The Biology Debate about Gender Roles: Why It Matters to Romancelandia

A couple months ago, a fellow romance author posted a funny comic about motherhood on her Facebook page. She included words to go along with it to this effect: “This comic about the frustrations of being a mother is hilarious! I had to skip over the feminist stuff tho, cuz men and women are biologically different and there’s no getting around that, but if you ignore that stuff then it’s so true!”

I was gobsmacked that a fellow romance author, of all people, could forsake feminism as a lie women tell themselves in order to deny nature’s truth. Then James Damore, aka “Google Bro,” released his “Women Are Biologically Inferior” manifesto and it got me wondering: setting aside the loaded question of whether women are inferior to men in general, how biologically different are men and women to begin with, and how do those differences affect our behavior?

Romance is filled with tropes that assume certain stereotypes about how men and women should act, from the virginal, chaste heroine (who is pure and beautiful and therefore worthy of love) to the aggressive, alpha male hero (who is brave and strong and therefore worthy of love). Of course we recognize these tropes as fantasies with only a passing resemblance to reality, but the aforementioned author’s Facebook comment suggests there are a significant number of romance readers and authors—maybe even a majority—who believe these tropes are based on real-life hardwired differences between the sexes.

But if you’re going to make a claim supposedly based on science—hence the term “biologically” rather than “according to the MRA subreddit I frequent”—what does actual scientific literature have to say about it?

Well, I happen to be a big-time science nerd. I have college degrees in technical fields (engineering and physics) and subscribe to lots of scientific journals and blogs where articles about this topic sometimes pop up. In fact, this month’s issue of Scientific American just happens to be all about gender—how convenient! As any good scientist will tell you, no complicated issue is ever black or white, especially when it comes to human behavior. You’ll find “evidence” for any crazy-ass thing you want to believe if you fish around long enough. But if you’re a critical thinker, open to having your beliefs contradicted by reality, and then changing your beliefs as a result (which is a lot harder than it sounds—cognitive bias is very powerful), you look at the preponderance of evidence and come to an educated conclusion about what is probably true.

(Note that in this case “truth” = reality, not “my own truth,” which is psyching yourself into believing bullshit.)

So are women and men biologically different in ways which affect our behavior and validate the tropes?

TLDR Answer: No. Gender-specific behavior is based on cultural standards, not biology.

Long Answer:

(Get ready for some citations!)

The “biology made me do it” line of thinking comes from the assumption that you can observe an animal’s behavior and directly extrapolate a reason for it based on the animal’s biology. For instance, if you’ve read a science book or two you may assume people love babies because animals are hardwired to take special care of their offspring to maximize the survival of their species. However, there are clearly people who don’t like kids or babies, and many parents who don’t love their children. This is because humans aren’t normal animals, and our reasons for doing things are more complicated than a cursory reading of biology and psychology can explain. The key difference between us and the rest of the animal kingdom is that our prehistoric biological hardwiring is easily overridden by cultural forces.

Take another example: racism. It’s tempting to strike a superficially objective pose and say that racism is “natural” as a product of our innate dislike for anything that is not like us, in order to protect our genes (it all comes down to survival of the species, right?) [1]. However, this explanation ignores the fact that humans have extremely low genetic diversity. Every human being on the planet shares about 99.9 percent of their DNA with every other human [2]. In fact, two separate chimpanzee populations (our closest non-human relatives) living in geographic proximity to one another are still more genetically diverse than the entire human race [3]. We are basically clones of one another, and yet we seize on differences that are literally skin deep in order to justify one cultural population’s “superiority”—and therefore right to hold power—over another. While our dislike of things and people that are different may have been a hardwired instinct we acted on millions of years ago, we’ve since coopted this hardwiring for purely cultural reasons; the biological differences between races, which white nationalists often cite, do not actually exist.

This distinction is what tripped up the Facebook author and Google Bro: you can’t make generalizations about human behavior based on our biology because cultural forces trump nearly everything. If you’re going to make the case that gender-specific biology accounts for behavioral differences between men and women, you first need to prove that the null hypothesis is false—that the differences are not due to something else, like cultural factors.

It’s easy to look at the male and female body and assume that we are completely different (hotdogs vs tacos! Heaving bosoms vs washboard abs! Flowing locks vs flowing mullets!), and that these differences extend to our brains as well. It’s also easy to look at sex differences in the animal kingdom and assume that the clear differences in male and female behaviors within many species also extend to humans. But gender research doesn’t support this assumption. There is no such thing as a “male” and “female” brain [4]. To the extent which the brain controls sex traits, such as the amount of testosterone or estrogen produced, they vary wildly between individuals [5]. Everybody’s brain is made up of a mosaic of male and female traits which can’t be mapped back to a specific gender demographic [6]. Put another way—if you asked a neurosurgeon to map your brain simply based on your gender, they wouldn’t be able to do it. There is no universal brain structure which makes somebody with two X-chromosomes naturally “neurotic,” “emotional,” or “indecisive,” just as having a Y-chromosome doesn’t mean you’re naturally “assertive,” “aggressive,” or “brave.”

There are, of course, biological factors that do affect a person’s behavior, such as sexual preference (I always find it amusing when someone refers to homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, as if being vilified and alienated by large swaths of society is a fun choice). Mental illness such as psychopathy, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder will also affect a person’s behavior. But these biological factors affect people on an individual basis, not whole demographics. The stereotypical differences between male and female behavior disappear when environmental circumstances change. For instance, the “sexual revolution,” which marked a significant uptick in single women’s sexual activity, coincided not with the introduction of the birth control pill—a biological factor—but with the women’s liberation movement—a cultural shift (the pill had been available since the early 1960s, while the sexual revolution took off in the late 1960s and early 1970s) [7]. The belief that women are hardwired to prefer monogamy while men want to spread their seed around ignores the fact that both genders report similar sexual habits and generally prefer monogamy in equal measure [8]. There’s also no difference in men and women’s appetite for risk, despite the “men take more risks to attract females” stereotype [9].

So why are women considered inferior to men in a wide majority of cultures if it isn’t nature’s truth? One clue to the rise of the patriarchy comes from the Bronze Age in human history, when countries started establishing themselves on the backs of their armies. During the Warring States Period of Chinese history, samples of ancient human remains showed a significant drop in female nutrition from previous historical periods, likely the result of resources being diverted to males who could fight for their country/warlord [10]. Societies took advantage of the physical differences between men and women to achieve cultural objectives, and the “men are fighters/women are nurturers” myth was born. It’s not a coincidence that women are finally regaining some gender parity now that we live in a technological age where size and strength are no longer critical to success.

The point of this article isn’t to argue that it’s wrong to swoon for alpha males or that housewives should be ashamed of themselves. It’s not wrong to adhere to gender norms; rather, it’s wrong to label somebody who doesn’t adhere to those norms as “unnatural.” Human gender behavior doesn’t follow a natural order. It’s wrong—ethically and scientifically—to attribute cognitive traits to an entire demographic. Our love for the romance genre tropes isn’t hardwired into us; we love them because we have learned to love them. What makes a man a manly man and a woman a good woman are things we were taught by society at large and by our smaller personal spheres of influence.

So go ahead and love your preferred Romancelandia tropes and stereotypes! But recognize them for what they are—cultural preferences, with no biological foundation.

 

  1. Rob Brooks. “The Origins of Racism.” The Conversation, 23 July 2012. http://theconversation.com/the-origins-of-racism-8321.
  2. Roger Highfield. “DNA survey finds all humans are 99.9pc the same.” The Telegraph, 20 December 2002. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1416706/DNA-survey-finds-all-humans-are-99.9pc-the-same.html.
  3. R. Bowden, T.S. MacFie, S. Myers, G. Hellenthal, E. Nerrienet, et al. “Genomic Tools for Evolution and Conservation in the Chimpanzee: Pan troglodytes ellioti Is a Genetically Distinct Population.” PLoS Genet, 2012. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002504
  4. Lydia Denworth. “Is There a ‘Female’ Brain?” Scientific American, September 2017.
  5. Ibid, 40.
  6. Ibid, 41.
  7. Brenda Frink. “The pill and the marriage revolution.” The Clayman Institute for Gender Research, 29 Sep 2011. http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/pill-and-marriage-revolution
  8. Cordelia Fine and Mark A. Elgar. “Promiscuous Men, Chaste Women, and Other Gender Myths.” Scientific American, September 2017.
  9. Ibid, 36.
  10. Angus Chen. “Of Meat and Men.” Scientific American, May 2017.
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Finished The Red Election!

Greetings, all my fans who read these posts but never comment! (I’m sure there are hundreds of you, silently enjoying everything I write)

Sorry I’ve been silent for a few weeks. I fell down a hidey-hole for a couple reasons: marketing fatigue, and finishing up the Red Election!

Ever since I returned from the RWA conference in late July, I’ve felt drained and unenthusiastic about this whole author branding thing. Specifically, I’ve HAD IT with marketing and publicity advice and don’t want to do it anymore, dammit.

Here’s the MINIMUM of what you’re supposed to do: ask for reviews from dozens of bloggers, give ARCs to anyone who will take one, guest blog on sites your potential readers frequent, leave “bread crumbs” to your website to entice people to sign up for your newsletter, have giveaways and a release party, and be active on social media.

Suffice it to say I did all those things and haven’t seen a corresponding spike in sales, to the point where I wonder if I would have gotten the same result if I’d done nothing. So now I’m taking a “SCREW IT” attitude to pumping up my marketing jam, and I’m going to get giggy with doing whatever I feel like – at least until I have another release on the way…

…Which I’m happy to say is hopefully imminent! I’ve finally finished The Red Election! My Original Gangsta fans might recall reading parts of this YA sci-fi novel as a work in progress a couple years ago. Now it is complete and awesome! I made a blurb and book cover for it and everything (see below)!

Anyway, now that I’m between projects I’ll start posting more often…and make some movies like I threatened to do a while ago.

High school’s a bitch, and then you die…

In the year 2045, Major Cora Johnson and Captain Quentin Rose are members of an elite US Army squad in a dying world, where mysterious time-altering weapons have started a second Civil War and pushed humanity to the brink of extinction.

When a bomb goes off during their attack on a temporal weapons facility, Cora and Quentin die…and then wake up in their teenaged bodies in our present day.

As they navigate the take-no-prisoners world of high school—and grapple with their growing attraction to each other—things get even stranger when they begin receiving orders to kill. Should they obey like the good soldiers they’re supposed to be, or resist and risk destroying the future?

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Make Your Own Romantic Suspense Mad Libs!

(This post was first published on the Just Romantic Suspense blog as part of my RECKONING blog tour)

Have you always dreamed about writing your own romantic suspense story? Well now you can!

In fact, it’s really not that hard. Here’s a plot line generator that any aspiring author can use to write their own bestseller:

Step 1 – Fill in the following info:

  1. Precious stone
  2. Profession
  3. Number greater than 1
  4. Animal
  5. Relative
  6. Verb ending in -ing
  7. Ominous-sounding name
  8. Manly name that can be shortened to something even manlier
  9. Pick one: Navy Seal/Marine/Special Forces Soldier
  10. Profession
  11. Liquid
  12. Vice ending in -ing
  13. Noun
  14. Shortened version of [8]
  15. Body part
  16. Display of affection
  17. Body part
  18. City
  19. Body part
  20. Pick one: been burned by/not ready for/not deserving of
  21. Verb ending in -ing
  22. Noun
  23. Body part
  24. Meat item
  25. Flower
  26. Body part
  27. Famous person
  28. Relative
  29. Reasons
  30. Noun

Step 2 – Insert answers into this plotline:

TRIGGER WARNING for [4]s, [12], and [27]

[1] is a [2] taking care of [3] [4]s by herself after her [5] died in a tragic [6] accident. Though she’s lonely, she’s accepted her sad life as an unavoidable price she must pay in order to stay safe from [7], who she’s sure is responsible for her [5]’s death even if the police don’t believe her…

[8], an ex-[9], is a [10] battling inner demons after his partner died on a botched raid on [7]’s hideout three years ago. One day, he wakes up in a pool of his own [11] after another hard night of [12] to discover a mysterious message on his [13] from one of his old squadmates: “[7] is coming for [1]. Protect her!” What could it mean?? [14] has no idea who [1] is, but he can’t pass up the opportunity to face his old nemesis, so he tracks her down.

When [14] shows up on [1]’s doorstep with the most spectacular [15] she’s ever seen, as well as a warning that [7] is coming for her, she doesn’t know whether to run from him or [16] him. Despite how he makes her [17] tingle, she can take care of herself, thank you very much! However, when her house mysteriously catches fire, and she and her [4]s barely make it out alive, she admits she has no choice but to go into hiding with [14] while he figures out how to stop [7].

On the run together, [14] forms a plan to confront [7] at his secret hideout in [18]. Despite being constantly distracted by [1]’s luscious [19], he knows he needs to keep his mind on the mission. Besides, why would anyone want him? He’s [20] love.

After teaching [1]’s [4]s the deadly art of [21] to protect [1] while he’s gone, [14] goes to [18] to confront [7]. But it’s a trap! [14] is badly hurt by a vicious [22], but manages to escape.

When [14] returns to [1], she patches up his [23] with such care that [14] cannot deny his attraction to her any longer. [1] admits she feels the same, and since her [4]s are conveniently somewhere else at the moment, he unsheathes his [24], and makes sweet, sweet love to her perfect [25].

Suddenly, [7] shows up! He put a homing beacon in [14]’s [26], knowing [14] would lead him to [1]. [7] then rips off an amazingly life-like mask to reveal he’s really [27], who is also [1]’s [28]. He’s always hated [1] for [29], and wants her dead. No one can stand in his way now – except [14]!

Unfortunately for [27], [14] is now filled with the vigor and energy only sexual healing can provide, and he uses his [30] to defeat [27] and save the day!

Now that [1] is safe and [14] has learned how to love again, they live happily ever after with [1]’s now-deadly [4]s, who [14] loves as his own. The end!

***

See? It’s just that simple. Change the pronouns for an LGBTQ angle, throw in some kinky sex scenes for an erotic edge if you want, or add some animal shape-shifting/vampires/werewolves/etc. for a paranormal twist. The possibilities are endless!

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When a Facebook Friend Dies, What Do You Post?

I don’t post on Facebook much, even though the marketing gods have decreed that you’re supposed to post at least once a day to keep your theoretical readership engaged. I’ll admit I don’t post very often for two main reasons: most of the things I’m thinking at any given moment are either so mundane I assume no one will care, or I’m thinking things I don’t want anyone to know I’m thinking.

An example of the latter:

Today, I learned via Facebook that one of my Facebook friends died in a mountain climbing accident yesterday. The initial post was in Spanish, so at first I thought I’d translated it wrong because I’m not very good at Spanish yet (I’m in the process of learning). Then I thought it was a morbid, unfunny joke because literally the day before he posted a picture of his mountain climbing equipment with the caption, “Wish me luck!” I went to his Facebook page, and sure enough there were dozens of RIP posts, so damn, he really did die. Jesus, poor guy.

I was going to post my own condolences when I realized that I could not for the life me remember how I knew him in real life.

I know we served in the military together, and I recall congratulating him on his move to Washington State for an Air Force-sponsored internship with Boeing (I think) and the shadows of other conversations we had, but I can’t remember which base we were stationed at together, what program we worked on, or how we knew each other.

So what would I have posted? “RIP – You looked like a really awesome, stand-up guy on Facebook, full of life based on the pics you posted, and caring and considerate in the way you often liked my posts. You will be missed (on Facebook).”

Is this how we live now? Do all these shallow connections we now have with people make us shallow ourselves? Does the act of writing this blog post mean that I’m making his death all about me by reducing him to an abstract catalyst for self-reflection rather than the flesh-and-blood person with real family and real friends that he actually was? Kinda feels like it.

And that’s why I don’t post much on Facebook.

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Three Reasons Why Sexism is Still a Problem in Romancelandia

(This post was first published on the Romance Junkie blog as part of my RECKONING blog tour)

Wow, look at those heartthrobs demanding that crying woman decide which man she belongs to! How romantic…

For a genre by and large written by women for women, romance uses a lot of sexist tropes in its storytelling. You can’t swing a pink dildo around the romance section of your favorite bookstore without hitting a paperback that denigrates women in some way, and I’m not just talking about the Old Skool stuff.

I get where the impulse comes from. The genre’s purpose is to sell a romantic fantasy, and often that fantasy entails willowy women being swept away by alpha males as a metaphor for losing oneself in sexual and/or romantic pleasure in a way many of us can’t do in real life.

If the basic definition of feminism is treating men and women as equals, then the woman-swept-off-her-feet-by-a-manly-man naturally caters to the opposite impulse by playing into our desires to abdicate our mundane responsibilities and let somebody else take charge—without the negative consequences that often follow in real life, of course.

Not to say it’s an unreasonable desire to build a fantasy around. Who doesn’t want a Greek billionaire to worship them? But as the late Roger Ebert said about movies—“It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it”—it’s not what a romance novel is about, but how it goes about it. By dipping a toe into the pool of anti-feminism in service of a romance storyline, some books trip headfirst into it and send up a maelstrom of cringe-worthy sexist stereotypes, and sometimes outright misogyny.

(Note: “sexism” is a prejudice or stereotype based on gender; “misogyny” is a dislike or hatred of females. Not surprisingly, the two often go hand-in-hand)

Here are the three biggest offenders that need to follow shirtless-mullet-heroes and he-raped-me-until-I-loved-him-heroines into the Romance Pit of No Return:

–          Slut-shaming

God forbid a woman should be sexually experienced…or, even worse, if she enjoyed that experience…or—the worst—if she dares to have sex with a man other than her intended during the story, no matter the circumstances! Virginal heroines are a trope all their own, along with the idea that the state of a woman’s hymen is somehow directly proportional to her worth. Of course men aren’t held to this standard. Dudes can ho around all they want, it don’t mean a thang! But a lady, especially the heroine, must save herself for The One. And if she doesn’t…for shame.

*A woman’s value = what her vagina’s been up to.

 

–          All other women in the story are evil and/or sluts

Basic decency is a zero-sum game, and other women are the enemy. What better way to make the heroine look good than by bringing down all the other ladies around her? Her true love will only want her if she’s not like other women, i.e. a not a slut (see above).

*A woman’s value = how she compares to other women.

–          Stalking/abusive behavior portrayed as romantic

He shows up at her work unannounced and demands she go places with him. He makes proclamations about how “she will be his,” orders her around (especially in the bedroom), won’t take no for an answer, won’t let her deal with her own problems, and won’t let her make her own life decisions…because he loves her so much! She may tell him no, but her heart says yes. It’s okay, though, because he knows what she wants. If he keeps telling her she’s beautiful and assures her that he’s never felt this way about anyone else before, she’ll just keep swooning no matter what he does.

* A woman’s value = what a man tells her it is

Obviously not all romance novels contain sexist elements; in fact, many are happily, proudly feminist! And you could argue to each their own—these books are fiction after all. A lot of women like the anti-feminism fantasy, so what’s the harm? The problem is that fiction is a reflection of reality as the author sees it, if only in subtext. If a certain genre of fiction contained, for instance, regular allusions to anti-Semitism, what assumptions would you make about the people who read it? If we tolerate a consistent thread of sexism and misogyny in our beloved genre, what does that say about us?

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RWA Conference – Day 3

With my stress levels dropped back down to normal, Day 3 began with a takedown of my stupid Iran paper assignment. My classmates and I agreed that it sucked salty balls and we wanted it over as quickly as possible. Our cathartic bitching gave me the energy I needed to face the day!

Screw you.

I finally got to meet some other authors! Had a great lunch with folks from my agency, Prospect, including Emily Kim (an agent) and Regina Scott, who writes sweet inspirationals and has some kind of gluten intolerance but was still really nice to the wait staff, and graciously tolerated me asking her about a million questions, thereby solidifying her status in my mind as a fantastic lady worthy of super stardom.

Regina Scott, a super nice lady and excellent author!

In the evening, I went to the Passionate Ink RWA chapter event, which included free food and booze – always a plus! There, I met Laura Baumbach, who owns her own publishing house and writes exclusively M/M erotic romance. She’s a retired trauma nurse, and reminded me a lot of my mother – if, when I was growing up, my mom wrote gay Forever Knight fanfic which she then parlayed into a successful literary career. I can only dream!

Laura Baumbach! An awesome, naughtier version of my mother (in a good way)!
Remember this show? Aw yeah…If this coffin’s a’rockin, don’t come a’knockin. Just assume everybody is doing everybody.

I met a bunch of other awesome people, too, including a retired Air Force sergeant! He “coined” me – which is when you throw your military coin on the table, and whoever doesn’t have a coin buys the group drinks (of course I didn’t have mine with me – too bulky for business casual slacks).

And then…and then…I won second place in the Passionate Plume 2017 contest for speculative fiction! That’s my second 2nd place win for Vengeance! Not bad for my first traditionally published book (second published book ever). Getting closer to the Pulitzer! One book at a time, folks…

All in all, it was a much better day than Day 2.

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RWA Conference – Day 2

Day 2 was a rollercoaster ride of emotion, for a bunch of weird reasons. I’m currently deep into an online military course where six (!) of us are trying to write a paper on Iran. It’s six cats trying to herd each other via email, thousands of miles apart. And I got volunteered to cobble together the final product. And it’s due on Sunday. And we keep having conversations about rewriting the whole thing, which I keep vetoing.

Get out of my head!

Anyway, I had to skip a few workshops to diddle around with this fucking paper because my military career depends on it. By the end of the day, I realized I wasn’t even close to meeting my conference goal (make a friend) because I’ve been thinking about Iran more than mingling. But it was okay – I was going to schmooze like hell during the RITA awards ceremony that evening!

Since I’d seen pics of people at the RITAs in ball gowns, I figured it was a classy affair and dressed accordingly. Well, there were a few folks there in nice clothes, but I was definitely on the extreme end of the spectrum to the point I felt awkwardly overdressed.

“I thought this was fancy…” I whispered to a woman heading to the ceremony dressed in jeans.

“It is,” she assured me, “for some people.” Those “some people” were me and maybe a dozen others out of 3,000 attendees.

And here I am, way overdressed.

Normally I’d just shrug and own it, but I also walked in late. Apparently the awards started at 7pm sharp – no mingling session. I had to sit down at a table in the very back with a bunch of ladies who already knew each other well and were friendly enough, but with the awards in progress there was not time to socialize. In between awards, the ceremony showed videos of attendees sharing heartfelt stories of their eternal friendships, because they’re all one big family.

As I sat there, overdressed, late to the party, having no friends, and worrying about fucking Iran, I felt my throat begin to tighten…oh shit, I’m about to cry.

NOOOO!!!!

I’ll admit it – like Dawson I’m kind of sensitive, as most writers are. I cry sometimes, but for the love of God never in public! Unfortunately my cortisol levels (i.e. stress hormones) had shot through the roof, and no matter how my rational brain told me I was overreacting, the train was already off the rails. And so I ran back to my room to lose my shit in private.

Thanks a lot, Iran. This is your fault!
At least one of us is killing it at Disney

And that was Day 2! Chris beat Zelda on his Nintendo Switch (yes, he brought it with him during our Disney World vacay) and the ending was super-lame, so that didn’t help things. For Day 3, I plan to get a good night’s sleep so my cortisol levels can go back down to normal, rally in the morning, and try to hit my goal again. Onward!

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RWA Conference – Day 1

Day 1 of the RWA annual conference in Orlando, FL, began with the traditional carrying of the penis-shaped torch to light the vagina-shaped ceremonial fire. It was quite majestic!

You go, girl.

Later, I peeked into the Goody Room, loading up on bookmarks and tiny branded chocolates. As I stood in the back with a handful of Harlequin mints, two women walked in and announced, “We heard there were sex dice! Where are they?” Alas, all the sex dice were gone. They snatched up tiny bottles of lube instead.

Hot ticket items…Good to know for future swag ideas!

Wandering the lobby, I came upon these big color-in murals! I contributed to them…guess how (you may have to zoom in to see it)? Hint: I was on-brand naughty.

The first day was short; I only had one workshop that day, which was the first timer’s orientation. The panel was excellent, and even included a dude!

First Timer’s Panel! From left to right: Eliza Knight, Robin Covington, Laura Kaye, Damon Suede, and Dee Davis

I came away with one great piece of advice: set at least one goal for any conference or workshop you attend. A good one is to make at least one friend, or a battle buddy. I think I’ll do that.

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Getting Ready for the Romance Writers of America Conference Next Week!

I’m super excited to be going to the RWA annual conference next week! It’ll be just me and the hubby – NO KIDS!!! – at the Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando for about a week. I’m hoping to network, meet interesting people and make lots of connections, etc.

VENGEANCE is also a finalist in the Passionate Plume contest, put on by Passionate Ink! They’re announcing the winners at a dinner during the conference, so I plan on getting drunk and having a good time whether or not I win. I’ll probably embarrass myself, because that’s what I do best! I always try to remind myself that contests aren’t super important; they’re based off a few people’s personal opinions. And let’s face it – my stuff can be weird, and doesn’t perfectly fit into any one category of romance.

But whatever. Here’s to a drunken, half-naked, helluvah good time!

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Character Portrait: Lacy

Full Name: Lacy Zephyr

Occupation: Housewife

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Hetero

Hair: Blond

Eyes: Blue

Height: 5′ 5″

Weight: 115 lbs

Hobbies: Pilates, shopping, nursing raging jealousy

Background: Lacy is Aaron Zephyr’s wife and the daughter of a local construction magnate. Her father is rumored to also be involved in organized crime.

Beneath the Surface: Raised as daddy’s princess, Lacy is used to the good life and expects to be put on a pedestal. For the most part Aaron does that, though lately he’s been strangely distant and less attentive to her needs. If that bastard is cheating on her, she is not going to take it lightly. Did he forget who her father is?

Appears in: Reckoning

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