kate rothwell

From Wendy Burbank of Medallion with permission to forward:"Medallion Press has received a letter from the Executive Director of RWA stating that our status as a publisher was revoked in error."

My question du jour: is "backpedaling" one word or two?

This is a smart bitches sort of entry because I'm linking to Wendy's blog in which she asks what's the essence of a romance. I rolled my eyes a bit--yah duh? it's, like, a relaaaationship, dude? But I liked the answers she got. Give more answers.

Now I'm going to GET The HELL away from the Internet.

We have to do haircuts, part of the Back To School mental prep. I'll start cutting-cutting-cutting with the scissors until the remaining boys see what I've done to my first victim's head and convince their father to take them to barbershop. It's tradition.

yeah the sox pix sux and make the page loading absolutely stoneaged slow, so let's get MORE!




The boy is not fat.
He's big though--his feet are about size five. . . here's another picture of those sox.












and more sox and stuff. Aren't you glad you asked, Beth?


like those funny striped ones? I love them things.

I'm talking about the Bosnian rugs, socks etc. Got them all. Do I have recent photos of the actual items? No, because I can't seem to get anyone to take good pictures and my pictures make them look majorly ugly. Maybe after the kids start school, I'll borrow a good camera to take pictures of the rugs because those puppies cost bucks. (About $45-100) I think the rug Fatima's holding is about $70. I'm going to take a picture of her loom, too. ANNNnnnny day now.




The lace takes FOREVER to make and I'm no expert so it looks like much cheaper versions, especially my pictures of it. Sad, eh? Remiza** made the fish. It took about a month and is made with tiny needles and thin stringlike yarn. It's only about two feet long and she charges $40 for it. I think she has a couple of smaller pieces for $25. The big piece of lace Fikreta's holding costs about $100. Her sister, who still lives in Bosnia, made it. Fikreta says she has no patience for that kind of fiddly …

GOOD DAY**
I get from Doonesbury to Zits without incident

FAIR DAY
I recognise the rerun Peanuts strip and have a flashback to my childhood.

BAD DAY
I have the Peanuts flashback, I understand Zippy AND I accidentally read Family Circus.

GO-BACK-TO-BED-and-TRY-AGAIN DAY
I understand Zippy and think it's funny, I accidentally read Family Circus (extra horrible points if it's about a dead grandpa looking down from heaven) . . . AND I don't catch the Christian theme to BD (damn, I mean BC) before it's too late--and I read the whole strip.

_______

**BONUS for the GOOD DAY
Something actually happens in Mary Worth or Rex Morgan, MD.

Spiffy (Bet you forgot that word existed. I say it's even more due for a resurgence than groovy. It could be argued that both words should be buried deep in a landfill.) anyway, spiffy article about blogging by Joel Achenbach. Yes, you have to sign in. Suck it up--this is the Washington Post. They won't sell your name to any bankers in Nigeria.

* * *
Beth is worrying about setting a date for her manuscript. She thinks she's got one now. Well, ha on that, Kate says bitterly. I changed my first book's date about ten times. Photography, a presidential assassination, famous weather events and other dopey details kept getting in the way of my plot. And then that stupid Grand Central Depot was a problem. . .

I think I like Candy's philosophy.If it ain't in Wikipedia or Google ignore it.

Unfortunately the editor, Hilary Sares ##, knows too much about the subject of photography. I think we exchanged about 15 emails about it, and then I had to go out and find more books and…

I have two recurring dreams.
DREAM ONE

I am at the beach house I went to as a kid. In the dream I am always saying or thinking, oh wow, I haven't been here for years.

Futhermore, in the dream I say or think hey, I dream about this place all the time. I know that this isn't a dream now because [fill in blank. I taste salt --or-- I hear waves --or-- I can see that museum and remember where the whaling exhibit was --or-- it's been twenty years (and it really has been.)]

Last night I had the dream and the fill-in-the-blank part was: I was talking to my aunt--the woman who owns the house--and telling her Hey, Henriette, I'm so glad to be here at last. You know, I dream about this place all the time.

She picked up her coffee and a section of The New York Times and started to read. I thought,Wow! Now I know this time it really isn't a dream. Not only can I hear the waves on the beach, but someone's ignoring me as I talk.

I was even more convinced than usual that I'd a…

omigod....dolly, jeffy and pj on the dildo....oh damn, I'm gonna start laughing again and it hurrrrts.
AABAT....ahahahahahooooowww

It's not for the kids.


And since I'm probably already doomed to at least an outer circle of hell, there's this Onion article. Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity with New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory.

Look, Maili-- nothing but links!

I was raving about a romance to a romance-writing friend and she said it --> that line I hear all the damn time. "I can't read romances because I write them."

She told me she won't read any kind of popular fiction any more. (Apparently literary stuff isn't a problem. Or maybe she only reads non-fiction?) I've heard about this fear before--the dreaded contagion of voice.* Taking on another author's writing style . . .like you turn into a big old ventriloquist's dummy or your soul is taken over by a stronger, fiercer Power.


Okay, I'm going to be less catty now because she visits my blog and I don't want to give her a raft because I know her ROS-delivery skills are far better than mine.

But....

HONESTLY.....

Dumping all genres of fun reading? Sounds too much like giving up desserts forever because you worry about tiramisu. Or maybe only writing recipes and never letting yourself taste other people's concoctions***

And I don't see how voice c…

Yeehaw! Sedika's son had a baby and we celebrated by getting high on honey drenched nutcakes and thick coffee that dissolves the lining of the stomach. Hurija brought in one of those music tapes that sounds like yowling to the uninitiated and I learned a couple of dance steps.

I felt guilty about not doing any English so we reviewed the names of sexual parts in English and Bosnian. Vagina is basically the same in both languages. Hey, look! My visitor counter is probably going to go wild now....The word for "breast" in Bosnian sounds a lot like "sister" to me.

My other highlight today: sorting the worm bin. I'm gonna make worm tea** and I don't like drowning the little guys.

Yes, it's true. I do know how to have a good time.

____

** for the plants.

Okay, the first edits of Futurelover (I didn't name it--but I never do. I'm rotten at titles.) are off to the editor. These are actually PRE-edits. This story has been accepted and will show up at Ellora's Cave eventually. You'll be the first to know.

Now I'm going to pre-pre-edit another erotica submission, per the editor's request. Hey, whatever makes the thing easier to read is good, yes? Still, I might have to reinsert a bunch of commas if it gets the "no thank you, best of luck placing your work elsewhere". <--And that period outside the quotation mark thing? That's something that'll probably be different in another publisher's style guide.

Every publisher has different standards. Ellora's Cave does not like commas. They don't think much of semi-colons and colons are right out, thank you. Everyone hates parentheses. (I ask you, what the heck is wrong with parentheses?) Actually, I'm not a punctuation fanatic. Good thing, …

I'm editing a story and my instructions are to insert more emotion, more inner life.

I'm finding it hard to do at the moment because I just read Great Maria by Cecelia Holland. The book is not a romance. It's a story of an ambitious 11th century woman and it's freaking great. Maria is entirely believable and there are no whiffs of 21st century mores. She kills a man and has others killed and though she occasionally thinks about it, she doesn't obsess. And she knows doing penance will take care of any fear of being kept out of heaven.

The book is almost completely devoid of interior descriptions of inner turmoil (we get the exterior shots though). It's practically third person objective. Everything is shown, nothing told--hardly a scrap of emotional reflection. Maybe a sinple line here and there.

"What he said caught her imagination." That's the entire description of the moment Maria decides to go with her father's plans and marry a knight she h…

My local bookstores no longer have my books in stock. I've checked. I feel as if I've dropped off the face of the earth.

Pity party starts at 11.

Could be worse--I was going to rant about travel and panic stuff but decided it was TMI. (here's a sample-- I'm driving on the highway and I'm Only. Five. Miles. From. Home. Me to passenger: "open that pill bottle and give me a white one. No, not a red one. I already took one of those. And I can't drive if I do the orange. Hell. I'm hyperventilating. The white one, yeah. And water. Do you mind if I sing? Tough. It helps me breathe.")

To the Board of Directors of the Romance Writers of America:

It has been brought to our attention, by several of our romance authors, that your organization no longer considers Medallion Press, Inc. a legitimate publisher according to your guidelines. We were surprised we did not receive official notification directly, but instead discovered it was posted on several RWA internet loops. Accordingly, we request this letter be published in its entirety in the RWR Report so all members may understand the nature of the process that eliminated Medallion as an RWA approved publisher. We will also send copies of this letter to all our own RWA member authors.

We are dismayed you declared Medallion Press no longer a legitimate publisher. In July of 2004 we met all of your qualifications without incident by showing sales of 5000+ copies of USA Today Bestselling author Nan Ryan's The Last Dance.

Several months prior to Book Expo America 2005, we received a call from your office alerting us to th…

If someone's house burns down, we can help by sending money and books. If someone needs emergency medical care, we can help defray medical costs. The online community frequently rocks.

But sometimes there is nothing we can do. Zip. Sharing Sheila/Lynn's burden is impossible. I can't even imagine the burden. okay, never mind... I'll skip the link. She doesn't need more publicity.

What constitutes a mother's worst nightmare shifted for me today. I used to think the worst possible thing would be the death of one of my kids. Being a mom, I get to think about crap like that all the time. But maybe there's something worse. What if one of my kids deliberately caused another's death?

Hell. Forget the race. It's a contest of pain with no winners.

we're still here. Funny that you can wander the rocky tree-line coast of Maine and find ...wi fi. Dang it's slow though.

Unless I sneak off to town and manage to find computer access, I'm offline for a week. We'll be in Maine (leaving behind our vicious dog and a 220 lb house-sitter in case you're thinking of breaking in to steal our Magic card collection). Four adults, six kids between ages 14-6, two cars and a kayak. No dog this time. She's staying behind to guard the cards.

I'd like to leave you with some profound words of wisdom. Instead, I'll leave you this link from Jed (he's my bro, and the only one in the family who has had a poem written about him).


Touched by his Noodly Appendage. Intelligent Design by pasta.

I wasn't there . . .

But if I was? I bet I would have been so fascinated by the cars driving into a room, I wouldn't have noticed much else. (Stuff like that makes me gawk--my kids and I still get a kick out of glass elevators.)

I'd have been waiting to hear familiar names among the winners. I'd have been wondering it was possible to get a glass of wine. I'd have been looking through my bag for a pen and paper because I hate not fiddling with things. I must doodle. I'd have begged neighbors for gum--the really sharp flavored stuff so I'd stay awake and have nice breath at the same time.

Yeah, I might have noticed a right-wing edge, but since I'm yet another Ms. Softy Liberal-Pants (Megan's trademarked title) I tend to notice right-wing edges all over my country. Fox TV, anyone?

And my first response as we pushed out of the big room would have been, yeah, it's not my cup of tea, but I'm not gonna whine because I'm probably never going to volu…

I'm doing an romanceunleashed entry today. Just some very basic links for procrastination that feels like research. I had a long entry written--lots of coolio links. The computer hiccupped and dumped it.

Isn't anyone going to get outraged by my porn post? Jeez. You could at least roll your eyes. I'm lonely.

Cleaning time. We're getting a case of houseguests. On Friday we are dragging our houseguests (in-law types) up for a Vacation of counting and scratching mosquito bites and playing poker. Last time we stayed in this cabin, we didn't sleep because the mice played rugby football all night long in the rafters.

and stick to it?

This is a blog, dammit. Tangential and nonsequitor is what we're all about. . .that and posting results of some good quizzes--but only the ones with cool pix.

but wait, lemme look up the meaning first.

And I want an unbiased meaning of pornography:
1.Sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
2.The presentation or production of this material.
3. Lurid or sensational material: "Recent novels about the Holocaust have kept Hitler well offstage [so as] to avoid the ... pornography of the era" (Morris Dickstein).
ETYMOLOGY:
French pornographie, from pornographe, pornographer, from Late Greek pornographos, writing about prostitutes : porn, prostitute; see per- 5 in Indo-European roots + graphein, to write ; see -graphy

Okay, well one and two fit a lot of what I read and write. Three fits a bunch of those covers. There's the brain and emotion involved in romance, you argue. Yup AND that's true for the very best sort of sex, eh? Not just the lizard brain in there for sex and arousal but the whole of the animal kingdom of your brain (not literally! No, please, not the family do…