I’ve got a workshop tomorrow. To prepare, today I’ve made three pounds of pasta salad, sliced 2 cantelopes, a honeydew mellon, a pineapple and half a watermelon. My fingers are pruny with fruit juice, but I think I’ve earned to right to rant for a little bit.

Lately, both in romance blogland, and just the romance industry in general, I kind of feel like I’m back in high school.

I hated high school.

I’m feeling like a bunch of people are getting all clique-ish. I’ll start by saying that I think a big part of this is my own neurosis/psychosis/etc, but it exists just the same.

Joining blog forces seems to be a big thing. Now, it makes sense, if there are more people, you don’t have to post as often so it cuts down on work load. Plus, if you have a group blog and your own blog, presumably you can increase readership somehow.

But (here’s where my neruosis comes in) what I see when I see a group blog is: Look, we’re all friends BUT you’re not.

I KNOW it’s insane, but still, it’s the same feeling I had in high school.

Also, a lot of romance writers are like those people who sat next to you in homeroom and never said two words to you until they needed to copy your geometry homework (yeah, like I did it?). I don’t appreciate my “friends” only popping in when they’ve got something to say about themselves. Hello? Take advantage much?

Then, there are the “All about Me” blogs.

Now obviously all blogs are about the person who writes them in some way (Duh). But come one, can’t you share the good with the bad? Reading some blogs, you’d think that these people are next in line for Sainthood. And they’re not even dead! I don’t care to read about all of your great reviews (that’s not true, I do, but only if I already like you. I don’t want review after review and nothing else). If you’re going to go to the trouble to have a blog so people get to know you, why not be yourself, Miss High School Cheerleading Captian!?!?!

Are you getting the point that I didn’t like high school?

And I’ve been sitting on this rant for awhile, but I’m cranky enough to pull it out now. I WILL NEVER NAME NAMES, but there were a lot of people I met in Reno that I didn’t like.

I mean, I was completely on my best behavior every second. Other people were not. I’m a good judge of character. I can tell when people are being fake and when they’re generally nice people. I’d imagine editors and agents (at least the ones that I met) are the same way.

There were a LOT of fake people there. (And don’t even get me started on the clique-ish-ness) of the National conference.

Is my crankiness jsut taking off in bizarre directions? Am I the only one who sees this? Does anyone want to cut a half a watermelon for me?

I have a lot of rants brewing in my brain.

But I’m hesitant to post them because I don’t want to be all complain-y.

And nothing really exciting is happening, so as a result, my posts have been boring.

Obviously this post is no different.

Plus, my brain is kind of all scrambled. There are too many thoughts rushing through and I can’t really make sense of any of them.

But, I will say this. I’ll be having a BIG month long contest (the entire month of October) on my website so make sure to check out my website on October 1 (or maybe 2nd - I’m busy on the 1st).

Also, I love Fall and Halloween, so look for the blog to have a temporary new look over the next couple of days and expect fun Fall and Halloween activities. So far I’m thinking of a recipie swap, some contests and a Halloween party.

So I’ll get more entertaining, I promise!