Historical and Contemporary Romance Author
x-posted from the Manuscript Mavens blog In the world of romance, heroes rarely suffer from this malady. Not only are they supremely confident gentlemen of the world, they are also so wildly attracted to their heroines that any possibility of failure to rise to the occasion is unthinkable. Would that the writers who invent these rarefied creatures shared their immunity!…
It’s been quite a while since I found the time to post a Wednesday Word, but I’m struggling with the words I’m supposed to be writing today and this particular post has been rolling around in my head for sometime. So, I thought, what the heck? Maybe writing a blog post will shake loose other writing. A while back, I…
x-posted from the Manuscript Mavens blog Gotcha, didn’t I? I’m not going to complete that thought quite the way you probably expected. You see, I’ve been following the kerfuffles in the blogosphere over some authors’ bad behavior vis-a-vis negative Amazon reviews. While I have no intention of bringing the heated debate here, it’s made me realize one of the most…
…when you’re panicking. There is, of course, no objective reason for me to panic. By anyone’s estimates, I can complete the two novellas I have to deliver by September 1 with time to spare. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that I am a procrast–er, percolator of the first order. I’m not known for completing stuff much ahead of time…
I’m off to Memphis tomorrow morning on a short business trip, so I’m frantically preparing for that (I need a haircut, the laundry’s not done, etc., etc.) while trying to get all the details of my contracts (agency and publisher) squared away. My agent sent me the Deal Memo last night (which outlines the basic elements of the contract without…
…except when it doesn’t! (Cross-posted from the Manuscript Mavens blog) This past week has been quite the whirlwind for me as my writing career has taken a giant leap forward in the span, literally, of days. I’m still pinching myself, not quite able to believe I didn’t accidentally wake up in someone else’s life. So, to tell the story from…
Had to post to let you know that two of my dearest friends have finaled in the Golden Heart! First shout-out to Maven Darcy Burke, who finaled in the Regency Historical Romance category with her wonderful manuscript, Glorious. I am proud to say I knew Glorious when it was just a twinkle in Darcy’s eye, and that I always knew…
I got one of those rejections today that makes you want to scream. Oh, not because it was mean or got my name wrong or was a form letter. No, it made me want to scream because it was nice and complimentary, but ultimately amounted to an “I liked it, but I didn’t love it” with no real explanation of…
After a two-week hiatus, the Wednesday Word is back! (Waits for applause to subside. Hey, allow my delusions of grandeur without laughing quite so loudly, please.) I do have to warn you that today’s entry isn’t related to romance (or even fiction) writing at all. No, today’s blog is overtly, shamelessly political. Not in the sense that I’m taking sides,…
Cross-posted from the Mavens blog When I wrote my first manuscript the first time (and the second, third, and even fouth times), one of the comments I persistently got from my critique partners and from contest judges was that there “wasn’t enough conflict to sustain a full 100K-word novel.” But since I’d actually written more than 100K to get to…