I don’t think many of us will look back on 2021 with unalloyed joy! We almost have a duty to look forward to 2022, in the not-very-convincing expectation that it won’t at least be worse!
Personally, my year has been bound by the forced realisation
that I’m no spring chicken – no matter how much I try to convince myself
otherwise. Sadly, my titanium knee has started to degrade, much as I expected.
I also have been made acutely aware of how much my energy levels have fallen.
To put it in a nutshell, my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went! All this has
been coupled with an equally savage falling off with my OHs health. As someone
said, “Growing old is no game for cissies!”
One thing that makes it worse is that neither myself nor my
OH are in the first flush of youth. Realistically, we don’t have that many
years left (not complaining – just do the maths) and that’s two years now of
lost and missed opportunities, mostly involving our granddaughter, then family
and friends. Still, its no use trying to blame a virus. They are notoriously
unsympathetic!
However, and this is the important bit, – NONE of this is
going to stop me trying to wring every ounce of joy from every single incident,
on every day of the year! I urge you all to do the same.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch……
Andrew Holgate, Literary Editor of the Times and Sunday
Times, produced a list of the Best Books of the Year for “Every Genre”. In so
doing he left off the LARGEST genre of all – Romance, in any of its tropes!
Like many friends who write, I was appalled by the pure
snobbishness on display. Thankfully, the wonderful RNA strode in to bat for ALL
of us authors of romance. Their letter is in the link.(I signed it too)
Andrew Holgate himself seems to have gone to ground since he
penned his original article. However, the RNA is made of sterner stuff. Four of
their more successful members produced this excellent article:
https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/2021/12/love-in-the-time-of-snobbery/
The article has garnered support from all quarters, This very readable riposte came through Harper Collins Australia, penned by https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaBrookmn
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog/2021/12/15/victoria-brookman-in-defence-of-womens-fiction/
https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/membership/
You and I can help by using the hashtag #RespectRomFic on ALL your
book-related posts, whether in Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Remember, Caring
is SHARING!
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
To close, for the New Year – 2022 - and still “Next Year” at
the time of writing, there is always hope. We have been lucky here in that we haven’t,
as far as we know, lost any friends or family to the virus. For that we are
truly thankful.
Have a fantastic 2022 !
Well said, John! We have The Times delivered every day, but it would only take a word in the newsagent's ear to change that...
ReplyDeleteWell done on maintaining such a positive approach, John to both your health challenges and also in continuing to wave the flag for romantic fiction. I've never understood snobbery towards the genre. As other have said, where would we be as a species without romance??
ReplyDeleteWellsaid, John. I, too, feel robbed of the plans I'd made for the past two years ...mostly involving seeing the development of my grandchildren and sharing in their lives while I can. I was also robbed, somewhat, of the impetus to write ... will do better in 2022.
ReplyDeleteYou get capture the year so well and encourage us to look ahead. Jessie
ReplyDeleteSo glad you mentioned the RNA's response and thank you for sharing the details of how it came about and what happened after. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, John! Great post about staying positive, and yes, we're right to be up in arms about the romance genre being left off so many lists. It's the 2nd largest genre in the UK and (as I understand it) the largest genre in the US. There's money in it, so why do papers continue to ignore it?
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