Where did the first 1/6 of 2025 go? (I hope my fractional math is correct, lol)
What have I been up to?
I just launched THE ETIQUETTE OF LOVE, which is my first book of 2025 and I have just jumped into the next book, KATHRYN. Of course I have also been misbehaving and writing parts of new books that I have no business writing. I tell myself that it’s okay to write other, non-scheduled books as long as I do so after my workday is done. Yes, I reward myself for writing by allowing myself more writing. Well, I never claimed to be normal.
Speaking of a lack of normality (or normalcy, if you are a fan of President Harding, who made up the word) I want to talk a bit about public events. Specifically, romance events.
Yesterday I met up with several other authors and one of the many subjects we discussed was book events. I was asked why I don’t do them–or at least why I haven’t done any for quite some time.
Mainly I don’t do them because I’m not good with crowds. Also because I am awkward in social situations. And then there is all the hugging. I’m serious. Does it make me a bad person that I can’t abide being hugged? I can’t. And a conference with romance lovers is probably the most huggy place in the universe.
Even though I have always disliked being hugged I have never found a polite, non-hurtful way of communicating that fact to people. No matter what I say, I always feel like I’ve just kicked a puppy. But the truth is that being hugged 40 or 50 times a day is the mental/emotional equivalent of being repeatedly smacked with a 2×4.
So, I have a hard time with public events.
But I also like connecting with readers, so the issue of attending cons is one I agonize over frequently. I’m agonizing over it today because I politely declined an invitation just this morning and I now feel guilty for doing so.
Anyhow, I think my last con/fest/event was the Pasadena Lit Fest (I feel like that was 2022), where I joined a panel with several romance authors, including one other HR author, Tessa Dare (how’s that for name dropping??) I agreed to go to the PLF mainly because TESSA DARE! and also because I was so delighted to see romance finally get a seat at the writing table, so to speak. Our 5-person panel was the first time romance had a place at that festival. I had a good time and the questions were great and the audience seemed genuinely curious about romance novels and. Because it was so soon after the Pandemic nobody tried to hug me, lol. Or maybe Lit folks are just less huggy?
I’m thrilled to see that more and more literary events are opening up spots to romance, which is definitely the underdog of all the genres.
Kurt Vonnegut claimed the underdog position was held by Sci Fi, but I think that is just because he didn’t even ACKNOWLEGE that a romance genre existed.
Vonnegut is now considered “literary” but to my way of thinking he is a sci fi guy. He hilariously once said of the Sci Fi genre: “I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled “science fiction” … and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.”
Sci Fi might have been despised at one time, but Romance has been the urinal of the genre fiction world for ages and continues to be looked down upon. A big part of that is because romance is predominantly enjoyed by women and written by women, so I doubt romance’s status in the world is going to change any time soon, regardless of how many spots on the best seller lists romance authors occupy.
It must be my Catholic upbringing because I feel a lot less guilty about that con invite I declined now that I’ve confessed on my blog.
I rewarded myself for publishing this recent book by purchasing a Cricut Maker machine. I’ve dithered over this for YEARS! The “go big or go home” part of my brain wanted me to buy the Cricut Maker 3 because it is the newest and best. But I forced myself to read a lot of Cricut reviews and decided to buy the significantly cheaper original Maker. Right now it is perched on its very own table sneering at me and daring me to turn it on and figure out how to work it. Honestly, it’s sending serious “I’m going to kick your ass” vibes in my direction.
I don’t think today is the day I will conquer the Cricut. Am I the only one so intimidated by this machine? I really want to make pop up cards and maybe some tote bags. If any Cricut maestros are reading this please send positive vibes my way.
I’ve received a few emails requesting more pictures of my house. I don’t mind sharing pics of my house as it is a pretty cool place. We used to operate it as a bed and breakfast, so it is quite large. It was built by the artist Wolfgang Pogzeba and there are some very artistic, if not exactly practical, aspects to the place.
So, the first pic below is the craft room. The picture was taken from the bottom of those stairs in the next pic
When you walk up the stairs the hot tub in the pictures below is on your right-hand side, so that wall you see on that side wraps around the hot tub and looks straight up to a 15 foot skylight.
The last photo is taken from our bedroom door looking toward the hot tub. The ceiling in this room is especially intricate as Pogzeba designed the vigas (the name for those huge logs) radiating in a semi-circle above the hot tub.
I tell ya, dusting those vigas is really a lot of fun!
No, my house isn’t this tidy all the time. Especially not my craft room which is a disaster zone most of the time.
Okay, I’m off to work.
Happy reading!
2 Responses
LOL… Im not a hugger either, Im just happy that people ask now.
I do have a question… Will you ever write about Adam and Mia’s other girls… Catherine and Melissa? I don’t remember reading about Melissa in the twins book and I know Cat is married but Eva’s book made it seem like a sad marriage and I wondered what those two sisters stories would be…
Yay, anti-huggers unite! But not too closely, lol.
I actually have what I call story starts written for both Melissa and Catherine. When I wrote OUTRAGEOUS and mentioned Catherine’s unhappy marriage that was a bit of a peek into her story. These books were written for a traditional publisher and so they had suggestions for who they wanted in the next book and I had to agree that I wanted to know what happened to the twins, Lucien and Richard, and so they won the draw. It’s really hard not to write everyone’s story. I wish I were more efficient with my time, but I seem to write more slowly rather than more quickly the longer I am a writer. Comments like this one do, however, keep secondary characters in my thoughts! That is how Declan, who first popped up in A FIGURE OF LOVE is finally getting his book. I have had so many requests for his story that it kept him fresh in my mind despite the fact that it’s been five years. All of that meandering answer is to say that Melissa and Catherine might someday get their stories!