I’m a member of two writing organizations, Romance Writers of America (RWA), and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). I’ve never questioned the value of SFWA. I do wonder about RWA though, mostly because I’m not sure my books are romances. Do people fall in love and have great sex? Sure. But that’s not the point of the story. The point is solving a mystery or catching a killer, and in general I spend more time on the supernatural than the sweet and sappy. Still, every once in a while RWA provides me with a gem like this one about social media for writers:
“Post pictures of your cats. Readers love cats. If you don’t have one, borrow one and take its picture.” (Teresa Medeiros quoted in ‘The Virtual Living Room’ by Shana Galen, Romance Writers Report, Sept. 2013)
I don’t have a cat. I have a house rabbit. House rabbits are a much different pet from cats. Cats may be funny, silly, or cute. Rabbits disapprove. A cat might cuddle at your feet while you write, purring his encouragement. My Rabbit Editor sits beside me and glares his disapproval. The list of things he dislikes is long: ‘be’ verbs, telling not showing, saying ‘I’ too much. Don’t worry, he doesn’t confine himself to disapproving about writing topics.
I have long hair, careful-you-don’t-shut-it-in-the-car-door, pull-it-out-of-the-way-so-you-don’t-sit-on-it long. Thus my house is littered with hair ties. Before I go running I put my hair into a braid, which requires two hair ties. If I’m about to cook it goes into a pony-tail, one hair tie. The Rabbit Editor prefers it when I cook. Something about the produce scraps he enjoys, I suppose. Thus you get a scene like this one:
I am prone to anthropomorphizing him. I admit this. It’s entirely possible he just happened to nibble one of the ties into uselessness. But with that expression I could just hear him saying, “How sad that you can’t run today. Why don’t you go make me a nice apple pie instead?” Tragically for my angriest editor, I didn’t drop all my hair ties on the floor that morning. Rest assured, he got his nibble of apple pie and apple peels not too long after I got back.