Happy Easter – Blog Updates – A Decision

Happy Easter, everyone, no matter your religious affiliation. It’s kind of cloudy and rainy here, and it looks like it will stay that way all day. We’ll make the best of it anyway. The temperature is looking to be a glorious 70 degrees.

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As part of my website update, I have updated my Policy page and started tagging old posts. Boy, was I a messy tagger. I spent hours deleting useless tags and retagging old posts. Then, I was almost finished when I decided that I really ought to to study up on the practice of tagging. It was then that I discovered that I’m doing it all wrong. Apparently, I’m supposed to categorize and tag. I’m tired just thinking about it. I guess I’ll have to do without categorized tags, and I’ll just stick to plain old tags.

As for writing, I keep plugging away at my manuscript, cutting almost as much as I’m adding so I am now up to 84,000 words. I am almost through these difficult “big reveal” scenes, though. I’m having to rearrange a few things so they still make sense, and I should have it all straightened out soon.

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I have made a decision to leave RWA, and will be letting my membership expire in May. The reason for this is simple, and has nothing to do with the organization: I can no longer say that I write romance. As a genre, it was never the greatest fit for me, but The Sevenfold Spell and The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf had enough romantic elements to satisfy the requirements and justify the expense.

Every year when you renew your RWA, you must reaffirm your claim that you are a writer who is actively pursuing a career as a romance novelist. Although East of Yesterday has romantic elements, I would classify it as a historical novel with science fiction elements. And although Magic by Starlight has a romantic storyline, it is more fantasy than romance–with about as much romance to satisfy fantasy readers, but not nearly enough to satisfy romance readers.

(BTW, RWA does welcome “romantic elements” authors, but I think my quirky brand of writing would be a better fit elsewhere.)

If I were to take up a romance novel again–and I do have some ideas–I will consider rejoining the organization. But until then, I will have time to explore other organizations like Broad Universe, and/or see if there is something else out there that I have not discovered yet.