Writing Wrongs

November 17, 2006

I feel a little guilty blogging about this, because minus Noodler sister participation, I never vote in Romantic Times and Dorchester Publishing's American Title Contest. I know I�m in the minority, but something about it, well, meh. And hey, if I don�t vote, that doesn�t hurt any of the participants. It would be the same as if I had however many email accounts and voted for all of them, right?

Right. However, that doesn�t stop me from rushing over to read the snark-fest at the start of each voting period. It can be enlightening, especially if you write romantic fiction. Even if you don�t, you might want to take a peek.

One comment (well a couple actually, but I�ll focus on this one) is making the blog rounds. Diana Peterfreund has an excellent blog entry about the entire contest here.

The comment:

Hilary Ross -- I found the heroine a turn-off, mostly because I disapprove of women who choose to go into combat.

Yeah, I did a double take, but honestly, I was more perplexed by her phrasing than I was by the attitude. When you�ve shopped/contested a novel featuring a military heroine for more than a year, this is not something that surprises you. Really.

Note to self: never submit to Ms. Ross. Second note to self: consider never introducing yourself to Ms. Ross should the opportunity arise.

Anyway, the attitude doesn�t surprise me. When I was shopping India Charlie, I received a ton of strange rejections. Oddly-worded ones. Mind you, I�d already shopped a previous novel. I can spot a form rejection at fifty paces. This time around, people went out of their way to say things, and sometimes those things didn�t make sense.

Unless you take the above attitude into consideration.

It was weird, and most likely an anomaly, and it made me glad for form rejection letters.

So maybe I should be offended, but I�m not. Maybe I should be angry. Again, I�m not. It�s informative, actually. Oh, so that�s what they were thinking. But more than anything else, I think it�s simply odd.

But that�s me.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 11:58 a.m.

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