Annette McCleave, a contributing blogger on this blog and one of my fabulous cps, got the call this morning notifying her that her ms is a FINALIST in the GOLDEN HEART!!!

Ok, I admit it. I was incredibly naive when I set out to become an author. I knew I had a decent command of the English language. In fact, I’d been told by several people that I was an excellent writer. Ergo, it should only take me a year or so to write a good book, and another year to sell it. Right?

Wrong. I’m still working on writing and perfecting that book and my two years are up.

It took an author comparing writing a great book to creating a great painting for me to finally get it. Would you expect to pick up a paintbrush, mix a few colors and, after a couple of months, produce something worthy of hanging in an art gallery? No, you wouldn’t. You’d instinctively understand that to be capable of creating a work of art, you’d first need to master techniques: be a genius with color, excel in layering and see everything in terms of light and texture. You’d understand that a painter must get to the point where they know the basics so incredibly well, they also know how and when to break the rules. You’d understand that for a painter to be recognized as talented, there must a unique flavor to his/her work, and an element of brilliance. You’d understand that it might take a painter a lifetime to achieve such a state.

Why was it so easy for me to get this about painting and so hard to get it about writing? I don’t know. It’s probably related to the same wackiness that has people you meet at a party say, “You wrote a book? Yeah, I’m going to do that, too. Next month, maybe.”

So, here I am, investing blood, sweat and tears toward the goal of writing mastery. I get it now. And I’m a lot more patient about how quickly I’ll see results (not endlessly patient, but more patient :wink:).

10 Reasons every romance writer should have a dog:

1. When you’re on a roll, they remind you about important things, like food and bathroom breaks
2. They don’t give a fig if the house isn’t vacuumed and the laundry isn’t done
3. They make an avid audience when you need to read a section aloud
4. They greet you with enthusiasm when you return after mailing off your manuscript/proposal and every wag of their tails tell you that even if it doesn’t work out, you’re a good person anyway
5. They growl at the postman, especially when one of your submissions comes back SASE
6. They lick your face when you get a rejection, a bad review, or when you forget to save an awesome scene and then your computer crashes
7. They bark and wag their tails when you happy dance, shout “yes!”, and generally freak out over finishing a ms, finaling in a contest, or selling a book…’cause sometimes no one else is home
8. When your muse deserts you, you can look in their eyes and be instantly transported into a world of absolute, unconditional love
9. They’re particularly inspirational when writing scenes involving whining, drooling, and checking out the next-door neighbor.
10. Chocolate is bad for them, so you don’t have to feel guilty when you eat the entire box

Hi, my name is Annette and I’m a historical romance writer guest-blogging on Sylvia’s site.

There’s been a lot of discussion about judging us as romance writers and I’m not going to go into that, exactly. Last night while having dinner with my parents, my dad looked me in the eye and said, maybe you should write another type of book other than romance. Now he did it in the nicest possible way, saying maybe the reason I haven’t been published yet is because my voice is more suitable for another genre. But come on, who can’t read between the lines? He was saying, stop writing trash and go write a real book. Of course, being me, I didn’t listen. I told him in no uncertain terms to stop dissing romance and get behind my decisions.

But it made me wonder how many other writers out there face this kind of sabotage from their immediate family. Unless you’re a very strong person, negative vibes of this sort could eventually stop you from writing. It’s way harder to dismiss comments from people who know you, and who profess to love you, especially when they’re wrapped in a blanket of good-intentions. But even those people close to you — if they say such things — are wrong. My dad, ‘helpful’ guy that he is, doesn’t know what he’s talking about (even though the sly fellow used all the right buzz words). I write romances because I love writing romances. And it’s my love for romances that drives me to keep improving my craft, and will take me to the finish line. It can’t work any other way.

For those of you who face this subtle, or in some cases blatant, derision-masquerading-as-kindness, all I can say is, don’t listen. Let your muse speak louder than the people around you. Find a support group, write away from home, or write after everyone’s gone to bed. Do whatever you need to, but for heaven’s sake don’t listen.