Ramblings By Rhianna

I have often attended science fiction and fantasy convention through the years. You dress up like your favorite character, or something or someone that those who know you can stand back and say, “that’s so you!” The majority of the panels are about TV series we all miss, but there is usually a writers panel and that is where I planted my fanny.

I arrived in Houston with no preconceptions of what to expect. The plan was to soak up the ambience, and at least meet up with other Samhain authors and try to put faces with names. As a non ball- bearing, but fully jaded emergency nurse, I felt that I would be able to weather any obstacle in my way to learning the ropes. I was looking forward to finding a few kindred spirits among that group. These were my meager imaginings for this convention.

Tthe authors that were teaching the beginner and advanced writing classes invited us all to go out to eat. I had enrolled in the advanced class, hoping for any new pearl of wisdom, so I was there like a sore big toe. Thirty-five of us, which included a few well-known authors who came along. I heard about the larger publishing houses and every published author there was supportive and encouraging.

The theme of the conversation was that writing should not be a jealous career. Linea Sinclair, who is a lovely woman, was quick to state that people love to read and are looking for new books everyday. She was not capable of writing 365 books a year, so she was thrilled for other authors to fill that gap. (Okay, I paraphrased a little.) She expounded on the idea that believing some other writer is stealing your audience is nonsense. It was an interesting discussion and I think one that she felt new writers needed to hear.

(As an aside) After talking to her, I kept thinking I should go back and pull out the first two books I wrote, which were science fiction. Then I talked with some new friends and decided to take a wise woman’s advice. She said she had a similar question about one of her first books and found it too difficult to try to edit the book because she had changed so much as a writer. She reread her book and started fresh again on the story. She was right. So that is a project for me when I finish to two books I’m currently working on.

Okay, so now I must mention sex. Did I segue into that okay? The writers class included quite a few guest speakers. One of the classes was on writing sex scenes. (I’m always interested in improving my intercourse about that subject.) Three authors came for this segment and discussed how they wrote. Then they each read an excerpt form their books. Now the first was a teasing blurb; heaving bosom, kissing, fondling and the like, then the heroine pushes the hero away and end of scene. The second author stated that she had difficulty with writing sex scenes and tended to make them sweet, brief, and relied heavily on the pillow talk afterwards. She did a very short reading. The third author writes explicit sex scenes and picked her book and I believe chose a passage at random to read aloud. This was hard-core explicit sex and I noticed she seemed comfortable with it, althoug she was flushed a bit, but when she paused in order to take a short breath, it was decided that we should discuss our individual comfort level with sex scenes. I have to say that I was immensely amused and curious as to how much longer that scene was in length. Moreover, from the little I had heard before the pause, it was not substandard in size. The great thing about this story was I was so delighted, that I bantered with one of the others in the class, which ultimately led to me being adopted by the Romance Divas.

This is the paragraph in which I gush and say superlatives about these warm and friendly women, who call themselves Romance Diva’s. Meeting the cofounders of the website and various minions of this roaming group was to be basking in the bright aura’s of their personalities. They joked, traded quips, and drank as if they could hold it. I, being the supreme candy ass, drank one to every three of theirs, and hoped to keep up for most of the evening. (Oh, make a note here. Big bucks to eat and drink in that hotel.) If you read the brochure for this convention, you will note that beginning early in the morning there are gatherings scheduled until very late in the night. These divas came prepared with every kind of costume and accessories. I think they ran into the glitter fairy one night and got her drunk. But they included me in their meals and parties and offered support and advice. I felt blessed by thier generousity, but they acted as if it were perfectly normal. Thank you, you were and are the perfect avatars for romance divas.

The male models circulated and flirted as much as possible trying to curry voting ballots. There were a few truly charming among them, but then those were the ones that talked to me, so the others may have been charming and I missed it. There were only a handful of males attending the convention besides the models. They mostly wore the spouse badges.
I met several of them and thought those woman were very lucky to find husbands that adored them enough to listen to hundreds of females discus romance for five day straight.

I must have ran into Charlaine Harris a dozen time and explained what a fan I was, until she worried that I was a stalker. She is a very funny woman. I wondered if she had another mystery working in her head.

Kate Duffy who is directorial editor at one of the bigger houses made a comment about how two years ago they were all making jokes about how the smaller e-print authors were not good enough to make it in the big publishing houses and now they are seeking out some of the better ones to write for them. She was blunt and honest about the expectations for being published and it was to write a great romance.

So what did I learn about the business? This convention is about networking, it’s about promotion, it’s about getting your name out there to writers, publishers, readers and librarians/bookstore owners. I would be in line and start talking to the person next to me. I consider myself an observer. It’s not that I’m especially shy, because the work that I do requires that I be comfortable talking to people, but I prefer to listen to the more experienced. At this convention, everyone was more experience than I.

Example of conversation– “Have you been to this convention before?” I asked
“I missed last year, but this is my fifth convention,” near perfect stranger replied.
“It’s my first, but I’m really enjoying it. Where are you from?” I mumbled.
“Minnesota, I own only romance bookstore in name any city.” She had a friendly voice. “You have a blue badge, what have you written.”
“I’m very new, just contracted my first book.” I pull out a business card with the title of my book, pen name, home page and email and hand it to her. “The book is so and so by pen name. Keep me in mind when you are ordering new books next year.”
“What’s the genre and what’s it about?” She asked politely.
Quick blurb about book.