Dee Savoy

I have to admit I have a love/hate relationship with RWA. I love the idea of it–all of us sister authors working together to promote our genre. But most often I hate what we end up doing. (I can say we because I reupped after a few years away from the fold.) The graphical standards brouhaha for example. Now I’m the last person who would support la clinch, however that is an issue to take up with publishers, not sanction individual members for having a naked boob on the cover by refusing to let them see the light of RWA day (in print). For the life of me, I can’t see what purpose these standards serve since writers, as a whole, are not in control of what goes on their cover in the first place–except to tell those authors who write the sort of sexier story that is swiping readers of traditional romance that the welcome mat is at the shop.

Then there’s the definition of romance nonsense. Who cares? Writers who don’t write romance are not beating down the door to steal the designation. Even some writers who do write romance claim they don’t to avoid the romance stigma. But this current todo seems to be with whether romance entails a man and a woman or simply two people. What is the point of this, except to say that gay romance is somehow fundamentally different than straight romance and therefore is not covered under the same umbrella. Personally, my take on gay romance is the same as my take on gay marriage–leave them alone. Why shouldn’t they be as miserable as the rest of us. I’m sure all the gay and lesbian romance writers out there are waiting on tenterhooks to find out whether or not the welcome mat will be rolled out.

Now we have the awards ceremony at the recent conference. I wasn’t there. I don’t know anything firsthand, but I do love to read. Several sources, namely Candy from Smart Bitches, Monica Jackson, and Selah March report on the goings on, and it ain’t pretty folks. Both Jenny Crusie and Nora Roberts are reported to have written letters which will hopefully be posted in the RWR, but my breath is not held.

I have no permission to forward Ms. Crusie’s letter, but there is one passage in it that resonates with me particularly. It is her sentiment that the ceremony should reflect RWA as one big happy family, not the “White Girls’ Club.” This is an interesting comment considering that the founder of RWA is a black woman, Vivian Stephens. No mention of her was made at the ceremony, from what I can tell. Nor were there many black presenters (only one) and no honorees. The only other spots of color were O.J.’s flight in a white bronco and one man chomping on another’s ear. Talk about images to inspire.

One might argue that this debacle was the responsibility of a small group of folks whose poor taste or poor planning got the better of them, but it is my experience that people do what they think they can get away with. It is the climate of an organization that permits this. In terms of the general theme of the ceremony, it is to the credit of the members of RWA that so much outrage has been expressed. However, when it comes to the lack of inclusion of multicultural authors or issues, the outrage has been dialed down to almost non-existent.

Of greatest distress to me is the fact that no black person writing about black characters has ever won a RITA. Considering that Arabesque opened its doors more than ten years ago and other publishers have joined the band wagon, I find it hard to believe that in all these years NO ONE black has written a book worthy of honoring. Granted, you have to be in it to win it and many folks have gotten disheartened about entering. (I however plan to enter next year, which falls under the heading of putting my money where my mouth is. Again, my breath is not held waiting for an award.)

All this leaves me with one question–is RWA trying to tell authors of color that the welcome mat they thought they saw was really a mirage?