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Happy writing!

I believe it was just about this time last year that I took a summer hiatus. Of course, back then, I had a really good book in hand. Today, I just have a lot of work to get done before I can go on vacation.

So, I’m going to pound through all my deadlines and then take off for camping and family get-togethers in the Smoky Mountains. If I feel like posting pictures, maybe I will.

Of course, when I get back to the city, it’s time for RWA’s National Conference, and I’ll be up in Buffalo with the Western New York romance writers in July.

So, again I am forced to face the truth.

It’s going to be a while before I get back to this blog. Because it is summer and I’d rather be reading, swimming and fishing (if my Dad will help me with the bait.)

For the near future, and on a completely irregular schedule, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook and, of course, Goodreads so I can list all the books I plan to read while I’m at the park, the pool, the playground and the beach.

Happy summer!

I have stealthy strep throat, I’m pretty sure. The evidence: My kid had it last weekend. Now I feel like crap.

But I’m also pretty stubborn and want to keep my up with my publishing schedule.

So for today, I’ve pasted a quote below with a link to a really nice post from Dan Blank about how everyone, especially in publishing, should be “doers,” creating a vital community.

This is something I think we can all use reminding of – that the world is not happening TO us, we have the CHOICE to take the reigns and make change happen.

I just paid way too much money for an ebook.

Granted, it feels more like a program since it comes with videos, forums and other content, but I never would’ve plunked down the credit card if it hadn’t been for the power of referrals.

About two years ago, I started reading Marian Schembari’s blog. This was before she started her Pajama Job Hunt, moved to New Zealand and hired on with an ad agency. Over many months, I read along as she began a freelance business and took a course with Marie Forleo.

I saw the changes Marian made to her blog, to her business model and to the pricing of her services as she gained clients and experience. I heard her praise for Marie Forleo and how Marie’s influence connected to Marian’s growing successes.

So I started reading Marie’s blog and signed up for her newsletter.

Then, the other day Marie sent an email advertising her Rich, Hot and Happy B-School, which sounds completely awesome if you have a good business idea. I clicked through, waded around and landed on an ebook giveaway. Unfortunately, the giveaway was connected to the more-expensive-than-I-expected B-School, but a quick Google search lead me to another version of the book.

That’s the one I paid way too much money for.

I’d watched Marian’s business grow. I’d read the blog of her mentor. So when her mentor recommended the content of this book, I was influenced enough to buy it.

Now, I’m in the midst of the program, and I’m stuck on chapter two’s brainstorming activity.

The whole point of my purchase was to jump start some good ideas, and I refuse to move forward in the book until I’ve conquered this task. So, for now, my really expensive ebook will remain unfinished.

But if it can eventually help me find a profitable idea, it will pay for itself.

Brooklyn Blogfest happened last week. A friend from my neighborhood curated the Blogs Aloud collection/performance, and she chose a piece from my other blog!

The piece was only a half paragraph, but I was totally psyched. I couldn’t make the main event, at The Bell House, so I finagled an invitation to the rehearsal. The video is below.

Charlotte Maier, Nancy Graham and Elizabeth Palmer read from blogs across Brooklyn. My piece comes at 1:09. The whole thing is ten minutes, and the final piece, at 8:59, from Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, is my favorite part of the whole collection.

I’m reading GMC by Debra Dixon for a book discussion at work. It’s a fast-paced, easy-to-grasp read with practical suggestions about creating solid characters and plots.

The first thing GMC made me think about was writing a book of my own. Yes, I used to write, before I realized I liked editing as much as, maybe more than, I liked writing. The results of my writing experiments were two really bad novels that will remain “under the bed.” Their biggest problems? They had no believable plots. And plot, since it is the core of the story, is kind of important.

The plot how-to laid out in GMC made me think (wish?) that I could fix my plot problems. Not for those two ghastly manuscripts, but for something new. But, since I’m barely hanging on to my once-a-week update here on the blog, writing a new novel seems unlikely.

The second thing GMC made me think about was the really good lunch I had a few weeks ago. During our book discussion, we agreed we liked “something else” to be going on in our books, something in addition to the romance.

Debra Dixon cuts this idea down to its essential elements.

I used to think about “conflicts” in romance novels as being the obstacles, both internal and external, that the hero and heroine must overcome before they can fully embrace a relationship.

But now I have a more interesting way to think about it. The romance—the relationship—IS the conflict. The romance is what’s going on while the hero and heroine are trying to get other things done.

The heroine’s goal in a romance novel is not to fall in love and get married. Ditto for the hero. The last thing on their minds is meeting a soul mate. In fact, it’s darned inconvenient. Romance will be a conflict for your characters.
~~from GMC by Debra Dixon

I woke up this morning and realized I had completely forgotten to post something this weekend!

Which I’m okay with, since it was a holiday, but wanted to at least post a holiday away message. (I’m keeping to this once a week publishing schedule, darn it!)

For Easter, my family and I colored eggs, hunted eggs, ate candy, went to a couple of parties, saw two different Easter bunnies, walked in the 5th Avenue parade, spent the beautiful sunny day in Central Park, and I also, miraculously, finished all the work projects I brought home to be done before Monday.

Back next week!

I spent today at a NJ RWA panel where I, and four other industry folks, talked about the most common mistakes writers make in queries, synopses, manuscripts, pitches and publicity. It was a fun discussion, made so by the insightful questions from the audience and the good humor of my fellow panelists.

But one of my favorite parts of the day was actually off the panel, at lunch.

When I looked forlornly around the dining room, a group of funny, smart, book-loving ladies were kind enough to invite me to pull up a chair and sit with them. I’m so glad they did.

After the obligatory grammar and punctuation jokes–this was a writers meeting after all!–we got down to the nitty gritty of book discussion. I added five books to my Goodreads TBR from that conversation alone!

There were a few things we all loved, things I don’t always hear discussed when folks talk about what should be in a romance novel. So I thought I would share.

1. Complex characters. It’s a romance, so the journey together is guaranteed, but the hero and heroine also need to each have an individual journey over the course of the story. (Loretta Chase came highly recommended as someone who could do this well. Can’t believe I haven’t read her yet!)

2. High stakes. Which means, there’s something more to the story than just “will she get her soul mate or won’t she.” High stakes come pretty naturally to romantic suspense. The stakes can’t get higher than life or death. But for contemporary romance, high stakes are harder to pull off.

This seems to be where classic “hooks” come in: secret babies, secret pregnancies, marriages of convenience, forced proximity, enemies attract. The hook adds high stakes that impact the romantic plot. But adding the hook can escalate the problem. How do you pull it off without writing something that seems too similar to books that have come before?

3. Surprises. I’ve mentioned this in a couple of interviews recently, but this time I wasn’t even the one to bring it up! Someone else said it and when she did, we all agreed we’d been reading romance so long it was hard to surprise us. But when an author can make magic happen…amazing.

4. The romance as a journey of trust. Anne Walradt put it best when she recounted the premise of one of her favorite Suzanne Brockmann books, Harvard’s Education. The hero begins the story trying to protect the heroine and keep her out of combat, even though he can’t complete his mission without her skills. By the end, when they are escaping together, he turns to her and says, “Drive or shoot?”

It’s the ultimate development for an alpha hero, moving from overlord protector to comrade in arms. Really, that line gets to the heart of the matter even better than “I love you.”