I saidI wasn’t going to blog about the whole EC/RWA issue but unfortunately I can’t escape it any longer.

First, just so no one feels misled, I am an Ellora’s Cave author and darn proud of it. EC has treated me beyond fairly and I love working for them. Even if I manage to get published in Romantic Suspense with another publisher, I’ll continue to write for EC because they ROCK!!!!

Now here’s my take on the erotica/porn/romance debate. To me, if it has people who fall in love and live happily ever after it’s romance. Whatever steps they take to get there, should it involve werewolves, BDSM, menage a tois, or whatever else is their business. Romance is falling in love, end of subject.

All my characters fall in love and end up happily ever after. I may write some darn hot sex throughout the book, but my characters form emotional attachments that withstand intergalactic wars, death threats, and usually mayhem of some sort. I might also add that my books might talk about sex in franker terms than many “traditional” romances, but the amount and type of sex is no more wild than many, many traditional authors. Heck, sometimes even less!

In the end what it comes down to is your comfort level. I think the word “erotica” puts people out of their comfort zone, which is why I don’t refer to my stories as that. I dare ANYONE to read one of my books and tell me that they aren’t romance. People may not like the heat level of my writing, and that is totally understandable. I don’t enjoy reading “sweet” romances, but it doesn’t mean I look down on those authors and say, “Well, they only write inspirational because they can’t write sex.”

We write what is in our heart, and that is what’s important. Shouldn’t we all stick together and support each other as AUTHORS instead of attacking and defending our own little turfs?

And that’s the last I’m saying on this issue! Tomorrow I’ll go back to complaining about my kids. . .

Yes Miss Kate,
I’m still alive and I haven’t killed anyone either. Not that it hasn’t been tempting. . .

I haven’t blogged lately for two reasons. . .
1.) I’m darn busy and am trying to bust my buns so that I can finish my novella before I leave for Reno for the RWA National Convention. If I don’t finish it in the next week or so my editor is going to be very unhappy with me.

2.) It seems to me that my blog entries are all whining and since I don’t like listening to my children whine I can’t imagine anyone wanting to listen to me.

When I had started blogging I had thought about giving out pearls of writing wisdom, or at least filling people in on what exactly a writer’s life entails (it ain’t champagne and roses obviously). Instead, it seems to me that I have used this forum as my own personal bitch session.

Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy!

My hope is that by sharing a slice of my life any struggling writers out there will know that being an author doesn’t mean I sit around in my silky nighty with a feathered pen writing sex scenes. Not that I’d be opposed to that life style, especially if it came with several boy toys who would wait on me hand and foot. . .

But, I digress. . .

I don’t know if anyone reading this is struggling to be a published author or not. I do know some of my buds who ARE writers (much better than me, by the way) read my blog. I guess it’s easier than listening to me complain in person, hahahaha. As far as I know, none of them write in their silky nighties with a legion of boy toys waiting to fulfill their every need. (But hey I could be wrong, Mary? Kate? Leigh?)

That’s not to say I haven’t written in my pajamas before. In the winter I tend to stay in my comfy flannel pajama pants, sweatshirt, and leave my glasses on as long as I possibly can. In fact, the night I heard from EC that they wanted to buy Rebel’s Lust I was in just such an outfit. I’m sure the folks passing my house on the street were just amazed as I did the happy dance in the kitchen looking like that.

My children were completely unimpressed.

But I digress yet agan. . .

Anyway, for all of you who listen to my ramblings, thanks for taking a moment or two to share my life. I hope if nothing else my life makes yours look much more relaxing, hahahha

I’ll let you know when the novella is done. I have about ten thousand more words to write, but who’s counting??