Raging Romantics

Raging Romantics


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#30 The Drama with RWA, Omegaverse, and Bad Books

November 19, 2021

Welcome back to the tea party folks. You ready for this marathon session? Buckle up, buttercup, it's a long one today.


Content warning: Discussions of racism, transphobia and homophobia. Also please be advised that there is language use in many of the links we have provided, however all of them are vetted for safety and accuracy.


Jamie McGuire drama

  • On October 25, Voltage Pictures director Roger Kumble (dir. "After We Collided") announced that he was teaming up with actors Dylan Sprouse and Virginia Gardner to begin filming a movie adaption of bestselling "romance" novel "Beautiful Disaster"
  • and SOCIAL MEDIA FREAKS OUT
  • Jamie McGuire has a lot of controversial opinions and has made a lot of enemies in the romance community for her books. Please review the provided links and materials for information
  • There's no ending to this one yet, it's more of an ongoing realization by romancelandia that movie/television producers continue to not pick the books that romance lovers believe will make better television/film


Omegaverse

  • DMCA Takedown Notice
  • Scène à faire
  • For more information on what omegaverse actually is, go back to last month and listen to our werewolf episodes!
  • Addison Cain starts writing omegaverse fanfic in 2012 while living in Japan. When she moves back to the States she pursues publishing and n 2016 Born to Be Bound was released by Blushing Books, and Cain becomes extremely popular and becomes one of the leading published omegaverse authors
  • In 2018 fellow omegaverse author Zoey Ellis publishes Crave To Conquer through Quill Ink Books. It's also doing well and readers are liking it...until Cain's readers start gettng into it and recognizing a llot of similarities and tropes and plot lines when comparing Ellis' book to Cain's
  • Cain goes forth and accuses Ellis of plagiarizing (similar to Serruya/Milan) and a long legal proceeding begins
  • After Cain accuses Ellis, Blushing Books issues DMCA's against Ellis, and all of Ellis' work is withdrawn; Ellis files counternotices, and after a few months her works are resorted; THEN Cain's lawyer's issue threatening letters promising legal action is Ellis doesn't take her work back down. Ellis does not do this, and sues Cain first.
  • In late 2018 Quill Ink files against Blushing Books/Cain in the state of Oklahoma (even though BB/Cain have no relation to that state but is where Ellis' distributor is based); Cain asks for this to be dismissed since she has no business in that state, and after she swears to the judge that she had nothing to do with the hreatening letter sent by her lawyer to Ellis, Cain is dismissed from the OK case
  • So Ellis sues Cain in Virginia
  • The battle between Quill and BB continues, and Quill's lawyers, in the process of obtaining all the necessary documentation to create a fair case, obtain the correspondence between Cain and BB, which reveals Cain had been the one to pursue the takedown notices, DMCA, and copyright filings...in opposition to her sworn affidavit that she had nothing to do with the whole business (and what she's been posting on her personal social media). Furthermore, Cain has no copyrights filed on her works...In light of this, Ellis and Quill file a motion to judge Cain guilty for civil contempt, perjury and to dismiss this case. Three days later Blushing offers a complete settlement, says Ellis did NOT plagiarize and dismissed the case. Ellis was not awarded any money from her suit because she ran out of funds and her lawyer left before she could fully pursue the case.


RWA vs. Milan

  • The Romance Writer’s of America (RWA) is a trade organization for romance writers and was founded by Vivian Stephens and Rita Clay in 1980 who had hoped that RWA would be a professional organization that would help promote, advance and protect romance authors
  • In 2018 Courtney Milan was appointed to Chair of the Ethics Board in 2018
  • August 2019 RWA President-Elect Carolyn Jewell tweets about blocking a problematic author they had been in business with; smart people soon realize that this was Sue Grimshaw, former editor and romance buyer for Borders bookstore. Grimshaw's boss and friend Suzan Tisdale, owner of Glenfinnan Publishing, comes out and says that this is nonsense, and Grimshaw " is no more a racist or bigot than I am."
  • Twitter isn't happy (is it ever?), and Milan joins in on the drama session, and rips apart the 1999 book Somewhere Lies the Moon by Kathryn Lynn Davis and its portrayal of half-Chinese women (Milan is half-Chinese herself); there's fallout from this whole situation with Davis claims that she lost her contract, and Tisdale claims that she's having a hard time finding anyone who will work with her now. Tisdale files a complaint against Milan, accusing Milan of harassing behavior, bullying, threatening her career and her business, and threatens legal action if the RWA does not do something about Milan and Milan's social media
  • Milan is asked to step down as Chair and she does, although she's upset due to the unclear policies in RWA's bylaws concerning social media practices
  • The complaints against Milan are brought to an entirely new Committee Panel, things get weird, people keep recusing themselves, and when the panel finally meets to come to a decision on November 19, 2019, they decide to censure Milan, suspend her membership for one year and put a lifetime ban on ever holding leadership positions again. The Panel's decision is sent to the RWA Board on December 17 but it's lacking a LOT of evidence...including Milan's own statements! Despite the Board asking the Panel for more information and documentation, the Panel (and the Panel's lead, new President Elect Damon Suede) refuse to present more information, saying that the Board just needs to trust the Panel...
  • Then Social Media gets ahold of everything...and THINGS BLOW UP
  • On Christmas Eve there's an emergency Board meeting and they vote to immediately rescind the ruling against Milan
  • That's the end of the Milan dispute...but RWA continues to be in hot water. People are withdrawing memberships, authors are pulling books from nominations, agents are refusing to work with RWA, Suede is catching heat for falsifying claims and accreditations, publishers pull out of conventions, and over 3000 members leave. Suede ends up withdrawing from his position, Davis and Tisdale say they only wanted an apology, and RWA unveils a new award in honor of Vivian Stephens in place of the RITA award annnnnd that's...sort of where we're left off at.


Books/authors we mention:


Links:

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Raging Romantics
By Northern Onondaga Public Library
Cicero, NY
Join librarians Jackie and Jen to discuss their favorite genre: romance! Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email us at Ragingromantics@nopl.org
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