Betrayal and the romance writer

"I feel so betrayed!" This was the first message that popped on my screen when I logged into my Yahoo messenger a couple of hours ago. I rarely use the program, but tonight I felt compelled to do it. Anyway, I was like "Excuse me? What is she talking about?" Not even a hello? How rude! But I ignored it and decided to reply. So this is how the convo went more or less. Me: "What happened?" She: "I thought they were my friends but they are a bunch backstabbing bitches. You can't trust anyone anymore." Okay. Backstabbing. I can related to that. I've been backstabbed enough in my lifetime that my back must be full of knives with no more space for another by now. But I still couldn't understand where she was coming from with this. Me: "Why are you saying that?" She: "Remember, I was planning to work with in a writing project with these other writers?" Me: "Yeah." I vaguely remember something about she and some other writer collaborating on a story and they were setting up some website for it. Or something like that. She: "They started hanging out with these other two writers who totally hate me. Today I got an email from both of them saying they're committed to this other project with those idiots so they were dropping out of our project. I suspected something was wrong when they didn't answer my last two emails." Doesn't this remind you of high school and clicks? Me: "Did they tell you why they drop your project? I mean other than they're committed to another project." She: "No. But that's bullshit. It's all that dark-haired whore's (I'm sustituting name here) fault. First, she insinuated herself into our group, sucking up to the others, telling them how wonderful they were and how much she loved their books. Then when she got published, the bitch showed her claws. Sucking up to the publishers and pretending to be everyone's good friend. I'm telling you, you can't trust people in this business. They call themselves your friends when all they want to do is use you." Does that mean I can't consider her my friend either then because she might be using me?! Well, I listened to her ranting for an hour or so, nodding and yeahing in all the right places, then I told her I had to do some writing and logged off. But my file remained opened while I just stared at it, this woman's words running around my head. Oh, I'm not saying that everything is all peachy in the romance writing world. They are those who would snub you for whatever reason they deem necessary, which brings the idea of "clicks" in my mind. Oh yes, there are "clicks" among romance writers. Then there are the "suck-ups." They suckup to you if you're a published writer, and once they become published, they suckup to the publishers. (You know, the ones who just "ooh" and "aaah" at the most stupid things the publishers do just to gain the favors.) They also turn into the publisher spies, you know. Next are the "climbers", who don't care whose career they fuck up or who they step on their way to achieve their goals. Finally, there are the "published sharks" who hang around groups just waiting to steal ideas and plot premises (one of the reasons why I don't post anymore on workshops' assignments) because their well of ideas has run dry a long time ago and their writing careers are sagging. And don't get me started on the "snarkers." So basically I don't know really what happened between this writer and the other two, but I'm not counting off what this woman said to me. Betrayal? Yes, it does exist. I've not faced that demon yet, and I hope I don't have to, but I'm sure it must lurking around, somewhere, waiting to jump on me. However, romance writing is like any other job. You'll find "snubbers," "suckups," "climbers," "snarkers," and "sharks" in every single job - from waitresses in a small cafe to college professors in a prestigious university. Unless you're your own boss and own a 2 to 3-person business (and those who work for you are your relatives). This isn't a perfect world, people. Get over it! But you can't put all romance writers into "snubbers," "suckups," "climbers," and "sharks" categories. There are some damn fine people out there. Honest people who want to pursue a career in romance writing. And if you're lucky enough, you'll find them along your path. Give them a chance to walk travel this hard road that is the romance writing. You'll blossom and so will your career.