Revisiting the Creative Writing Basics

Revisiting the Creative Writing Basics

One of my oldest writing buddies and I decided to craft a Writing How-To Book back when we were in our late teens and struggling to get agents to look at our mildly crappy novels. Over the years, the outline for this guide continued to grow. We still think of ideas...
On Writing Romance: Myths and More

On Writing Romance: Myths and More

Romantic Myths Debunked! I found this article recently by Anne Gracie: Romantic Myths. I should admit right now that reading this article felt like I had just made some sort of breakthrough with my psychologist. THANK YOU, ANNE GRACIE, THANK YOU. Why so important? I...
PSA: Beta Reading

PSA: Beta Reading

Why Beta Readers are the Secret Backbone of Writers Wikipedia defines a beta reader as the following: “a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements such...

The Great Prologue Debate

I’m actively revising my next novel to be submitted soon, and in doing so, I’ve had a lot of trouble with the chapter lengths. On my first formal revision, I felt like my chapters were way too short — sometimes only 5 pages, double spaced!! —...

A Writer’s Crisis: Do I Write Erotica or NOT?

There came a time earlier in my writing career when I was submitting manuscripts happily and wantonly. Absolutely smitten with my cover letter, so proud of particular paragraphs in my novel and just completely ready to take the romance publishing world by storm. Well,...

In Defense of Romance

It took me a long time to come out of the Romance closet. Plenty of negative connotations surround the romance genre, which hover like a cloud of mosquitos on a balmy summer night, constantly ready to bite. At least, that’s how it felt to me. From my earliest...