Bones of Earth
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 3
Well, in writing terms, it took three weeks to write one chapter. I literally have two chapters of Bones of Earth queued and ready to go, and I’m panicking a little. I haven’t missed a week in two and a half books! I don’t want to miss one NOW!
If you’ve missed the whole RWA mess, check out Claire Ryan’s blog — she’s keeping it current. However, if you don’t want to go check out Claire’s blog (which I do recommend), here’s the “in a nutshell” explanation. A conman manipulated his way into the Presidency, and in doing so, he weaponized the RWA’s systemic racist, homophobic undercurrent. Then he picked exactly the WRONG target for his first salvo. And he completely underestimated just how ferocious Romancelandia can be when provoked.
He’s gone now. he resigned when it became clear that we were on to him — that we knew his credentials were a fraud (and just how that wasn’t discovered last year is a question that still needs to be answered).
But that undercurrent has been exposed for the whole world to see, and the RWA is in a shambles. It’s hemorrhaging members, the RITAS have been cancelled this year, and there’s a possibility the National conference might go that way. There are no sponsors left — they all bailed. A lot of the speakers are withdrawing, as are publishers and agents. There’s not much left.
We either need to rebuild it… or put it out of it’s misery.
I’d like to rebuild. Which is why it’s taken me three weeks to write one chapter! And why I didn’t have much of a winter break to speak of — that first salvo went out at COB on December 23rd. (The resulting uproar brought the RWA Board back in to session on Christmas Eve to rescind their decision. )
Now I need to figure out how to find balance — working with the people who think the RWA can be saved to do just that, working with the chapter of which I just became President-Elect, and… well… WRITING. Oh, and being a full-time mom to a rising high schooler.
And to think, I thought this year was going to be easy!