Then and Now at RWA National Conferences
By Barbara O'Neal | July 25, 2018 |
I’ve just returned from the Romance Writer’s of America conference, which took place in Denver last week. It was, as always, filled with friends and long dinners over exquisite meals and good wine, and workshops, and a few dramatic moments.
All the way through the conference, I felt both a sense of excitement for the future of romance novels and a tangling of nostalgia for the ghosts wandering through the crowds and the way things were.
I attended my first RWA conference in San Francisco, in 1990. I’d published two books with Silhouette Special Edition and sold a third, but I had barely enough money to make the trip and one really good dress to wear to my editor meeting (it was pale lilac, with a crisp, wide collar and dropped waist with pleated skirt—insanely beautiful). I found a roommate through the roommate service, all I remember about her was that she was from Canada and was very cynical. The RITA awards were so full that they had overflow tables in the hallway, and Night of the Hunter by Jennifer Greene, a book I adored, won her category.
I also sat down at one of the lunches and sat next to a woman my age, who had also just seen her first category romance published. We had little kids. Neither of us were a blink past 30. Her name was Barbara Freethy and we had no idea what a ride we’d embarked upon.
A lot has changed in the decades since then, not just me, but everything about the business and the way we conduct it, and who holds the power and how we dress and greet each other and what we value.
In 1990, the power was all in the hands of the publishers and their anointed few bestsellers and big stars. It was the only way to make it, to catch the attention of a great editor, one who had some power, and then write with a wise eye toward the market and hope for great covers and some attention from the tastemakers. It was easy to pick out the stars. We all knew who they were and watched with longing as they gathered with their powerbroker editors and agents in the main lobby to head off for expensive meals.
Okay, some of that still happens, and I’m glad. I love great meals and the company of my powerbroker agent, but I also loved that several nights, it was gatherings of successful friends. We chose the restaurants and got ourselves there and bought ourselves those lovely bottles of wine. Successful writers are still feted by the people who are their business partners (ironically, one night I sat with a beloved editor-turned-friend and Barbara Freethy sat down next to us with a woman who was taking her out to dinner…the more things change…).
In 2018, power is distributed quite differently. Traditional publishing still exists and still offers glittering possibilities, but if you don’t sell well there, or can’t get past the door at all (I knew so many, many women who wrote for ten years or better without ever selling a word), you can publish your work yourself. You can hire editors and cover designers and marketing people.
You also don’t have to sell all your books in two weeks or face failure. Nowhere close. Books can have very long lives indeed nowadays, and I have found that enormously liberating. Books I wrote back then—even books that didn’t fare well (looking at you, Lucien’s Fall) can go on to be big, big bestsellers over time.
At the literacy signing this year, I sat between a Christian inspirational writer wearing conservative clothing and hairstyle and a younger woman with pale lavender hair who had a star on her face and tattoos on her arms who writes gay and lesbian romance from her Atlanta home. She’s a married mom of ten-year-old twins who works in the non-profit sector.
This writer would not have had a career in 1991. It’s impossible to imagine it. Now, she writes for one of the imprints of the formerly ever-so-conservative Harlequin.
And let’s not forget about clothes. I used to fret a lot about what to wear for conferences. It was Formal Female Business Wear in the 90s, which meant stockings and other things I didn’t do in my day to day life. Every year, I sweated and tried things on and felt stuffed in and trussed and not myself.
These days, it’s much less formal. Writers still want to look their best, but it’s a creative kind of best. There are some costume aspects, and a lot of rainbow hair, and a ton of tattoos. And boots and sandals and jeans and tunics and dresses and long skirts and whatever you feel makes you look like you.
Which is great. I never wore those Formal Female Business clothes particularly well. A lot of us probably felt that way.
The other thing that’s a really, really, really gigantic change is the diversity at the conference. In 1991, it was very, very white. There were a few women of color, nearly all of them African American. Beverly Jenkins published her first book, Night Song, in 1994, and so did Shirley Hailstock (Whispers of Love). Adam and Eva, by Sandra Kitt was published in 1984, ten years earlier, but AA romances in historical or contemporary were next to non-existent.
The organization is undergoing a shake-up in regard to diversity this year. It was past time, and it’s been painful at times, but it’s clear that Diversity Matters is a high-ranking issue, and many of the discussions and speeches addressed the matter, as well as GLBTQ inclusiveness.
But really, all you had to do to see how much RWA itself (rather than the publishing industry) has changed was to sit in the lobby for five minutes and you’d see the span of humanity wearing RWA badges around their necks. It’s cheering and invigorating.
This conference, I had a room to myself. It’s the first time ever, and I have to admit that for all my sisterly longings, I liked it. I had a ton of work to do for the release of The Art of Inheriting Secrets and couldn’t afford to be distracted. I did hang out with my friends and listened to workshops and gave one. I signed books and met readers.
Friday night is always the big party night—publisher parties and writer gatherings of all ilks. I attended my publisher’s party in an old speakeasy and afterward came back to find my friends. Sitting in the lobby, I watched the young women in their scandalous dresses and mile-high shoes click-clack across the floor, light dancing off the brilliants on their bodices and in their hair. I watched a pair of ladies in t-shirts and stretchy jeans lean their heads together in a corner. Tired women dragged themselves to the elevators, still talking and nodding. An old woman sat in a corner, bemused, watching.
Ghosts wove their way in and out of the crowds, too. My friend Jo Beverley, too soon gone. Friends who are not well enough to attend, and those who’ve drifted away or don’t come any more. I see their dresses from years gone by—the stuffed alligator purse worn carried by Jacqui D’Allesandro, the boa sported by Anne Stuart, Jo’s beautiful chakra necklace that she bought at a retreat in New Mexico. My own rayon dress, black with cabbage roses, that I wore to many, many of those ceremonies until it was too fragile to wear even one more time.
Somewhere, not far away was the Harlequin party, where women in their best finery danced to YMCA and declare their power—and their joy.
Upstairs in a hotel room packed to the gills were five or six women who’d left their children at home and packed up their finery to come and sit with snacks and drinks and talk romance novels all night long—theirs and all the ones they’ve loved.
An agent was wooing a client who would make her a ton of money over the years to come. An editor made her way to the elevators, hiding her badge.
Women, nearly all of us women, were gathered to glean more about our business, give time and money to our careers, to make a priority of networking and craft and make things happen for ourselves, each of us in our own way.
Romance novels take a lot of heat, but can you imagine anything more feminist than this?
I can’t.
Have you ever attended the RWA national conference? Do you attend a different conference? Do you imagine RWA to be a feminist organization or not?
Barbara O’Neal is the author of more than a dozen award-winning, bestselling novels, including the runaway bestseller, When We Believed in Mermaids, which has been published in more than 20 countries and spent many months on the Amazon Charts, as well as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller lists. Barbara lives on the beach in rugged Oregon with her husband, a British endurance athlete who vows he’ll never lose his accent and their zoo of cats and dogs. You can find more information on her newsletter and where to find her on social media at barbaraoneal.com.
Barb, thanks for a look behind the scenes and a retrospective. And look at that name tag!!! You should be proud. As I delve into women’s fiction (writing that is; I’ve always read it), I am naturally interested in romance so perhaps I’ll get to rub shoulders with you some day!
I am proud of that name tag, Vijaya! My beloved Christopher Robin has forbidden me to wear the silver ladies that represent a RITA final. :)
I hope we will rub shoulders one day!
Wonderful post. All so true. Really captures the essence of the RWA conference over the years and of the romance genre in general. Thank you for taking the time to speak authentically and powerfully.
:)
Thanks for this really lovely write-up. So many of my writer friends are part of RWA and were there this year, and I like to imagine them floating through your sight line as you went about your day.
I’m sure they were.
I always love reading your posts, Barbara, and this one is no exception. What I love is the evolution you describe–the feeling of growth, almost a rite of passage that conferences can represent.
I so clearly remember the evolution in my former business, how we were so young, so nervous at our first few. How quickly we made friends, and how quickly my wife carved her mark in an otherwise all-male world (the lumber biz in the 80s and 90s was very patriarchal – my wife used to joke that at least there was never a line in the ladies rooms). And I remember getting to the point where we weren’t seekers–trying to find either customers or vendors who would favor us by engaging us as distribution chain partners–but sought. It not only made conferences more relaxed and enjoyable, it offered an opportunity to observe and reflect, as you have here. Recalling it makes me appreciate the ghosts you mention. Sometimes I miss it–the people, not the early mornings, long days, and frenetic lifestyle. And I suppose I miss the smell of freshly-cut cedar and fir.
In the conferences of the writing world, even after ten+ years, I still feel like a newbie. Not so much the amateur, but the eternally aspiring–still harboring hope and hiding awkwardness and banking the glow of my yearning. With the exception of UnCon, of course, which is altogether different. There’s no pecking order to negotiate, so we can all “let our hair down” in Salem. Hope to see you there! Thanks for (inspiring) the memories, and for kindling the hopes of other conferences to come, Barbara.
I was thinking about the difference between Uncon and this last night. They really are very different, and that’s a good thing.
You’ll be one of the stars soon enough, Vaughn. I have faith.
What a beautiful post Barbara! Adore the way you weave your words. Yes, I attended one RWA conference. Anaheim 2012. You talk about shake ups and change. There was a big one that year. The board voted to nix Mainstream Commercial Fiction with romance elements and many of us who didn’t write straight romance found ourselves out in the cold. But as with most change, good can evolve from the ashes. A new association was created, the Womens Fiction Writers Association. The WFWA wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for RWA.
I was a tad jaded toward the organization after that. I didn’t identify as a romance author. I still don’t despite being invited to speak on Romantic Suspense panels and my books doing well in the Romantic Suspense category, even though they weren’t written as romance novels. The romance doesn’t drive the plot, but there are strong romantic elements.
So… six years later, I bit the bullet. I re-joined RWA last week. Within one hour, my general membership was approved, as was my PAN membership. I have no idea what forums I should read or benefits to access. But what I do know is that my books bridge genres. I need to embrace them all: suspense, mystery, and romance.
As for what I was doing in 1990? Working on my senior project at Cal Poly. I had no idea an organization like RWA existed. Writing books never entered my mind. But I read voraciously. My roommate had a closet full of books. Nora Roberts, Catherine Coulter, Jude Devereaux, and Julie Garwood were her favorites. That year, they became my favorites, too.
I’m very glad you rejoined, Kerry. I also quit when that category was removed from the RITAs. As I’d won the category that year, and made it into the Hall of Fame just under the wire, I was quite angry. I joined WFWA, too, and I love it, as well.
I rejoined because RWA has been so much a part of my life. My work does straddle genres, with romantic elements more or less a part according to the book, with family dynamics the main focus most of the time. But…I love RWA for all her flaws. It’s been such a huge part of my life that I need to be part of it.
Women’s fiction, as it’s published today, has very deep roots in romance and RWA. We’re all on the same continuum–women writing what matters to us.
I hope you find great things there, too (and we can maybe meet at last! Next year in New York?).
Oh yes! NY 2019 is on my calendar.
Kerry, you were my very first conference buddy that year! I’ll never forget it! I’m excited to see you in NY next year!
Lovely post Barbara. You took me to a place I had never been but it was bright and vibrated with your warmth and talent. And the dress with the cabbage roses–wish you could have preserved it. Photos??
I thought so many times about how to preserve that dress. I was wearing it the night that I won two RITAs and it felt magical ever after. It really was so beautiful and flattering. I’m sure there are photos around somewhere.
Gosh, what a fun post, Barbara. I haven’t been to RWA, but in mystery world, Malice Domestic is a lot like this, though much smaller. Exhausting and energizing at the same time. All those people who love what you love, willing to spend their time and money and energy celebrating it. Thanks for taking us with you!
Yes, that’s the part that’s important–being with people who love what you love and immersing completely.
A great summary. It was a pleasure to meet you in the “speakeasy” on Friday. I’m one of those readers who keeps all the books but is really shy around the “stars.” And the ghosts, yes, they were there in Denver too.
It was great to see you again, Sara. It’s been awhile!
Thanks so much for this post. But I have to say I was nearly brought to tears of regret that I missed this year’s RWA conference. My first was maybe 15 years ago in Denver and I’ve been often since, and the atmosphere and even the changes you describe ring so true. Like you, I love the variety in the personal style we see–it’s a feast for the eyes and is such a reminder that we’re all so different, but bring the common passion for stories to what we do. (I’m also reminded that some people are bolder than I am.) Back home, I get a kick out seeing RWA members’ books on the shelf of new books in the library and thinking, “Hey, I know her. We met in Reno…or Atlanta…or New York…”
Another year, Virginia!
What a fabulous, fabulous eulogy to a genre I don’t write, though I’ve read a few over the years. I’ve watched how romance writers organise themselves with awe… and now I know more about how the sisterhood from the inside – thanks to this fascinating and moving post. Thank you!
Spot on run down of this year’s conference, Barbara.
I’m glad I saw you for two seconds.
I’m mostly a lurker here at WU, but I couldn’t resist commenting on your wonderful RWA post, Barbara. I was THERE last week in Denver – a First Timer – and had a fabulous time! When I saw that the conference was going to be in Denver I knew I had to attend since it’s only a 1-hour flight from where I am in Albuquerque, and my long-time crit partner of 20 years moved to Denver last summer so I stayed with her.
Amazingly enough, I was actually reading your new book, THE INHERITANCE OF SECRETS on the plane north and then stayed up until midnight to finish it (loved it!).
I spotted your book at the Tattered Cover bookstore table and showed my friends and then looked up your name in the program, but you weren’t listed as a presenting author so I didn’t know where to find you to get a book signed! Darn! I figured you weren’t in attendance. :-(
btw: I’m trad published with Scholastic and Harpercollins in MG and YA, but am now indie publishing sweet adult romance, too. It’s been a whirlwind of a new learning curve the last couple of years and making new friends in the romance world, and I’m loving it. Hope to meet you next time around! Keep writing your Daphne du Maurier type books, she’s one of my all-time favorite authors. :-)
Oooh, very very honored to be compared to Daphne du Maurier!
It’s too bad that we didn’t have a chance to meet this week, but there will be other chances, I’m sure. Welcome to the romance side.
This was my second RWA conference. (I caught a glimpse of you from across the room and thought, I’ve seen her on WU!) I don’t write romance exclusively or even mostly, but I love RWA and my chapter sisters (and the occasional brother) and have found the organization to be incredibly supportive and helpful in honing my craft and keeping current with the publishing industry. There is something special about RWA.
I loved your description of that black dress with the cabbage roses. I felt nostalgic just reading it and I’ve never seen the garment. Thank you for this lovely post, Barbara.
Is there a term for all the badges and honors on your name tag? Literary fruit salad? Regardless, you’ve had a full career, Barbara, and TAoIS is tearing up the charts. (Haven’t yet read my copy.) Congratulations.
I’ve been to three Nationals, though not for at least five years. I tend to feel overwhelmed with the size of the crowd. You’ve almost persuaded me I should give it a try again.
Gee, thanks for making me cry, Barbara! I think my first national was 1989 or 1990 or so. One of the NY ones, where so many of us met in person for the first time. For me, the best part of conference is seeing friends. Hope to see you in NY next year.
Beautiful and poignant, Barbara! I’ve been attending for 7 years now, starting my writing career later in life at 42. Even in that short time, I’ve seen the changes. At 51 now with 14 books, I approach the conference a little differently than I did then, But there are so many things that remain the same. Last year’s theme of “friends” was spot on for me. Friends I’ve made at this conference are lifelong, and binding. 😉
What a wonderful post, Barbara. I loved this year’s conference, my 8th in 9 years. I always come away motivated, inspired, exhausted, with new friends, and with several ideas for whatever project I’m working on.
Spending a week with other romance writers–my tribe, the people who “get” me–refills my well and sparks the muse like nothing else.
And I think that RWA can’t help but be a feminist organization. It represents thousands of (mostly) women, who write fiction read (mostly) by women, that depicts romantic relationships based on love and respect. I think the world needs that message more than ever.
I’m also glad to see RWA moving toward greater inclusiveness and encouraging diversity in romance publishing.
Sorry I missed you this year! I would’ve liked to meet you in person.
I wish we’d met, too. One of these days!