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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.

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You have a real blog! You don't need a real one and Movable Type and all the pro stuff if the content is the important part.

A LiveJournal *is* a REAL blog! This is a community where you can set up a friends list (more properly called a reading list) and just click on that "friends" page link to read 'em all. Can't do that with blogspot. I have to make a special effort to remember to go read the blogspot writers I like. It's SO much better here, and easier to use. Don't ever let 'em tell you this isn't a REAL weblog!

I'm glad to hear that the kitty with pinkeye is being treated. I would still keep an eye (any color will do) on the other kitty, though, because my cat Mischief had a problem with the ligaments in his hip joints, and we had to keep him from jumping on the furniture for a couple of weeks so they could get better (and then the vet looked again and said things were OK, but it could've been a problem.) Mischief had to stay in our sunroom for a couple of weeks, and he thought he was being punished and sentenced to prison. I had to take all the furniture out, and he must have spent the whole time wondering, "Why me? What'd I do?" Poor baby! But anyway, it sounds a bit alarming, so I'd definitely watch for any other symptoms. You probably already ARE, but just thought I would nag. I'm really good at nagging. Are there job descriptions that include nagging? (Other than "mom" and "spouse.")

I agree with you that many of the books I pick up now seem to be lacking. I think this is colored slightly by my various experiences trying to sell my own manuscripts, but that's not all of it; so many books just don't measure up to what I think they could be. Don't know if there's anything to be done about it other than wait. If we don't become a post-literate society, maybe there'll be a sea change. Maybe proofreading will come back in fashion! I hope so! *grin* One of the problems is that critique groups and how-to books and so forth are teaching a One True Way to write. It's making everything too much the same. You have to be politically correct (or so I am told by one online instructor), you can't do THIS and you can't do THAT, and you have to do A, B, and C within chapter one. Within such restrictive guidelines, people turn out books that are (or edit their books to become) vanilla and isn't-this-one-I've-read? The exciting new voices are damped down after the first round of critiques and rewrites. Anything that could be interesting goes away in those new drafts. It's alarming, but when I chime in to say that perhaps the problems could be fixed without losing the freshness and the voice, I am told that The Rules Rule. No matter that the rules did not come from any editor! No matter that someone just made them up! The Rules are promulgated across many critique groups and workshops. They can be useful, but other times they are taken in the wrong spirit. I miss "Book" books, the ones that weren't part of a brand or part of a genre, but just books. (That ship has sailed. Or it crashed on the rocks.)

I know you're trying to support and buy the good "Book" books. Keep it up.

I actually sort of agree that this isn't a "real" blog -- but I am anti all "blog" type entities! I am from the old school, when we all hand-coded our HTML and wrote our journal entries in pico in a shell box and if you wanted to interact with someone, you caught them on a BBS or via email. Also we had to walk uphill both ways, barefoot and in the snow! Hah.

One of the problems is that critique groups and how-to books and so forth are teaching a One True Way to write. It's making everything too much the same.

Yup. It is sad. It makes me sad. I don't like it when everything sounds the same -- that is BORING!!

You forgot to add, "And we liked it!" at the end after teh walking uphill both ways part.

AND WE LIKED IT!!!

Well, I liked it. It took me a long time to get used to diaryland and livejournal and that stuff. I still don't really like MT and all that junk. And wikis! OMG! They really conuse me!

I like blogger but I think of my blog there as a different kind of tool than my LJ which is more personal and a lot lazier.

MT and Wordpress are too complicated for me and I'm apparently an old fuddy duddy inside and hate to deal with new fangled stuff.

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. :)

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.

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...

Those were fun times.

But I've learned a lot about HTML that way, and when I got a blog, I just picked the first template and rewrote the entire thing to make it look the way I want. Something you can't do with LJ. I've also applied for a Europa Domain and when that one works, I'll design a really cool website. :)

I think both LJ and blogs have their advantages, and that's why I have both.

One of the problems is that critique groups and how-to books and so forth are teaching a One True Way to write. It's making everything too much the same.

Some suggestions are useful, but I've learned to trust my instincts rather than the books, and I break a lot of "rules".

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?

Second that. And I should add that most of the "real blogs" are awful (ok not anyone associated with TOR - especially not Neil or TNH who are amazing bloggers but the rest of the blogosphere just seems to add this level of pompous to their bloggings)

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