Made the finals!

My MMA-based contemporary romance novel Fighting for Her Love made the finals for the Toronto Romance Writers' Gold contest!

Read the good news here.

Third of three does not make me a loser, dammit!

I got the news today, oh, boy....

Finished third in the TRW's Golden Opportunity contest in the Contemporary Series category. From first in scores to third in rank (of three).

Poop. Oh, well, there's always next year. It was good to know I even made the finals.

Here's what the category judge, Harlequin Superromance's Wanda Ottewell, had to say:

How would you rate this entry on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest?
7

What was strong about this entry?
Really captures the heroine’s unique voice with the narrative. Her personality comes through well so the reader feels connected.

What could be improved?
A more unique, less typical meet between the hero and heroine would be good. While the collision between hero and heroine sparks physical awareness, as a device it gets used a lot.

I totally knew this about the setup when I set out to write the book, of course. But it is my first book, and after three years of rejigging, it actually rates as not half-bad, so on the scale of things, WIN!

Better luck next time!

Political Correctness Can Be Offensive, Too

I wrote an article for the Toronto Romance Writers monthly newsletter--it got front page! It's also going to be syndicated to other RWA chapter newsletters, so this'll be interesting to see if it drives any traffic to dis here blog.

If you came to this blog via the link in my bio, comment and let me know!

Political Correctness Can Be Offensive, Too
by Vicki So

Asian.

Seems like an innocuous enough word, one likely drilled into you when PC-ism was supposed to help navigate the treacherously booby-trapped labyrinth of race and language.

As a Canadian-born Chinese woman, I can personally say Asian was preferable to the old term Oriental, which elicited the old European colonial ideas of an exotic race from a land far removed from civilized Western society. Asian was better, certainly, than Asiatic, yellow, or Chinaman.

Then I recently came across a passage in a book in which a police detective referred to the rise of “Asian gangs.” It was a jarring thing to read, not because the language was offensive, but because what I perceived to be hypersensitivity to racial issues actually made the sentence more offensive because the context had not been taken into consideration.

Many arguments abound about the use of different racial terms, and I’m not pushing any hard and fast rules for when certain terms will be construed as offensive. But I hope to provoke some thought next time you come across this issue in your writing.

Asia is the largest continent on the planet. While there are some different schools of thought among geographers regarding the physical limits of Asia, the general consensus in terms of political boundaries include Turkey to the west, Russia to the north, Japan to the east and East Timor to the south. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia#Physical_geography)

That said, you wouldn’t likely refer to someone from Iraq, Yemen, Uzbekistan or Russia as Asian.

The colloquial use of the word Asian differs region to region as it encompasses different groups of people. According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, “In Britain, Asian is used to refer to people who come from (or whose parents came from) the Indian subcontinent, while in North America it is used to refer to people from the Far East.” Have a look at the Wikipedia entry on Asian people and you’ll see it gets even more nitty-gritty, especially when it comes down to census reports. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_people)

With so many variations on the term, using Asian as a descriptor can be tricky, especially if you’re coupling it with something that might give it a negative connotation. In the case above, being specific would have been preferable to using a broader brush. Context is key: after all, an educated police officer knows the difference between the Hong Kong Triads, the Japanese Yakuza, the Russian Mafia and the Tamil Tigers. And he wouldn’t likely call them “Caucasian gangs.”

You should also avoid absurdist ultra-PC-isms: Oriental Chicken Salad and Asian Chicken Salad are both acceptable, but I’m not convinced “Asian carpets,” “Asian Checkers” or “Asian Anime” will ever be accepted as the norm. And while you might waver at the use of Chinaman in your historical about San Francisco in the early 1900’s, remember that Asian wasn’t a term that was widely used until the 1990’s.

Simple rule: When it comes to race, context is key. Be specific when you’re not sure.


Vicki So is a PRO member of the RWA and a member of the Toronto Romance Writers. By day, she is a proofreader at a large romance publisher. By night, she writes fan fiction and romance novels. She owns no cats, dogs or horses, does not live on a farm, and prefers chips over chocolate. Her real-life hero is a big nerd, just like her, and that’s what keeps their spark alive. Follow her blog at tripetripeandmoretripe.blogspot.com.

Best. Romance Covers. Ever.

Covers reimagined. So damned hilarious.

More here and here.

*Note to TRW memebers: brace yourself, some of YOUR covers are on here!

Mediocrity Strikes Again!

Results for the Toronto Romance Writers Golden Opportunity Contest came in the mail today. No, I didn't make the finals. But I got lots of good feedback.

My rank: 12th place out of 26...exactly mediocre!

To quote Jean Giraudoux: Only the mediocre are always at their best.

YAY! I'm at my best!!!


So the next little while will be spent polishing up this book, Star Attraction, so I can enter it in to the RWA's Golden Heart this year. I also had lots of fantabulous feedback from the stunningly wicked Moor to work with...it's all good, if harrowing to one's ego.

Hey, no one ever said it would be easy...

WIN FREE BOOKS!!!!

I wouldn't be a good blogger/author/member of the Toronto Romance Writers if I didn't pass this on to my small but loyal readership.

Book Giveaway!

In a few short words, the TRW's published members got together and launched this wonderful contest. If you like books, and you want fun stuff to read, enter the contest!

Enter this contest for a chance to win 24 books!