Every year I look forward to the Hallmark Christmas movies, though I must admit I bail on quite a few. Sometimes I’m just not interested in the topic. Other times the male lead character isn’t doing it for me. But mostly Continue reading Your Play’s Beginning Matters
Most fiction writers know a good story needs conflict. Without conflict, the story lies flat on the page, lifeless. Romance writers most often make the conflict between the male and female protagonists. This is harder than it sounds, at least to make the conflict believable. Continue reading Conflicting Conflicts in Romance Novels
Romance novels are formulaic, which doesn’t mean they can’t be interesting, charming or insightful. The basic formula is boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. A variation might be: boy previously dumped girl, now girl hates boy, boy works to get girl back. The reader knows at the Continue reading Recurring Themes in Romance Novels
When personal computers first came out, I jumped on the bandwagon and bought one. I remember my dad watching a news show on TV around that time and asking me what “Windows” was. I had no idea. Back then, if I had any problem Continue reading Believe in Your Romance Novel
Years ago, before I really even knew what a romance novel was, I was invited to speak about writing to a northern California chapter of the Romance Writers of America. At the time, my credits included episodic television, several humorous parenting books and children’s poetry that Continue reading An Introduction to Romance Novels
