Writing Wednesday: the Heroine
While plotting my RWA workshop with Sarah MacLean, I had two major epiphanies (the fact that both coincided with the arrival of the waitress refilling our coffee cups has nothing whatsoever to do with it). Here they are: 1. We want our heroines to be likable and our heroes to be lovable; 2. We love…
Read MoreIf You Like….
To make up for not doing an If You Like yesterday, I am shamelessly piggybacking off Shelf Awareness, which just posted a list of novels in which Napoleon makes a cameo appearance– including our own The Garden Intrigue. For today’s Shelf Awareness recommendations, click here. For a much longer list of Napoleonic-set novels (including Pink…
Read MoreTeaser Tuesday: Inversion of the Tropes
Yesterday, as I was polishing off Chapter Thirteen of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, I had a Deep Thought. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that deep, but midway through the book is usually the point where plots and patterns start to become clear to me and I begin to pick up on themes, trends, and…
Read MoreThe Future of DARE ME
I had a Cunning Plan. Last summer, just for fun, I’d written the first few chapters of a contemporary romance novel. I’d never written in that genre before, so it seemed like a challenge and a nice palette cleanser before going back to Pink. But then, while I was in the middle of it, I…
Read MoreDARE ME: Chapter Seven
Yes, folks, we’re here: the final installment of our summer serial, Dare Me. How did we get here already? If you haven’t read the previous segments, you can start with Chapter One, here. I’ll be posting tomorrow on the future of Dare Me, but in the meantime, with no further ado, here’s Chapter Seven…. Enjoy!
Read MoreORCHID AFFAIR– Booksellers' Best!
What with one thing and another, I entirely forgot to mention that while I was off in Anaheim, The Orchid Affair won the Booksellers’ Best Award! I am very grateful to all of the booksellers and librarians who volunteered their time to judge and the wonderful ladies of GDRWA who go through the headache of…
Read MoreInformal Poll
As Miss Gwen zigzags her way through England in pursuit of those disappearing schoolgirls, it looks like she might wind up breaking for a night at the ancestral country estate of the Viscounts Loring (aka, the Dorringtons). Most of the other great houses in the Pink books have a name. We know that Turnip lives…
Read MoreWeekly Reading Round-Up
One of the perks of conferences is the goody bag of books (and the long plane rides on which to read said books). I use these as opportunities for discovering authors I might not otherwise have tried. Here’s this week’s haul: — Liza Palmer, More Like Her. Sarah MacLean told me I had to read…
Read MoreWriting Wednesday: Building Characters
At RWA last week, Sarah MacLean and I gave a talk together on creating memorable heroes and heroines. Some very interesting things came up in that workshop planning session (I’ll get to the Orca Test shortly), so it seemed like a good idea to share some of it with you here, with due credit to…
Read MoreTeaser Tuesday: Pink X Mega-Outtake
You don’t usually see much of my books while they’re in progress. They change around on me too much for me to risk showing you something that might not be there in the final version. In this case, though, you’re getting that rare beast: a hot off the presses outtake from Pink X, aka The…
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