Ten Years of Romance

A few weeks ago I realized that I'd let a very important anniversary pass -- the ten year anniversary of my love affair with romance novels. The actual date was back last summer, but I figure now's as good a time as any to celebrate.

It actually all began with fanfiction. I had begun watching the reruns of a show called Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I enjoyed the new take on the Superman story and that it was called a love triangle for two. I'm still amazed that some hair gel and a pair of glasses kept her from seeing that Clark and Superman were the same. But I digress.

I discovered an online community for other L&C fans and found some of them had written stories about the characters. I inhaled those stories, and soon decided I might be able to write one too. My first foray into fanfiction was a Valentine-themed story. To make a long story short, I wrote maybe a dozen stories, won some in-house awards for a few and then ticked off some people when I dared venture outside canon a bit.

In the meantime, a new fanfic writer appeared on the scene and her stories were amazing! Everyone kept telling her how great her writing was and eventually she confessed she'd paid her way through college writing for Harlequin. Oooooooooh! We were really impressed then. Impressed until one day someone commented, "I've read this before." And they referred to a Silhouette Desire.

Before we openly accused this woman of plagiarism, I said I'd see if our used book store had a copy of the book so I could be sure she'd copied it. And yes indeed, she had. It would have been a word-for-word copy except her beta reader had made corrections and suggestions. How funny is that!

Meanwhile, someone had contacted the author who contacted the site owner and demanded the story be removed. The site owner was angry that a member had posted copyrighted work as her own and banned her. Upon further inspection, we found all her work had been plagiarised and it was all removed. The site owner acted quickly because none of us wanted Harlequin to shut down our little Lois and Clark world. Heck, we knew were were treading on copyright issues anyway, but as long as it was original work, the powers that be never complained, unlike other fanficdoms.


I was also tasked with seeing if I could contact the author to let her know the offending material had been removed and that we'd taken action to ban the "writer." I was able to contact her through her website and that was the beginning of my friendship with NY Times bestseller Leanne Banks.

Her book, The Five Minute Bride, was the first romance novel I read. And I LOVED it! Where had these books been all my life? I hunted down her backlist, read her new releases and then remembered an article I'd seen in the local paper about a Huntsville woman who wrote romance novels. Her latest book had just been released, so I bought that one too.


Hot on His Trail by our very own Maven Linda Winstead Jones, begins on the steps of the Madison County Courthouse, steps I have to walk up and down twice a week for my job (when I'm not in a cast and on crutches). It was one of a series of books set in and around the Huntsville area, and one of them is on my list of top-ten favorite romance novels.

Soon I learned about the Heart of Dixie RWA chapter, discovered Mavens Linda Howard and Beverly Barton and I devoured their books too. And the rest, as they say, is history. I joined RWA and Heart of Dixie in 2004 and attended my first RWA conference that year in Dallas where I got to meet many of the authors whose books I'd read. WOW! What a treat! And how refreshing to learn they were just ordinary people like me.

My writing journey switched from fanfiction to romance with some confessions and short romance stories along the way. And then it hit the wall during my divorce. It's still trying to dig through that wall. But regardless of my divorce, I still love romance novels because I like to concept of a happily ever after.

When did you discover romance novels? Do you remember the title and author of the first one you read?

A rant, a PSA, and unsexy pirates

As you know, I have Google Alerts set up for my name and the titles of my books. These let me know when someone has kindly (or not-so-kindly) reviewed my book or mentioned me on a blog. I like to go check them out, and when appropriate, leave a comment to let them know I appreciate the plug for me or my books.

Unfortunately, like many authors, many of the Google Alerts I get are for illegal downloads of my books.

Pirate sites: the bane of anyone who has intellectual property they’d like to remain control of.

Some folks have objected to the use of the word “pirate,” as it brings up romanticized notions of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, but “pirate” really refers more to the mangy, unwashed thieves of olden days. No offense to my fellow romance authors who write lovely books about sexy pirates, but outside of Romancelandia, pirates aren’t in the least bit sexy or exciting.

Now, I’m not accusing any of our Honorary Playfriends of participating in piracy and theft of intellectual property. I assume that if you’re here, hanging out on author blogs, you appreciate that authors – like everyone else – like to be paid for the work they do. After all, they, too, have mortgages, kids who need braces, power bills… and the books they write are how they pay for those things.

Consider this more of a rant and a helpful argument you can use the next time you hear someone talking about how great it is that so much stuff is available for free out there on the internet.

Many pirates are proud of what they’re doing. They ignore take-down notices and brag about their thievery. Some will argue that they’re doing the authors a favor – suggesting that they’re advertising for the authors. Very few are repentant when the law is pointed out to them. Some assume that authors are rich and therefore aren’t hurt by the loss of sales (but some pirates do get a kick out of the possibility that the author might be!). I’ve seen some stunning – yet tragically flawed – arguments that intellectual property doesn’t have the right to protection.

The cold fact is that piracy does hurt authors. It hurts their bottom line as they aren’t getting a royalty off a pirated book. It also hurts them when the pirates cut so deeply into sales that the publisher decides not to invest money in the author’s next book. This hurts readers, too – if publishers don’t offer new contracts to authors or authors can’t pay their bills off their writing, then that’s fewer books from that author for the reader to enjoy.

Some ISPs are very responsive – shutting down the site entirely. Some legitimate file-sharing sites will quickly pull down illegally uploaded material. Others don’t care. I could spend days doing nothing but sending take-down notices, but that’s time taken away from my writing and is often as productive as banging my head against a wall.

(And yes, I dream of uploading some kind of horrible virus to every pirate site, but did you know creating viruses and setting them loose is illegal too? ~sigh~)

But one thing I have learned is that some readers don’t *know* that they’re not getting a legitimate copy. After all, publishers do give away free books and there are many sources for buying ebooks online. And with everyone’s pocketbook feeling the pinch these days, a cheap copy of a favorite author’s book is tempting. But how do you know if you’re unwittingly supporting pirates? A quick checklist:

1) Yes, publishers do often give away free downloads. 99.9 percent of the time, this will happen on one of their websites. And it will not be every author and every book they publish.

2) A big or very popular blog may also have the occasional giveaway. The author herself may have free copies to give away. The chances of some random blogger being the portal for publisher-approved free downloads are very, very slim. If they do have free copies provided by the publisher, those copies will be limited in number. The file won’t just be on their site available for download by anyone who comes along, and they won’t just randomly send it to you because you ask. Any site that has hundreds of titles from multiple publishers listed for free, immediate, and unlimited download is an illegal site.

3) * Anyone who says they’ll send you the book on a disk is a pirate. All legitimate e-book retailers do business through downloads. Period.

4) * Anyone who is selling ebooks through eBay is a pirate. Unlike paperbacks, there is no “used” market for ebooks.

*This only applies to titles that were published through your standard publishers (like Harlequin, Pocket, etc). Yes, there are some authors out there who have written and self-published their own titles and are selling them in various ways – including on disk. But trust me when I tell you Harlequin has not moved to letting just anyone on eBay be an official retailer of their books.

One eBay seller claimed to have purchased the rights to resell the books they’d listed. Either the seller was lying or they’d been had. Publishers still get their cut from the ebooks sold on legit sites, and there are multiple hoops and contracts and such that those online retailers deal with to be a distributor of the books. The right to sell copyrighted material on behalf of the publisher is not a quick-and-easy one-time form. Legit online retailers still have to pay the publisher and report sales – otherwise, how does the author get paid?

And here’s the kicker: It’s not only illegal to upload copyrighted materials to the internet for free distribution, it’s illegal to download them as well. Remember when the RIAA went after grandmothers and high school students and slapped them with fines for downloading illegal content? The pirates are guilty, but those who download from pirate sites are just as guilty – even if they didn’t know the site was a pirate site. It’s the digital equivalent of receiving stolen goods.

There are some things you – as a lover of books – can do to help the piracy problem.

If you find an author’s books available for free (or really impossibly cheap) downloading, email the link to the author or the publisher. They’ll thank you for it. If it’s a pirate site, the author and the publisher can file the appropriate paperwork with the ISP, the site owner, and the FBI. If the site’s legit, no harm has been – or will be – done. On sites like eBay or blogs run through Blogspot, you can report them yourself. (Be a crusader!! But still send us the link.)

Don’t let your kids download copyrighted material. If your friends/relatives/coworkers brag about how they found this great site with all kinds of free books and movies and software, call them on it. Remind them that online theft of intellectual property is no different than shoving a book or a CD down your pants and sneaking out of the store. (Since files are such intangible things, people don’t necessarily make that connection for some reason.)

Piracy isn’t a victimless crime, nor is it one that never gets prosecuted. And while the uploaders can get fined and/or jail time, and the downloaders normally get fined, I’d really like to see us put the Pirate attitude back in piracy. Keel-hauling sounds pretty good, doncha think?

(And yes, I do know that there are scant few people out there who can say they’ve never participated in any kind of piracy. Who hasn’t burned a CD for a friend? Or made a mix tape for a boyfriend back in 1985? It’s all illegal, but it’s the scope and frequency that the internet allows that really chaps my butt.)

So, putting any past sins (like that mix tape) aside, who do you think is more guilty: the pirates who upload or the folks who download? Does it come down to supply vs. demand?

PC

~Don't forget that debut author Melanie Dickerson will be here tomorrow!~

In defense of romance

Raise your hand if you've ever heard anyone snicker about trashy romance novels and refer to them as bodice rippers.

Raise your hand if you've heard anyone insinuate a romance is easier to write than another genre.

Raise your hand if you've heard anyone say a romance novel isn't a "real" book.

Hmmmm. I see quite a few hands raised, my own included.

I can assure you the novel I wrote was NOT easy to do, and the Silhouette editor who requested it considered it a real book even though she rejected it.

Trashy? Well, I don't read trash and I read romance novels so...

On my recent excursion to the Smoky Mountains I picked up a free magazine at a coffee shop. It featured "stories, poems and ideas" and included two pieces by poet laureates of North Carolina -- one present and one past. The publisher is also the editor and photographer, and she has an ad in the magazine for her editing services.

In her editorial offering, she writes, "Since the release of our first issue of ~name removed~, the most frequent question we've received has been 'What is literary versus non-literary writing?' or variations on that same question. After many discussions with my fellow scribblers and research, here is my own answer: Literary writing examines and defines human emotions, compulsions, actions, etc., the way a diamond cutter examines a rough stone before he strikes the first cut. Authors of literary works create (as in fiction) or report (as in history) the impacts of place, time period, political and social structures on their characters. All those impacts can happen inside one individual head, as in The Yellow Room by Margaret Atwood or in multiple worlds, as in Dune by Frank Herbert. OK, that last one will get me in trouble because Frank Herbert is firmly classed with science fiction authors, but, folks, his work does meet all the criteria for literary writing, so academia, suck it up and reconsider. Maybe there should be some crossover classifications to cover such pieces, but that is a subject for another time."

I dare say this publisher would scream at the top of her lungs that romance novels are NOT literary writing. But look at her definition. Isn't a romance about human emotions (and sometimes not-so-human as in the case of vampires, werewolves and zombies)? Doesn't a romance novel show compulsions and actions of the characters? The romance novels I've read may create the impact of place (I've wanted to visit Scotland ever since I read "Son of the Morning") and time period (Hello! Historical romance!!) I'm sure some have dealt with political issues, and Regency romances show the impact of social structure on the characters.

Since I'm not the argumentative type, I'm not going to write her and get into a spitting contest over this. I feel certain it would be like slamming my head against a brick wall, and I've had enough of that lately in other arenas.

So why DOES romance get such a bad rap, especially since it sells more paperback books than any other genre? What's so bad about books dealing with love and relationships?

Have you defended a romance novel lately? And what would be YOUR response to Ms. Publisher's editorial?

P.S. Remember a few weeks ago when I said I was running away with a biker gang? I won't be running away with them after all. I learned the hard way that people misrepresent themselves online. When I went to meet up with them, I found this! OMG!!

It's All Her Fault

Prior to 2001 I'd never read a romance novel. My reading tastes ran more toward Stephen King, Sidney Sheldon, Judith Krantz, Belva Plain and Agatha Christie. I should add, however, that I stopped reading Stephen King after The Shining kept me awake all night.

Then in 2001, a fanfiction message board I was on was plagued with several cases of plagiarism. Someone posted an engaging story that captured everyone's attention and praise. She commented that she'd paid her way through college writing for Harlequin and we were all in awe.

Then someone recognized her story as a Harlequin romance novel with the character names and locations changed. Because my town has a good used book store that's heavy on romance, I volunteered to try and find the book in question so we could be sure before we publicly accused this person of plagiarism.

It was plagiarism all right. She copied the book nearly word for word, changing Emily and Beau to Lois and Clark. Our little writing world was shocked and the author was quite gracious when she saw that we were policing the matter by removing the plagiarized material, banning the person from the message boards and posting strong warnings about passing off someone else's work as your own.

But something else happened. I didn't stop reading "The Five Minute Bride" after the first page and I'd confirmed the crime. I kept on til I'd turned the last page. I loved the story and the happy ending. Where had these books been all my life?

I went back to the UBS and hunted down all of her backlist and read those. Because she'd done a series with two other authors, I found those books and read them too. Then I found those authors' backlists and things just sorta got out of hand.

I was hooked, and I've never looked back. So if anyone's to blame for my romance novel obsession, it's Leanne Banks for writing such wonderful books. That's her in the photo. This was taken at the Readers for Life literacy signing last week in Washington, DC. I added her latest Silhouette Desire to my collection and in the process of touching base with an old friend, I got to meet one of my writing idols.


Janet Evanovich is the author of the popular Stephanie Plum series of books and one night in the hotel lobby, Leanne introduced me to Janet. It was my big fan-girl moment of the conference. I shook her hand and gushed, "I'm a Morelli cupcake." Those of you who read the books will understand. Those who don't should read the books. *g* After I'd taken sides in the "Morelli or Ranger" debate, she reached into her purse and presented me with a small pin that has the words I Y Morelli on it.

Squee! Now I'm an official Morelli cupcake.


So who or what turned YOU onto romance? Do you remember the first romance novel you read? Morelli or Ranger?