Greg Herren on Oh Get a grip Today

Greg Herren is the guest blogger on Oh Get a Grip today.

It was my week to pick the theme. I chose Writing WHERE You Know. Writers are often admonished to write what they know (a mistake, I believe) but nothing infuriates a local more than reading a story where the writer got their hometown all wrong. Greg has seen a lot of that. He lives in New Orleans, and many of his stories are set there. His off-the-record tales of editors who tried to "correct" his localisms are as frustrating as they are funny. But writers who don't bother to do their research and get NOLA wrong drive him nuts.

I can understand that. I'm not a native of Los Angeles, but I love my city. So many times I see this casual disdain for LA in stories by people who don't have a clue about the real thing, so they attack the stereotypical LA. The problem with that - aside from ignorance and sloppy writing - is that the LA they're attacking doesn't really exist. Not that LA lacks real problems. So write about those. And fer chrissakes, stop using reality TV and Melrose Place as primary research tools.

Let's See How This Works

The dreaded synopsis.

I write book reviews which often include a synopsis. I have no problem writing them for other books. So why can't I seem to write a synopsis for my work? I have no idea.

I'm trying a new approach. As I edited my latest MS, I stapled the chapters and wrote a one line summary of that chapter on the first page. Theoretically, if I string those together, they should form the bones of synopsis. (My last chapter summary is "J&E finally get it on.") It's pure action though. No character detail. So it has to be fleshed out. But I'll report back to you if this helps me write a coherent synopsis.

Coming Together Against the Odds

Forgot to mention that Coming Together Against the Odds won the EPIC Award for Best Erotica anthology.


Mixed feelings. This line of anthologies for a cause (all proceeds for Against the Odds went to Autism Speaks) is a great idea.

But...

BEGIN RANT

I'm so over EPIC. Getting southern here for a moment, but Bless Their Hearts, the membership consists mostly of romance writers, and they make sure the other genres know it. The obsession with RWA on the EPIC lists is annoying as hell to those of us who don't write romance and aren't desperate for RWA's attention/recognition. Plus there's one very dominant queen bee member. I delete her many daily emails (she's an expert on every subject that comes up, so she has to reply to everything) unread and cringe whenever I see her name. Plus I'm irritated that they use the contest fees to pay for their conference. That's just wrong. No one should have to contribute another writer's vacation because the poor dear couldn't afford it otherwise. This is probably my last year dealing with them. I've lost my patience.

END RANT

On the other hand - Saints and Sinners is only a couple months away!

Some Things

I've been working on a novel, so my blogging suffers.

New post up on Oh Get A Grip.

A nice mention of my story in Best of Best Women's Erotica 2.

I'll try to get back on schedule soon.

My First Post at Oh Get A Grip

Read it here.