Hitting the Books

Ah ha! Now we have our culprit! According to Carla (see links), “this whole thing was sparked by a set of Rules for How to Write a Bestselling Fantasy Novel, mentioned by Alex Bordessa.”

I read the following statement with sinking heart.

From the March issue of Romance Writer’s Report:

“The Legislative Action Committee will consider the advisability and feasibility of establishing a romance writers’ political action committee for collecting and distributing political contributions and will identify other industry PACs that may be mutually beneficial in partnering with RWA.”

NO! NO! NO! NO!

Please, don’t politicize RWA! If I really am a minority voice among romance writers, I don’t want the majority pushing for laws and candidates that are antithetical to my own. Even worse, I fear that my RWA dues will go to support such things. Argh.

I’m writing a letter to the editor (tho’ I’ve little hope of it actually accomplishing anything). I hope this bad idea comes to nothing, but if it does go through, I’ll have to leave the RWA. Which sucketh mightily for me.

Sigh. Politics stinks up the wazoo (and I live less than an hour south of D.C., so I can say that with certainty)

What do you think?

Carla told me to go visit Gabriele Campbell. Her Rules for Scottish Romances are too, too true. Especially the part about heroine must always be a Sassenach. Why? I guess for the same reason that it must always be the feisty Rebel girl who falls for the big alpha Yankee. Tho’ I think Patricia Veryan a few times had the Englishman falling for the feisty Scottish lass (who usually was trying to help her Jacobite brother/fiance/best friend’s husband’s former sergeant escape the turrrible massacre after Culloden)

So are there any other rules out there? I’m really enjoying reading them. It’s funny just how many stereotypes are found in historical fiction (or fiction of any sort I suppose) when you really look for them. And not just stereotypes, but really silly ones too.

So, last night, when I was supposed to be catching up on my blog reading and writing, what did I do instead? I found new blogs to subscribe to. Sigh.

I started with the best of intents–Carla Nayland had kindly left a comment on my blog a few days ago, so I dropped by her site to return the favor. And promptly got sucked into a very interesting discussion on what does and doesn’t appeal to readers of historical fiction. (part 1 and part 2)

Cool, I thought. I wonder if there’s a big difference between what readers of historical fiction and readers of historical romances like? I should blog on it, I decided.

But in catching up on my reading I discovered Robyn over at Snarkling Clean had already beat me to the topic.

From Carla’s I clicked over to Susan Higginbotham’s site (I ain’t writing its real name out ‘cuz it’s long and I’m tired) and found, along with some fascinating posts, 10 More Rules for Writing Historical Fiction. What a hoot! But where were the first ten rules?

That sent me on to Sarah’s Bookarama, another great site. She’s gathered a whole slew of “rules” for writing historical fiction from various authors. There’s the original rules (Alan Fisk), Prehistoric (Sarah Johnson), Arthurian (Vivien Tyler), Medieval, Elizabeth Chadwick, and Feminist (India Edgehill). (All of these are originally from Solander, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. I hope I got all the acknowledgements correct. If I didn’t, please forgive.)

UPDATE: Whoops! Left off Alianore’s rules for Edward II and Isabella! My bad.

I’m waiting for the Regency, Georgian, American Civil War, etc. If someone doesn’t write them soon, I’ll have to, and I really don’t have the time for one more project.

Needless to say, after getting swept away with my clicking, I didn’t get very caught up. Plus I was a bad mama and didn’t get to my writing because of the surfing. So it was after 2 am when I finally started typing, and after 3 when I crawled into bed. Of course, the Punkin decided that 5:30 am was the proper time to get up. Arghhh.

Anyhoo, now I’m really going to post this, catch up on Romancing the Blog and Writing and Rambling, then get to my laptop. I promise…

An entire hope chest of quilts? Howabout a double wedding ring quilt? No? Okay, it was just a small baby quilt, but it took time and effort gosh darn it. I had to avoid the computer totally, knowing if I allowed myself to sit down and glance at the blogs, I wouldn’t get the silly thing done.

Before that I was being a bad blogger, but a very good writer, and spending my evening time on the laptap tip-typing away. Which is where I’m going to be in another 45 minutes (hopefully).

Right now I’m waiting for two more silk-screens to dry, dyeing a whole slew of baby clothes bright green, and doing the laundry. Multi-tasking is my life. Tho’ last night I lay down next to the Punkin to get her to sleep at 8:30 pm, and finally woke up and went to my own bed around 4 am and didn’t get up again until 7:30. Sleepy-bye night-night, Nessili.

For those of you who get US News and World Report, what did you think on the article on publishing? Especially the section on PODs. I’ve just scanned it, but the writers of the article certainly seem to like the idea of Print on Demand. They even mention Lulu and CafePress.

I hope to get back to semi-regular blogging this week, but I’m not sure if the weekends are going to throw me off again–I have Irish dance performances on the 11th, 18th, 19th, April 1st, and possible 8th. Busy ol’ me.

Happy Birthday to my dear Hubby the Mighty Bargain Hunter!

*My compliments to Maxwell Smart.