So Blogger has a new interface

I am NOT impressed. 

Underwhelmed, even.

I started Between the Keys in 2008, and a lot of my life is here. 

I guess I'm fucking stuck with it. 

I am NOT impressed. 

Oh, happy day! The Quest

coming soon

May 11, 2020

It's been a rough road to get to today. Today (actually last night) I opened the file on The Quest and began to write. It was as easy as I remember it should be, and the words flowed onto the page.

This past Wednesday, May 6, I sold my mother's house and we went to settlement. The sale was necessary to provide funds for her care. She has Alzheimer's Disease. I will tell you now, most earnestly, take steps NOW to protect your assets. If you don't, a nursing home can strip you bare. My mother will one day be left with nothing and will become dependant on the State of Maryland for her care. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT? A will is not enough. But I digress, and that is not what I wanted to blog about right now.

A giant weight has been lifted from me. I've been tending to two houses for the past fifty-one weeks and it has not been easy. Dealing with a realtor - not easy. Strangers walking through the house and leaving a mess I had to clean - not easy. And I've not had help. My partner's health is not robust. 

Some people say there is no excuse for not writing every day. What bullshit. Writing is not a one size fits all endeavor.

Anyway... I'm back to work on the manuscript for The Quest. I had a different plan for this story but could never see the ending. I shelved it over ten years ago and then one day in 2019, my fickle muse played one of her little tricks on me and gave me a new title. I quickly realized my subconscious had resurrected the old story in a new way. I like the new way a lot better. 

I'm going to try to reflect on the last year as a writing sabbatical. I learned a lot about myself and what I want to achieve in the time left to me. I've cared for family and family business, and that is never wasted time. My husband and I have strengthened our bond as we walked through hardship. No, my time away from writing was not wasted. It was simply a different season in my life. 

The Quest is at about half complete. If I remain intentional, if all goes well, it will be only a few weeks until I type The End. We shall see. Life does like to throw curveballs at people.

Stay tuned!

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks
www.facebook.com/kckendricks

Emotional writer's block, the impact of grief

May 2, 2020

These are strange times we're in which we live. We've temporarily ceded our constitutional rights and civil liberties for the greater good of mankind. 

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has not as yet impacted life on the mountain. My people may not always be conservative voters, but we are conservative thinkers in ways that have nothing to do with politics. We're country people, rural dwellers with close ties to the land. We've conserved our resources and we're having an easier time of it than our city-dwelling neighbors. But that's not what is on my mind this morning. 

Writer's block. It's time to admit I have a case of emotional writer's block, the cause of which I lay at the feet of stress and grief. The last years have not been easy ones. My mother was institutionalized with Alzheimer's Disease, my stepfather died, my partner had two major surgeries, my best friend moved a thousand miles away, my writing partner died, a new CEO where I work caused a lot of upheavals, the uncertainties about retiring, tending to my mother's affairs including selling her home, and now living in a virtual house arrest. I've been trying to sort this all out in my head and it's not going well. 

Do I think my "problems" are unique in this world? No. Of course not. They just happen to be my "problems." Just as with any problem, identifying them sheds light into some murky corners. I believe the underlying reaction to all of this is grief. I grieve. 

I grieve the loss of who my mother was and what, unbeknownst to her, I must do in her name to provide care for her. I grieve the loss of a woman I've known since we were in the third grade together who is busy in a new life that has no place for old friends. I grieve the author friend who spoke the writer's language with me as no one else can. I grieve the loss of a co-worker that I was totally in sync with. I grieve the loss of a future imagined with my partner who through no fault of his own is progressively more disabled. 

Grief weighs me down to the point I have difficulty remembering how joyous it is to create a story. Creating a story is creating a virtual reality in which the writer joins with new friends to give them a world to live in and a voice to speak in that world. The writer becomes part of this creation, at least for a little while. I miss it. 

I'm sure Chris Grover would tell me to channel the grief into a character. Take him down to the depths of hell and then work him back to the surface. To be melodramatic, I'm not sure I want to take myself farther down into the pit. I'm too cowardly to go back there. You see, time does heal many things without the need to resort to substances that alter brain chemistry. I'm healing. 

I'm healing and now I worry I've become too lazy to write. Writing takes discipline and lots of it. Have the last several years stripped me of discipline? Have I become too comfortable living in the worlds others create? I've been supporting a lot of other writers these past months, reading two or even three books a week. 

It's time to redefine my path and rediscover the author part of my soul. It's time to settle the grief, to tuck it away and allow it to unwind and wither. Brave words, to be sure. I hope I can make them my truth because I want to walk in the sunshine again. And if I'm walking alone, I'll just have to create a couple of characters to walk with me. That's what a writer would do. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks
www.facebook.com/kckendricks

Just the Rain

April 24, 2020

Just the Rain

Softly it pounds on the roof, just the rain
No discernable pattern to its drumbeat
It’s dark in my room, silent thoughts, only breath
Only wonder that such a thing as rain is real

Spring has come, on its journey to birth summer
Clinging to winter in odd ways, with white flakes
That melt even as they fall into newly green grass
And gives way to the relentless rain outside my window

The world is wet, drinking deep of heaven’s gift
The purple lilac teams with the rain, strange bedfellows
It bends but never breaks, reminding me
Sometimes even a blessing can be a heavy thing to bear

KC Kendricks

That happened a lot faster than I thought it would - Open Roads cover

April 13, 2020

There is a time to procrastinate, and apparently, a time to get the job done. Just yesterday I expressed my dissatisfaction with a new version of the Open Roads cover. Well, it wouldn't let me rest or be productive in other areas. I sat down and revamped it yet again. 

I'm not sure this is a keeper, either. I'm not supposed to say that, you know. Back in the days when I was "coming up" in the various publishing houses, we were told to go promote the hell out of each and every cover. We should gush! 

The problem with that is I'm not a "gusher" unless puppies are involved. 

This cover is better because the words are not up at his face. I've learned another lesson - no more white shirts. It doesn't bother me a bit to acknowledge my Photoshop skills will always be a work in progress. The joy is in the learning and achieving as much as the finished product. 

And that is quite alright with me. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks
www.facebook.com/kckendricks

Open Roads - new cover

April 12, 2020

It's taken a while, but I'm finally settling in to work on doing a few things that have been on my To Do List forever. It's of little importance if I complete the list. Experience has taught me that when one thing gets scratched off, two take its place. It's not a winning proposition. 

I've never been happy with the covers for Open Roads. Even when it was first out through Amber Quill Press I wasn't happy with it. Open Roads was part of a collection from that pub and every single book in the collection had, with the exception of title and author, the exact same cover. I didn't like that. Too many readers saw the cover and ended up buying the wrong book because they didn't read the title. Go figure. 

Yesterday, I played around with Photoshop to create a new cover for Open Roads. I'm still not sold on it. I'm annoyed with myself that I can't seem to get this one "right." If my buddy author Chris Grover was still living, she'd have some good input for me. 

Open Roads is a great story - one of my favorites if the author is allowed to admit she has favorites. I think that's why I'm not happy with the cover. It doesn't capture my connection to the story. 

Being that I do my own covers, I'll keep trying. Maybe not today, though. I've moved in the direction I want to go with it, but I need to study it for a few days. That is one of the perks of being forced by Amazon to go indie. Changing cover and content doesn't require ten emails begging someone else to make changes to the work. I can just do the updates. 

There may be some who would argue I shouldn't change out book covers. I've heard the logic but I don't espouse to it. Just as writer's wisdom says we should write the story we want to read, I think we should have a cover that we want to feel good about. 

It's all a work in progress, much like the author herself. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks
www.facebook.com/kckendricks


OPEN ROADS

Tyler Phillips enjoys his small-town life. He’ll never get rich working the family business, but he knows there’s more to a man than the size of his bank account. Easing into mid-life, Tyler’s restless for something he can’t find in the little borough of Easton – male companionship. 

Noel Springs got caught up in the economic downturn. His job gone, and retirement a lot of years in the future, Noel decides to take a long drive and see some of the country before dedicating himself to finding new employment. The open road is just what he needs right now.  

When his car overheats outside the little town of Easton, Noel discovers the local mechanic is hotter than his radiator, and just as eager to blow off some steam.

Available at Amazon, iTunes, B&N/Nook, and Kobo

Amazon
www.amazon.com/Open-Roads-Men-Marionville-Book-ebook/dp/B01EO7SYLQ

iTunes
itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1099541004

Barnes &Noble/NOOK
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/open-roads-k-c-kendricks/1027225943?ean=2940153185422

Kobo
www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/open-roads-1

Universal link: www.books2read.com/u/47WMg4

Writers on Twitter

April 4, 2020

We've become a society that has come to accept identity theft. And why not? We freely give people wide-open access to our lives via social media. And yet, people still wonder why writers use a nom de plume. Huh.

Twitter is now our main source of information. I don't know about you, but I haven't viewed a news broadcast or read a news article in the last year that didn't quote opinions from Twitter. It's all clickbait. You have to be discerning in what you respond to on Twitter.

There are a lot of writers on Twitter and I follow a bunch of them. Personal opinions aside, we have a lot of commonalities in that we write. It gives us an understanding of each other based on our understanding of our craft. We are as alike as we are different in how we approach our writing. 

These days, my fellow writers are putting forth a lot of polls and posing some very good questions on Twitter. I approve, not that anyone needs my approval. A few brave souls are even responding to the toughest, most politically sensitive ones. 

Writers have always been willing to tackle the difficult, tough, questions. We used to only do it in our stories. We still do. Our characters put our opinions out there for the world to view. Even then, it's still a tightrope walk.

I just read a book in which the characters posed no questions. Their opinions were carved in granite. If someone didn't agree, the author used it as a tool to prove the opinion correct, and the character was quickly written out of the story. There were a lot of missed opportunities to show character growth that were never capitalized upon. I had a hard time finishing the story but I wanted to see where the author ended up. A forced HEA is never a good thing. 

People come in shades of gray. I believe the United States should have a balanced budget. So does that make me a conservative? I also believe every woman should have quick and easy access to an abortion. So does that make me a liberal? Those two opinions don't make me any of the labels because believing those two things are not mutually exclusive. 

As a writer, my job is to allow my characters, the voices of my opinions, to espouse to be understanding of what makes us alike - and different. I need my writing to give examples of tolerance and acceptance, not just of how we as humans express our love, but in how we strive to live a good life. 

We are all flawed, and we are all on the same journey. Let's try to remember that, especially in these challenging times. There is power in the written word in every genre. It's a writer's superpower. Let's use it for good. 

Twitter on a Saturday night might be a good place to start. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks
www.facebook.com/kckendricks

What we will remember

April 1, 2020

Growing up, I listened to my grandparent's stories of living through the Great Depression. My mother was born in 1937, as things began to ease. She has no first-hand memories of how difficult those times really were, but she grew up poor. Life for her was a gradual improvement until, as a widow, she married her second husband and money was no longer an issue.  

My maternal great-grandparents were both born in 1889. I look back and am astonished to have personally known people born in that century. Historically, they lived through the Spanish Flu (1918-1920), and the time of polio. A short mile from my house is a graveyard that gives silent testimony to the impact of a scarlet fever outbreak in this small community. A distant relative of mine on my father's side is buried there beside his wife and five of his children. Those five children all died within days of each other from scarlet fever. He and his wife lived to have five more, all girls. They were contemporaries of my great-grandparents although I never knew them. 

In my life and times, we have vaccines against measles, polio, diphtheria, and a host of other diseases. Up until now, HIV/AIDS has been the plague of my generation, a plague we know how to prevent but seem unable to eradicate. We've had significant scares with the Ebola, Zika, and West Nile viruses, but we got through. Modern medical researchers continue to study these and work to develop cures. 

Listening to my elders speak of living through those times was more than a history lesson. It spoke to the lasting impact it had on the lives of the people of those times. They were times of uncertainty and fear and great loss. The Great Depression and the Spanish Flu defined the lives of my great-grandparents and grandparents. In many ways, my grandparents never moved far from those days. My grandmother panicked when one of us got sick, as all children do. My grandfather bought land to farm and keep his family fed. He worked a factory job by day and then came home to tend his garden. He also kept honeybees, a lucrative sideline. They bequeathed more than land and money to me. Their gift was love and a shining example of how to truly live well. 

I look at the next two generations in my family. These days we are living now, today, will be days that define their lives. One of what I call gen4, myself being gen3, is pregnant. The gen5-ers are going to school via the Internet. COVID-19 will be what we remember, what my young cousin will tell her baby about, what the youngsters across the creek being homeschooled via the Internet will have in common with their peers. 

When I'm once again able to join with my gen3 cousins at the table, what we did in our self-isolation and social distancing time will be our discussion. I'm sure we'll note how people paid little or no attention to how serious the COVID-19 virus is. Perhaps we'll speculate on the bare shelves in the grocery stores and wonder how much worse it was for our grandparents. We have constant news and the Internet to keep us informed (on both the true and the false). They had a weekly newspaper and word of mouth. 

In my own little world, I sense a shift inside. I won't remember my time under a governmental stay at home order as a hardship. My employer's reaction to it is something I'll never forget. I've talked a lot about retirement and so I'm looking at these days as a test run. And I'm liking how I feel quite a bit. Being home is a good thing. Now all I need is for the stock market to rebound so I can lock in a few numbers. My own silver lining. 

Time will roll on. Please be smart and protect yourself so you can be a part of it. It'll be more fun to tell your grandchildren about self-isolation and social distancing than to have them tell their peers their grandparents died young, in the pandemic of 2020. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks

It should be simple, but it's not

March 21, 2020

Happy spring, everyone! The daffodils are finally blooming and I'm home to enjoy them. Life should be good...but it's not. We are living in challenging times and everyone has a criticism to share. Just remember - if you hate just one person, you are a hater. But enough about that. 

We've all been asked to stay home to limit our exposure to those who may be infected with the COVID-19 virus. We've been asked to only venture out for necessities. I'm happy to comply, but then I'm not exactly housebound. I have three acres of ground and the nearest house to my property line is a good five-hundred feet away. I have no worries when I take Deuce outside. 

So I'm home. You'd think sitting down and writing would be the simplest thing in the world for a writer to do, wouldn't you? Yeah, I thought so, too, but everywhere I look I see something that can be done before the hazy, hot, and humid days of the Mid-Atlantic summer arrive. Maybe I need to close my eyes or close the curtains, so I can't see all the work out there waiting for me. Maybe that won't help because I have a lot of writing "chores" that also need to be performed. 

It may all be moot musings. My employer considers me to be essential personnel, and it's not bragging to say I am. Everything passes through my hands. Whether or not I'll be expected to report to work on Tuesday remains to be decided. The thing is, I don't trust others to stay out of the building and stay away from me. They've already proven it's beyond their brains to comprehend such a thing. Another simple concept that is obviously not simple in practice. 

I'd like to work from home. The caveat there is that if they want to cut my pay, well, it'll be time to officially retire. 

It should be so simple, but it's not. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com

Ponderings on the state of publishing March 2020

March 18, 2020

A few days ago I sat down to blog about romance fiction industry stats and ended up on a rant. Today I will stay on topic. 

The romance fiction industry is worth over $1B a year. Yes, one billion dollars. That's about the size of the mystery and science fiction markets combined. I look at the number of mystery and adventure books that regularly place on the bestseller lists and I question this, but it's the sheer volume of romance fiction readers with multiple "must-read authors" that boosts the number. There was only one of the late Clive Cussler so of course, he would always make the lists. 

The majority of romance fiction readers are women. As a woman, I want my romance to be a character-driven love story and I'm not alone in that. I like a little sub-plot or two, but the story must be about the main couple. That couple can be any combination of genders. I like the endings to be upbeat and personally, I want it to be realistic to the couple the author just spent a good chunk of their life creating. 

So this is all well and good, interesting up to a point, but there is some bad news brewing. The American Booksellers Association reported, on Valentine's Day no less, that book sales are down. Glancing over its industry-statistics webpage, the reports of dropping sales go back over a year. Its report on March 2019 says that month was down about seven percent over sales in March 2018. 

As a writer, it's my job to figure out if the romance readers of the world have gotten jaded on what's available, or if the time available to relax and read a book has gone the way of the Dodo bird. Or is it something more insidious? 

I've long pondered the impact the ease of Amazon's self-publishing model has had on readership across the board. I've read some really poorly constructed and written stories lately. 

Have we, and by this I mean published authors, turned off our readership? It's a question worth considering. Has the market been flooded? Is it better for us to produce quality or quantity? What's the next big sub-genre we should be writing? Has our readership's age demographic changed? Did the ebook publisher model work better, after all? Are there any good epublishers still out there? 

It's a lot to consider as we continue to write the story we want to read. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com

Going way off topic

March 15, 2020

The world has gone mad. As I write this, we are in the midst of global hysteria over COVID-19. While this is a serious health issue, once again the mainstream media has mobilized to whip the populace into a frenzy. Part of me says there are some people out there who deserve to live in their own created hell for buying into the dystopian hype, but most of me just feels sorry for them. My generation has birthed and raised a generation of idiot robots. How did this happen? It's like the mainstream media has found a way to reach inside their skulls, suck out their brains, and replace it with tapioca pudding. 

I can't believe the political sniping going on over COVID-19. The people of the United States deserve better. 

If there's one big takeaway for me from all this it's that the Affordable Care Act has wrecked our healthcare system. The Affordable Care Act put the government in charge of our healthcare and when faced with its first big challenge, it failed. Healthcare has become ALL about the money and not health. 

Many, many, many of the politicians who believe in, and voted for, the Affordable Care Act, who in effect created a big part of this mess, now criticize the government's response to the COVID-19 response. GROW THE FUCK UP AND OWN YOUR MESS.

The government, which now controls our healthcare system, has turned on itself. We're being controlled by a pack of flaming idiots. 

Wow. That was soooo not what I sat down to blog about this morning. Perhaps I really needed to just get that out. 

I'd better go do something else for a bit and come back later. Maybe then I can stay on topic. 

KC

He and Me

February 29, 2020

Silently it prowls on the mountain, this misty fog,
Blanketing the winter world in stillness.
The trees stand as sentinels, 
unwavering and ghostly,
Watchers across the speeding years,
they can be no less.

Inside we sit, shoulder to knee,
sleek black head resting, eyes alert.
Outside the wet gray squirrels
rummage under his sharp gaze.
Whiskey brown orbs reveal the
dog’s interest, albeit covert,
No better companion could I ask for on this softening afternoon.

Daylight wans else we’d take to the woods
for a walk, and to talk.
He listens attentively to each word I utter,
praise to his beauty among them.
It needs wait for a warmer day to find a
bushy-tailed critter to stalk.
A starless night shrouds the outside world,
but we are content to breathe, he and me.

KC Kendricks

Steel Wheels - a 5-star rating at Goodreads

February 16, 2020

Happy Daytona 500 Sunday! Don't call me this afternoon. Daytona is one of the few races I watch start to finish instead of tuning in late to see only the finish. 

But that's not the real news. The real news is Steel Wheels has a 5-star rating at Goodreads! Who knew? I didn't. I don't visit Goodreads often. It's more for readers than authors so I don't visit. Yes, I'm a reader, too, but authors with a big presence there tend to get themselves skewered for saying the wrong things. The readers at Goodreads can smell someone there simply to promote five mouse clicks away. It's their turf.

Well, here's to a little promoting on my own turf. So I snatched a screen cap. I'm delighted to learn people are enjoying the Ian Coulter series. 

The entire series is on Kindle Unlimited through April 2020. It's a trial run to see how well KU works, so my apologies to everyone who purchases through iTunes and other vendors. Be patient because the series will be available everywhere in May 2020. 

Until then, Steel Wheels can be found at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HXX4684


ABOUT Steel Wheels

Contemporary gay romance/Mystery/

Book 5 of Ian Coulter’s Amethyst Cove

When Amethyst Cove’s reigning drag queen is blackmailed, private investigator Ian Coulter searches to find the truth. He doesn’t believe his friend committed a murder and he won’t allow money to change hands. He gets support from his FBI lover Rick Mohr.

Ian and Rick have conquered a long road to be together. Working together is easy. Keeping their relationship strong is more difficult. With their wedding day approaching, Ian questions if he can go through with the ceremony but not his love for Rick.

When Ian is propositioned, Rick falls back into old ways. Ian’s guiltless but overcoming his jealousy isn’t easy for Rick. With time running out, they leave no avenue unexplored in their quest to find the truth and the blackmailer – before the honeymoon cruise. 

KC Kendricks

www.kckendricks.com/SteelWheels.html 

Ian Coulter series now on Kindle Unlimited for a limited time

February 2, 2020

Happy Groundhog Day! This year, good old Phil says it's an early spring. He won't get an argument from me. I do see several green sprouts in the flower beds (I'm sure they're daffodils peeking up). 

To celebrate the coming spring, I've put all five of the Ian Coulter series on Kindle Unlimited for a limited time. Yep, they will be on KU until April 30, 2020. 

There are five books in the series - Double Deuce, Deuce of Diamonds, Ace Deuce Trey, Circle of Steel, and Steel Wheels. Private investigator Ian Coulter meets undercover agent Rick Mohr and sparks fly - until Rick solves his case and goes back to his life. That's not the end of their relationship, though. 

Rick can't move on. He knows he made a mistake walking away from Ian and they reconnect. They may have had a rocky beginning, but working through those trials cemented their relationship. 

Ian and Rick are my favorite couple. They do real life. They argue. They sometimes struggle. They love. They make it through a life-shattering event when Rick is wounded. They forgive and they work it out. When friends are threatened, they pool all their resources to keep them safe. Two strong - and headstrong - guys making a life together. 

I hope you'll give the Ian Coulter series a read. You won't regret it. 

You'll find excerpts and links at https://www.kckendricks.com/AmethystCoveSeries.html . 
Or you can go straight to my author page at Amazon. 

I think you'll enjoy Ian and Rick's journey. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks

PS. To my dearly missed buddy the late Chris Grover - yes, I put books on KU. Please don't hold it against me. 

The RWA Debacle: Don't stop writing over this

January 18, 2020

Well, I did it to myself. I was curious about the big bru-ha-ha at the Romance Writers of America. I used to be a member of the RWA way back in the day. When I got my first acceptance back in 2003, I thought it was the thing to do. I joined and it quickly soured for me. 

Back then, Yahoo groups were the Big Thing. I was writing science fiction I called Star Trek With Sex. I joined the RWA's Yahoo group. Wow. Talk about some snobs. There I was, the newbie, and I asked a simple question. Instead of an answer, I had multiple offers from multiple "sister" writers that the answer was found in their book. All I had to do was go buy their book. Wow. 

I knew right then and there I did not belong. 

In those days, the RWA talked about writers supporting writers. I didn't get it until after I paid my dues the support was only supposed to be financial, not professional. There is one well-known best selling author that to this day I will not buy her books. I won't even mention her name because I don't want to promote her in any way, shape, or form. Seventeen years and I'm still not over how nasty she was to me. I doubt I was the only one.

While I'm not surprised in the least that the RWA has imploded, I find I'm saddened by it. I'm sure there are writers who did find camaraderie within its ranks. I envy them. It's true that LGBTQ writers have been marginalized but it was my choice to write m/m romance. The RWA did, at one time, qualify romance as being between one woman and one man. It seems that to some, all love is not equal. Too bad for them. 

The best summary of what has transpired (that I've found) is located here. It lays out the timeline of events, but if you read between the lines, you see more. One of the questions that occurred to me is, has political correctness become censorship? A second thought was are we now supposed to write our stories to appease personalities who are not counted in our readership? 

Name after name after name is dropped. Organizations weigh in. Fault after fault after fault is exposed and what do we learn? Not much. Not the important things, anyway.

Ancient words warn of passing judgment because when we judge we condemn ourselves. A very, VERY well known and respected author has spoken on the situation.  Her response is here. We can barely speak aloud today lest we offend someone. This author ends her letter by apologizing for any offense she may have caused in her writing over the past decades. I'd love to be able to ask her if she's sorry for the times she has lived in, that being the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and now the new millennium. We write through the lens of an imperfect self living in imperfect times. Utopia is a dream, not reality. Should we whip ourselves for that? I think not. 

Whatever good the RWA may have done in the past has been tarnished beyond reclamation. There's not enough TarnX in the world to put the shine back on it. I wonder what the individual chapters will do. Will they be able to stick together to support each other? Will those members be forced to "pick a side?" If that happens, those groups may splinter beyond repair and who benefits from that? 

The big take away, for me, isn't that the RWA imploded, it's how long it took. Had this happened ten years ago, the names would have been different, but the end result is the same. People put in power or authority who make decisions for others invariably make decisions that benefit them first. 

For those who may be questioning whether or not to continue writing, this may be the tipping point that silences their voice. I think that would be a shame. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com