(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Today's Somewhat Unfortunate Event Involving a Kitten - Hee Hee Hee.


2. Very interesting acceptance speech at the RWA Rita's, posted by smartbitches...Suzanne Brockman won the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, and below is an excerpt from her speech:

[ETA: I posted this on FB, and cousin responded, "good for him", I had to tell him that it was actually a her, and that many het or straight women write male/male gay romance novels. This, I know, comes as a shock to a lot of people in the mainstream world...they just don't understand why a straight woman would write that. ]

So here comes the part of my speech where I get “political.” Oh, yeah, I haven’t gone there yet.

Be strong, be brave, be courageous and kind, be willing to take a risk and open your heart to let in some stranger—some scary “other”—and only then will you win the beautiful gift of love, of connection, in the form of a romantic HEA.

That has been the message of romance since we first began whispering our stories around campfires on cold nights.

But somehow, somewhere along the way, someone decided “Not so fast there you. You don’t look like me or think like me. These stories aren’t about you. You don’t belong here.”

Some of us intentionally tightened our circle to keep people out.

And when you grow up in a world where you learn, just from watching, that you are let in, but others are not, you often accept it as your truth. So when you write what you see and what you know and what you have been told to believe, like books set in a town where absolutely no people of color or gay people live...? You are perpetuating exclusion, and the cravenness and fear that’s at its ancient foundation.

Yeah, I’m talking to you, white, able, straight, cis, allegedly christian women.

And don’t @ me with Not all white women.

Because 53% of us plunged us into our current living hell.

53% of us are racist and some of us don’t even know it!!

Oh, wait, what’s that...? You’re not racist...?

Then do something. Prove it.

In November, vote these hateful racist traitors OUT.

If you believe in love, like I do, if you write romance, where the stories we tell are about the courage that it takes to open your heart, it’s time for you to do the same.


Open your heart and look hard at your political and religious beliefs. Examine all you were taught—usually by white men in power—and try to see exactly who and what they erased from the stories they then labeled truth.

But the sad truth is, we no longer expect anything of you, you 53%. It’s up to the rest of us, including the 99% of all women of color who continue to inspire me and lead the way.

Stand up. Speak up. Fight. VOTE. Our lives, our rights, our marriages, our love depends on it.

What I find fascinating about this -- is the RWA (Romance Writers of America) has been known for being rather socially conservative in its political leanings over the years. Just recently has it begun to change. About five years ago, she'd have booed off the stage. Instead she was applauded.

Things are shifting....

YAY.

It also makes me very happy because I'm writing a subversive contemporary romance novel about an African-American Female Special Ops Veteran in love with a bisexual white sex therapist musician,
And roughly 90% of the characters are LGBTQ, and POC.

The subversive bit is the gender flip, and the idea that coercive sex or seduction is just as bad as rape. (ie. Coercing a sexual response or orgasm from someone against their will -- is rape, with serious consequences and is horrific. Rape is a sexual intercourse that the other party did not consent to or agree to. Doesn't matter if they enjoy it or not. Sexual assault is other types of sex, not including intercourse that is without consent. It can be done by men and women, it's not gender specific. And can be done to both men and women.) I don't show it. I refer to it in the past. Because I do not want to eroticize rape. Also, make a point of showing the difference.) I got the idea from reading several of these books that do exactly that -- eroticize rape or blur the line between seduction and rape.

Don't worry, I doubt anyone is going to see my story. It's just a story I have to write.