Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

It had to happen, of course.

There are apparently rumblings and murmurings about how the RITA awards ceremony fiasco shouldn’t have been publicized. That it shouldn’t have been discussed outside RWA loops, and that there’s no point in determining who wrote the script, and who gave it the greenlight so proper blame can be assigned.

My first thought was: y’know, this was a big ceremony with hundreds and hundreds of attendees, not all of whom were RWA members. Get a grip.

My second thought was: it’s almost always best to have things out in the open and publicly discussed. A lot of shit gets flung this way, but when it’s in the open, you can at least see the shit coming and duck. Or toss the shit back. Or whatever. Hot damn, this metaphor is HORRIBLE, but I hope y’all get what I’m trying to say.

Ah well. For Selah, who broke the story on Tuesday, massive props to you, lady.

For those of you who are curious, here’s the original discussion of the topic--the comments are where all the real juicy bits are.

We here at Smart Bitch headquarters, which I will tell you is uber-cool but I won’t tell you where it is because then we’d have to kill you, received the following press release this afternoon:

ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA ACCEPTS GAY AUTHOR
Co-writer of Romentics Becomes Member of Premier Professional Association

The Romance Writers of America (RWA) has accepted openly gay novelist Scott Pomfret as a full-fledged member.  The RWA is the premier professional association for writers and aspiring writers of Harlequin-style romance novels.  Together with his real-life romantic partner Scott Whittier, Pomfret is co-author of the Romentics series of romance novels for gay men.  In June 2005 Warner Books published the latest Romentics novel, Hot Sauce.

Commenting on his welcome to the organization, Pomfret said, “It’s nice to see that an organization like the RWA is open to recognizing that romance is not a ‘hetero-only’ institution and that gay men have romantic lives—and needs—as strong as any Harlequin heroine.” Pomfret noted that romance novels comprise 48 percent of all mass-market paperback fiction sold in the United States and are read by 41 million Americans.  He added, ”Hot Sauce taps into that popularity by giving an option to a few million gay men and the people that love them.”

Whittier admitted, “Because the RWA has traditionally focused on straight romance for women, is conservative, and is based in Texas, we were apprehensive about Scott’s application, so we were pleasantly surprised to find there was room at the table for Romentics, too.”

Y’all. Y’ALL. Check out PC Cast’s new cover for her next book.

Seriously - she won the cover lottery? She made a deal with a powerful deity regarding her book art? Wow!

I asked Ms. Cast who the artist was, so we could give him squeeful mad props, and she told me his name is Matt Mahurin. I googled him but found several references to photography, but not to cover illustrations, so I’m hestiant to bust out with the linkage.

But I am not hesitant to give a peek at Mr. Mahurin’s latest PC Cast cover - with a special note: Sir! Thank you for lush covers that evoke romance that insult neither our sensibilities nor our intelligence!

More Updates, More links!

Selah March has more delicious scuttlebutt on this thing. Ah me, my schadenfreude when it comes to this knows no bounds.

Jorie rounds up some interesting linkage on this issue.

LLB blogs about this and writes a column on AAR.

Jonquil describes some of the horrorshow on her Livejournal.

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Selah March has a post on the RITA/Golden Heart awards ceremony.

Instead of a celebration of RWA and romance fiction over the past 25 years, the RITA/GH awards ceremony included the following:

* a video and audio rehash of every national and international tragedy that’s taken place since 1980, set to a back-drop of kicky tunes from each year represented.

Imagine, if you will, footage of the tanks rolling through Tiananmen Square with “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” playing in the background. Apparently, only a last-minute edit managed to save the ceremony attendees from being forced to watch the shuttle Challenger explode in mid-air and...AND...the Twin Towers fall.

Think about that. All those NYC agents and editors in the audience. Think about it some more.

Yee-HAW. We’re celebratin’ NOW, baybeee…

** images of political leaders flashed on the screen, looking handsome and honorable.

Okay...wait. Let me rephrase. Images of REPUBLICAN political leaders--specifically Presidents Reagan, Bush I and II--flashed on the screen, looking handsome and honorable.

(...)

*** virtually no positive images of women. Lewinsky was there, as noted. Lorena Bobbitt made a showing. Donna what’s-her-name...the one that sunk Gary Hart’s political career? She was pictured. Princess Diana got the full treatment, and--GET THIS--they called her story a FAIRY TALE.

(...)

**** virtually no positive images of people of color. O.J. in his white bronco they got, ad nauseum. Bill Cosby flashed by once, so I’m told, and, as I said, Oprah got a brief mention.

Please, y’all. Please tell me this trainwreck didn’t actually happen.

Is anyone who was there willing to confirm whether this actually happened?

Update! On Monica Jackson’s blog, a couple of people confirmed that this did, indeed, take place.

That dull, thumping sound? The sound not unlike that of a ripe cantaloupe hitting the sidewalk? That’s my head hitting the desk.

My question is: why aren’t more people who attended blogging about this? Or did none of this strike them as incredibly asinine and/or inappropriate?

Or maybe I just need to expand my blog rounds more? Hmmm. If you have linkies, put ‘em in the comments! Eyewitness accounts too.

Via Booksquare comes this delicious tidbit from Grumpy Old Bookman about the (British) Romance Novelists’ Association just beating the everloving snot out of the other team (composed of staff members of Wisden, a cricket almanac) during a general knowledge quiz show.

Romance novelists are smart people. Whodathunk? Next thing you know, people will start thinking that romance novel readers don’t need to move their lips to sound out the hard words when they read.

One of the quiz show participants on the RNA team, Stephen Bowden, has a very, very amusing blog.

I am a writer of historical fiction, as yet unpublished but that will change. I am currently working on a Romantic Regency Romp, James Bond meets Georgette Heyer, complete with fireworks and at least one elephant. If I had a good title for it I would tell you, but for the time being the file name is just “Regency”.

At least one elephant? Baby, I’m THERE. Crossing fingers and hoping this guy will get a juicy contract.