Historical and Contemporary Romance Author
I’m probably showing my age by posting these lyrics, but I have to say that this is one of my favorite songs ever, and a large part of the reason I love it so much is because words literally send a shiver down my spine. To me, it’s a classic example of a song with lyrics so profound and beautifully…
As I’ve gotten into the nitty-gritty of writing my new novel, it struck me that one of the most important things we writers do when constructing a story is to choose the names of our characters. A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but a heroine named Rose is likelier to catch our readers’ fancy than one…
Sometimes, events conspire to occur in such a way that it’s nearly impossible to believe life is in any way random. So it was at church this Sunday when the sermon title was “Sex and the Bible.” Given that there’s been a bit of dust-up between the erotic and inspirational factions of RWA over the RITAs (again) this past week…
Last week, Emily Veinglory reprinted a fantastically perceptive Absolute Write forum post by Xandra Gregory, a Liquid Silver Books author, on the EREC blog about RWA’s current rules for Published Author Network (PAN) eligibility. I hope Xandra (whom I’ve never met) won’t mind my reproducing here what I think is the most interesting and salient point of her post: RWA’s…
When I tell other authors that I write historical, one of the more common responses I get (assuming they don’t write historical themselves) is something along the lines of “Oh, I’ve always wanted to write a historical, but the all the research and the accuracy and the details are just too intimidating.” They prefer to write contemporaries, set in a…
Last week, I sent my option book proposal to my agent (the uber-fabulous Kevan Lyon) and sweated for what seemed like days on end. Would she like it? Would she like it but think it needed major revisions to be saleable? What if it was so bad, I had to start over from scratch? (Having already started over once, I…
If you’re a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America) or are at least tangentially interested in the organization, you’re probably aware that it sponsors two annual contests for writers: The Golden Heart: For completed, uncontracted manuscripts in one the romance/YA genres by authors who are not published in novella or novel-length fiction. The Rita: For published romance novels and…
Okay, I really intended to do this on Thursday, but the problem is, these lyrics seem to exist nowhere on the Internet. Which is kind of amazing, if you think about it. I thought EVERY song in the universe had lyrics posted on the ‘Net. Anyway, I may be breaking some sort of rule, but I don’t care. I just…
I used to do a feature in bygone days that I called Lyric Thursday. I stopped doing it because…well, because I got lazy. But a few minutes ago, the song that tangentially inspired large parts of the plot and conflict in Sinfully Ever After, the third of the novellas in Behind the Red Door, and I felt the sudden need…
Since she FINALLY posted the announcement on the Mavens blog today, I can finally stop biting my tongue and tell you all that my dear friend and critique partner Erica Ridley sold her Regency-set gothic mystery/paranormal romance, TOUCHED, to Kensington Books in a two-book deal. Even better, we both have the same editor (John Scognamiglio). How awesome is that? And…