To rally or to president @Liz Flaherty

This is Election Week. I can remember when Election Day was just that--one day. There would be signs all over the place, even then, and too many commercials that still maintained at least a veneer of civility, but it was still just a day. You did your duty, people conceded, others crowded stages with their families and smiled a lot. The next day, everyone went to work as usual. People who were being replaced started cleaning out their mental desks, I'm sure, but they went to work. Both before and after Election Day, the president spent more of his time presidenting than rallying.

It reminds me, I'm so sorry to say, of the way publishing is now. We have to promote, promote, promote. People who make their living writing books (I don't) have to write...so many. Some writers do 10 or a dozen a year. We all have brands, we all write particular things: erotic, clean, inspirational, et al. We are divided and sub-divided and sub-sub-divided.

We have made such progress, haven't we? At least by the standards of now. The parameters of our genre have widened, electronic publishing has made us easily available worldwide, and there are so many resources out there we can do everything ourselves. If someone is disrespectful of us, we can just tell him to go do something extraordinary to himself.

But the promotion, the social media time (I'm a Facebook addict--pretty sure I need an intervention)--we're rallying, not presidenting.

And yet, last night, at a wonderful writers' meeting, someone intelligent and erudite and educated referred to romance as "bodice rippers." I took immediate offense and was probably rude when I did so. I'm sorry for that--both that she used the term and that I had a knee-jerk reaction to that use.

Did I say progress? It doesn't feel like it. What it feels like is that I'm doing too much rallying and not enough presidenting, spending a proverbial week instead of just the day. While it is easy for me to say, because making a living isn't even a blip on my writing screen, I'm going to just write for a while. It may cost me, but I think it will be better for me in the long run. And better for the words on the page. That is, after all, why I'm here.

Have a great week.

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After my righteous rant, I feel kind of goofy doing this "rallying," but here's a reminder that The Dark Horse is out and available in print! It would be a great stocking stuffer and I even have a stocking for you. If you buy the book and leave a review, I'll be happy to send you one!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Horse-Christmas-Carousel-Heartwarming-ebook/dp/B07FFN41ZD

B & N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dark-horse-liz-flaherty/1129076892;jsessionid=1CE2CA50E0E4DCB22BB44C041510E26D.prodny_store01-atgap05?ean=2940162061731

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-dark-horse-16

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-dark-horse/id1411802325?mt=11