Trash Talking

The RITA is Romance Writers of America's highest award, so when I received my very first nomination this year for Coming Undone it was a pretty big thrill for me. Since then, however, I've had an even bigger thrill--getting to know several of my sister nominees.

Diana Holquist contacted the eight nominees (well seven, plus her if you wanna be literal) and proposed we do a trash talk video to spoof ourselves. She put us all together, enlisted Lindsay Farber to produce the final result and wrote the story board.

The latter went through some changes. Hey, you didn't really think you could involve this many writers and not have all of us put our two cents in, did you? But without Diana it never would have gotten off the ground.

Not everyone was comfortable with the idea. I wasn't at first, since I tend to get uber selfconscious when video cameras are pointed my way and I'm expected to say something brilliant, or, okay even comprehensible. But the whole trash talking concept sounded like way too much fun not to stretch my comfort level.

And I'm so glad I did. Because those of us who ended up doing this video had a blast. And as Toni Blake pointed out, we got the extra added bonus of bonding over it. I was blown away at how natural and funny my sister finalists were--they just cracked me up. And win or lose, I'm truly privileged to be included in such marvelous company.

So, here it is. I hope you get as big a kick out of watching it as I did participating in it.







P.S. Dearauthor.com is having a poll on the right hand column of their main page as to who should win the RITA for this category. I'm betting a lot of you have read a lot of us. Drop by and cast your vote.