy to do so and expanded my opinion there since Twitter only allows 140 characters.

What follows is my comment…

A lot of things about the Time article offend me, but I'm glad Jaid dispelled some popular myths about the erotic romance genre. I've been writing in the erotic romance genre for years. Like so many, I’ve worked hard to achieve my writing goals (and do on a daily basis) and sadly, the media with the help of E.L. James do nothing to help garner respect for the genre or the authors. Disrespect for the romance genre in general is nothing new, but Time’s latest article on the subject hits below the belt.
That would be bad enough but they’ve also insulted us. Take their assessment of our heroines. “She may not be textured or well written or particularly particular in any way, except in mouthing off and making demands and getting what she wants." Anyone who reads quality erotic romance knows that is flat out FALSE. It suggests that erotic romance authors aren’t good writers, that they don’t know how to write sympathetic heroines and furthermore that the heroines of erotic romance are nothing more than mouthy bitches. Whether Time realizes it or not, the article has a subtly sexist tone I find reprehensible. 
Time did all erotic romance authors a HUGE injustice by dumbing down and misrepresenting what we take seriously. If they couldn’t cover our genre accurately, they shouldn’t have covered it at all.
Shame on Time magazine!

Dude Where's My Blog

It just occured to me that somehow or 'nother (as they say in this here neck 'a the woods) I have like virtually no entries for 2009 on this my writer blog.

WTF?

First Year on Blogger

Wow. One year's worth of commitment. Cool!

The traditional first anniversary gift is paper.

April's Fool

If anyone ever reads this blog they'll see that one blog equals one month. I had a serious drought of creativity there for a while. I started a blog and just let it sort of sit there and grow green stuff all over it. Heh. That's sort of funny considering the color scheme of my little blog was green for a while.

I've had a lot on my plate this month. I've battled depression, insomnia, weight problems, creativity droughts, family discord, you name it. At least I had some kick-ass chocolate to console me--courtesy of the large basket-toting rabbit of Easter. (AKA M-o-m.)

At the moment I'm rather peeved at myself for not having something to submit for a writing contest that would be a great opportunity to check my skills and development. I don't have 35K words just sitting in a drawer ready to go. If that were true, they'd already be submitted. All it's going to do is distract me from my work. I feel shitty as it is.

Gggggrrrrrrrr. Time to bite the ears off yet another chocolate bunny.

2004 Footnote

If you are really bored and reading my blog from the beginning like a total nerd (like, I would NEVER do that...snort) you will notice that there are limited entries for the early years of my blog. But I did blog more than that. I simply removed the entries that were either so shitty they embarrassed me or those that were irrelevant to my writing, me as a writer, or something book-related.

My Writer Blog

Lookie! A writer blog!

:)

...

Now, what do I do with it?