went with Eve to the RWA meeting last Saturday.  They told me I should have a “high concept”–a one-sentence description of my book–and a theme.  Themes are apparently things like, “the healing power of love.”  I’ve been reading Stephen King’s “On Writing,” and apparently the theme of Carrie was “blood.”  So there’s a lot of variety available to us all.

I don’t have a one-sentence description of my book, but just for kicks, I’ve written a hook which I’m going to be submitting to Miss Snark.  She doesn’t do romance, so she’ll probably hate me, but what the hell.  I’ll toss up a link to the hook when it goes up, and we can see how I get shredded.
Theme, theme, theme.  My theme is, to put it coarsely, “nobody fucks you up like family.”  Let’s face it.  Love has some healing powers.  So does spit, but that doesn’t mean you want it tossed in your face.  The fact that you love people does not necessarily mean that you will be healed by them.  This is because many of the people you love may themselves be screwed up, and love sometimes just attaches you to the millstone that drags you down to the bottom of the lake.  (Note that I am going to be the Greatest Romance Author Evar with that attitude–yay love!)  But the other half of my theme is about healing.  But it’s not about the healing power of love.  It’s about the healing power of geometry.

I’m still working on high concept.  I think my high concept is, “Geeks kick ass, even in Regency times.”