The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
A quote from Jennifer Crusie's latest RWR column that I thought was worth sharing:
So you're building your island (N.B. There's an island metaphor throughout the column) based on unrealistic dreams and convictions made of thin air. What's the worst that can happen? You never get published or the book of your heart tanks, and you never reach your goal, but at the end of your life you look back and say, "I had a dream and I fought for it, I believed in myself and my work, and I never, ever gave up." That's a life well lived, folks, a helluva lot better than, "I had a dream but it wasn't realistic so I quit and watched television." Do not let reality push your around, do not be sensible and kill your own dreams, and for the love of God, do not let people who are only guessing about what's going to happen next tell you that you're a fool for believing in yourself and your stories.
Yep. Jenny Crusie is a very smart woman, and how right she is.
In good news/bad news...
So I finally got an offer to be in another Brava anthology, this time with Lori Foster, which is great, as she has a big following. Yay!
But my novella idea just got shot down, becaues my editor vetoed my tattoo artist hero. Damn it. I'm so sick of genre rules. Who says a tattoo artist can't be sexy or appealing? (And yes, I have been watching Miami Ink, why do you ask?)
And I just got another email instructing me that he can't even *have* a tattoo. I give up. This is why genre kills me. I can't write corporate rich guys or sexy construction workers forever.
He can't even
HAVE
a tattoo? WUWT? For heaven's sake. Have they taken a look at the arms of the so-called Greatest Generation? Tattoos are hardly alternative on men. Granted, none of my men have tattoos (well, Soul!Sucking Demon boyfriend did, but I mean my dh, my dad, grampies, etc.), but still. My f-i-l has a tattoo. I'm pretty sure at least one of the b-i-ls has a tattoo. And for goodness sake, a lot of construction workers have tattoos.
Hey, maybe you could make him a guy whose backstory includes having to have a tattoo removed, in order to get a job?
I think we've decided that he's going to be simply an artist. Maybe working with glass, or metal.
Feh. I want to go get another tattoo myself, in protest.
I personally know a very sweet tattoo artist that loves his wife and kid to death. I bet he would have a great story.(you'd probably want to make him a bit more "straight" than that particular guy, appearance wise, but it is a craft that the good ones devote time to...his apprenticeship was only a bit shorter than my college.)
In other word, the publisher is a judgmental fogey and I bet the 18-34s would think your book FG.
I can't write corporate rich guys or sexy construction workers forever.
Um, I don't regularly strip total strangers of the male persuasion naked, but I feel qualified to report that one of these categories is notorious for tattoos, and the other is catching up fast. Do romance editors never go to the beach??
I mean, maybe you would draw the line at
porny
tattoos on construction workers, although the people who did work on my father's house when I was 10 did not.
Artists also -- tattoo city. Possibly also dreads, those giant enlarged-hole era-piercings, and tongue rings. Anyway, most of the artists I run into.
I know romances often take place in a "never mind the details" alternate reality, but sheesh.
In other word, the publisher is a judgmental fogey and I bet the 18-34s would think your book FG.
Being 4 years outside that demographic, and only a handful of years behind the Baby Boomer women, I think that easily goes past the age 49.
Okay...my bad. See why statistics get messed up sometimes. Anyway, the publisher can come in from 1964 now...he's probably just heard about the cigarettes the jazz musicians are smoking, too.
So, it's hard to Cinderella with tattoo guy. Is that the only fantasy there is?
Roamnce has all kinds of "rules". No sports guys, for one. Yet Susan Elizabeth Phillips wrote a couple of bestsellers with football players.
Musicians and actors are another no-no.
But this is why chick lit caught on, I think -- younger readers want a little more variety and realism. Romance heroines can never *ever* smoke a cigarette (the horror!), but chick lit heroines can, for instance.
Also, it's not so much my publisher as my editor who objected, and she also happens to be a very good friend. I love her to death, but her idea of sexy and mine aren't always the same. And I really feel like telling her that no matter what she thinks about a particular hero, readers aren't always going to share her squicks *or* her turn-ons.
