sounding off « Dee Savoy

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Apr

Stand by your woman?

By writerds 7 Comments

Categories: in the news, sounding off, the secret life of dee and wtf?

I happened to be looking at presidential news this morning when I happened on a certain posting at CNN titled why have so many democrats changed their minds. Before we get any further, let me say that I am a registered independent voter, mostly because I refuse for any political party or other entity to assume I’m on their side. If you want my vote, you have to earn it. But when I looked at the big three candidates that hat their fedoras in the ring at the beginning of the primaries, I could have lived with any one of them. That said, I also had the black woman’s dilemma: with the first real opportunity to vote for a black or a woman, which, if either, do you favor.

Now, you know me. I’m all about the girls. I’ve been waiting for a woman to vote for. But it is also true that as Obama’s star has risen, Hillary’s has fallen. Unfortunately, I do think it has to do with gender, but maybe not in the way you think.

Behind every great man, there is a great woman. I think that’s a truism none of us would dispute, even though some great men get saddled with stinkers. Conversely, behind every great woman there seems to be either a dead, impaired or non-existent husband.

Would Marie Curie have risen to prominence if her husband hadn’t killed himse

lf early from too much of his own product (radiation). Would Eleanor Roosevelt have gained renown far and wide if she hadn’t been her husband’s legs? Can someone tell me where Condi’s man is?

Okay, I’m being facetious here, but as women have found their place in public and private life, their ambitions are more often derailed by their husband’s missteps than their own. Case in point: Geraldine Ferraro, who recently was much maligned for a comment that is absolutely true–with the mood the country is in, Obama is the perfect candidate to stand for both change and conciliation. Granted, she could have done a better job of articulating that, but I admire her gumption for standing by what she said. Anyhoo, back when she was a vice-presidential candidate, she caught flack for her husband’s (supposedly) shady deals.

The same happened a couple of years ago to Jeanine Pirro when she was running for Attorney General of New York, Eliot Spitzer’s old job. Concerns about her husband’s dirty dealings nearly cost her her job. Then when it came to light that she might have crossed the line in trying to spy on dear Albert, it cost her the race. True, she should have picked a better snooping buddy than disgraced former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, but sometimes a girl’s got to go with what she’s got.

Now, there’s Hillary, who was doing a lot better before Bill opened his big fat one (and before the pair made Obama’s race an issue, in my opinion). The more he talks, the worse she does. In my opinion, that’s a shame, but apparently more than a little bit typical.

So my question is, when are most men going to catch a clue when it comes to standing by their women the way women have stood by men since the beginning of time? I’m not trying to bash guys here. They don’t know unless we teach them. So maybe I should have titled this post, mama’s don’t let your babies grow up to be pains in the asses. (see yesterday’s post to find out why that’s mildly amusing.)

Apr

March Fools

By writerds 0 Comments

Categories: industry, publishing, sounding off and wtf?

It’s the end of March, the time when every young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of — did you really think I was going to say spring? Actually the advent of warmer weather usually tends to bring on a spate of contentiousness in the publishing world and elsewhere. Two recent developments make my point.

Amazon.com flexed it’s considerable muscle and decided that only those POD books published through the company’s BookSurge program will be sold on Amazon. Other books will be listed, but their Buy Now buttons will be deactivated to prevent direct purchase. You can read more about it here.

You may not have noticed it, but I removed my links to Amazon from this blog and will remove all links to Amazon from my website when that is redone in my own brand of protest. In my opinion, Amazon has acted like the 800-pound gorilla since its inception a few short years ago. Yes children there was a time before Amazon. All I can wonder is, what’s next? Now that they have that ebook capacity on their pages, will they only sell ebooks they put out, too?

The second bit of contentiousness comes from the state of Indiana that suddenly has a bee in its bonnet over sexual content in books.

From the Publisher’s Weekly article:

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has blasted a new Indiana law that requires bookstores to register with the government if they sell what is considered “sexually explicit materials.” The new law, H.B. 1042, was signed by Governor Mitch Daniels on March 13, and calls for any bookseller that sells sexually explicit materials to register with the Secretary of State and provide a statement detailing the types of books to be sold. The Secretary of State must then identify those stores to local government officials and zoning boards. “Sexually explicit material” is defined as any product that is “harmful to minors” under existing law. There is a $250 registration fee. Failure to register is a misdemeanor.

I don’t know about you, but I think this is a bit extreme. If it is acknowledged that explicit material is not intended for minors and effort is made to keep it from minors, can’t the rest of us see it, please? For more information on this ridiculousness, you can go here.

According to IC 35-49-2-2, Indiana Code defines Matter or performance harmful to minors thusly:

Sec. 2. A matter or performance is harmful to minors for purposes of this article if:
(1) it describes or represents, in any form, nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse;
(2) considered as a whole, it appeals to the prurient interest in sex of minors;
(3) it is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable matter for or performance before minors; and
(4) considered as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
As added by P.L.311-1983, SEC.33.

My real question about this stems from who will decide what is prurient and what isn’t? Who will decide what has merit and what doesn’t? What’s to distinguish the nudity in an art book or a book about the human body from a series of pornographic photos. Is everyone suspect a smut peddler until proven otherwise?

By far, my favorite take on this mess has come from Seressia Glass’s blog:

Given the current heat level of everything but inspirational romance, even the local drugstore will have to register on the ~~sex offender~~ bookseller list. (After all, it isn’t fair for the Borders to have to register and not Bob’s Drugstore.) Or perhaps the store buyer will offer a questionnaire to publisher reps and distributors asking if a title has the sex in it and having them sign a declaration stating that it doesn’t so that it could be sold.

Hhm, maybe this will finally get all those clinches off the covers.

That’s what I’ve been hoping for for years now.At any rate, with April only gearing up now, I can’t wait to see what other foolishness will crop up this spring.

Mar

Hitting the nail on the head

By writerds 0 Comments

Categories: blogosphere, my work, mystery, reading, romance, romantic suspense, sounding off and writing

I had planned to write a rather frivolous post about the hunks on Dancing with the Stars today–until I happened over to Dear Author. The day’s post about the trivialization of serious issues in romance intrigued me, since this has been a criticism of mine about the genre since I first started reading it. In romance, tragedy is often nothing more than a plot device to get the hero and heroine to a certain place in the story, without adequate consideration of what real impact such experiences have on people.

This is how the post starts out:

A legitimate criticism of romance as serious literature is it’s often cavalier treatment of important life topics. Too often, war, separation, human indignity, are treated as plot devices, conflict mechanisms, and not given the attention and treatment those important issues deserve. How many romance books are thought provoking? How many challenge your personal concepts of right and wrong? How many portray multi hued individuals as both heroic and villianous? Surely within the umbrella of the romance genre, there is room for these books.

I can’t argue with anything that is said here, which does not mean, in my opinion, that no romances deal with important issues head on, but, in my opinion, fewer than should do. In other words, if you’ve got a protagonist recovering from a bad marriage, missing child, breast cancer, rape, whatever, or you’ve got a character who’s a soldier or cop, nurse or counselor, they experience life in particular ways that are often glossed over rather than exploited properly for the verisimilitude of their story.

This to my mind doesn’t mean every story has to be heavy or heavy handed. However, if you’re going to bring up the heroine’s unkind personal history, or whatever, let the effects of it reverberate in her life on a deeper level than making her wary of the hero’s attentions. Almost any serious event injected into a character’s life produces a constellation of effects. These can be explored even if you do it in a less than grave way.

I know that I had a hard time writing my hero for Soldier Boys. The story was supposed to be light and airy, so I kept it that way as much as I could. However, the guys a freaking marine sniper, and after reading even minimally about these guys and giving him the background that I did, I knew I couldn’t divorce the story from the realities of the ongoing war and keep it in any way beleivable. So I didn’t. The result is a deeper story, I hope, even though it is also really, really hot. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it works.

But I also don’t think that romance is alone in glossing over serious events or issues. The more suspense and mystery I read, the more I become aware that every genre has its way of trivializing that which it isn’t prepared to deal with. Ever read a sex scene in your average testosterone-filled thriller? Either it’s one of those wham-bam- excuse me while I come, ma’am, deals where it’s over in two seconds (doesn’t say much for the hero if you ask me) or it’s the sappiest bit of crap that no romance writer could get away with in a million years.

The truth of it is, there is room for shades of gray in every genre: true exploration of the human psyche and human emotions in every genre; contemplation of right and wrong and just in every genre and when we gloss over it or exploit it not for what it is but what we want it to be, we do both ourselves and our readers an injustice.

Mar

More proof that testosterone in the wrong, um, hands, just leads to trouble

By writerds 0 Comments

Categories: my work, romantic suspense, sounding off, true crime, writing and wtf?

Here in New York State, we’re dealing with yet another scandal. Our governor, Eliot Spitzer was found to have been a patron of prostitutes in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. The same hotel has been linked to two infamous former Presidents: Kennedy held trysts there, while Lewinsky stayed there during Clinton’s impeachment trials. Maybe a smart guy would have picked a less notorious love nest for his clandestine meetings, but there you have it.

I never liked Spitzer, despite his squeaky clean reputation. He just didn’t do it for me and besides, there’s something about the word “spit” in a person’s name that gives me the willies. There are just some bodily functions I’d rather not know about. But what really disturbs me, particularly of late, is that it seems to be those people who campaign and win on their vows to clean up corruption are the very ones that are proven to be most deeply entrenched in it. I doubt I’m the only one on overload.

And now, from what I understand, Spitzer has no choice but to resign. What he did was similar to, but not quite the same, as other recent sex scandals. Not only did he deal with an organized prostitution ring (illegal) he flew one of said high-class hookers from NY to DC at his expense (very illegal). Just in case anyone forgot, the Mann Act, which bars the transport of young lovelies across state lines for a little suh-um suh-um, is still in effect.

Last I heard on the news, Spitzer may be trying to trade his resignation for a guarantee of no prosecution. I know I wouldn’t want to take that deal if I were the one able to prosecute him. Those who make their name exposing others ought to have to suffer the same kind of scrutiny themselves should they take a fall.

Two further ironies come out of this scandal, however. The first is that if Spitzer resigns, David Paterson, currently the Lt. Governor will become the first ever black Governor of the state of New York and only the third overall since Reconstruction. Paterson, who has been legally blind since infancy, would also be the first visually impaired person to preside over the folks in Albany. Aside from that, he’s credited with being a true man of integrity who can reach across the divide that is NY State politics to get everyone to get along. Sounds like there’s no downside to this deal to me.

The second is that Spitzer was a superdelegate pledged to Hilary Clinton at the upcoming convention. The old girl can’t get a break can she? Well, Paterson has also been in her corner, though I don’t know if he is a superdelegate or if superdelegatedom is transferable thataway.

Now I know I pledged to keep this blog more about the writing, so I don’t want to leave out that connection either. I was having trouble figuring out the crime and the motive for the crime for a romantic suspense I’m working on. Usually with RS, the crime sort of comes first, then the characters, then more details. For this one, the characters came first so I was like, okay folks, what’s going on? And they were like, hey, you’re the writer. You tell us. This is the kind of rebelliousness I have to deal with. But anyway, I started thinking high-class hookers, hmm, I could do something with that. You’ve got to take your inspiration where you can get it, right?

Oct

Come On, People

By writerds 1 Comment

Categories: sounding off

Guess I wasn’t the only one listening to Cosby last Sunday on Meet the Press, considering some of the controversy stirred up by his appearance. There are many who accuse him of airing the black race’s dirty laundry in public. While this accusation is true, it is nonetheless unavoidable. If America were truly as segregated as some folks hope and others fear, no one would get to see many of us acting like fools, killing each other, having baby after baby with no ring and no prospects of one, hitching our starts to our rappin’, hoop-shootin’ offspring. Not all of us, mind you and poor choices are not confined to the ghetto nor are the well-to-do exempt. But we are out there in this world, free to be judged, dismissed, villified or even exalted as the case may be by ourselves and others, whether or not we earn what we get back.

However, I’ve come to rely on the positive, not the negative. By that, I mean, I can’t dwell too much on what people say is wrong with the black community. My focus is on what we should feel pride in. If you want to know what I mean, watch the video.

It’s time to reclaim our fame and move on to bigger, brighter, better things!

Jul

No more, no more, no more, no more (as in Hit the Road, Jack)

By writerds 0 Comments

Categories: blogosphere and sounding off

I found this graphic over at African American Opinion, however, I would say the message goes beyond music. It’s time we women stopped playing along every time someone wants to make money off us by making us look foolish. Just one woman’s opinion. Or is it?

Jul

Please, not in front of the children

By writerds 4 Comments

Categories: publishing and sounding off

Tell me if this makes sense to you. My daily dose of PW (Publisher’s Weekly) tells me that U.S. Borders stores will be stocking the latest reissue of the children’s book series created by Belgian writer and illustrator Herge, featuring interepid reporter Tintin (and his dog Snowy). This time the globe-hopping Tintin has landed himself in the Congo, complete with imperialist stereotypes and natives resembling monkeys.

Wikipedia describes the book thusly:

in the Congo is the most controversial of the Tintin albums. It has often been criticized as having racist and colonialist views, as well as several scenes of violence against animals. Hergé has later claimed that he was only portraying the naïve views of the time.

Naturally, a few of Borders’ patrons have objected to this title. The store’s answer: to shelve this version of Tintin in the graphic books section (which has a more adult demographic) rather than the children’s aisles. Presumably Borders thinks customers are more upset that children might view racist material than that the racist material is available at all. Just another example of store shelving working in mysterious ways, I suppose.

Jul

Once more–with feeling

By writerds 5 Comments

Categories: blogosphere, career, romance, sounding off, the secret life of dee, writing and wtf?

Saturday at Blogging in Black, Alvin Romer of the Romer Review discusses RWA and the role of the black author inside it. I will let Mr. Romer’s post speak for itself. He posits some very interesting questions.

My beef is with the comments to his post. I am sick of ignorant comments about what black authors should or should not be doing regarding racism in the publishing industry, and folks making pronouncements about anyone who doesn’t follow their particular agenda. Why should I–why should any author–be taken to task for how, when, where or in what manner we deem it proper to speak out on the issues that affect US? Because I have not said anything in a manner that pleases the naysayer, does that mean I have done nothing? Do I care what they think? I’m sure you can figure that answer out for yourself. It’s very easy to figure out what other people should be doing when you have absolutely nothing at stake yourself.

Getting back to what Alvin had to say, I admit I am a member of RWA. It is a professional organization. I am a professional. ‘Nuff said. Should RWA be more sensitive to issues brought forth by it’s non-white members? You betcha. Am I going to try to force my views on them? Not on your life. IMO, whoever runs RWA and at least some portion of its membership appears to want to have its head in the sand regarding any form of change. That’s not a black thang or a white thang, it’s an adaptation thang (sorry, I saw Jurassic Park 2 last night).

You know what, I belong to my teacher’s union, too. All issues get decided in favor or whatever will suit middle and high school needs. As elementary teacher’s we get screwed. What else is new? Be a grown up. Deal with it.

My concern has always been for who reads my books. They are black, white, Latino/Latina, male, female, young old etc. How do I know? Because they tell me. I always make sure to include people of varying ethnicities in my books because that is what my world is like: that’s what my family is like. I have been reviewed and interviewed by every stripe of website out there and received mostly praise for my work.

That being said, I refuse to devote any significant portion of my time decrying the racism in the publishing industry to readers. If you don’t want to read my book, whether it’s because you’re a racist who doesn’t read black romance or a non-racist who doesn’t read black romance, fine. If you don’t like my name or you don’t like mystery with your romance or the cover looks too dark or too silly or the guy is bald and in the story your man had hair, whatever. If you don’t want to read my book, for god’s sake, put the damn thing down. Find something you do like to read and enjoy it.

Like anything else in the publishing industry, where your book is placed, what cover goes on it, where it is shelved and how many get printed is decided in the publishing house. That’s the battleground. As long as publishers feel the need to segregate us, that’s how it will go. They say that readers prefer it when black books are broken out and sales go up. From my days working in publishing and marketing, I know you can get a survey to say just about anything you want to if your interest is more in getting the desired results than listening to what your customer base says. I am not accusing the industry of shady practices, only saying that I put less stock in market research than most people might.

I’ve also never been one to try to shame people into doing what I think they should do. Those who cry “foul” to the romance readership at large may get a lot of name recognition and as many hits as kudos for their efforts, but I’d rather show people what they’re missing instead of whacking them over the head and trying to shove a book under their nose, figuratively of course. Your style may vary. Do what you have to do. Just realize I’ll do the same–in my own way, natch.

Jul

Everbody Plays the Fool Sometimes . . .

By writerds 3 Comments

Categories: publishing, romance, sounding off and writer's resources

The title refers not only to one of my favorite songs but the name of the proposal I’m currently working on. The operative word here is sometime, not every time. You’ve got to have a few wits in your head and a few brain cells on the ball.

Pity poor RWA then, that always seems to be putting it’s foot in its own mouth. This time–the new definition of what constitutes a vanity publisher. According to Booksquare:

. . .publishers whose primary means of offering books for sale is through a publisher-generated Web site;

Booksquare is quoting here and I’m not sure where from, but all I can say is Huh?

That automatically exes out all e-publishers who, shock of shocks, sell their books from their sites. Some authors from some of these houses earn more than houses publishing paper and ink books. Yet somehow e-publishers are vanity presses? Go figure.

Why can’t RWA get its head out of the e-sand and realize that the changes they are a comin’? It’s a new millennium with new media, new forms of delivery, perhaps new kinds of content. Anytime you can have reading material on your phone, it’s time to upgrade the level of technological and innovative savvy of an organization, not retreat to the Stone Age of intolerance.

Unfortunately for romance writers it seems that RWA leadership would rather see the organization remain a dinosaur rather than embrace the new days to come.

Jun

Gumbo Comes to the Bronx

By writerds 5 Comments

Categories: blogosphere, publishing, reading and sounding off

Figuratively speaking y’all, though I wouldn’t mind if it did. I’m talking about Roux in My Gumbo author Kim Robinson. Kim is making the rounds of the blogosphere promoting her book. Kim asks the following questions.

Now that I am speaking at churches about my past and how I survived it I know that I am doing what I was put here for and there is only one person who can judge me, but I have gotten some mixed comments from a lot of people and I would like to ask some of your opinions.

Scenario – You meet an author at a literary convention and you sit and dine with her, laugh and talk and you find her to be a really personable individual. You purchase her book, not really knowing that it is her life story. You take it to your room and start reading it find out that she was a Madam, call girl, drug dealer and addict for over a decade. Now she is helping others and telling her story all over the country and she has written about it, not holding anything back.

How has this knowledge changed your opinion of that person?

I’d be interested in a discussion of Kim’s scenario, but also what readers think of authors when they meet them. What turns you on? What turns you off? Whatever?

Let’s hear from you. Then if you haven’t already, please visit Kim at www.kimrobinson.com. You’ll find her Roux most enjoyable.


Get into your most comfortable reading chair,
take off your shoes,
turn off the phone
and let Ms. Savoy's incredible talent take you away.


  --Debra Ross,
     Romance in Color

A skewed sense of humor has kept me sane through 10+ years of teaching and almost as many writing. I invite you to come in and look around. Leave a comment if you like. My goal is to leave you with a smile on your face and a few new thoughts to mull over. If you like the blog, please tell your friends. If not, tell your enemies.