In retrospect, the RITA finalist with a Nazi hero should have been evidence enough that the award was irredeemable. I was on the RWA Board then. I’m ashamed and sorry that I didn’t see that or do anything about it, and that I continued to support and participate in the contest.

The RITA award process and results over time had many systemic problems I failed to see or act on, including racism and anti-blackness. That single instance, however, should have been a bell ringing too loud to ignore or excuse. But I did ignore and excuse it, and I’m sorry.

(This comes in the wake of yet another historical fiction/romance novel with a cover and marketing that romanticize Nazis—which, according to the publisher, doesn’t reflect the content of the book, but somehow happened anyway.)

Saying it “somehow happened” in the previous tweet was sarcastic. The cover, tagline, book description, and marketing were all purposeful on the publisher’s part. They’ve apologized for the “confusion” but, so far as I’ve seen, not the actual choice to market that way.

Romanticizing Nazis is wrong and harmful, period. A book that did so should never have made a “Best of Romance Fiction” list. I never had a better chance to see it or say so than when I was on the RWA Board, but I didn’t. That was a personal failing, and I apologize for it.

I’m sorry if this thread is making it too much about me. With the recent book, I feel complicit in letting this shit go unchallenged, and it feels hypocritical to condemn new books without acknowledging it and apologzing. That’s all I’ll say about myself.