This week Jane of Dear Author wrote a provokative blog titled We Should Let The Historical Genre Die. She cited dismal sales, an over-saturation of Regency-set Historicals with stories that all feel the same, and readers who are reluctant to try something new. Her main point was that the Historical Romance market was in need [...]
I promised I would tell you how my What Downton Abbey Can Teach Us About Writing Historic (and other) Romance workshop at the Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat went. It went fine. It didn’t go as well as I imagined, but, then, the workshop-in-my-head is always better than the reality. My biggest worry was whether [...]
In just a couple of days I’ll be giving my Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat workshop on What Downtown Abbey Can Teach Us About Writing Historical (And Other) Romance. Yesterday I worked all day on fine-tuning the workshop and finding relevant clips to use. Cross fingers that I can manage to make the audio-visual equipment [...]
At Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat I’m doing a workshop on what Downton Abbey can teach us about writing historical romance…or any romance, so I’ve been watching a lot of Downton Abbey. As time goes on, I’ll probably have more to say about this, but I thought I’d mention one thing that I’ve noticed over [...]
“I’m on deadline.” This is a valid and oft repeated phrase in the writing world. Other writers immediately know what that means and can commiserate, but it is something I don’t like to say out loud to people, even when it is so true and explains a lot of my behavior. I mean, it is [...]
This week I came across two uplifting messages about Women Authors. Both originated from Australian friends, Melissa James and Elizabeth Lhuede (more about Elizabeth later) Yay Romance! The first is a Youtube video Melissa alerted me to. It has been around for a while, but I hadn’t seen it before. Created by Maya Rodale, it [...]
Last Saturday I had the great good fortune to participate in a booksigning at Turn The Page Book Store Cafe in Boonsboro, Maryland. Turn the Page is Bruce Wilder’s (Nora Roberts’ husband) store and several times a year hosts a multi-author booksigning, featuring Nora, of course, but Janeen (RWA’s bookseller of the year for 2012 [...]
Imagine my surprise. I opened a package on Tuesday and discovered that one of my books, Innocence and Impropriety, was released in Japan as Manga! In case there are one or two of you (vbg) who have not read Innocence and Impropriety, here is the back cover blurb– A resolute man Jameson Flynn is a [...]
First of all, be sure to come back here tomorrow for my day of the Harlequin Historical Authors Holiday Giveaway. This is our third and best year with the grand prize of a Kindle Fire HD. Come back tomorrow to see what fabulous prizes I’m offering. Today on Risky Regencies, Lady P– is my guest, [...]
A couple of years ago my friend, multi-published author, Mia Zachary, had an idea for a plotting tool to help authors (like herself and like me) who are sometimes stymied with writers block or, as I call it, What the heck happens next in this book I’m writing???? Wouldn’t it be great, Mia thought, if one [...]
