The Years That Were, Are, and Will Be - A final post for RTG by M.L. Buchman

                                                    

Years That Were

It’s funny looking back over the years of my coming to play at RTG. 

My very first post here, December 8, 2012, sounds very positive (https://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/2012/12/agile-thinking.html, OMG those early covers were awful…and the next ones were worse!). 

I’m not quite sure how I did that because it was one of those depths-of-despair times that occur in any long writing career. My publishing career was taking off, very slowly. I’d just received my first royalty notice from my trad publisher. They’d bought eight books (four were already written and in the pipeline), but the first one had only just released. 

Imagine, as my wife unfolded that royalty statement while I washed the dinner dishes, how excited we were. I’d been laid off in August [thank you, Mr. Unscrupulous Boss] and we were dead broke [thank you, recession]. Then she read out the amount the represented our great hope for the future. What we’d earned was below the publisher’s minimum threshold for cutting a check ($2.34 against a limit of $10). We lost it! I mean both lying on kitchen floor holding our sides against the laughter that lay dangerously close to hysteria.

Less than six weeks later, I’d given up the corporate job hunt (after a 30-year career), dumped the city apartment for a place half the price out on the Oregon Coast, sold the house we’d built to retire in (but had to rent out) for half its real value (again, thank you, recession), and gambled on my writing career actually taking off. 

You see, it was the year after the Kindle Christmas. I’d written a little Christmas book set in the same world as my traditional books, but I was selling it indie. Curiously, The Night Is Mine and Daniel’s Christmas would continue to be my bestselling books until I launched my Miranda Chase thrillers in 2019.

The Night Stalkers #1 and The Night Stalkers Holidays #1

Years That Are

Did I make breakout success due to indie? Well, yes and no.

I didn’t get any boost by being one of the very first to publish indie back in 2009 when the wisdom was: Publish anything indie and you’ll make a fortune. The $0.99 revolution didn’t touch me. My Amazon and Facebook ads rarely even paid for themselves (even when I got professional help). The Bookbub storm blew in some other sea than mine… 

I did it by writing the best stories that I could as fast as I could. The learning curve was horrendous, challenging, fascinating, and (did I mention?) horrendous. The production rate is something I’ve never achieved since—the power of desperation to grab onto that brass ring of being a full-time writer was immense. I’d been dreaming about that ring since I first started writing in 1993 and had my first book published in 1997.

Curious side note: though I’ve only managed to write one more book in that series, I can’t wait to get back to it. I already have two more already started…now I just need to find time to finish them.

So, a mere 6 weeks after that first RTG post, I’d made the jump. I was now a hybrid author struggling to complete the leap of faith my wife had agreed to take with me.

Curiously, and rather unexpectedly, one of the most important changes to happen that year was announced very quietly in an RTG post. In 2012, while my known world was collapsing around me, an editor forced me (almost literally) to write a short story for a Christmas Ghosts anthology. The fact that I didn’t write short stories, holidays, or ghosts carried no weight with her. So, in 2013, my first short story launched—to rave reviews.

Over the next decade, I’ve written over 200 short stories and they make up a full third of my income. Ghost of Willows Past still sells nicely every Christmas season.

Always remaining flexible is one of the great keys to success in this industry. After seven years, forty-two novels, and seventy short stories in the military romantic suspense of my Emily Beale Universe (https://EmilyBeale.com), I began to worry about keeping myself challenged as a writer. That’s an essential, to always learn and grow. Otherwise creative stagnation becomes closely followed by career stagnation.

Besides, I had discovered a character who I couldn’t wait to hear from. It took me two years to develop and understand Miranda Chase enough to write her. Two years of wondering if my military romance audience would follow me into thrillers. Of wondering if fans of the ultra-competent icon of Major Emily Beale would embrace an autistic air-crash investigator unsure of everything about her.

Fifteen books later? The answer was absolutely! 

But it was only by facing my fears and following my character into story that it happened. Had I failed to embrace Miranda, I expect my career would be having a much smaller arc, rather than still supporting my family as a full-time writer thirteen years after corporate America spit me out.

Years That Will Be

In the dozen years since that first post, the publishing world has changed in new ways at a new pace. No, I’m not ignoring the history when Dickens, Twain, and others were self-published. Nor the rise of the big publishers, the catastrophic fall of the pulp magazines in 1959 and 1960, or the nearly overnight collapse of the local distributors in the 1990s. Publishing has long since proven that it is far from done with evolving. 

However, between indie, the rise of direct sales (https://shop.mlbuchman.com), and now AI, the speed of that change is mind-boggling.

They’re not the only thing that is changing in my world either. I’ve been mostly writing Miranda Chase for the last 5 years. But a funny thing happened on Wedgetail, Miranda Chase #15. My first readers asked, “So, what’s your new series?” 

“My new one? I’m still writing Miranda.”

They shook their head sadly at my writerly naiveté. 

My Emily Beale Universe, being in the romance world, had a new hero and heroine in each book. Yes, Emily was a power figure throughout the multiple series that universe became, but it wasn’t all her story.

Miranda Chase led all fifteen titles in her thriller series personally, growing and evolving with each one. And, in Wedgetail, I’d brought all of her emotional curves to closure without realizing it. Well, almost. She has at least one more book coming, probably this fall.

So, while I have many books that have been on hold while I’ve written Miranda, will any of them become such a major, career-altering force as Emily or Miranda? How will direct sales, AI, and whatever comes after that affect my career? How will it affect yours?

We have a few key phrases on our refrigerator to remind us of how to approach the future. And thirteen years coming to play at Romancing the Genres (thank you so much for the support and congratulations on achieving something so wonderful for so long), I think these make the best advice I can offer to myself and to you:

• Semper Gumby – If you’re too young to remember the Gumby character, look it up. This fixture of my childhood is the ultimate reminder to be flexible.

• That was so three days ago. – Don’t stay rooted in the past simply because that’s what has worked before. 

• Violet is Level Six. Start where you stand. – This is a different version of the previous one, coming from a misquote of my second book (thankfully long since out of print). Translates as The past is meaningless. Look ahead. At every disaster along the road (and there will be plenty of those), we remind ourselves to look ahead, not back.

• Have fun! – Seriously. This is the biggest tool I’ve got. If you aren’t having fun, a) your audience can tell, and b) why bother? Life is too short to be wasting your time.

USA Today and Amazon No. 1 bestseller M. L. “Matt” Buchman is the author of 75+ action-adventure thriller and military romance novels, 200 short stories, and lots of read-by-author audiobooks.

PW says: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” Booklist declared his romances were: “3x Top 10 of the Year.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50-foot sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts.

Come visit: https://mlbuchman.com. 

Endings and Beginnings by Maggie Lynch

As RTG stops their posting after 14 years of being in the blog space, my heart weeps a little because it has been a part of my blog viewing for all that time. Some of the authors on RTG have become a friend, others are simply admire what they do. The good news is I know that all these authors can be found elsewhere. On their own websites, on other peoples’ blogs, on substack, and a myriad of other places. I know I will be catching many of them in other places.

For myself, the past five years have been the story of endings and beginnings, definitely in that order. As I’ve aged, I am more aware of endings because more loved ones have died, and many people I don’t know personally but who have impacted my life (musicians, actors, artists, political leaders, and many others) have passed. Though I do grieve those losses and think about days gone by and how my life used to be, I also actively look for new beginnings. If I can’t wake up and expect a new beginning each day, I will find it near impossible to get out of bed.

Beginnings can be small: new buds on my rhododendron bushes, a change in weather, the smell of a new coffee flavor in the morning, an email from someone I’ve lost touch with, a phone call from a grandchild. All of these are beginnings—a chance for me to decide what kind of day I’m  willing to work toward. How am I going to pace myself to take in the endings that will undoubtedly happen during the day and celebrate the beginnings? 

Beginnings can also be major changes in my life. Two years ago, I came out of retirement from academia to take on a part-time contract with a community college system in order tro support some financial needs of family members with health issues. I never thought I would return to academia. When I retired in 2015, I was committed to my “new beginning” as a full-time writer. I’ve enjoyed it and as I’ve been spending less time as a writer and more time in academia again, I’ve really missed that freedom. At the end of this academic contract, I will return to my writing life full-time in January 2026.

So, another ending and another new beginning. Though I’ve been a full-time writer before, so much has changed in the business, the technology, the competition, the readers and how they consume stories (print, ebook, audiobook, video). What I have learned during this period of less fiction writing is that I need to write regularly for my own mental health. I need to tell my stories. It is how I process the world—both past and present experiences. When I don’t have that time I suffer, my mental health suffers, my ability to stay on task in anything I’m doing suffers. I’m not my best self. I need the quiet time, the dreaming time, the time to create a world where justice is served, love wins the day, and people working together thrive.

The above picture is one of my favorites of all time, as a reminder of beautiful endings and new beginnings. I took this at Middle Beach Lodge in Tofino, BC (the west coast of Vancouver Island) in the early 2000s. My husband and I were on a one-week vacation trip and traveled all over the Island learning about indigenous culture, the arts, and stayed several days at the lodge. It was heaven. The picture is not color corrected at all. That is truly how it looked. I particularly loved the single red/purple line coming up the beach as if it was reaching toward the future. 

I hope all of you are also reaching to the future, finding a way to sustain yourself in difficult times. Don’t give up on your dreams as they are the essence of creativity. Always nourish that spark in some way—whether it is only once a week or once a month. Do not let that light go out.

I very much appreciate all of you who have followed me on RTG year after year. If you want to continue to follow me, learn what’s coming next with my books and future writing goals, below is a listing of the places you can find me. I hope to hear from you on one or more of these places.

Website: https://maggielynch.com

Substack: https://maggielynchauthor.substack.com/  Substack is now where my newsletter resides.  I try to post once per week with news about messy moments and heroic choices in life, in books, and in both the big and little things we do to survive and thrive.

BlueSky:  https://bsky.app/profile/maggielynch.bsky.social  This has replaced Twitter X for me.

Facebook: https://facebook.com/maggiewrites

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcvaylynch

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/maggielynchauthor/

BookBub: https://bookbub.com/authors/maggie-lynch-875a4b99-667e-4237-bce1-25962e622286

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4947977.Maggie_Lynch

Dust Jacket Author Interviews: https://www.dustjacketauthors.com/

Celebrating the ‘Nice’ Rejection By Robin Weaver

 This is a Blast from the Past post Robin Weaver wrote twelve years ago. Does it still resonate today? ~ Sarah

 – May 2, 2012

At long last, the response from the editor/agent arrives. We click on the email (or tear open the envelope). As writers, our emotions are split—equal parts of fear and anticipation. Okay, maybe 70/30.

In a mere second, the two-part emotion morphs into 100% disappointment. We groan. Another rejection. “…Thank you for your submission…blah, blah, blah…but we don’t want your stinking stuff.”

Okay, so maybe the quote above isn’t verbatim, but if you’ve been writing for any length of time, you become adept at reading between the RTF text. They don’t want our stuff—stinking or not. So our fingers crimp the mouse, clicking on the delete button with enough force to hammer a nail into a cement block.

But wait. What was that?

No. Not possible. Yet our subconscious insists. Beneath that form text, we saw something just before the generic signature block. In script font.

Believing we’re wasting time, we nevertheless click on the trash folder. We gulp another mouthful of coffee, convinced caffeine will rectify our inability to correctly process a cookie-cutter rejection. We search through the day’s discarded mail until we find the zapped electronic communication. Again. Thinking we’re bat-dung crazy, we double-click.

Holy Mother of Adverbs! The script flashes like a neon sign. We aren’t delusional. At the end of the blah, blah, blah, there really is an addition comment. In a font of a different color we see actual feedback. “Please send me something else.” (Or “…your characters have real promise; you have an engaging voice; an interesting premise...”)

We do a little dance, make a little laugh and start to get down (to work) when we realize something amazing has occurred. We’ve transitioned. Our psyche didn’t experience a bone-crunching deflation. Instead, we enjoy the thrill of a polite “no thank-you.” Okay, maybe pathetic is a more apt description than amazing, but we’ve stopped taking rejection personally.

What is wrong with us?

I can’t imagine any other occupation where people get ecstatic over so little. For those of us who still have a day job, the nice rejection is equivalent to hearing, “No, you can’t have a raise, but we’ll use colored paper to print your pay stub.” In the White Collar world, can you imagine interviewing an applicant and then sending a letter saying:

• You’re fully qualified for the advertised position but your coffee cup didn’t wow us.
• We know you can do this job, but your pacing will wear a hole in our carpets.
• We feel you are right for the position but fear you don’t have enough conflict in your life.
• Thank you for applying but we’re not accepting people who wear blue suits at this time.
• Your qualifications are amazing but we don’t believe your car will fit in our parking spaces.

Worse, can you imagine the fabled applicant being giddy because we add: “But please apply again in ten years.”

Perhaps the difference for the writer is one of magnitude. As authors, we don’t just get a job. We go from the wilderness of the unpublished into the wonderful, wonderful world of PUBBED.

Or maybe we’re just nuts.

What do you think? Are we crazy, or is there a method to the mayhem?

Copyright © 2012 by Robin Weaver

 

How long is long enough to submit your MS?

by Diana McCollum

 

Should you give up on submitting a MS that has 5, 10 or 20 rejections?

If you believe in your work and have had it edited to within an inch of its life, I say no, don’t give up.

 

There are many writers who don’t want to self-publish and take on all the jobs the publishing house normally does. They just want to write books that people can buy and enjoy. These writers work hard on their babies and when they send them out to agents or publishing houses and the MS’s are rejected, maybe 1, 5 or 20 times they give up and move on to the next story.

 

Don’t give up! If you’ve made the book the best you can and you believe in it, keep sending it out.

 

I used to critique with three other ladies around 1997.  One of the ladies was Sue Grant, a three time Rita finalist and one time winner. In the 1990’s she had yet to publish a book. I remember her telling us that she was papering the one bathroom wall with rejection notices. She felt the one she wanted most, the letter buying her book would eventually arrive in her mailbox. And it did. After 23? Some rejections. 

 

She sold her first two books in 1999. She is now a NY Times best seller with many books written and bought by publishers. And with a big fan base she ventured into self-publishing too.

 

In 1973 horror writer, Stephen King sold his first novel, Carrie, the story of a bullied teen who gets revenge on her peers.

 

He sent Carrie to over 40 agents and publishing houses and then threw it in his office trash can. In his book on writing the novel he says his wife picked Carrie out of the trash and sent it in one more time. That was when it was bought and sold and he was able to quit his job and write full time.

 

I guess what I’m saying is if you believe in your work, and you’ve polished and made the MS as good as possible, don’t give up on it. If your dream is to be published by a publishing house keep trying, keep sending don’t give up.

 

Are you self-pubed or are you sending to agents and publishing houses?

If you are a reader, do you buy a mixture of self-pubbed and publishing house books? Or just one or the other?

Now, off to finish my work in progress and start sending it out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative life and mojo at 40 plus

By Cassandra O'Leary

Author's Note: I first wrote this blog in 2016 when my debut novel was released. Now I have a few more draft books under my belt, but I'm still working on juggling work/life/health and getting more work completed. The current quarantine and home school situation just makes everything more complicated!

Creative life and mojo at 40 plus by Cassandra O’Leary

Have you found your creative mojo? I got back into creative writing about three years ago, and the impetus for me was the looming Big 4-0 deadline. I don’t know what it is about a significant birthday to light a fire under my butt, but it worked. I wanted to try writing a novel. A romance novel, since I had an idea revolving around relationships.

I did it, and I’ve kept writing and have already found some success. But you know what? I did it with very little support from people around me, apart from my fabulous husband.

As a woman ‘of a certain age’ i.e. forty one and three quarters, I loathe the assumptions that go with being a woman at this stage of life, let alone one who wants to tackle a creative project or a career change.

Here’s a few crazy assumptions, just for starters:

- If you’re over about 30, you can’t start a brand new career because you’re probably ‘past it’.

- If you’re a woman, you’ll only be worried about ‘settling down’ and being married/having babies/buying shoes/raising cats/collecting kitchen accessories.

- If you’re interested in writing, you’ll only want to write (or read) ‘mummy blogs’ or ‘mummy porn’* (insert dismissive comment and raised eyebrows here).

- If you like to read, you’re probably 'only' reading romance novels, which as everyone knows are problematic or sexist or unrealistic or… (insert unfair assumption here).

- If you are a mum, a wife, and a part-time worker, a woman who enjoys fashion, or cooking, or wine, whatever, you can’t be anything else.

That’s it, done and dusted, get back in your box, woman. As Alicia Silverstone would say in the movie Clueless, “As if!”.

As someone who decided at the age of thirty eight to tackle creative writing in a serious way, and who has gone at it with the tenacity of a multitasking mummy-ninja, I can tell you all of the above are such clichés they’re not even funny.

I believe I can achieve things. I’ve already had three distinct ‘careers’ and will probably have a couple more. I work hard and I’m always interested in learning something new. I am ‘settled’, married with kids, living a suburban life, but that’s not all I am. I like to read everything — news, think pieces, literary fiction, romance, science fiction, blogs, non-fiction. I enjoy reading light-hearted and romantic books, for entertainment.

I can be lots of things, and I will be, probably all at once. I’ve always believed, strangely enough, that I am a person. I am me. I’m good at writing, I love reading and thinking of creative ideas. Always have done, probably always will do. My age and my gender have nothing to do with it. It’s other people who have weird, narrow-minded opinions.

Just do it – time waits for no woman

Sure, I’m busy. Sure, I have young children. Sure, there’s never enough hours in the day to do all the things I need to do, let alone the things I want to do. But that’s life. It rushes by at supersonic speed while you’re busy doing the washing or cleaning the kitchen, until all of a sudden it’s getting hard to remember the things you always wanted to do, but never found time for.

The good news is those things you never had time for are still there in your head. At least the potential things are. I realised that nobody has time, that you have to make time to write if it’s important to you. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather look back and think that I’m proud to have worked hard and written a book, rather than spent all of that time vacuuming the rug.

All I needed to do was block out the negative voices and get started. For me, that internal decision was all it took. It was time. Time to start, time to get going, time to write.

If you’re thinking about writing — perhaps characters have whole conversations in your head over your morning coffee, or you overhear conversations in a cafe and you have to jot them down in a notebook, or you keep a journal — my advice is, just start.

Write something. Anything. Maybe it will be a poem, or a short story, or a romance novel. Maybe you’ll dive straight into the madness of writing a novel in a month during NaNoWriMo or enter a writing contest like I did. Whatever you write, you’ll have something that never existed before in the world. Your work, your thoughts.

Here’s the thing about starting — it’s exciting. It opens up your mind to possibilities you may not have considered before. You may find that you have a whole pile of ideas waiting, based on your life experiences and the stories of people around you. There are benefits to having a few years under your belt!

Creative work can keep you sane

An unexpected by-product of getting creative, for me, is staying sane in an increasingly crazy world. Connecting to inner thoughts and writing them down, taking quiet time-out to read away from television and other distractions or simply taking a walk and letting your mind unwind can all be helpful for your creativity. They can also help reduce stress and keep you mentally well.

As a mother of two young children, I’ve found this surprising and most welcome. Carving time out for myself and my creative work has made me calmer, more mentally present and aware. And my kids love giving me crazy story ideas! I still need to write that book about an undercover, secret brick…

Define your own success

Success doesn’t have to be defined by bestseller status or winning writing awards. Although if some awards were thrown in my general direction, I’d probably reach out and try to catch them.

But success can be defined in many ways, such as finishing a first draft of a book or a new piece of art. That’s something a lot of people will never achieve. Or the goal could be to get that book polished and submit it to a publisher. Maybe it could simply be showing a short story to some readers and having them enjoy your work.

And you never know what might happen. One day, someone might read your work (or see your art, whatever medium you work in) and absolutely love it. Seriously, it could happen.

Here I am, having written (almost) three novels and a few shorter works, taking a leap and jumping in head first to the world of book publishing and being an author. Wish me luck!

P.S. My kids didn’t starve and my husband didn’t leave me. But thanks for all the unsolicited comments and predictions of doom, naysayers and busybodies! #sarcasm

*P.P.S. I hate the term ‘mummy porn’ and believe it was invented by male book reviewers to belittle women writers who dare to write about sexual content…use that term in my presence at your peril!

ABOUT CASSANDRA O’LEARY

Cassandra O'Leary is a romance and romcom author, recovering corporate wordsmith and TV and film fangirl. She was the winner of the We Heart New Talent contest run by HarperCollins UK and her debut contemporary romance/romantic comedy novel, Girl on a Plane, released in 2016. She's also indie published shorter works including Heart Note: A Christmas romcom novella and Chocolate Truffle Kiss: A romcom novelette (now in Kindle Unlimited).  

Cassandra is a mother of two gorgeous, high-energy mini ninjas and wife to a spunky superhero. Living in Melbourne, Australia, she’s also travelled the world. If you want to send her to Italy or Spain on any food or wine tasting ‘research’ trips, that would be splendiferous.

Proud member of Romance Writers of Australia and the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild.

Read more at cassandraolearyauthor.com

Dora Bramden’s Honeymoon in the Wine District of Rutherglen Victoria Australia

 Monday, we arrived at Carlyle House in the afternoon. The Victorian facade with gables and verandas decorated with iron lace set the tone for a romantic honeymoon. The owner greeted us and showed us through the high ceilinged ornate entrance hall to our suite. Carlyle House had once been a doctors residence and we were staying in what had once been the consulting rooms converted into a lovely lounge, bedroom and ensuite. They had been named The Tokay suite and were to be our home for the next four nights.

On entering we were greeted with a white MR & MRS sign sitting on the fireplace and rose petals scattered on the hearth area. On the king size bed was a tray with champagne and chocolates and a little dish of blueberries and strawberries. After the romance of our wedding, the honeymoon suite didn’t disappoint.

We began exploring the wine district on Tuesday. After a walk up and down the shops in the main street, and a drive around the town of Rutherglen we had lunch at De Bortoli.  Sam and I couldn’t stop talking about how delicious our meal was. The glass wall of the restaurant looked onto a formal and elegant courtyard. A center fountain focal surrounded by artistic plot plant displays. This made the dining experience very enjoyable.

That evening we went to one of the pubs for dinner and enjoyed well-prepared staples. It was crowded in the pub and we enjoyed seeing who else was dining there.

The next day we drove to Corowa (a nearby town on the Murray River) and walked the shopping district. We noted that a few wineries were on that road and made plans to return in a day or two. We headed to another pub for dinner and recognized a group of two couples that had been dining where we were the night before. They nodded to us and we smiled at them.

We decided to go for a driver farther afield on Wednesday. We lunched at Beechworth, a town renowned for its bakery. However, because I'm a Coeliac I couldn’t eat there, but we found a cafe that had a GF frittata on the menu. We enjoyed browsing the many boutique shops and giftware shops and then enjoyed the drive home. We had booked in at the renowned Taste Restaurant and enjoyed our entree sitting at a table close to the front window. Who should walk in? The same group of four that we’d dined with the last two nights. We took a look at each other and started to laugh. “Hello again,’ we said. They stopped and talked to us for a while about where each of us was staying and what we’d been doing. It turned out they had also been to Beechworth that day for lunch and that they had lunch reservations at the same winery as us for the following day.

Thursday morning we did some wine tasting at Warrabilla Wines because we’d enjoyed drinking their Shiraz with our meal the night before. 

We left with a box of wine and then went on to All Saints for our lunch. We were enjoying our main meal when our new friends came in and it was like a party. We had so much fun talking all about our holiday week in Rutherglen and discovered that we were all leaving to go home the next day. I also found out that one of the couples owns the Newsagent that I’d been going to for about 20 years! So I expect I’ll be seeing them again. We did some tasting after lunch and bought another box of wine. Sam is feeling very happy at this point but I'd kept a keen eye on how many drinks I'd had,  so I drove after lunch.

Friday we left after breakfast for the drive home, stopping at Glenrowan to visit the Ned Kelly (Famous Aussie Bushranger) attractions. 

I found a lovely antique shop with lots of girly things for the Shabby Chic side of me to enjoy.

We stopped for lunch with my cousins who live an hour down the road toward Melbourne. It was lovely catching up with them, but we were happy to eventually get home to our own bed. I'd been totally spoiled and enjoyed all the happy memories of our Wedding and Honeymoon. I’m still basking in the glow of it all.

I'll be uploading a post on my blog of the wedding day tomorrow so check over there for photos of me in at my glamorous best and a journal of my wedding day.

Dora Bramden writes heart-melting, passionate romance.