(no subject)

[alg]

I think RWA is (generally speaking) a great organization. I think a lot of times it's extremely helpful. I think RWA has done much to help romance become a genre that's taken seriously. I think RWA refuses to be shunted aside by people who say, "Oh, it's just women." I think that is awesome.

However. The number one thing I see from RWA members that makes me cringe is this "Pro" thing. Really. Stop it. I don't care that you have a pro pin. It doesn't actually make you a professional at all. In fact, I sort of mentally groan and roll my eyes and think to myself, "Great, yet another person who has no idea what she's doing."

It's not your fault -- RWA encourages you to think this is important. That's fine. But here's a reality check: it doesn't matter. If you're sending me a proposal, I care about your words a lot, and your publishing history/contacts a little bit, and your RWA status not at all.

(If you don't know what I am talking about, here's a quick definition: RWA offers something called a "Pro pin" to its members who have finished and submitted a manuscript. Since 999 times out of 1,000 (999,999 times out of 1,000,000?) a first-time submission won't get published, you can prove that you are a "pro" by showing them your rejection letter. Seriously. I have run into more than one person who writes and submits a crappy ms. just for a pro pin, and more than one person who thinks that a pro pin means something to editors. It does not. Obviously.)

La la la. Moving on. Yesterday when I woke up, Vincent was dragging his back legs. In fact, I woke up because he was making weird noise. It was like he didn't have the use of his hips, but he wouldn't let me look at his legs. So I called my vet and left a message and called in sick to work. I kept calling my vet. To make a long story short, she couldn't see me, so I went with both cats to the ghetto vet near the Williamsburg Bridge. Vincent was fine -- by the time we got there, he was totally okay. But it turns out that Shiksa's got conjunctivitis!

I felt kind of hysterical and ridiculous -- yet at the same time absolutely vindicated because something was wrong.

Then I went to the office, because I am a compulsive workaholic, and, before going out for supper with some of my friends, I stopped in at a B&N near my office. I was kind of appalled to see that romance only had two bookshelves, whereas mystery had five, but whatever. I picked up six or seven books, and read one of them while drinking a mocha -- The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockmann. She's one of my favorite writers, and this is a reprint (originally published in 1999), and I loved it. And when I was finished, I realized that I shouldn't have done that. I should have saved her for last.

Because the other five books or however many I had? Were crap. I flipped through them on the train on my way home. The most egregious errors were ones the copyeditor really should have caught (like the heroine who first graduated in 1996 and then in 1998, and either way, there was no way that she was a successful sociology professor!). I hated so many of the characters. There were a lot of clumsy beginnings -- dossiers instead of character development, etc. Totally boring stuff that actually kind of upset me. Why so lazy, writers?

Not to even mention that 99% of the time, when there's a dossier to introduce characters, they're always accurate. I hate that. I think it would be much more interesting to do something like what cesperanza did in her story MVP and have the dossier actually be inaccurate (or not entirely accurate, anyway). Come on, shake things up.

Jeez.

I don't mean to sound so vehement, but.... blah. I had high hopes. I always do. I just hate everything! I can see why other people would enjoy some of it (sometimes I can, anyway), but I just... Hm. Like my userinfo used to say, I am interested exclusively in things that are interesting.

Things I have tried and failed at in the last few days: to set up a "real" blog using movable type (that shit is hard!), Trackbacks, PB Wiki (scratchyfishie and 2muchexposition both have one, but I can't figure out what to use it for!), the Xvid codec, the DivX codec, and to teach myself to compress video files without losing too much quality.

I have, however, suceeded at eating a lot of burritos, listening to a lot of Kane, watching a lot of Supernatural and Criminal Minds and Grey's Anatomy and The Evidence, and planning out what I am going to do with my life, which includes opening a roadside truckstop diner with my friends where we will serve pie.

In conclusion, Christian Kane is hot. There's not much more I can say about that.

Comments

[sleary.livejournal.com]

I've done a lot of Movable Type installations. I'd seriously like to petition Six Apart for a refund on those hours of my life.

WordPress is easier... except when it's not.

[laast.livejournal.com]

My grammar and spelling are horrible, I would def suck @ this dream job lol. My friends and I made a list in highschool about what we wanted to do before we were 25... I did a few of them, but not all. I need to make a new list of things I want to do before I'm 30. (this of course is not as serious as life-planning or goal setting) just fun stuff. What would you do if you could pick anything in the world?

[laast.livejournal.com]

ps, thanks for the link :O)

[alg.livejournal.com]

What would you do if you could pick anything in the world?

ROCKSTAR.

[laast.livejournal.com]

oh my god how did you do that so fast hahah... Rockstar! love it.

[perfectbound.livejournal.com]

heh. i failed at figuring out what to do with a pbwiki for a long time! but now i'm using mine for lists that i want on the web so i can use them at home and work and wherever. groceries, recipes, books to read, things to remember to do, links to things to buy online, things to look up, appointments, paths to network directories that i can never remember. et cetera. because i extra super fail at using a paper planner.

[alg.livejournal.com]

HM.

i keep thinking about what i would use it for. i del.icio.us my links, and i write everything in The Notebook, and i just email myself stuff! i mean, i guess everything doesn't have to work for everyone, but i wish my brain would catalog more. damn it.

[nicosian.livejournal.com]

I hope the cats recover fast!

I read a bit of both the novels you recommended to get a taste of what the paranormal romance thing is like, as I was hoping to submit under that and came to the realization that while my novel generally fits the category, it also doesn't. (are most romance novels written from a female POV?)

While they were definitely well written and wonderfully edited, as I generally just don't read romance at all because it's never been my thing. But now I'm not so sure mine fits anymore, even if you gave me quite possibly the most positive rejection letter known to writer-kind. Well, at least for a first timer.

I do not know what I'll do. Are ANY romance novels done from a male POV?

[alg.livejournal.com]

Most romance novels are predominantly female POV -- sometimes they switch from male to female and back again. But usually the majority of the voice is the female one.

Hunter's Moon and Moon's Web by Cathy Clamp & C. T. Adams are the only two I can think of that are first person POV male -- and I edited them. :)

[nicosian.livejournal.com]

well I think I'll go check those out! thank you!

I can do POV switches, but it all left me contemplating what's best for the book and the story and we'll find an answer. I believe that this thing WILL get published, not if, it's just a matter of making it what I believe it can be. ( artistic vision vs market reality.)

( i just woke up, probably not explaining well either.)

[(Anonymous)]

I never could figure out Moveable Type that's why I went with Wordpress.

Hope your kitty gets better!!!!

Cece

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

neat! I think that already makes me one, then. bwahahahaha.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

ooooh, the leg-dragging thing scared me for a second. do cats get hip displaysia like dogs can? glad he's okay. I worry about my two tons of Moose dog getting hip problems. :(

[aprilgem.livejournal.com]

Some web providers have a nifty little service called "one-click install" of some popular web software. If you're not into dealing with a learning curve for MT or WP, that's what I'd suggest.

I'd also suggest Wordpress over everything else right now. Just a personal preference, of course, but this is coming from someone who has hand-coded her own sites since '98 (and still do), has blogged since '01, has years-old accounts in Blogger and LJ (though I've never posted more than one entry in either), and has worked with Greymatter, MovableType, and Wordpress. Plus, while a bit of an obsessive-compulsive control freak about my sites, I'm also the absolute laziest person I know.

So my suggestions (just suggestions) should say a lot. :)

[julesjones]

I presume it also chafes the knickers of one Reginald Hill, because there's a rant about it in at least one of the Dalziel and Pascoe books. :-)

[kate_nepveu]

Thank you a million times for recommending AutoGK. I have been looking for a way to backup anime episodes in dual audio with subtitles, and all the sites I saw suggested these complicated multi-step processes. That does *exactly* what I want without garbling and without any thought on my part.

[lilac-wine.livejournal.com]

I love blogger. It's easy to use and customize (my template coordinates with my website). I tried wordpress for a while but didn't find it as easy to use or find for my readers as blogger.

It's funny how all this goes. It gets to be a comfort thing I think.

I keep an account here because it's a bit off the beaten path and it's my "day to day life" blog rather than a blog where I have to deal wtih my public persona. I wish blogger had a "friends" option though and a cut text option.

[rambleman.livejournal.com]

yeah, AutoGK is pretty amazing. the ability to embed multiple audio streams is great, as is the ability to force existing subtitles or tack them on from an external file.

one recommendation i have is to tweak it to use a minimum frame width [something you're comfy with], as its automated resolution determination sometimes can be a bit wacky. e.g. a very action heavy file decided to sacrifice resolution for a more faithful capturing of the frame/pixel changes. the result was a movie at 320x240 [too tiny for my preferences], but flawless motion. :)
it's much better to force it to go no smaller than you'd like for resolution and let it do its best with the rest.

[alg.livejournal.com]

Installations are easy, actually. I installed MT using my shell box with no problem. Configuring MT, however, is a complete nightmare. I am just completely adrift!

I'm actually considering what smeone else said earlier, about using a wiki. It seems like a good answer...

PRO

[(Anonymous)]

I am a member of PRO only because someone said I "had" to get it. Bleh. It means nothing to me. I think its way too easy to achieve. And really, to be rewarded for failure? What's that all about?

[kittykatz.livejournal.com]

What're the romance books you're into now? I have just the few authors I keep reading over and it feels like a rut sometimes but I can't seem to get excited about new people.

[kvaadk.livejournal.com]

Geeze, I didn't know anyone remembered strawberry rhubarb.
You'd think strawberry rhubarb would be common all over -- but I haven't had a good one in decades.

Then again, that may be where I live. I was raised in Florida when it was a southern state (left when Disney arrived) but my parents were transplants from New England. Unfortunately, I was too macho as a kid to learn how to cook. Learned living on my own, of course, but the family recipes weren't easily adapted to my eat-from-the-pot no patience personality and are now gone forever.

My wife is from coastal South Carolina and she *tried* early on to fix some of the meals I described from my youth. Made a mincemeat pie from some stuff in a can. I ate it because we were still newlyweds, but my mom would have died before serving it. I didn't try to explain hard sauce. (And don't get me started on sweet potato pie/pumpkin pie.)

[kvaadk.livejournal.com]

Actually, in the short story markets a recommendation that the writer try another market can be helpful. The reader -- can't match the initials to anyone on the masthead -- at Esquire who rejected my last story hand-wrote across the bottom of the form: "Fun read, but not right for us. You might want try ..." (No, they didn't just trail off, I'm not mentioning the suggested market because I'm waiting to hear from them.)

That note raises an interesting point in the not-yet-or-well-published ranking system. When you progress from form letters to personal notes it indicates *something* in terms of development as a writer. Though I doubt an editor would be impressed with "I've received very pleasant comments jotted on my rejection forms from both New Yorker and the Atlantic."

The only rejection letters I've ever kept were from Marion Zimmer Bradley. She sent back a ms -- back in my manual typewriter days when I really wanted the ms back so I could mail it off again -- with notes all along the margin explaining where she felt the story went wrong. Invaluable editorial and writing advice. I followed all of her suggestions religiously and sent the revised story to her within the week. And got back a form rejection without comment.

[kvaadk.livejournal.com]

Okay, the last time I took a computer class it was in a near-frozen lab in the basement of the science building. The computer was the size of four refrigerators and kept inside a wire cage NO underclassman could enter and we typed on green metal typewriters using an orangy-yellow paper that spooled off huge rolls and turned a brittle brown in sunlight. Learned BASIC and how to key-punch cards and was allowed to watch the huge reels of magnetic tape be switched out. You may be surprised to learn that there have been a few changes in the technology in the last thirty-five years. I know I was.

I have only just launched into the world of blogging and online journals. I mean, it looks like this twenty-first century thing might be catching on, so I might as well join in. Actually, several fellow writer-type friends -- most enthusiastically Karen Traviss, who's around here somewhere -- have been advising that every writer should have one. Most have bells and whistles that let them track who's been visiting when and links them to Amazon to buy books, etc. Many writers regard them as essential for keeping in touch with their readers. (At the moment my fanbase is manageable, but who knows....)

My thought is: If you are able to compartmentalize -- not confuse writing your blog with writing writing, for example -- a blog or journal or site can be very useful indeed. Or if you write very quickly. The aforementioned Ms Traviss writes at about three times my speed. Keith DeCandido types faster than I think. Both have lively and entertaining online journals -- much like this one -- that touch on a variety of topics. (Mine has two entries - one about trying to figure out the blog feature and the other about... I forget.)

So... Unless you need a time sink, why change up what looks from the outside to be working quite nicely?

good to know...

[(Anonymous)]

On an earlier comment trail about crappy epubs and the sad sacks who use them as publishing credits.

Hoping that is not the case with my first (e)book, I did list it (and the publisher, no dirt under MY rug) on the query I just sent. However, I think the publisher who has bought my book IS pretty crappy, and wish I'd had the experience/patience/knowledge/confidence to send it to print publishers first. Oh well.

The first million words are practice, right? Thanks for the blog.