I’ve been thinking about romance reading and shame. The genre is still much-maligned, considered trashy and fluffy and not “literary.” But of course there are plenty of really smart, talented people who read and write romance. And this is a genre that I have come to really love and care about. I want writers to succeed. I want the genre to gain respect. (All of romance, I mean, because I read the high-brow ones, and I love brainy historicals, and I love mysteries and romantic suspense, and I read m/m and f/f and m/f and every now and then a menage, and I even still occasionally read those Harlequin Presents about the Virgin Sheikh’s Secret Baby’s Mistress or whatever, too, because I am a total sucker for an over-the-top ridiculous plot. Not all books are for everyone, but each has its passionate fans.)

A lot of things came together for me this past Monday night. I’d been thinking a lot about the situation with the More than Magic contest and RWA.

Aside: I usually stay away from controversy on this blog, but I do tend to be someone with very strong opinions. I’ve been following this particular issue somewhat obsessively but not really commenting on it publicly. Part of this is just a lack of time (it’s taken me two days just to write this blog post because I’m so busy with other things) but I also didn’t want to knee-jerk. At the same time, I’m a fairly upbeat person, so I thought, well, I want to write about this, but I can stay positive.

So, as to the More than Magic fallout, there were good things that came out of it. My local chapter, RWANYC, announced on Sunday that they would enthusiastically accept all romance to their Love and Laughter contest later this year. As president Lise Horton said, “Love, after all, knows no boundaries.” The membership of RWANYC is really diverse, both in terms of the people themselves and what they choose to write, and they accept everyone. That’s a refrain I’ve heard a lot from other writers—most have had really great experiences with their local chapters. RWI is not representative of the organization as a whole, is the impression I have. There’s been some lively discussion among the members of the Rainbow Romance Writers, too, although plenty of other people have talked about that more eloquently than I can.

Bottom line is that I’ve been really encouraged by the discussion and I’m optimistic about what we can accomplish, and I feel now that choosing to stick with RWA was the right decision. It took me a while to figure out what RWA could do for me, but THIS, this is what it can do.

So with all that on the brain, I went to Lady Jane’s Salon on Monday night. Lady Jane’s is a romance reading series that serendipitously takes place at one of my favorite bars in NYC, Madame X. (Lauren Willig, Eloisa James, and Sarah Wendell were the readers.) Over the course of the night, I had several conversations about romance as a genre with a pretty wide array of attendees. Everyone there was really friendly and enthusiastic about the genre. (I met a woman, for example, with whom the conversation basically went, “Hi, I’m ____.” “I’m Kate.” “Do you love romance novels?” “Of course!” and that was pretty much the tenor of the evening.)

My friend A and I have been going to pretty much every romance-novel-related event in NYC that we’ve come across in the last two or three months. What I’m learning is that New York has a really incredible community of romance writers and readers who are really fun to hang around with. These are really smart people, too.

Romance has the problem of being a medium that is (mostly) created by, produced by, and made for women, which I’m sure contributes to its reputation. But one of the things that Lady Jane’s Salon does, and one of the things that RWA and its chapters can do, is lend legitimacy, recognition, and respect to the genre.

So if you love romance, support the genre. Go to readings in your area. Talk up books you like. Celebrate what you love to read.

Heidi Cullinan’s post on the issue is great and you should read it: RWA Shouldn’t Be in the Business of Discrimination.

I joined RWA about a year ago. I know some of the members of my local chapter through my participation in National Novel Writing Month and they’d been bugging me to join for a long time. I’ll be honest; it wasn’t clear to me at first what my dues money was going to. I wound up not being able to attend most of last year’s convention, even though it was right here in New York last year, but I thought, if anything, it was a way to connect to other romance writers. The New York City chapter has been very supportive of me when I ask for it, and I’ve written articles for their newsletter and guest posts on their blog. One thing I like about them is that they are totally open to all kinds of romance writers: erotica, LGBT, Christian, contemporary, paranormal, you name it, it’s all represented.

At the beginning of this year, I joined Rainbow Romance Writers, the LGBT romance special interest chapter of RWA. I feel like I’ve found my people. This is such a fantastic group of writers. They’ve been a real force behind making it known that RWA’s wishy-washy response to discrimination is unacceptable and spreading the word about the situation. One of the missions of the chapter is to bring more attention to LGBT romance and advocate for it. “Take it mainstream,” is how Damon Suede put it when we had dinner together last fall. These are writers who take their craft seriously, who care about the genre, who want to put out good books. (Writers, please consider joining! It’s a great group!)

On a personal note, it’s been an interesting journey into the land of romance writing. I held off on joining RWA because, when I first found out about it, I was still writing overwrought “literary” fiction, which is what too many creative writing classes will do to you, I guess. But then, maybe five years ago, I listened to an episode of This American Life about RWA, and that somehow was the push I needed to give romance writing a try (or to admit that most of what I was writing was pretty much romance anyway). It took me a while to accept that romance was my calling (and I’ve loved genre fiction, romance and mysteries especially, since I was a kid, so I don’t know why I held out so long). And I love m/m, I still really enjoy writing (and reading!) it, so there’s that, too. It’s been a real joy for me to connect with other writers and readers over the last year, because I love to talk about books and writing and I WILL talk at length if you let me.

So it’s a shame that RWA, which has the potential to do so much good for a genre that—let’s face it—is often maligned, can’t see the forest for the trees.

Edited to add: Best course of action for now seems to be to email RWA National to let them know we won’t tolerate discrimination, and also to spread the word. Maybe a critical mass of people will persuade RWA to change their policy. See also Kari Gregg.

Things are still crazy around here, although tonight I took time out from work to go see Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books at the Jefferson Market Library, which is a really lovely building in Greenwich Village. The talk was great; once the crowd warmed up, there were lots of book recommendations thrown around, and I do enjoy talking about romance novels. (I gotta say, romance readings/talks have been some of the most fun book/library events I’ve been to, and I go to a fair number of readings.) (If anyone got here because I gave them a bookmark, hello!)

(Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. I am BUSY. I promise I will have things to say here soon!)

During the dot-com boom, I had a job as a copywriter at a startup that was primarily concerned with helping out executive types. My boss was a retired CEO who had once worked at one of the biggest insurance companies in the country, so that’s the sort of person I was dealing with. He was the Idea Man. We’d have these long meetings where he’d talk and I’d take dictation and my job was to translate his ideas into copy for the website. Branding was a big thing with him, which is probably why I thought the whole concept was silly for a long time. But he put forth the argument, one that is pretty true actually, that the way you present and market yourself goes a long way toward how people perceive you, and if you have a cohesive brand, that’s something people are going to remember.

But how does this relate to writing?

There was a post on Jessewave on Friday about crossing genre lines. When writers write in a different genre than the one they’ve become known for, how do readers react? This is a mild concern for me; while I will probably always write romance, I am interested in trying out different sub-genres. Sometimes the muse wants what it wants, you know?

This got me thinking about brand, though. If you buy six books by the same author, even if they are in six different genres, what do they all have in common? The author’s voice, for one thing, and probably similar sensibilities, senses of humor, moral bases. When you ask editors what they look for when singing new authors, they often answer “voice,” and that’s something that is unique to the writer. So if you buy those six books, no matter how different they are, they’re part of the same brand.

I as a reader often follow authors through different genres (with some limits—I avoid anything with graphic violence because I am a weak-stomached wuss, for example, but that is not the author’s fault, obviously) particularly once I’ve found an author whose style I mesh with or appreciate. I have genre preferences, but I’ve picked up books by authors I like in genres I usually don’t because, to a certain extent, I know what I’m getting into. I even bought a book recently that had gotten some pretty negative reviews because I’d read many other books by the author and really liked them.

I don’t really have any conclusions yet beyond that this stuff is just on the brain. I’m trying to get a head start on swag for the events I’m attending this year, which means I have to think about design and come up with a slogan and all that. Slogans are hard, because it’s difficult for me to figure out what I represent as a writer. I like to write books that are smart and funny and romantic and a little angsty. So how do I put that into something readers will remember, the sort of thing I could slap on a tote bag? That’s what I intend to figure out in the coming months.

You can get your hot little hands on a copy your very own copy. It should be available from the book retailer of your choice very soon. I’ll also be giving away a copy during the Beat Your Winter Blues Blog Tour during the week that I’m hosting in February.

Here the book is shown on my living room bookcase, next to my other paperbacks and miscellaneous books.

Today was apparently Kate Gets Lots of Books In the Mail Day because I also got a box of stuff I ordered from Amazon, all of it nonfiction. Now if I could just find the time to read all these books in between writing. Deadlines abound!

How do you beat the winter blues? I’m doing it by hanging out with fifteen other fantastic authors between now and April. Head on over to Coffee and Porn in the Morning for the inaugural post, which includes a little about each participating author and how we beat the winter blues. Also go to that post for your chance to win a $200 gift certificate to the e-retailer of your choice. There will be other prizes throughout the tour, too. Who doesn’t like prizes?

Considering how mild this winter has been in New York, it’s hard to get too upset about the weather. I’m currently knitting a hat in between bouts of writing, and that’s part of how I beat the winter blues.

Here’s a little more info about the tour. I’ll be hosting a leg of it in February, so stay tuned!

2011 was a really amazing year both personally and professionally, and I’m hoping for even bigger and better things in 2012. I wanted to reflect a little on how this year has gone. As far as my writing goes, here were some 2011 highlights:

• The Boy Next Door was published in January. This was my third book, and my second novel-length work. The story has a lot of emotional resonance, at least for me. And it’ll be out in print sometime this month!

• In March, I went to the Rainbow Book Fair here in New York City and spent the day hanging out with a bunch of my fellow Dreamspinner authors. Everyone I met was wonderful. I think I met a dozen authors that day, and they were each friendly and welcoming and I thought it was great to feel a part of this community of m/m writers.

• In June, my friend A and I went to the literacy signing that kicked off the RWA conference in NYC. I talked to a few m/m writers there and I got to meet Suzanne Brockmann, who is one of my romance-writer idols.

• Blind Items was published at the end of July. It’s funny to me that this became my breakout novel in a lot of ways. I was so unsure of how it would be received. It’s a funny book, and it’s quite New York in its sensibilities, and it’s as much about the main character’s relationships with the people in his life as it is about his romantic relationship. But I continue to be delighted by the way it’s been received, and I’m thrilled so many people enjoyed it.

• Two big things happened in October. Across the East River Bridge was published, and that is a book I’m enormously proud of. That same week, I got on a plane to New Orleans and spent four incredible days at GayRomLit, an event I’m still giddy about. I had such an amazing time meeting authors and readers and talking about books and everything else. I’ve been looking forward to Albuquerque since I got on the plane back to New York.

• In December, my fourth published work (if you exclude freebies) of the year came out, a Christmas short called A Walk in the Dark. I also accepted a job that I’m really excited about, but we’ll get to that soon.

So now a new year! I rang it in last night with good friends who live in Manhattan. Just after midnight, we went up to their building’s roof to see if we could catch a glimpse of the fireworks being shot off from Times Square. We heard them, but the view was blocked by other buildings. Still, I had one of those moments, looking up at the familiar parts of the skyline, when I was reminded just how magic this city can be sometimes.

I have a lot to look forward to this year. I just this morning got the contract for my fourth novel-length work, a romance between two baseball players tentatively titled Out in the Field. I’m hard at work on a number of other things as well, but more about that later.

A happy, healthy, prosperous New Year to you all!!