What Dreams May Come

Not long after I decided to pursue writing in a serious way, I stumbled across an online forum for other romance writers. I joined and soon made some friends. One in particular – Jax Crane. She and I instantly hit it off; much to the consternation of the forum’s other members. See, we had a way of, well, taking over. We’d end up taking a thread about alpha males down a rabbit hole that finished the discussion with what genres we liked best. Or the cute shoes we just bought. You get the picture. Sometimes we talked writing and sometimes we didn't. Long story short, we were basically kicked off that forum.

So, we took our ball and left, dreaming out loud about an online home for writers where it was okay to talk about the lack of conflict in your story or that your cat just had kittens. If your kid won first place in the science fair or an editor rejected your book for the same reason they’d requested it. A place where writers could learn and share and support one another without prejudice or a list master breathing down their necks about what topics were and weren't allowed. A place where flame wars didn't splinter the membership. Could a place like that exist? Why not, we thought. Surely there were other writers out there who’d appreciate such a thing.

Then, one day, I called Jax up and told her our dream domain name had been available and I'd bought it. We owned it. Now what? In a month's time, Jax built the site and I started a Yahoo group to build a base membership. Then, in November of 2003, we launched and Romance Divas was born.

Our first big shock came a few months later when Writer's Digest nominated us as one of their Best 101 Web Sites For Writers. We weren't prepared, and neither was our site host. The influx of visitors took down the entire server, crashing us and the other 250 or so sites hosted there. Oops.

With a new host, a redesigned forum and the generous support of our members, we relaunched bigger and better. We've since found our way onto the Writer's Digest Best list every year, but managed to stay online - even with the approximately 2 million hits we receive every month. The site has grown beyond those original dreams Jax and I had. Well beyond. We give thanks daily to our right hand woman, Eden Bradley, and the multitude of talented volunteers who keep us going. Thanks, divas!

The forum is our heart. It's where our free monthly workshops happen (sometimes more than one workshop a month); our members connect, get info, chat about writing and life, find critique partners, trade recipes, share photos, laugh, cry and discover they're not alone in this crazy venture. Our members are unpublished and published. Young and old. Male and female. Just thinking about writing and working on their 15th book. And yet, they all have one thing in common: love of the written word. They also all understand our zero tolerance policy on flame wars. If you can't say anything nice…you'll find your post deleted. So far, that simple rule has worked wonders.

Jax and I hope you’ll stop by Romance Divas and check us out as we celebrate our third anniversary this November with our fabulous Author of the Month, Shannon Butcher. Membership is free, but our members are priceless. Come see for yourself! We can promise you, there’s not another site out there like us, nor another group of members so giving and supportive. Or your money back. *vbg*

Unleash your inner diva!
Kristen Painter
Co-Founder, Romance Divas