$75 better spent somewhere else…

I’ve tried to give Romance Writer’s of America the benefit of the doubt this past year, but now I am thoroughly convinced they are conducting a thinly veiled witch hunt against authors who write erotic fiction!

I come from the school where you can’t complain if you don’t do anything. So, just like exercising my right to vote, I decided to write a letter to the editor of the RWR report regarding letters which basically called me and others who write erotic romance prostitutes. Of course, I made sure my letter fit all the required guidelines. It was exactly 337 words in length and reached their office before the
March deadline via fascimile and then followed up with a mailed copy.

However, when I opened the March issue I found a single letter regarding this issue. But it wasn’t my letter. Instead, the editor had chosen to publish another letter, which once again preached fire and brimstone against erotic romance. And to top it off? The letter – in my opinion encourages others not to buy their favorite author if they’ve digressed down the same immoral path they feel the rest of us have
stumbled down.

So, I guess you’re wondering why don’t I just relinquish my membership?
That’s just it!!!! I’m a member of a great RWA chapter. And I can’t be member of this group without RWA’s ongoing Inquisition.

Here is my initial letter sent on February 1, 2008:

February 1, 2008

Kathleen Adey
16000 Stuebner Airline Rd.,Suite 140
Spring, TX 77379

Dear Kathleen,

This letter is in response to two letters printed recently in the Romance Writers Report pertaining to erotic fiction. I felt compelled to write this letter because I believe it is necessary to stand up for those writers who write under this genre and for the MILLIONS of readers who enjoy reading it – myself included.

Admittedly, there is a thin subjective line which can be drawn between pornography and erotica since both are mediums that arouse and sexually stimulate. Erotic romance is stimulating fiction in which through plot, conflict, and a resolution both satisfies the reader while giving them the arousal they expect. And despite the uneducated opinion, erotica does not function as pornography, which according to Encarta is “based on the exploitation of women by representing them merely as sexual bodies, rather than as full, thinking, feeling people.”

Ms. Fielder’s and Ms. Reeder’s letters were not only archaic but insulting. In my opinion, their letters are a veiled attempt to initiate a witch hunt against those who refuse to fit onto their narrow soap boxes. If they’re afraid to read about real love and the honest, open sex that comes with it, then don’t read it, but don’t shame us into censorship.

Koko Brown
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