Early this summer, I submitted a partial manuscript to the Denver Molly Awards contest. Notification came several weeks ago that it made it to the second round and I was elated but cautious. One very obvious fact is --the judging on contests is as subjective as food preferences. What one judge absolutely loves and gives wonderful praise to; another judge thinks is boring, contrived, or poorly paced.  When I read the comments from the first round judges, I had little confidence I'd make it past the second round. I was incredibly pleased to have survived the first and left it at that. Today I received notification that my partial manuscript is now a finalist in the Molly Awards! Woo Hoo! Someone pick me off the floor please! I think I'll have this cheesy grin on my face for at least another week. Maybe two. Oh, and for all of you that [...]

Let's have some fun with our writing. Go to the last page of one of your books. Count up three lines and send me a sentence. If the last page is too revealing, pick the end of a chapter. Here's mine (taken from Numbers Never Lie): ―I think I‘ll take my chances. And this one is from Bring It On which comes out in November: --He hoped they had liked the gift - it would be the last word he sent to anyone from his past. Now what's yours?

RWA Take Away – Cherry Adair’s  discussion on the Choreography of Action First of all, if you haven’t seen Ms. Adair speak, you’ve really missed a treat. She’s one witty lady and she’ll definitely keep you on your toes. Oh, and never, never yawn or close your eyes in one of her talks. I won't tell you why but it's pretty funny. Here’s a link to her website: http://cherryadair.com/ And her information on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55474.Cherry_Adair Cherry’s seminar at RWA was on the choreography of action. I thought it interesting that “action” meant both good fight scene and good love/sex scenes. “After all, it’s just body parts, right?” She said. “You get them in the right places and add in the details and wham. It works.” I’m paraphrasing a little as there were a few other words too. Cherry writes romantic suspense and she’s a master at these details. She has a very [...]

This was taken from a discussion with Allison Brennan and Sandra Brown, authors of romantic suspense. Every good story has to contain significant risks for the hero and heroine.  Common sense, right? The better you define those and the reader can associate with them, the more you elevate the drama. The stakes have to be high -- or at least perceived as high to the reader. In a Thriller, the stakes are either deadly or personal. The person is going to die, be physically harmed in some way, or perhaps lose someone they love. Or maybe, they will lose their career, their family, their respect, or relationship. Or two or more of these may occur. That's pretty high, right? The more creative you get with this the better.  In a Paranormal -- it may be destruction of the universe, destruction of mankind, or destruction of a character's sanity. Definately high. Make sure [...]

I will apologize in advance for any grammar/spelling mistakes. I write these things in a hurry as I head off for the day.... I sat in on a presentation by Julia Quinn on Dialogue. If you get the chance to see her speak, she's really awesome. Great sense of humor and quite entertaining. Julia writes historical romance. This is very brief. Basically there are two main parts to dialogue in writing. One, the part between the quotation marks. Two, the part outside the quotation marks. Inside the marks This needs to be appropriate for the person talking. Be careful with accents or slang. Make it appropriate for the personality. If writing historicals, don't use terminology from present day. Make it appropriate for that timeframe. Outside the marks This consists of dialogue tags and action tags. Dialogue Tags such as he said, she said, he screamed, she bellowed should be used [...]