I learned several things at the convention. First and foremost, despite the rules of RWA and MWA, there is a large area where romance and mystery readers’ tastes converge. Not only did I find several authors who had both romance and mystery series in bookstores, readers didn’t seem to care about the labels. If an author is consistently delivering a tale that resonates with them, readers will buy their books. There doesn’t appear to be a reason for publishing under two different names for the two genres, although none of them write scorchers. And I heard a couple of the writers in workshops say the contents of their mystery novels were becoming hotter, romantically, following a trend I’ve seen in romance.

A second related point is cozy mysteries frequently have a romantic secondary plot, just as romances frequently have a secondary mystery plot. Readers don’t appear to care what the label is, as long as the story is satisfying.

Mystery writers are just as friendly to fans and other writers as romance writers are. However, at Malice Domestic there was no dressing up or colorful parties like at RT. The panels were designed around particular sub-genre lines or particular big-name authors, but they were strictly discussion and Q and A. The friendliest gesture I heard about concerned a fan who was turning 89. She was brought to the convention by her daughter as a birthday present. The daughter had written ahead of time to the big names attending that weekend and asked for birthday greetings for her mom. Every author replied. That is the sort of thing people remember.

Mystery Scene Magazine put on a breakfast Sunday morning where 26 newly published authors had a two minute Q and A with a fan on some aspect of their first book. This was a great opportunity to learn about first time authors. It also reminded me of how knowledgeable fans are. All the panel discussions were also moderated by a fan. Some of the fans had been present for all 25 Malice Domestic conventions. These are dedicated readers and book buyers, ones I wouldn’t mind having as my fans.

A half dozen independent book stores were invited to set up booths in the book room, and they were busy selling books all day long during the convention. Every time I heard about another book (or two) that sounded interesting, I was back. So far, one’s become an auto-buy and one was a disappointment, and I have several more to read. I even bought one to give to my daughter. Living in the back of beyond, we don’t have book stores, so the bookshop room was nirvana. It was good to see so much attention, and money, focused on indie bookshops.

Another difference between RT and Malice Domestic is at Malice, there are no book giveaways except for a dozen or so in the bag every attendee gets and little or no swag. There are four signing opportunities with different authors each time, and fans bring their books in to get them autographed. Before you think no one would be interested, let me assure you the line started early and grew to fill all available space. Fans like autographs and meeting their favorite authors.

There wasn’t a costume in sight. One major difference from RT.

This was my first convention and I had a blast. I can’t wait to go next year when I’ll get to see the same experience as an author. Already I’m wondering how much different it will look from a different point of view.

Have you ever attended an event as a fan or part of the audience, and later attended as a participant? What struck you about your different perspectives?

May I have a drum roll, please.

Today, we are opening Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Publishers. Not just any publisher, but a publisher who puts the interests of its authors first. Because who is the lynch-pin in the publishing chain? The writer.

Taking our cue from self-publishing while using the best features of traditional publishers, Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Publishers offers above industry standard advances, publication in both print and e-books, a full-service marketing department, and author control of covers. Distribution will be through bricks and mortar stores, online retailers, and Santa Claus express.

Best sellers such as Rubies Darynda Jones, Hope Ramsay, Tamara Hogan, and Shelley Coriell have been pushing for such a deal from a publisher for a long time. Self publishing mavens such as Rubies Laurie Kellogg, Amanda Bryce, Cate Rowan, and Autumn Jordon see this as a “best of both worlds deal.”

As a special inducement, not only will our authors’ photos be air-brushed, but our authors will then be air-brushed by some paranormal measures into looking like their photos. Rita Henuber, Gwynlyn MacKenzie, and Kate Parker will be our stunning spokesmodels for this service. Note: this service is not for anyone who would be under the age of 21 if twenty years of wrinkles, fat, and age spots were removed.

Busy moms such as Anne Marie Becker, Cynthia Justlin, Heather McCollum, and Liz Bemis appreciate the housekeeping service provided for our authors by the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Publishers. Once a week, between the hours of 2am to 3 am, a genie arrives, claps his hands, and the author’s house becomes spotless so that our authors have more time to turn out prize-winning novels.

These services can be delivered internationally for our authors such as Bev Pettersen, Tina Joyce Beckett, and Vanessa Barneveld without the pesky cost of international shipping.

As always, the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood wishes you a merry April Fools’ Day, the only holiday where the greeting is “gotcha!”

No. It is never time to panic.

Save panic for floods, tornadoes, or icebergs if you happen to be sailing on the Titanic or Carnival. In these cases, panic would be counter-productive, not to mention an extra danger to your survival. And if it is never time to panic in a life or death situation, there’s no reason to panic over a literary problem.

I remember waiting for those Golden Heart calls. By this time in the contest, I was nervous. Nail biting, pacing, half a bag of M&Ms down my throat nervous. I wasn’t alone in my anxious quest to achieve fame and fortune via the Golden Heart. Too many of my Ruby Slippered Sisterhood sisters found agents and editors through this contest. Too many Golden Heart finalists have gone on to become multi-published household names. I wanted that success, too.

So I took advice from writer friends and learned to channel my inner screaming. I exercised. I ate chocolate. (Even worry has its benefits. There is nothing chocolate can’t soothe.) Most of all, I wrote.

It was this time last year that I looked at my Golden Heart manuscript and thought “This is a load of manure.” I’d finalled three times in the Golden Heart and I was beginning to recognize the difference between manure and gold. So I took that manuscript, changed POV, secondary characters, and genre, and started over from the beginning.

On Call Day, I was waiting for the phone to ring just like many of you, but I hadn’t been wasting my time between mailing in my manuscript (we still mailed them in during the ancient past of last year) and when I’d got the judgment of my peers. I’d been writing. I’d put my hands on the keyboard daily and I’d worked on my craft and my stories.

I didn’t get a call last year. I felt like the girl sitting on the edge of the room, watching everyone else dance. No giddy giggling. No emails from new Golden Heart class of 2012 buddies. But I didn’t panic. I kept writing.

And in September, after getting my fabulous agent, I got the news that I wouldn’t be eligible for this year’s Golden Heart. The manure that led to not getting a call last March drove me on to writing the story that gained me a publishing contract.

In the coming days, you’ll hear from Golden Heart finalists who became published authors thanks to the contest. That’s the significance of a Golden Heart final. You have a manuscript that is good enough to be considered for publication. It’s a reason to be excited. Overjoyed, even. But if you don’t get a call from RWA in a week and a half, don’t panic. There’s more than one road to publication, and not getting that call is no reason to panic. Just keep wrtiting.

What do you do to keep yourself from panicking when you’re waiting for the Golden Heart call or any other good news? And if that good news doesn’t come, what do you do then?

The failed Golden Heart entry became The Vanishing Thief, where a proper Victorian bookseller who solves crimes and backs down from no man finds herself at odds with a handsome, wealthy, overbearing duke. The book will be published by Berkley Prime Crime in December, 2013. This is the first in the Victorian Bookshop Mystery series.

Visions of Sleeping with the Enemy popped into my head, followed by strange spy scenarios. I could see my daughter’s mind running in the same direction. I think it’s hardwired into our genes. Perhaps it’s just a wish that things could end happily all the time when reality doesn’t give us that option. We’re writers (my daughter doesn’t know she is, yet) and as writers we see endings and plot complications and character arcs beyond what happens in real life.

I once followed a car down a two lane road where the other car’s trunk was leaning badly to one side. I decided it was because of the weight 0f the body in the trunk. When he pulled off and got out to open his trunk, I wondered if he would be surprised to find the body there. Actually, he was getting a flat tire, and the only thing he wanted to find in his trunk was the spare and the jack. On the other hand, I knew what the deceased looked like and how he had come to be in the trunk of the car. My reality may not be real, but it sure is exciting.

When writing, I sometimes have to bend time and accuracy to give my story more thrills. For instance, Operation Sea Lion was Hitler’s plan to invade England, devised in 1939 and 1940. What if it had been planned two years previously, and a copy was stolen and smuggled into England? The possibilities for mayhem are endless.

There are hundreds of real apps for mobile phones. What if Cupid devised an app that gave the coordinates for the person you were to spend your life with? No name, no identifying features, just the closest intersection to where they were at that moment. Can you imagine the confusion this could cause in a romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day?

Authors have written such stories as “If the South had won the Civil War” and other alternative history. Steampunk is set in a technologically advanced Victorian world. Dan Brown’s tales tend to take a piece of history and move it into the present day with startling results.

Taking what is (or was) and changing that reality is something writers do instinctively and almost without realizing it. It’s part of the creative process.

You know you’re a writer if: Have you ever been to a movie and afterwards needed to rewrite the ending?

Overheard a conversation and created an entire scenario around it?

Seen someone in a crowd and thought, “That person would make an interesting character  in a story?”

I know you’ve had some of these same experiences, or you have imagined a better ending to an event than what happened in real life. Please share them with us.

I call the class “Line Dancing for Zombies.” While many of our classmates are young and active, we have one lady who is 91 and another in her mid 80s. One of my classmates had a complete knee replacement less than six months ago and is dancing rings around me because I dance like a pregnant water buffalo. A good reason to line dance. It saves on apologies to partners.

Today we had a man join our class who is on portable oxygen. He didn’t know any of the steps; none of us do when we first join. He had the extra weight of the oxygen tank to carry with him as we moved and turned. He shuffled through the class, watching what the rest of us were doing and trying to keep up.

He made it through the class. He had the choice to sit out exercise with his oxygen bottle or make the effort to come in to the YMCA and dance, and he danced. It was his own steps rather than what is choreographed for each piece of music as he tried to figure out what we were doing, but he danced.

We’re two weeks into the Winter Writing Festival. By now the first flush of excitement is over, and the tedious slog of doing what you said you would do every day is wearing you down. Things are coming up in your life. The dust bunnies are multiplying, the kids are coming down with the flu, a new project has come up at work demanding more of your time.

Like the man who had the extra weight of the oxygen bottle and lungs that must have quickly begun to burn from the need to rest, you have a choice. You can sit out putting those words on paper or on the computer screen, or your fingers can dance across the keyboard. I hope you dance.

How is the Winter Writing Festival going for you?

I read through it primarily for the information on editions and deals booksellers received from publishers, but I became fascinated by what authors were paid, their relationships with their editors and agents, and their attitudes toward the business of writing. Shortly thereafter, the Ruby Sisters began a discussion on publishers not paying well, the public not buying most authors, and authors not making enough to live on. I was amazed to find nothing had changed in the past 120 years.

Publishing in the late Victorian era was undergoing a huge transformation. Publishing houses were set up and closed down with a frequency matching today’s e-publishers. Authors, with and without agents, tried to get better deals from their publishers. The industry was in flux.

In 1880, there were no agents and novels were bought outright for a flat sum from the author. Authors hated it when their books sold well and the publishers reaped the profits. Other times, the publishers lost money. Before 1900, agents had come along and writers were getting royalties for books they kept the copyright to. For authors like George Gissing, the amount he made from a book was about the same either way.

The thesis goes on to discuss HG Wells and AC Doyle, who could dictate terms to their publishers because they were hugely popular, and who got the lion’s share of the publishers’ advertising dollars. Nesta mentions an author who “never earned more than 50 pounds for any of his books, mainly novels of country life that had favourable reviews but had only a very limited market…The economics of the market quite simply depended on the saleability of an author.” Please note from this, favorable reviews had nothing to do with sales and publishers put their advertising budget behind big names.

In other words, publishing hasn’t changed since the age of the horse and buggy. And those authors kept turning out book after book despite not making much money because they were novelists. That who they were. That’s who we are. Most of us will never be happy with how many copies we sell or how much we make. But will we stop? I hope not. To stop would make us less than we are, and would deprive those smart enough to read our work of enjoying our wonderful stories.

Do you write because of today’s opportunities or despite the lack of them?

In honor of Halloween, we’re going to talk about a subject today that groans and shivers. Setting. A talking head is just a term for dialog-heavy writing where the reader has no sense of where the characters are, what they look like, and what they’re doing. Unless the head is sitting on a table or discovered in the trunk of a car.

Immediately, you begin to imagine all sorts of scenarios, with guillotines or zombies or serial killers. As writers, we need to harness our readers’ imaginations to the words we put on the page. And that is the reason setting can be such a powerful tool.

Take the sentence, “Apparently, you haven’t been here before.”

Now add: Water seeped down the walls and flowed in the concrete ditches beneath the slippery metal walkway. Eve clung to the thin railing, her only protection from the rotten cabbage smell rising up to drag her into the dizzying rush of the storm drains. Above her, Paris in the rain was familiar, loved, captive. Down here she was lost, with only a guide she didn’t trust taking her to a rendezvous with the resistance, or the Gestapo.

Her guide twisted his head around, his eyes glinting demonically in the erratic light of the lantern. “Apparently, you haven’t been here before.”

Or: The throbbing in her head lessened enough that Eve was aware of the shackles around her wrists and ankles. A strip of light shone through a crack above her head, glaring with intensity on dust mites and the skull of the skeleton chained to the wall opposite her. She jerked when her eyes focused enough to make out what it was. Immediately she shut her eyes against the pain.

Then a voice, rusty from disuse, said, “Apparently, you haven’t been here before.”

Or: The house was frightening enough in daylight. By night, with only a sliver of a moon and no nearby street lights, it was eerie. Every small animal scurrying through the weeds, every board creaking under her feet on the porch, every scream of the night birds, proclaimed this was a bad idea. A stiff October breeze nearly blew her off the porch, making her feet tremble as they inched toward the door.

As she raised her hand to knock, the door swung open. The man standing there was young, handsome, and stripped to the waist. Eve stared at the well-muscled chest, unable to form a coherent thought, much less speak.

He gave a deep chuckle and said, “Apparently, you haven’t been here before.”

Same sentence, different settings. While dialog is important, and probably the easiest thing to write on a first draft, setting is what makes our stories vibrant. We all have our favorite settings to place our stories in. The trick is to make that setting come as alive on the page as it is in our head.

What’s your favorite setting? And do you start planning a story around where you will set it, or do you have the story first and then find a good setting in which to anchor it?

I begin removing their clothing, and the heroine looks at me and starts screaming. She pulls a corner of the computer screen up to hide the luscious figure the hero has been staring at the entire story and continues to scream. The hero looks at me, shrugs, and modestly turns away to button his fly. He’s not going within a million miles of this screaming female, and he certainly isn’t going to try to make love to her. The mood is ruined.

What’s an author to do, particularly in the Year of 50 Shades of Gray?

Besides waiting for the phenomenon to pass, which it will as surely as chick lit is yesterday’s news, there are several routes to telling the story. The obvious is writing inspirational romance, which is a successful field for many.  However, if you’re like me, a Lutheran married to a Catholic, beer drinking, card playing, and dancing are as much a part of our culture as Sunday services. In my father’s generation, they, including his minister cousins, drank beer at church picnics. Not exactly acceptable behavior in today’s inspirational romances.

Then there are sweet romances with a focus on hearth and home. Another field that has been successful for many romance authors. I believe a couple of Ruby sisters will raise their hands and tell us more about this genre than I could. Unfortunately, given a hearth and home, my thoughts wander to blowing up the home or walking in to a trail of blood. Not what readers of sweet romances want.

Then there is sci-fi/romance, mystery/romance, thriller/romance, and paranormal/romance. These can be shelved in two different parts of the bookstore, depending on the cover and the mood of the bookstore clerk that day. The expectations of both publishers and readers is that these stories may have their love scenes interrupted, held between chapters, alluded to, or right there on the page. There is more freedom for the author in these split-genre works. As long as the sexual tension is clear to the reader, romance readers seem to be satisfied. This last statement is based on observation, not statistical data, and can be debated ad nauseum.

And then there’s YA. This may be the most vibrant field of romance literature, but because of its target audience, many of the best examples don’t allude to love scenes. It is certainly a field where romance authors have made their mark without facing their naked characters screaming at them from the computer screen.

Any other suggestions for shy characters? Do you want to lynch this romance author for being a closet prude, or do you think there’s room in the romance stable for all of us?

Mine would have to be the 2012 Washington Romance Writers “In the company of writers.” After a rough start (an hour riding on twisting country roads to get to the location made me car sick), I had a wonderful weekend. I had the pleasure of meeting my agent, the brilliant Jill Marsal of Marsal-Lyon Literary Agency, for the first time. I caught up with a lot of friends from the years I lived in Northern Virginia and attended WRW meetings. I saw some of my Ruby sisters who also belong to WRW.  

One thing we do every year at the WRW writers retreat is called “American Author.” We can send in the first 250 words of our manuscript to be read anonymously to a panel of three editors who give their immediate reaction. This year’s panel was St. Martin’s Jennifer Enderlin, HQN’s Margo Lipschultz and Valerie Gray. These women are sharp. As they had these first pages read to them, the editors were able to explain what did or didn’t work for them, and quote the specific passage they were referring to. American Author is an incredible education for any writer on how editors think.

It’s also not for the faint of heart. These editors are very professional, but very outspoken on what works and what doesn’t work for them. Sometimes they will completely disagree with each other. I was sitting on pins and needles. Especially since half the room knew which first page was mine because we could list at the beginning of the page our sub-genre and time period. I’d listed a sub-genre that was slightly different than the other entries, and I’d already told everyone what I was working on. The other half of the room could probably guess when they read my entry as I slid farther down in my seat.

Miracle of miracles, they all liked mine. There was not one objection to anything I had written for 250 words from any of these editors. Considering the flaws I’d had pointed out to me in previous years’ American Author, this was both amazing and gratifying. I sat up straight and grinned like I’d been given the gold ribbon. When you get a pat on the head like this, it’s a great conference.

I’ve been to Moonlight and Magnolias and the New Jersey conference and had a great time at both events. I’ve been to enough RWA National Conferences, starting in 2001 in Denver, to fill up my badge holder with conference pins. I think my favorite would be 2010 in Orlando, but that might have something to do with Mickey. Sometimes, it’s not only about learning and accolades.

Sometimes it’s about networking or catching up with our friends once a year. Sometimes it’s a special sight-seeing adventure or a chance to see a Broadway play. Sometimes it’s discovering a new sub-genre in a workshop, or meeting your number one favorite author in the universe in the elevator and being coherent until you reach your floor.

What’s your favorite conference experience, and what made it special for you?

For example, a co-worker at the book store my daughter worked in was chosen to lead the mystery book club. She quickly found none of the readers liked her choice of books. When I asked what type of mystery she was choosing, I got a blank look. It turned out, the readers wanted cozies and the girl was choosing hard-boiled. Both are mysteries, but very different types. The young store clerk and her audience had different interests, but only used one word to describe what they wanted.

Another example, which my youngest will never forget, is that “bodice-ripper” is not a synonym for “romance.” The neighbors probably heard my lecture that day. All the child wanted was a book that didn’t have a cover she was embarrassed to take on an airplane with her. Blood and gore were fine; naked skin was not. She tarred a certain type of book cover with far too wide and inaccurate a brush.

Not only do we need to be specific with what we are offering the reading public, we can also confuse each other within the publishing industry. I’ve heard internal and external goal, goal and conflict, and a host of other terms which never made much sense to me. The other day, someone sent me a copy of an article where these were described as goal and task. Finally, something that didn’t confuse me.

Here, goal was used as the internal, universal goal the heroine has that everyone can relate to. Finding love, creating a home of one’s own, making the world a safer place, seeing justice done. And task was used as the external goal which is specific to every story. A marriage of convenience to save her brother in the castle dungeon. Forging a document that allows an innocent man to go free. Saving his family’s small business in the face of competition from a conglomerate. These are specific tasks, but they can all lead to finding love as the universal, internal goal. This is a perfect example using a word I understood and could relate to.

We try to use words as labels. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it only adds to the confusion. Is that book romantic suspense, mystery with romantic elements, suspense with romantic elements, romance, suspense, or all of the above? And try to guess where to locate that book, either in a bookshop or in an online catalog. A “hot” rating to one person meets their expectation for a romance, while another wonders if their Nook will melt.

What words in the world of books do you find the most confusing? Or have you recently come across a word that explains something in a new and better way? I’d love to hear your favorite, or not so favorite, phrases.

Let’s see if we confuse or clarify things for one another.