RITA Winners

You know what would be funny, Jane? If I told you I didn’t recall direct­ing my last com­ments to you. But I’m not that funny.

You’re right, I did crit­i­cize the RITA process. I think the cat­e­gories are arbi­trary, the word-count restric­tions ludi­crous, and the Board’s utter inabil­ity to com­pre­hend why Erotic Romance needs its own cat­e­gory ridicu­lous. (Coin­ci­den­tally, those first two points set up this entire con­tro­versy.) Fur­ther­more, I know the judg­ing is sub­jec­tive (how could it be any­thing else? how is it not like review­ing in that way?) and too fre­quently col­ored by “who you know.”

In this case, how­ever, since Barb is a new­bie author, I have good rea­son to believe that “who you know” did not play out in the judg­ing of this category.

Please point to where I’ve said, in any venue, that Ferrer’s win “val­i­dates” the RITA process? I said I agreed with the judges’ deci­sion this time around because ADIOS is a uniquely insight­ful and bril­liant piece of fic­tion. I’ve said I’m pleased for my friend. This is, in no way, my stamp of approval on the RITA as a whole, any more than my being pleased when my favorite foot­ball team wins the Super­bowl is my stamp of approval on the drug-ridden, overly-hyped and utterly morally bank­rupt insti­tu­tion of pro football.

If you really can’t see that dis­tinc­tion, then it’s clear we’re not speak­ing any­thing like the same lan­guage, and we should prob­a­bly cease wast­ing one another’s time.

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There’s been debate over the def­i­n­i­tion of “romance novel” for some time now. It seems to me that if the RITA judges want to define ADIOS as enough of a romance to both qual­ify for the cat­e­gory AND win it, that’s their busi­ness. It’s their con­test, is it not?

Does this mean every­one has to agree that ADIOS is a romance? When does every­one agree on ANYTHING the RWA does? I rarely do.

As to the bit about peo­ple being glad ADIOS won because they like Barb? Why are they mutu­ally exclu­sive? They can’t like the book AND like the author, and be glad both won an award?

I like Lance Arm­strong. He seems a decent guy and an excel­lent ath­lete. I was glad he won the Tour de France all those times both because he rode a good race AND because he appealed to me per­son­ally. Does this some­how make his win­ning the race sus­pect? Or my being glad for him sus­pect? Not a per­fect anal­ogy by any means, but jeez, guys…we’re damned of we’re lik­able enough to make peo­ple glad when we do well, and damned if we behave badly. One would almost think you just want to see us damned.

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And here I thought we were hav­ing a con­ver­sa­tion. My mis­take.

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I don’t recall say­ing the “entire process” or any “def­i­n­i­tions” are val­i­dated by Ferrer’s win. Facts not in evi­dence, counselor.

What I said was that this is how the con­test is judged: they had the oppor­tu­nity to dis­qual­ify the book based on the cur­rent def­i­n­i­tion of romance upheld by the cur­rent RWA régime. They didn’t. Then they had the chance to NOT vote it “best.” They didn’t. Clearly, THIS group of judges in THIS YEAR’S con­test thought it was a romance and that it was the best sin­gle title con­tem­po­rary of those entered.

I’m not defend­ing the process, but nei­ther am I inter­ested in hear­ing that Ferrer’s win dis­par­aged after she fol­lowed every rule pre­sented to her. If the rules need chang­ing, let’s talk about that. In a per­fect world, Fer­rer would’ve been entered in and won the YA cat­e­gory. She’d say so, too.

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Thanks, Avid. And not to be a total pimp, but…Caridad’s sec­ond book, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE ACCENT (also Latina YA) is due out from Pocket August 21. In case you’re inter­ested.

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I believe the cur­rent RWA def­i­n­i­tion of romance says “sat­is­fy­ing end­ing” rather than “HEA.” Since the RITA is an RWA-sponsored con­test, one assumes the judges use the RWA def­i­n­i­tion to decide whether or not a given book is eligible.

Is ADIOS the best of the romance con­tem­po­raries writ­ten this year? Not all the romance con­tem­po­raries were entered in the RITA. Of those that were, the judges who hap­pened to vol­un­teer for the con­test this year came to the con­clu­sion it was the best.

A dif­fer­ent con­test, run by dif­fer­ent peo­ple, using dif­fer­ent cri­te­ria and judg­ing dif­fer­ent books would likely come to a dif­fer­ent con­clu­sion. Which holds true for any con­test, in any given year, does it not?

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