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
In the last few years, I’ve read well over a thousand romance novels. I started with contemporary, then moved on to Regency and other English stories. Then I got into other historicals. My faves are Western and Scottish historicals. I don’t claim to be an expert on romance novels Continue reading One Size Romance Novel Does Not Fit All
If you absolutely have to make a living and you need to do it right now, writing romance novels or anything else may not be a good career choice. You may actually need a day job while you toil away on your masterpiece in your off-hours. If you feel you’re a writer stuck in the body of an administrative assistant, you can set aside time each day to write.
Continue reading Write Your Romance Novel When You Feel Compelled To Do It
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
One day I fully expect to come across a romance novel entitled “The Unexpected Runaway Heiress’s Christmas Fireman Rancher.” Have you ever noticed that sometimes the titles of romance novels have very little to do with their content? There’s a disconnect Continue reading Romance Book Titles
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
