Coronavirus Pandemic Day 117 - Staying Safe While Learning

Most writing conferences and classes have gone virtual during the current pandemic if they haven't been cancelled outright. If you're having a hard time working on your wip, maybe now's the time to join with some fellow writers or take a class in order to get your mind off the news.

1) Camp NaNoWriMo

July is the second camp of the year from the people who bring you National Novel Writing Month. If you don't know anybody to join up with, my old RWA chapter Northwest Houston is holding a virtual write-in in relations to Camp NaNo. The cost is $10 for non-members, but they are a sweet, encouraging group of people, especially if you're a newbie.

2) RWA Conference

Whereas, most of the individual RWA chapters are pretty awesome and inclusive, the national organization is still trying to get its shit together. It may a good thing this year's conference is on Zoom. I mention it because I got some good advice and information from its panels back in the day, and it's one of the few national writing organizations that allows non-members to attend for a higher fee than members.

3) NINC Conference

The Novelists, Inc., Conference is a popular one among published authors of all genres. As of this writing, it is still scheduled to start September 23, 2020, in St. Pete Beach, Florida. However, the NINC will be issuing a statement next week on whether the conference will continue given the current COVID-19 spike in the state. It may be cancelled or have fewer speakers due to the travel restrictions between the U.S. and Europe.

4) WMG Publishing

With the record spikes of COVID-19 across the south, Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch are offering half-price classes, lectures, and subscriptions for the third time this year. The sale ends tomorrow night, Tuesday, July 7th. I've taken a few over the last couple years and found them valuable. Just a warning: most of them come with homework that makes you exercise your writing muscles!


At the rate things are going, those of us in the U.S. may find ourselves stuck at home for the rest of the year for safety's sake regardless of what our government says.

Hang in there! Write, study, watch Hamilton for the umpteenth time. Do whatever you have to in order to stay sane during this pandemic.

We really are in this together.

Why The 2013 RWA Conference May Be a Game Changer

I'm making a full disclosure here. I used to be a member of Romance Writers of America.

About a year ago, the president of the last chapter I belonged to e-mailed me: "Why did you quit RWA?" I sent back, "I didn't quit. I just didn't bother sending in my renewal form." Unfortunately, my response mirrored my blase feelings about the organization.

For the last five years, RWA's policies concerning e-publishers such as Ellora's Cave and erotic romance flip-flopped depending on who the national organization's president was. When Harlequin created their vanity publishing arm, they should have been taken off the RWA's acceptable publishers list. And they were--for a few months. A once-proud advocate for writers had literally become schizophrenic.

For me, the beginning of the end as an RWA member came when I decided in February of 2011 to indie publish. Then came the wailing and gnashing of the teeth from fellow writers. I was giving up. I was stupid.  I would never get a New York contract if I dared to *gasp* self-publish.

The things said to my face and whispered behind my back were the types of things I'd managed to survive in high school. The nasty comments on social networks, and the people actively trying to sabotage my sales were another. Funny, all the weird behavior didn't make me angry so much as it just made me tired and sad. My renewal form sat beside my day planner for ten months before I finally tossed it into the trash.

By this time, I was making enough money to quit my day job. But if someone asked (and several people have), I still tell them RWA is a fabulous organization for learning craft, just take their business advice with a grain of salt, a lime, and a bottle of tequila.

Until now...

I heard the first rumor on Monday. Editor and agent pitch slots went unfilled at the RWA National Conference in Atlanta.

This was unheard of! That never happened! The pitch schedule was always full within hours of it going live online. Writers had always waited breathlessly outside the pitch rooms, praying for a last minute cancellation they could grab. Surely, the person must be mistaken.

Then more rumors floated in. 138 slots went unfilled. No, 141. All of them were Harlequin. No, it was a mix between all the publishers. The only confirmed source I can find is a comment from Debra Dunbar at The Passive Voice. If anybody has another source, I'd love to know!

What I can confirm is that the RWA Board of Directors has changed the Rita (published authors) and Golden Heart (unpublished) contest rules for 2014. Self-published authors will be allowed to enter the Rita, and a new erotica category was added to both contests.

Furthermore, several blogs, including Barbara Vey of Publishers Weekly, mentioned that the self-publishing track wrangled together by hybrid writer extraordinnaire Barbara Freethy was standing room only. IN THE FREAKING BALLROOM! Talk about a serious 180 in attitude.

Meanwhile, Barbara O'Neal at Writer Unboxed talks about how "Change has been the word on our lips for at least a couple of years, but the swell was washing over every aspect of the conference this year." She then goes on to say that agents and editors were wooing writers. Well, everyone except Donald Maass. He didn't come out and say the indie publishing phenomenon was stupid as he's done in the past, but read his comment on Barbara's blog. You can taste his fear.

Yep, things are definitely changing at RWA. Will I rejoin though?

Not yet. Given the flip-flopping nature of the beast, I'll wait a little while longer and see if the changes stick.