A Time For Everything

On December 27th, I wrote a bit about the reckoning going on in RWA. The reckoning has turned into a tsunami of accusations, mud slinging, finger pointing and probably a lot of misinformation.

As a local chapter president I can't just ignore it, can't let someone else steer the ship.

The name of this blog is  A Time for Everything. It's one of my mottoes/beliefs. Another of my mantra is everything happens for a reason. Even if we don't always know or understand what that reason at the time...

I asked a friend last week--"Why is that happening while I'm president?"

I'm not a crusader of any sort. My presidencies of my writers group notwithstanding, I'm not a leader. I'm a follower, or more accurately, I'm a watcher and a waiter.

But for some reason, I'm the one that the members in my group are going to look to for guidance and I don't have much to give other than: it's up to each member to follow the course of events and make up their own mind. I'll be at the helm for any who want to remain in the boat.

I must need some sort of personal growth or a lesson, which, you know, is fine. It's good. I don't feel super blindsided. I just need to be on the lookout. it could be one of a couple of things...or all of the above.

Time will tell.

Here's to a good week, RWA crap-storm notwithstanding...

Suffice to say some shit went down in RWA over Christmas. Yes, on the 23rd, 24th, 25th... While everyone should have been spending time with family.

An issue serious enough that I've heard a few people say that RWA might not recover.

If you really want to know about it, type in RWA and racism into your favorite search engine. If the name of a Chinese-American author pops up, that's the thing...

I missed it all because the only people and organizations I follow on Twitter are hockey related.

In case you haven't cottoned on--I'm not your typical author. Not by a long shot. I don't track my sales, I don't read my reviews, and I certainly don't spend a whole lot of time creating a vast network of fellow authors just to have numbers. I don't publish a newsletter and I don't have an authors reader group.

I wouldn't even be a member of the national organization if I didn't have to be in order to be a member of the local chapter. They pissed me off several years ago, but my local group is worth the cost of admission.

At this point, I'm seriously considering not renewing when the time comes. That decision depends on a lot of things several which I don't even know right now.

Anyway, it's been a heck of a day and I'm feeling pretty beat down over it all.

So thank goodness it's Friday.

Y'all have a great weekend.

Last week I mentioned a certain workshop I attended at my conference. One that hit home.

The title was G-M-C and Y-O-U. I struggle with my characters' GMC, or in layman's terms, their goals, motivations, and conflicts. Knowing and conveying those things to the reader are part of the craft of writing. A part I'm not so good at. So I was delighted to see it listed in the conference program.

However, when I settled in and Maggie Montgomery started talking, I realized quickly that it was more writer's life than craft, but she was charming and funny and what she said was still helpful information. Also, there were no other workshops going on at that same time that interested me and I'm just not that rude to get up and walk out.

The two most powerful concepts I took away from what Maggie had to say were these:

A) You have to face your fears and deal with emotions you might rather not in order to tell the most compelling story you can.

B)  You have to trust that there's someone out there who needs to hear your story. That you were given the story for a specific purpose.

It's A that really resonated with me. It's not something I didn't already know. I have known it. I know I have to dig deeper, tap my emotions, face some demons. But it's hard. And scary. And sometimes life is just not conducive to that kind of an emotional dissection.

Her saying it was a reminder that you, I mean *I*, can't avoid it forever.

So I write on, honing my other skills, learning to tap my emotions bit by bit, hoping that each successive story is a little more powerful, a little more true.

I promised pics and so pics you shall have.

First of all, roomie and I stayed at the San Antonio Riverwalk. We were given a room on the 16th floor, facing west (the side with the balconies!).


Interesting bit of trivia--the Riverwalk sits on the site of the historic Fairmount Hotel, which now resides one block west and three blocks south. The relocation of the Fairmount was recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest structure moved on wheels.

Since I was only a few blocks away from one of the greatest historic sites in our nation, I walked over to see The Alamo. I didn't go in and do the tour or anything, but I saw it and took the requisite pictures.

This is the iconic image everyone expects and thinks of when one mentions The Alamo, but the fort itself was a much larger thing.

Here's a model of the actual fort in brass. The structure in the above pic looks to be located in the middle-ish of the outpost.


I have a lot more pictures of buildings (of the architecture), but I won't bore you with them here. If you're interested, you can view them here at my Shutterfly.

I started walking the River Walk first, and thought I was only going to take a short walk to the Alamo. Then I got side-tracked by the buildings! I went back for the 30-minute guided boat tour and learned some interesting things about San Antonio. It was quite a lovely ride.

I wished I have gotten to actually walk more of the River Walk. Unfortunately, after my detour to the Alamo and the other architecture, my left leg was hurting. I went back to the hotel to rest it and wasn't able to get back to the River Walk when there wasn't a horde of other tourists impeding my pace.


This waterfall is not only lovely, but serves to keep the water from stagnating here on this end of the River Walk.

The following two photos are two of the very few I took while on the boat tour. My particular boat ended up at capacity and it was hard to move, much less turn around with camera in hand and elbows akimbo.

The Rivercenter Mall sits at one end of the tour....


A couple of the bridges also serve as locks, so that the river can be controlled during heavy rains.

And there you have it--a few highlights of my trip to San Antonio...

I'm sure you realize that my trip to Buc-ee's was not the real highlight of my trip to San Antonio. Although, I must say it was pretty exciting.

But--

The purpose of my trip was attend the RWA national annual conference and learn something. And learn some things I did.

I attended all craft workshops, except one. I thought it was craft, but it wasn't. However, I think the fates conspired to get me in attendance. It was mainly a writers life kind of track, but I found it more inspirational than anything and it hit me in the gut. The speaker said some things that really resonated. Something I already knew, but she inspired me to do what needed to be done. And so shall I endeavor. If the fates don't conspire to prevent me.

I didn't take many pictures during the conference itself though--not of workshops or speakers although there were some big names in attendance. Nora Roberts was there! So was Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Elizabeth Hoyt, Sarah MacLean...big names in historical romance. Nalini Singh, Jane Porter, Christie Craig, Robin Perini, Tanya Michaels, to name a few others.

There were a lot of men there, too. More than I expected to see. One man is a professor at a college in Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish country. Several years ago, one of his student wrote her thesis on romance novels--I don't remember the precise topic--and he said he was blown away. The college finally approved funding for him to attend the conference to get a up close and personal experience of the genre.

Now that I'm home, it's time to apply as much of what I learned to my current work in progress. Then to the next book and the next. I even have an idea and characters for a new book. One I'm looking forward to writing, but I have some hard work on almost finished projects ahead of me. Those first.

Saturday night was the big awards ceremony, the RITAs, the Oscars of the romance novel world. There's also the Golden Heart, an award for a pre-published manuscript and my dear friend and chapter mate won her category. I do have pictures of that...

Here's me in the dress...it's not a great picture, but I did get a lot of compliments and was even asked by a gal if she could take a "glam" shot of me!

This is my friend Jan Schliesman and me--she gave me the dress and I'm forever in her debt. Jan recently sold her first book to Harlequin Romantic Suspense. It'll be published next spring.


Two more of my chapter mates, Angi Morgan on the left and Sarah Cannon on the right. Sarah won the Golden Heart in the short contemporary category and recently sold her book to the Harlequin Desire line. Her book will be published early next year. Angi won the Golden Heart several years ago and has since published seven or eight Harlequin Intrigue books.

I do have more pictures, but the rest are all of my sight seeing adventures. I'll be sharing some of those on Friday.

The annual national conference of my writing group is next week. In case you didn't figure it out, it's in San Antonio.

As I mentioned in my post a week or so ago I've only been there once before, but it was a quick trip and DH and I didn't do anything but attend a Brooks & Dunn concert at the county fair. I didn't see anything else but the hotel and the interstate.

Despite it being a conference full of workshops and networking opportunities, I'm going to get from the trip what I want out of it. That being said, there are only two workshops I found of interest for Thursday, so I'm going to at least explore the Riverwalk, on one side of which my hotel sits. Can't not go, right? I'm right there. I have some time. It's an opportunity.

Friday and Saturday I'll attend workshops and spend time in the lobby and bar meeting people and networking even though it's really not my forte. I need to drum up some proofing business... Hopefully, I'll get to spend some time with Robin Perini, an author I've been doing some work for. I can't wait to see her again.

Since I'm not normally around a lot of people, I'll also probably spend some time alone the hotel room. Too much sensory input otherwise. I know it's only four days, but I've got to go the distance and I hate feeling out of sorts physically or emotionally, so--

And since it's Friday, hope you have a great weekend!

The national conference for Romance Writers of America is just around the corner and will be taking place in Texas's own San Antonio...


I'm looking forward to learning some things, seeing a bit more of San Antonio, and seeing Robin Perini--for whom I've done a ton of work.

I've only been to San Antonio once before, but I didn't get to see much--just a concert by my fave country artists Brooks & Dunn. (That was many years ago and before they went their separate ways.

Anyway, it's time to start planning and packing for my trip...

Changes have been taking place within the umbrella organization of my writers group. I've been on the leadership loop for several months now and after the usual hail and farewells that accompany the new year and the changing of officers that each chapter experiences, the discussion has returned to the changes.

Chapters were forced to adopt standard bylaws with few options for us to choose from. The number and types of board positions the individual chapters could utilize has been given--we no longer get to choose what we need or what best suits us and our offerings. The requirements for service have been mandated and they are not small-chapter friendly. Several chapters have folded for various reasons, several others are in danger.

Many chapter leaders are frustrated because they don't understand the reasoning behind the changes. They seem harsh and unnecessary. There are other changes going on that aren't related to bylaws but that are just as frustrating and threatening and many chapters are losing members as a result as well.

With respect to the changes in the publishing industry, authors, especially the successful, selling ones have more on their plates in terms of writing and promotion, leaving less time to devote to chapter leadership.

So with the loss of members and less time for discretionary activities, how do chapters survive? In the old paradigm, there just weren't that many published authors and the rest of the aspiring chapter peons were willing to handle the running of the chapter.

But the organization is, has always been, and always will be focused on the career romance writer--even if she's working a day job to pay the bills. Those who write more as a hobby will soon be force into a different membership status--and unable to serve in board positions.

In the new paradigm, even medium to large sized chapters are finding it difficult to operate within the rules and regulations set down by the parent organization. We've assigned our board members oversight and then any member can serve and do the day-to-day work of the chapter, but it's still hard to find members willing to serve at all.

After biting off almost more than I can chew with our chapter's new contest I'm this ( ) close to being burnt out and I *like* volunteering and serving the groups I'm a part of.

People no longer need the organization like they once did. They're feeling pushed out and disenfranchised.

The parent organization currently has over 10K members, which is really fantastic. But I'm wondering, when the dust settles, how many members will remain and/or for how long?

So there's this billboard I passed over the course of the last few days taking the Brown Eyed Girl to work.

It's for Shiner Bock, and it says: NOT New, NOT Improved.

And I loved it. If I drank beer, I might have switched. I never understood the philosophy of fixing something that isn't broken or improving something that tastes or works just fine. I get why they do it, but it's still bothersome.

The first thing I remember is the cereal, Special K. I used to eat it many years ago. And then they changed it. And I stopped eating it. Same with Grape Nuts. :(

More recently, a large organization to which I belong revamped their website. First, it was all back-end stuff, it looked the same mostly, though they'd added features. Now, I've been on PCs and the Internet a long time and I'm fairly savvy, but I hate hate hated the changes they made. The site was no longer user friendly. I could never find the same file or the same section twice. And if I did, it was never by following the same path. Ugh. Very frustrating. And then they decided to change the color scheme, the look and feel of the site. In general, I'm not opposed to the colors they chose, BUT this organization represents something and in my small insignificant opinion, the new color scheme does not represent that thing quite as well anymore. I'm not the only one. When the color changes were implemented, there was a lot of grumbling. And maybe it's more about the change rather than the changes themselves, because a lot of people resist change. Me included. But when something seems less friendly, less easy to use, or doesn't taste as good as it used to, there's something to be said for leaving well enough alone.

One last example is iTunes. Most people either love it or hate it. I'm mostly in the love it camp. The last upgrade brought significant changes to the user interface. A lot of folks were upset over that. And I'm not really sure what the purpose was. As of this post, I have not upgraded, although I'm sure there will be a point at which I have to otherwise things may stop working as well or altogether.

Is there a product that you wish had not been subjected to improvement??

NASCAR update: Danica Patrick started 1st, placed 8th. Not bad at all, considering there are 43 drivers.