Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
I am co-authoring this post today with one of my alter egos, Angelica French. Angelica writes romances of varying degrees of heat. (I have another alter ego, River Glynn. River writes paranormal, science fiction, and fantasy.) The fourth Tuesday of each month I’ll post about issues in romance, writing romances, or provide general information like …
Continue reading “Romancing the Genre”
I read a lot. And since I’m a writer, reading isn’t just entertainment, it’s instructional. I learn from every book, whether good, bad or middling. That’s what inspired “Reading For Writers 101.” Today’s lesson: Why character change makes a story worth reading. Months ago I read a book where, frankly, the main character was a …
Continue reading “Reading For Writers 101: Character Change, part 1”
As a young teacher I had a sign above my blackboard (back in the day when we still used chalk!) that said Class Rules: 1. The teacher …
Continue reading “Ho-Hum, I’ve Got the Editing Blues”
Everyone wants a book that explodes off the page like a supernova. The best compliment any reader can give a book is to say they couldn’t put down. It’s not easy to create a bang, which is why too many books open with a few sad sparks and no fully formed fireworks. There are some …
Continue reading “Does Your Book Open With a BANG?”
I took classical Greek in college. I loved it, sort of like doing word puzzles. What letter is this squiggle, what is the meaning of that series of squiggles? One thing I learned was that spacing between words and punctuation were relatively modern conventions meant to make literacy more accessible for larger numbers of people. …
Continue reading “Five Ways to Get to Know Your Characters”
Following up and adding to Caryn’s post yesterday: What exactly is a “draft”? If you go from beginning to end without any revisions, that could reasonably be called a draft. But do we really? I work on a scene forever before I move on, maybe I skip around a bit to feel out other characters, …
Continue reading “Things are Getting Drafty”
Imagination is a uniquely human gift. Every one of us has used this talent at some point, and for a variety of reasons. We’ve all been actors or writers at times. As children we attempt to be more brave, powerful, beautiful, or smarter than we are, sometimes as a game—just for the pure joy of …
Continue reading “Write Your Story from Start to Finish: Thwart Your Internal Antagonist!”
I was hooked on mysteries with my first Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene). Who wouldn’t want to be her, zipping around in her little red car with her girlfriend, George, and boyfriend, Ned? She was intrepid, daring, smart, and very independent. In the 1950s, when I was reading Nancy Drew books, there weren’t many examples for …
Continue reading “Nancy Drew: Detective…and Writing Teacher?”
I loathe homework. I always have. I know that sounds ludicrous coming from a former teacher and assistant principal. I’m reminded of that old cartoon—a woman is standing at the foot of the bed, hands perched atop her hips and says, “Time to get up, you’re going to be late for school!” A muffled voice …
Continue reading “My Dreaded Homework Assignment: The Scene Outline”
If you haven’t already published a juvenile book with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) you don’t know they announced a big change on June 2. In a letter to all their children’s book publishers they wrote: “You can now set age and grade categorization refinements to help readers discover your books.” Okay maybe this doesn’t …
Continue reading “Use KDP Changes to Help Promote your Children’s Book”