Three Interesting Things

1. As much as I keep saying I'm in "Sleepy Hollow" for the silly (if you accept that a story centered on stopping a headless horseman is silly, which I do) - this article points out some great things that "Sleepy Hollow" is doing. 

2. In addition to Marni Bates' post that I linked to yesterday about the YA Rita, where a number of great things are happening in the comments, Bria Quinlin has this post with covers of books that were submitted this year.  Her point that even if you were not familiar personally with RWA and the Ritas is that these (and other awards) are often first stops for book stores and libraries.  It's not their only source of information, but it's one less way for people to hear about these books.  I confess, looking through the list, my should read pile got bigger. 

3. And I enjoyed this post about how folktales evolve much like, well, as the title says, biological species.

YA, Ritas, and Rules

So, this year the RWA Rita awards did not receive enough submissions for the Young Adult category. I am beyond sad about this.  I think YA is an important segment of the romance community, and I share in everyone's sadness because I know I've read some great YA romances this year and I'm sad they (possibly) won't have the chance to compete. 

But...

This has happened before.  YA got cancelled once before in 2007, also due to lack of entries and you know what happened that year - a YA romance (that I am not remotely impartial about) won Best Contemporary Single Title.  So, my first hope is that most of the YA submissions chose a second category.  And I hope that next year lots more people enter.  (You know, if their book is a YA romance.) 

Now, there's been some discussion about the rules change affecting people's submissions.  There's a great breakdown of the category change and some of the other changes here. I actually think that this year's revision made the category a little broader, but that's my perspective.  Yes, I realize that not every YA with kissing fits into that definition, but, well, it's the the YA with kissing award, it's YA romance.  Yes, I agree with Marni Bates's post that awards are important.  Honoring the great work people are doing is important.  There are other awards out there for YA, be it romance or not. 

But, I also understand that managing this contest is a huge undertaking for RWA.  They made bold changes last year, upping the total number of entries (since last year it filled up fast), adding eligibility for self-published books, they added a category, and smooshed some together. I would say there are bound to be bumps the first year, but it seems like the contest gets tweaked a little every year.  Now, what does this have to do with the YA category?  Well, the raising of the number of entries actually impacted the threshold for a category to remain this year.  So, if they received 2000 entries, they would need 100 of those to be YA books*.  And remember that's 100 YA romances, published in 2013, by a member of RWA. All of those things have to be true.  I think it's possible there are 100 of those.  But, given there were a record number of entries the first day, given you have to pay to enter, I can see how some people might not have gotten to it.  Yes, all those barriers (except possibly the number) were there before. 

So, here's what I hope.  I hope that more people submit their (eligible, actual YA romance) book next year so the category can return.  I hope all the YA Golden Heart Finalists get deals and submit those books. 

Yes, writing and reading great books is what matters most.  But, winning things is nice too.

*I tried to find a link to where it says that specifically, and I can't, but that is my understanding. 

Post-NaNo Thoughts

I participated in NaNoWrimo once again this year, and won, ahem, early. The draft is still about 5000 words from being done and then will require some impressive rearranging and revising but it's a story that had been percolating in my brain for a long time, which I had joking claimed would be done by 2020, so (fingers crossed) I am ahead of schedule.  (Sometimes setting a low bar for yourself is a good thing.)

I wrote more than I've ever written for NaNo, and while some (much) of that will get cut, rearranged, and changed beyond belief later, it's still really good. As with everything, the joy of doing this as a global group is that lots of other people were writing and suffering or hitting the zone along with you.  And of course, I did more than some people and less than some people.  (Seriously, there's someone out there that wrote 900,000 words.  I just want to nap reading that. (I mean, yay for them, but wow.) 

So the point of this is, I wrote just over 70k, and that's amazing. It's easy to get caught up in your progress compared to others, instead of basking in how well I did compared to my own goal (which was to hit 50k early and keep on writing each day, which I did).  So, yay.  Going to try and get the first draft wrapped up this week.  And then I get to bask for a minute or two before I start revising things. 

Three Interesting Things

1. This is one of those good news/bad news type deals. The good news is a man's wallet stopped the progress of a bullet headed for various internal organs, the bad news is well, bullet. 

2. I was a huge fan of the Virginia Renaissance Faire that ran in Fredericksburg.  (There is one now in Lake Anna.) I had heard that the property was lying vacant, so am sad to see the state of it right now, although there is some definite creepy weirdness to these abandoned sets.

3. And while my thoughts on "Sleepy Hollow" were more, it's silly fun, but also represents some important (but super silly fun) diversity. I feel like I just told you vegetables are good for you (which they are...but) so I'll throw in a link to the Orlando Jones tumblr which is just silly. 

You Got Your History in My Entertainment

I firmly agree with the idea that there are no guilty pleasures, only pleasures, and if you are doing something for entertainment that entertains you, then success.  But, there are things that I enjoy, even as I fully appreciate that they are flawed.

So, I personally am unable to watch "Braveheart". (I watched a lovely special about the making of "Braveheart" and the history (or not) within that really only confirmed this.  One of my friends said, basically, so it's almost entirely historically incorrect, it's great fun!  And here's the thing A is and was (likely) correct that it is great fun.  I, personally, am unable to separate myself from the knowledge of the actual battle of Stirling Bridge to enjoy a movie where the climax is that battle and there is no bridge.  This is a me thing, not a "Braveheart" thing. 

So, I am watching and enjoying "Sleepy Hollow" even though it's revisionist history (although Ichabod Crane* is a fictional character, within the show he interacts with a number of known historical figures) is revisionist, and while I personally find just about all the historical parts zzzzboring, they are fully committed to the thing that they are doing and it's keeping me engaged week to week.  (I still think they should try teaching the horseman ASL.  Hey, headless guy learning ASL makes just as much sense as a headless guy who's a crack shot.) 

"Reign" on the other hand is more in the vein of "Braveheart".  While I get the sense the "Sleepy Hollow" writers have mountains of research they are sifting through to pick the parts that work well for the show, on "Reign" I get the sense that they picked a historical figure and time that sounded fun, and are basically discarding most of the messy history stuff to make a show about royal intrigue that is much like "Gossip Girl" set in the renaissance. And even though I wrote an extensive paper about Mary Queen of Scots, I find the show (so far) fun.  The costumes look a little renaissance the prom version, the supposed burdens of kingdom ruling are mentioned only in passing, and I sort of feel like some of these people deserve a better show to be on, but so far (I'm a few episodes behind) it's fun.  It's ridiculously wrong from a historical perspective or even from a why does everyone in 16th century France speak English with an English accent.  (Look, I get that they speak English for me, but why an English accent?  None of these people are supposed to be English.) 

So yes, sometimes even with contemporary shows I find it's easier to pretend they live in an alternate universe, one where police investigations always get wrapped up, court cases make it to court in no time at all, and football trainers can become general managers because they wish it. So, why not pretend that this is what the history might have been. 

*Per Wikipedia there was a real Ichabod Crane who may have the inspiration for the fictional character.