Why I’m not at Nationals

by Lynne Connolly

Since Syb has done her bit, I thought I’d add my mite.

Main reason—expense. I live in the UK, so I can only afford one US conference a year. So I go to RT. Lots of reasons for that—more below.

I’m not a member of the RWA. I belong to the RNA (the UK Romantic Novelists’ Association). I was a member of the RWA, but I didn’t get enough out of it. Only because I live abroad. If I lived in the US, hell yeah, I’d be a member. Even though the RWA has snubbed me twice, and my fellow authors. It’s not personal. But first, ebooks aren’t good enough for them. If you write ebooks, you don’t count. You can, by earning $1000 join PRO, and I do that with most of my releases, but before that stipulation, it used to be by publisher. Secondly, they don’t like writers of erotic romance. My paranormals are of the erotic variety. I’d still be a member, though.

I get a great deal from the RNA, the local chapters and the national conference (which was earlier this month and was totally awesome). Unlike the RWA, you only have to be published by a royalty or advance paying publisher, and to contribute nothing towards publication to join. And there’s the totally awesome New Writers scheme, where unpublished members can present a full manuscript to the RNA and get it critiqued. If the RNA thinks it’s good enough, they’ll even submit it to a suitable publisher for you.

Anyway, back to the RWA. My main reason for visiting the USA is to promote my books, and catch up with friends. I wish it could be different, I wish I earned Rowling-money so I could visit when I wanted, but I can’t. And Romantic Times is far better at the reader-meets-author thing. It really is. They have two big signings during the conference and many readers come to party with the authors and publishers and booksellers. That conference has done a lot to further my career. I’ve met people who have helped me, and I’ve been able to meet people face to face. Although I’m not the greatest socialiser in the world (most writers aren’t) I do need to get away from the laptop from time to time.

The RWA conference looks like a blast, and I have a friend who’s popped over to give it a whirl. Others have visited, and one day I’ll go. Just to see what it’s like. And oh, San Francisco! I’ve never been, and I’d love to go. And at Nationals, Mary Jo Putney might not have stopped me in the lift because she recognised me. Oh wow, I squeed all the way to my room. Sorry, I was so ultra-cool when I met her, but I still squeed later.

syb note: I will enter comments here into the 'betcha contest' too

Tags: Lynne Connolly, Lynne Connolly bares all, Pondering

Do you have to be good to be gay?

Several people have commented that one of the villains of my latest historical novel, Seductive Secrets, is gay. (Since that is known almost from the beginning, I wouldn’t consider that a spoiler). The heroine, Isobel, has been abused by her late husband, Harry, and associates sex with pain and discomfort. I thought very carefully before making Harry gay because I knew I’d get the response that has come from some quarters.

I don’t want to defend the book, or comment on other aspects of it, just this issue. Neither should this be seen as a defense of the book. It doesn’t need it. You either like it, or you don’t. If you don’t, I’ll just have to try harder next time, and if you do, thank you. So on to the point of this piece.

Can you make your villains gay? In the recent past, no. Gays, especially gay men, have been persecuted, ridiculed and even executed for their sexual orientation. I write historical romances set in the mid eighteenth century and at that time ‘sodomy’ was illegal and punishable by the death penalty. It was enacted, too. Very often, the offence was used as an excuse to punish a different crime, fencing stolen property, for instance, or even spying, but it was still enacted. Homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom until the 1960’s, although by then you couldn’t be hanged for it, only disgraced and ruined. Oh goody. There’s progress for you.

So when gays were finally accepted into society, there was, and still is, a tendency to go the other way, and imply that gays could do no wrong. Put that way, it’s obviously nonsense, but the inclination is to give them the benefit of the doubt, to try to depict gays in positive ways. They’ve had it too hard for too long. Acts against them are seen as bigoted and unfair. Which they are, if they’re being persecuted for their sexuality.

But I still believe that nobody, gay, straight or bi, deserves to be classified according to their sexual orientation. Being gay doesn’t make you good, or evil, or any of those things. It just makes you gay. And yes, I’ve known a lot of gay people in my life, and not all of them have been admirable or even pleasant. Most have. Sometimes the circumstances in which they’ve been forced to live have pushed them into behaving in less than perfect ways. Sometimes, they’ve just been unpleasant people. Usually, they’ve just been – people.

Everyone is responsible for his or her actions, and having created sympathetic gay characters in the past, I thought it was time to have a gay villain. No, that’s not quite right. Harry came to me gay, he worked as a gay character, so I decided to go with it. He’s not a nice man. He realizes Isobel is a complete innocent, the fault of her mother, and uses that against her, tells her that painful, humiliating sex is the norm, or rather, doesn’t tell her otherwise. But Harry is not a villain because he is gay, to do that would truly be to enter the world of bigotry and prejudice. He’s weak, and he would have been weak if he was straight. He’s also dishonest and a coward. He never fully accepted what he was, and he forced his guilt on to someone else. Isobel. She is seventeen when she marries him, knows little about sex, and Harry used that, and blamed her for his failures. Harry never faced what he was, and used his sexuality as an excuse.

Giving gays equality means to see them as people, good and bad and in between, and not to define them by the gender they happen to prefer to have sex with.

So what do you think, readers?

Tags: 2008, July 2008, Lynne Connolly, Lynne Connolly bares all, Ponderings, Seductive Secrets

The truth about me

Well some of it, anyway.

I'm an adult and I write novels for adults. And I love writing them, so I'm not about to stop. I write for Ellora's Cave, Samhain Publishing and Loose-Id Publishing, and I love it. The best job I've ever had.

I write books with sex in them because I believe that's what an adult relationship contains, and I want to show it all. But I always remember where I am and who I'm talking to, so you won't find anything more than PG13 here. Sorry, but if you want that, there's some on my website, (with appropriate warnings).

I'll wait while you nip over there and then nip back.

I hope to give you the news on the e-publishing scene, but what you won't see is gossip and innuendo. Gutter press R(not)Us. But I can only say what I see, and any juicy tidbits I can confirm for you.

I've been in e-publishing since the year 2000 (why do we call it that, when every other year doesn't have that pompous "the year" before it?) I've seen companies come and go. Mostly go, but that's the norm in a new market. I was involved in a new market before, (disposable diapers, there, wasn't that sexy?) and so far the e-book market has followed the pattern of emerging markets. First there are a bunch of companies, most of whom fall by the wayside as barriers to entry go up and the market expands. Then larger companies move in (I think we're here at the moment) and the smaller companies that are left find themselves comfortable niches to fill, something many larger companies have also attempted with some success. Growth is huge at first, but since it's on a small base, that's not surprising. It continues to grow, and then flattens off in a nice, long plateau.

Okay, how does that work? Well when I started out, I wrote a book for a company called RFI West (I can feel fellow authors' shudders from here!) Not good, but out of it came some industry professionals who rose above the morass and are still with us. Then I went to NBI (more shudders) where I worked with the likes of Linnea Sinclair, Rowena Cherry and Ann Aguirre. Fun days, until the owner did a runner (as we say in Blighty) and left us holding - not a lot. We hadn't been paid for nearly a year. From there I went to Triskelion. I know, I had all the luck, didn't I? However, this was when the rumor machine went into overdrive. Some of the things I read at the time of Triskelion's closure were completely invented stories that people just swallowed, because it was mor fun than the truth.

Which was that they ran out of money. They went into mass market print, underestimated the returns and ended up with two warehouses full of books they didn't know what to do with. Unlike the larger, well established companies, they didn't have the reserves to cope with it, and thus, bankruptcy. Oh yes, there were management problems, centering on the owner of Triskelion, whose - idiosyncratic - management style had something to be desired. But had the money been there, they would have been worked out.

After that, I decided on safety. If a publisher says it works like one happy family, I back off, fast. I have one of those thank you, and one is more than enough for me. I want a happy professional relationship where both sides keep their promises. With the publishers I have now, so far, so good. So very good, actually. An adult relationship.

Being an adult carries responsibilities. One of them is telling the truth, something I always try to do. And behaving like an adult which is something I do - mostly. When I lose my temper, I step back and wait, and the urge to lash out goes away. I've done a bit of that recently, and I feel better for it. Mostly.

I can honestly say that I love the publishers I'm with, and I love the way I'm treated by them. That might change, I hope it doesn't, but I don't ever discount it these days.

After all, here sits the woman who was happy with NBI and Triskelion, and said so, and the one who very nearly signed with RFI West.

Never say never.

Oh yes, and the picture? Me with some of my favorite things. My laptop, my doll's house and a chocolate cake. I thought of putting one of those author pictures up, the ones I paid to have taken. I hate to have my picture taken, so there's not much out there, but this one, although not flattering, is at least honest. And the minion presenting the cake? My husband, who hates to have his picture taken even more than I do.

Tags: Lynne Connolly bares all, Pondering