Romance Writer DRAAAMA!

UPDATE 12/26/2019 3:20 PM: Well, it looks like the groundswell of support for Courtney Milan made a difference. After #IStandWithCourtneyMilan became a trending topic on Tuesday, the RWA announced on their website they were rescinding the author’s suspension:

“At a meeting today that identified a gap between policy and process, RWA’s Board of Directors rescinded its vote accepting the findings of the Ethics Committee report and the consequent penalties against Courtney Milan pending a legal opinion. RWA reiterates its support for diversity, inclusivity and equity and its commitment to provide an open environment for all members.”

However, that was too little too late for over HALF the board! In a group statement on Twitter Thursday, eight of the 14 members of the board — all women of color — announced they had resigned from the group.

Denny S. Bryce, Pintip Dunn, Seressia Glass, Tracey Livesay, Adrienne Mishel, Priscilla Oliveras, Erica Ridley, and Farrah Rochon collectively wrote:

“Our resignations give us no joy or relief. All of us have volunteered our time to this organization to help propel it forward and to do our best to represent membership – all membership.

We believe this should never have gone to members of the Ethics Committee. We extend our sincere apologies to Courtney Milan and the romance community.”

Wow. We don’t know much about the romance community, but it’s patently clear if the majority of your board resigns, you’re doing something wrong.

Sounds like this organization needs some serious overhauling if they’re going to survive at all in 2020.

Among the other trending topics on Twitter Tuesday, you may have seen the hashtag #IStandWithCourtneyMilan. What’s it all about? It’s about racism, injustice, and of course erotic tales of ribald fantasy.

Yep, it’s drama in the world of romance novelists!

This month the Romance Writers of America suspended author Courtney Milan (presumably asking her to turn in her badge and her quill) over what they called a violation of their code of ethics.

So what had Milan, the author of such historical Harlequins as A Kiss For Midwinter, The Countess Conspiracy, and Once Upon A Marquess, done to deserve this literary excommunication?

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Apparently fellow novelists Suzan Tisdale (Secrets of the Heart, Forever Her Champion) and Kathryn Lynn Davis (Highland Awakening, Too Deep For Tears) filed a formal complaint over a Twitter thread from over the Summer in which Milan — a Chinese American author — called out one of Davis’ books for being racist.

Milan called the 1999 novel Somewhere Lies The Moon “a f**king racist mess” in a series of tweets highlighting lines like:

“In China, no woman was taught much more than cooking and cleaning and the graceful art of pleasing her husband.”

Yeah. This was in 1999, not 1899.

Here are some highlights from her Twitter thread, which sounds to us like someone who is pretty damn justifiably offended:

“I seriously can’t get over ‘they never saw her eyes in China because she was always looking down.’ What. What is this. How did Chinese women not bump into things. How did Chinese women read. Where did she get an education if she couldn’t like, look at anything.”

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Don’t write books about how much a culture not your own sucks. Just don’t. You’re not going to get it right and you’re going to sound like a f**king racist.”

“As a half-Chinese person with brown eyes, seriously f**k this piece of s**t.

Thanks.”

You can find the entire thread HERE.

Apparently the RWA ethics committee’s decision to suspend Milan over the comments was unanimous, leading to several other writers having her back, hence the hashtag. Here are just a few…

Alyssa Day (Atlantis Awakening) wrote:

“Allowing racists to weaponize RWA’s Code of Ethics against someone calling out that racism goes against everything a code of ethics stands for, and this result is appallingly and profoundly wrongheaded”

Tessa Dare (Do You Want To Start A Scandal?) said:

“I have no words to describe how I feel. OK, betrayed and sick. Those are two words”

Racheline Maltese (A Queen From The North) wrote:

“Speaking out against racism is not an ethics violation”

As for Courtney herself, she expressed her own disappointment in a new tweetstorm on Monday night, writing:

“I’ve been trying to figure out what I feel. It is actually fairly difficult to suss out because I spent four years on the Board of Directors working to make RWA a better (although less comfortable for some) place. Because I believed in the organization and its purpose.

As someone who did a great deal of service, I know for a fact that people who make claims that the staff who evaluate such claims make do not get them passed on to the person they are complaining about.

I know for a fact that in a similar situation (comments made on social media) the complaints were not passed on to the Ethics Committee.

I do not believe RWA staff followed the procedures in the way they had done in prior circumstances in this case. And I said so at the time when I was first presented with these.

I believed at the time that they chose not to do so because Tisdale was threatening litigation and they thought I was a big girl and could handle it.

I do not think that I have anything to work out with RWA. I do think RWA has a lot of stuff to work out with itself.

I hope that RWA also votes to rescind the service award they gave me for opening people’s eyes up about racism last year.

I do not know what to do with my RITA. It doesn’t bring me joy any longer. Does anyone want it?

On the silver lining, if Suzan Tisdale does make good on her threat to sue me, I have a pretty good countersuit with some pretty hefty provable damages. So there’s that.

Just for the record: I have zero desire to start this fight because lawsuits suuuuckkkk but if you start one with me, you best be ready.”