It's good to leave the house sometimes

Travel update, plus a piping-hot take on author events

A few weeks ago I flew out to Anaheim to hang (or network, for tax purposes) with some author friends. Most of them were attending the inaugural Steamy Lit Con, an event for authors and readers of romance novels.

It was one of my favorite experiences of the year! I got to know friends in person whom I’d previously only talked to online. I put some words down in my WIP—including 3000 on the plane, when writing in public is usually a challenge for me! (I give credit to the empty middle seat.) I met so many lovely authors and book enthusiasts and was blown away by the love people have for stories. The vibes were so positive (at least until we got the news that a hurricane was headed our way, and even then it was like, “Umm, I can’t control whether my flight gets canceled so hurricane party, I guess?”) (Obviously I made it home—in time for another hurricane, which we also weathered just fine.)

#ProfessionalAuthors trying to take a decent group photo in the charming/terrifying Disneyland-themed house we rented

The professional stakes for me were low, since romance isn’t my current genre and I didn’t have an official function other than acting as “assistant” to fellow #Berklete Lynn Painter (which pretty much meant hanging out and chatting with the many, many readers who came up and gushed about her wonderful books). My motto was “I’m just here to learn and drink wine, and I’m not running out of wine any time soon!”

Since the con, attendees have shared extremely valid feedback about how the organizers could have done better at including BIPOC authors on panels. In my experience, the romance writers’ community has been way ahead of other genres and the general writing community in thinking about this stuff, naming it for what it is, and trying to fix inequities. Maybe because romance as a genre has always been somewhat marginalized, or because so many of the people who write it are whip-smart, educated feminists who are well aware that sex and relationships are political and intersectional. 

One positive thing that’s arisen is #23for23, an initiative encouraging people to read and review 23 books by BIPOC authors by the end of this year. I’m doing well on the reading front, though I need to work on my reviewing! You know how you can love a book but have absolutely nothing intelligent to say about it? Yeah. That.

Anyway, inclusion was on my mind as I started going through the list of literary events I might want to attend over the next year. After all, I’ve got a book out in 2024. 

Authors are often told that events don’t really “move the needle” when it comes to sales. However, it’s still personally and professionally valuable to put yourself out there. Connecting with readers and writers helps me feel plugged in and reinforces that I am a “real” author. Meeting authors who are way more successful than me dials my impostor syndrome up to eleven, but also gives me much needed perspective. Some of these people have been in the business for years and gone through more failure and rejection than I’ve ever seen, and look at them!

I was considering one particular con, which shall remain nameless for reasons that will shortly become clear. I’ve been to this event in the past and it’s seemed well run. I attended some great sessions and met some lovely people. It’s drivable for me; it’s affordable. The timing is not the most convenient, but I thought, “Well, let’s just see who’s speaking at this thing.” 

And I shit you not, out of 30-ish slated speakers and panelists, two of them presented as BIPOC. 

I could be mistaken! Obviously I don’t know everyone’s ethnicity and I have to make inferences from names and photographs. But even if I’m wrong and six or eight of the authors and publishing professionals who I thought were White are actually not, that still makes the faculty two-thirds White. At a writers’ event in a state where the under-70 population is majority minority. 

I decided not to go to that conference.

I’m not heavily involved with the organization running it, so I have little knowledge of the challenges they may be dealing with behind the scenes. And I get that it can be hard to recruit speakers, especially when you’re not paying most of them or covering their travel and lodging (an extremely related issue!!) However, I think that distance gives me insight into what this lineup looks like from the outside: a lack of care and effort.¹ When you’re at a point where your panel makeup is so badly skewed, it might be time to question whether you should be holding an event at all.

I’m sure it wasn’t intentional or malicious, but we can’t dismiss things like this in the larger political context. I’m unable to ignore the slow-motion right-wing authoritarian takeover happening in my state. I mean, my family’s new wholesome evening activity is flipping through Midwest Zillow as we lowkey make our contingency exit plan. 

It’s relevant that it’s no longer legal for state universities in Florida to sponsor diversity programs. It’s relevant that the books being banned all over the country are disproportionately by BIPOC and LGBTQIA authors.

Of course most people here don’t agree with the tiny minority of bigoted zealots driving these book challenges. Of course kids should be able to read stories that acknowledge racism still exists, or that tell them it’s okay—no, awesome to be queer or trans. Of course those stories and the people who write them are important and deserve seats at the table.

Just not too many seats at this table.

For aspiring writers to see people who look like them as authorities in the field isn’t just important, it’s essential. Many events for writers and readers manage to put together a truly diverse slate of speakers…so those are the events I’ll be putting my efforts toward in the future.²

Author updates

WHEN I’M HER comes out in a little over six months! Which means not much is happening yet on the publicity front, so I’ve mostly been head down working on the first draft of my next book. I can’t say much about it yet except that its working title is the name of a Dean Martin song and so far it is very on brand for me, with speculative elements, toxic men being toxic, and at least one dog.

Reading/watching/listening

• THE ART OF SCANDAL by Regina Black — just a gorgeous book. Sexy and full of tension, with complicated and well-developed characters. Read it now.

• I’m finally watching Cobra Kai five years after it first came out, and I have no regrets

• Duran Duran (Don’t ask me how this happened but it’s not a bad life walking around with a constant “Rio” earworm!!)

---

If you enjoy my ramblings, you might like my books!

The Other Me, which PopSugar called a “Black Mirror-esque rabbit hole,” is an inventive page-turner about the choices we make and the ones made for us.

When I’m Her asks the question: How far would you go to get even with the woman who ruined your life?

1. I know I’m pointing out problems without proposing any solutions, but it’s a common bad faith argument to be all, “Hey, why don’t YOU volunteer to put together a conference and see how fucking easy it is?” Um, no thank you? I’m good at lots of things, but event planning is not one of them. Sometimes it’s necessary to draw attention to issues without having the ability to fix them yourself!

2. I’m aware that I’m a White lady and there are a limited number of spots at these things and 1) my focus might make it more likely that my White lady self will be passed over for some opportunities. I’ll get over it! 2) my getting an invite may mean that an author of color doesn’t. I’m not sure how to square that. But between an org that shows they have an intentional approach to their speaker list and one that doesn’t, I know which one I trust more to make the right decision.