What are romance sex scenes going to be like, now? I mean, there will be kissing, and groping, and then, whoops! Pillow-talk and the L-shaped sheet.

Okay, from the quoted text, it looks like only photos -- covers? convention ads? -- and promotional description is what they're talking about. And, that's fine, no cootchie shots on the ad campaign. But, without explicit sex scenes in the actual novels, there's a huge casual audience (read: 96% of my college classmates) that will go elsewhere.

(edited to make sense)

I'm thinking it's talking about promotional/conference materials, not the books themselves.

Now, see, I think every conference should have a welcome banner featuring a 69ing couple, reading "Hello Cocksuckers!"

There goes my pitch for "Love in West Baltimore" yo. I'm kidding, but, you know.

For my answer to the genre challenge, I decided imitation is the sincerest, so this first one should be recognizable to "Tales of The City" fans.

Mary Ann Singleton had finally found the source of the scratching in her closet. Her best friend in the entire world, Michael Tolliver, was crouched among her dry-clean bags looking disconsolate. “Mouse,” Mary Ann whispered, “You’re the last person I’d expect to find in a closet.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Michael tried to stand up, but was blocked by a garment bag containing one of Mary Ann’s old Cleveland party dresses. “I think I used to go out with him, too.”

“So glad you had the chance to catch up,” Mary Ann said drily. “Now will you tell me what you’re really doing in here?”

Deb, believe me, the board dropped the ball on this one big time, and much of the membership, myself included, is up in arms, both about the decision and the poor way it was communicated. (Basically, a vaguely worded mention in an email newsletter, right as the entire board was about to go out of touch for a week to attend a conference.)

But as I understand it, it's not about the content of books themselves--it's about what can be advertised in an RWA publication or excerpted on an RWA-affiliated website. I still don't like it, and I'm still pissed as hell that the board can't get its head out of its collective ass long enough to clarify the situation. I've already signed a petition, and I'm planning a letter to the board asking for clarification: If some of the rumors are true, it's perfectly OK if the hero of my novel calls his penis a cock, but if after I'm published I want to write an article for my website on why I made that choice, my chapters couldn't link to me as one of their published authors. And what if I want to give a talk on sexual terminology at an RWA conference? Or what if I want to talk about someone being cocky, or cocksure, or to quote that bit in the Bible where Jesus tells Peter that he'll deny him three times before the cock crows?

This is only my second year as an RWA member, but this isn't the first thing that's given me a bad impression of the current national leadership. Right now the only reason I'm a member is because I have to be a member of RWA National to be a member of the wonderful Seattle chapter and equally grand Regency special interest chapter.

Susan, apparently Ms. Quinn - president, for those who aren't familiar - hasn't bothered to clarify. The take I'm getting from friends who are members is that some members are resentful of "romantica", the more erotic novels out there, and don't want to contaminate their presumably inoffensive heaving bosoms and rosy cheeks by sharing table space at cons with all that nasty stuff.

Personally, I'm thinking a writer who's that put off by someone else mentioning cocksucking in their vicinity probably has never blown anyone in their life, and in that case, what the FUCK are they doing writing stories about human relationships?

N.B.--The Ms. Quinn in question is Tara Taylor Quinn. There's at least one other well-known romance writer who goes by Quinn (Julia), and from my admittedly brief acquaintance with her, I can't imagine she'd pull something like this.

I've heard the "resentful of romantica" thing, also that there's some issue where the group might lose its nonprofit status (which for me would beg the question of why we aren't calling the ACLU and generally making noise rather than kowtowing to the Powers That Be), but that's the problem--no one is clarifying anything. Every board member post I've seen on mailing lists so far has just muddied the waters more.

As for me, I just hope this makes some people run for the board next year who'll clean house and communicate their decisions properly to the membership. For now, the Seattle and Regency chapters mean enough to me that I'll hold my nose and hand over my $75 to National to be able to stay in them. I'll be writing my pissed-off letter today, and then I'm going to get back to writing my book, Jack's cock and all.

Deb, wrod. Another genre drabble, Pelecanos style, because he likes funky, urban, carrots.

“You know, Strange, two guys like us, spending so much time in a closet together, people are bound to talk.”

“Now, Terry, don’t you go starting that mess again... I’m begging you. This is a stakeout and nothing but...you feel me?”

“Dang, I was just kidding...maybe it was a good thing he turned the Pendergrass off, you know...if you’re that insecure.”

“I should have known this guy was into all sorts of dirt. You can never trust a man that would turn off Teddy Pendergrass. He’s got no sense of quality. No sense of what’s right.”

“Lucky thing he didn’t turn off Marvin Gaye,” Quinn replied. “I’m a lousy shot these days.”

“Lucky thing he didn’t turn off Marvin Gaye,” Quinn replied. “I’m a lousy shot these days.”

That is so. damned. tasteless.

And I love it so. very. much.

muHA!

Susan, I'm a member of MWA, and we have nothing - nothing at all - resembling this kind of bullshit going on.

I suggested elsewhere that maybe the actual grownup members of RWA ought to do what we did with HWA and Persephone, and start your own version. You could call it RWAF: Romance Writers Against Fuckwits.

Terry Quinn is kind of a sick motherfucker, Deb. It's part of his Detective With Tortured Past thing. And, you know, Irish ex-cop.