MISLED is the giveaway book on The Romance Studio today. If you’d like to try and win a copy, go here!

Also, after 6 AM EDT, you can find today’s post on RTB.

See ya there!

Time travel romance. I’ve been told there are two ways to write one. One way has a character going forward or backward in time as themselves. The other way has a character going forward or backward and occupying another body. I recently read one of the latter premised romances and hated it. Honestly. I really, really did not like the idea at all.

In the book I read, a tall thin woman magically finds herself transported in time and comes to consciousness in the voluptuous body of a beautiful woman. The upstaged woman is married to a hunky guy who happens to be in love with his wife. She doesn’t love him. However, the heroine, in the other woman’s body, happens to think he’s yummy.

I have no idea what I expected when I picked up the book. As a writer, I have an active imagination, but for some reason it never once occurred to me to have a love story where one of the characters is in another person’s body. Not only that, but to have that other body be loved already by the hero. Once I realized the premise, I knew there was a problem.

Frankly, I didn’t find anything romantic about the story at all. To me, the premise comes straight out of the Stepford Wives. Gorgeous guy has a wife he’s not happy with and then one day she magically transforms into a sex maniac who thinks he’s God’s gift. I can see how this might appeal to a male reader (after all, don’t we make our heroes a little too perfect?), but how this appeals to a female reader eludes me.

The sex scenes were gross IMHO. The heroine was tall and slender in her own body. Every time the hero waxed poetic about how hot and horny the voluptuous figure of his wife made him and the heroine got turned on, I was like, HELLO? He’s not talking about you! When the hero wrapped his wife’s long hair around his fist and praised its silky texture and soft smell, and the heroine swooned, again I was like, What are you thinking? You have short blond hair. He’s NOT talking about YOU. And the “oh you feel so good” sex statements by the hero made me wince. I felt like shouting, HE’S NOT FEELING YOU!!

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. *shudder*

I guess there are readers who like this type of story or else they wouldn’t be published, but I can say unequivocally that this premise is not for me. I’m not physically perfect by any means, but I still expect the guy who loves me to love ME. Let me tell you, if my husband praised my blonde hair (I’m a brunette) I wouldn’t get turned on, I’d get pissed.

Anyway, to finish the story, the transported woman ends up staying in the past in the other woman’s body. She has kids with the hero (which in my mind is like being a surrogate. Nothing wrong with surrogates, mind you. I’m just saying that you have to picture the child as the product of another woman and your man. Or actually another woman and her man.) and they live HEA.

The HEA for me was that the story was done.

Maybe I’m weird, but I don’t see the appeal. If this type of story is one you like, can you tell me why? Because truly, I can’t think of one thing to like about this premise. Or maybe you have another premise that’s like nails on the chalkboard for you. What is it?

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately contemplating the new trend of having easy accessibility to authors on the web. Weblogs, message boards, chat groups, and mailing lists–these are just a few of the avenues authors use to get in touch with their readers. A brand-spanking new author myself, I employ all of these forums to make myself available to those who may want to speak with me. Within the last week I’ve concentrated time and money on web promotion, trying to introduce myself to potential readers and bring them to my site where we can get to know each other and hopefully establish a rapport. Someone once said that a person must see your name several times before it becomes a part of their conscious memory. Since I’m still relatively unknown, I have my work cut out for me, yet I can’t help but wonder at the feasibility of presenting ourselves as individuals first and foremost before our work.

Some authors have told me that pushing your books is tacky and turns off readers. So they present themselves, sell themselves as nice people you want to know and have dinner with. This will make you want to buy their books, or so they tell me. Is that true? How about great writing, great storytelling, great characters? Are these just bonuses you find in a book you bought simply because you know the author from their website?

Not long ago romance writers’ websites were simple in design—a little bio, a few book cover images, a few teaser excerpts, and a backlist. The site content was all about the books. Now, you sometimes have to search for the books amongst all the information about the author.

You can read about the writer’s daily life in their blog. You can learn their tips for aspiring authors and sign up for their workshops. You can find out what movies they’re watching and what books they’re reading. You can see pictures of family vacations and birthday parties. The intimacy is startling and sometimes disconcerting. I’m still reeling from the shock of reading about one author’s struggle with their mental medication.

Where are the books in all of this? I sometimes scratch my head and wonder.

I was privy to a discussion recently where a few readers were discussing some author sites they visited. The sites they talked about most were the ones lacking intimacy (i.e. no blogs or message boards). They wondered about the authors. Are they as standoffish in person as they appear on their site?

I was surprised. Is it important to the average reader to know intimate details about the person who wrote the books they liked? There are several writers I can mention whose work I enjoy tremendously and yet I have no clue who they are as individuals. This doesn’t bother me at all. I’m just grateful for the enjoyment their work gives me. What kind of dog they have or what flavor ice cream they like is of no consequence to me. But perhaps I’m in the minority? I’ve never asked on my blog or my message board or my chat group why the people who visit me come by. However, I’m going to ask you.

How do you feel about getting to know authors personally? If you’re a reader who enjoys this intimacy, can you tell me why it works for you? Or why it doesn’t? Do you think less of authors with whom you can’t converse freely?

The RTB “outing” of Suzanne, Larissa, Alison, and Emma is causing a wide range of discussion across the blogosphere. And I’m going to share my thoughts.

I respect their decision to “come out”. Whatever their reasons, I’m sure they’re valid.

What disturbs me is that they feel they have to apologize for their actions desire to remain unknown. I think the reasons listed for anonymity are good ones:

To be objective – they didn’t want to have to explain to certain people why they weren’t invited. This is good business sense and showed how seriously they took this endeavor. Some people feel hurt that they weren’t invited and that they weren’t in on the “secret”. Thing is, when you have a secret amongst a group, it’s not just one person’s secret, it’s the group’s as a whole and it is NOT something that can be shared by one individual. Anonymity preserved objectivity in the selection of columnists and I think it was a wise choice. Not every blogger is the right kind of blogger for a platform like this. It would be difficult to explain that to your friends. I see this as a way to prevent hurt feelings, not cause them.

To be taken seriously – The founders of RTB are a selection of people in different stages of their writing careers. Alison and Suzanne are multi-published, Larissa and Emma are aspiring. Would the founders have been taken seriously if they’d come out by themselves? Several “big” blogging names have stepped forward to say they were invited and declined the invitation. It’s highly possible that more declines would have come in if the founders identities had been known.

To keep RTB separate from their other lives – To prevent e-mails and questions being directed toward one or two individuals rather than the group as a whole.

To prevent embarassment if it failed – I can understand this completely.

To judge response – people would have been less likely to admit what they really thought if they knew they were talking to a founder.

They are brave for coming out of the woodwork. They’re facing the public and their friends and taking hits from both of them. I’m certain I couldn’t do it.

Recently on my personal weblog I wrote about some of the problems I’ve encountered while surfing the online romance community. (I’m certain these behaviors aren’t limited to romance authors, but romance is my job and really, as far as online communities, it’s all I know.) The issues I’ve seen are unfriendliness to new members, argumentativeness brought on by pettiness and jealousy, slamming and flaming, snarky rants on blogs meant to tear down another individual, bogus bad reviews, and rumor spreading.

My blog post garnered many comments from people who talked about the friends they’d found on the internet and the good experiences they’d had. I can personally attest to the benefits I’ve found on the web. I met all three of my treasured critique partners through my website as well as every single one of the writers I call friends. I’m not saying the entire online romance community is good for nothing. What I’m saying is there are some serious issues with behavior and addressing that is important.

I wish I could share with you the flood of private e-mails I received about my post. Horror stories that the writer didn’t feel comfortable airing publicly. But there was a common thread that came through every e-mail–”Snarky bitchiness is what happens when you put a group of women together. Online or off.”

How sad is that?

Is that really how we women are? Catty, petty creatures who envy and resent the successes of others and feel an uncontrollable urge to lower those who rise above us? I’d like to think not. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, friends, readers, and writers. We are extraordinary. And we should act that way.

I don’t know if the behavior problems can be corrected, but I think we owe it to ourselves to give it a try. Say hello to the new people who join your loops. Before you post a rebuttal, first consider if a rebuttal is really necessary. (Just because you disagree doesn’t make your rebuttal necessary and saying, “I disagree” without backing up your statement with well-researched reasons why is unnecessary.) Be capable of walking away from fruitless confrontations, and I mean walk away. Forget about it. Don’t flame, gossip, or attempt to cause some damage when all is said and done. Try not to reply in the heat of the moment. And remember that the written word doesn’t carry with it the facial expressions and voice inflections that make face to face communication more clear.

People are being hurt everyday by the actions of others in the online romance community and to say this is inevitable because we’re a majority of women is a very sad thing. I think we can rise above this by simply taking a few extra moments before hitting the “send” button. I’m not trying to preach, I’m no less guilty than the next writer or reader. But I’m going to try harder and I think if we all try a little harder, we can bring about positive change.

… Romancing the Blog to read today’s blog post.