Almost Up With the Chickens

I slept late today - only set my alarm for 6:00 am (5 am for me). Still, in that finding time to write mode - or do writing business mode. The good news is, I turned in my proposal on Tuesday and finished my galleys last night around 11:00. Took a shower and hopped in bed around midnight. It's been a long, long week but a productive one. This morning, I have to run to the UPS store before class, make a copy of the galleys and overnight to my publisher.

In other news, apparently the blogsphere ran rampant yesterday with discussions of dress at RWA National, most specifically Marianne Mancusi & Liz Maverick (who were dressed like characters from their new releases from the Shoimi line) and the swan hat that Sheriilyn Kenyan wore.

I have to say, I don't know why so much time is spent on this. I really don't give a damn what people wear. Now, I do admit that I had to explain to several people (who had NO idea what Marianne and Liz were doing) that they were not some sort of new-age street-walker. Once I explained, everyone had that Ooooooh response and nodded and seemed to dismiss it immediately. I don't know of anyone that said it was stupid or unprofessional.

However, the discussion raged over at Smart Bitches. Some big names popped in to comment, most notably Nora Roberts, who doesn't think the dress is appropriate, especially given the fight romance writers have to "justify" our genre. I think I see both sides of this. I don't really give a whit what people think of me or romance because the people who judge that way aren't my audience to begin with and I wouldn't want someone so narrow minded reading my books. They might enjoy it and I don't want people twisted so tight that they make all around them miserable to enjoy even a small part of their lives. When they lighten up and drop the elite-ist bullshit, then we can talk.

But in Nora's defense, when anything happens that gives romance a bad name, reporters don't come running to my house for opinion - they run to hers. So as the unofficially (and she didn't volunteer) spokeswoman for romance, I can see where she wouldn't appreciate having to defend her profession once again.

I also think some people are afraid that publishers might go the way of the music industry. Used to be that it was only about the singing/songwriting, now that's hardly the case. Unless you look hot in a video and can dance like a snake, no one is putting out a cd (not women anyway). I really don't see this happening. For a lot of reasons, and most of them were at RWA National. Now, I'm not saying writers are a homely lot, but lets face it, we look far more like normal average people than the sexpots on tv. And since it usually takes years to build a writing career, most of us are "old" before anyone even knows who we are.

I have to admit, that I am somewhat disappointed in some of the comments I read. Certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in this industry, I would have thought that more than anyone else we would have learned not to judge a book by its cover.