Wednesday, March 30, 2011

LOVE MAKES FOOLS OF US ALL

by F.Solomon


I saw a line in the Village Voice years ago that said, Love Makes Fools of Us All.  

I clipped it out and taped it onto the journal of poetry I was writing at that time. It resonated with me because it is true -- at some point, we have all done something foolish in the name of love.

Love has a way of making you not see clearly. Rose color when it is dark and murky, or just things that you do to impress someone that maybe were not as cleverly executed as what was in your head.

I have no desire to share any of the foolish things I have done, or what anyone else has done for that matter, but the foolish things we do for love saved me. I hate April Fool's Day.  I see nothing amusing at all about the things that people do to fool each other, but when Maria and I were brainstorming about monthly themes for Keynotes for the year (the fruit of which you will see very soon), "Fool for Love" seemed the best theme for April I could come up with. Believe me I was not disappointed, and with contributions from Tara Nina. Cathy Greenfeder and Mingmei Yip among others, you will not be disappointed either!

Love is a learning curve and so is writing.  The way that your script looks when you are learning to write is not the way the script will look after practice.  You have to fall a few times while learning ballet.  We look silly learning how to do anything. The same could be said of learning to love. 

The thing with love is that hopefully you get better and better the more you love. Love is what makes the world go round.  For all the naysayers who think love is all pink and frilly, Love is the most solid element on the earth.  And, it will make fools of us all.
 


Monday, March 28, 2011

DREADED AUTHOR QUESTION: WHY DO YOU DO IT? WHY BOTHER WRITING?

   
by Isabo Kelly


This is a hard question to answer for all writers. Not because it’s an intrinsically difficult question. But because sometimes we don’t actually know the answer. In fact, we often ask ourselves this very thing. Why do we do this?

Writing is tough work on many levels. Even on the days when the writing flows, getting the story in your head down on paper is a trying process. On a bad writing day, each word is like pulling teeth. Pleasure reading gets more difficult, even though it’s one of our favorite pastimes. The business end of the process can be overwhelming, full of rejection, criticism and uncertainty. And once you conquer the hurtle of getting published, making sure your book reaches readers involves a whole new skill set, marketing and business skills which may or may not be part of an author’s repertoire.

In addition to the fact that writing itself is frequently difficult and the business is brutal, there’s no guarantee of success and no promise that you’ll ever make a living at your chosen career. Publishing can be very precarious, even if your books sell well. Publishing houses close, editors move, imprints reorganize, trends in genres fluctuate. Good years and bad years are only to be expected.

The heartbreak, the rejection, the insults to your story, the lack of financial guarantees, the money that goes into promoting your books once they get published… It’s a valid thing to ask a writer: Why do we do this?

Most writers I know give the same response I always give: I do it because I have to. I don’t have a lot of choice. Like it or not, I have stories in my head that insist I put them down somewhere. And once those stories are committed to the page, it’s almost impossible not to want to share the stories with readers. Writing is the only job I’ve ever had that I haven’t gotten bored with after a few years. It’s a constant challenge that is so much a part of me, even when I quit (which sometimes I do because it feels good to say “I quit”), I still go right back to writing an hour later.

The fact is, even if most of us were never published again, or never made it to publication in the first place, we’d still have to write. We just would.

And that’s not something non-artists really get. I hate to compare writing to an addiction or compulsion, but in so many ways it is. Once you start, even a twelve step plan would have a hard time breaking through a writer’s need to put story to page.

If your reasons for writing are other than need, if you’re looking for fame, wealth, accolades, well…I wish you the best of luck. Really I do. But with those motivators, this will be a very difficult road, and all the rejection and hard work will be hard to justify. There are easier ways to earn fame and wealth—get yourself onto a reality show! You’ll at least achieve some notoriety.

But if you have no other choice than to write, write. And be proud of your compulsion. After all, when the days are good, when the writing flows, the reviews are glowing, and the letters from editors and agents come back asking for more, there’s not much better in the world than the life of a writer.♥



Isabo Kelly (aka Katrina Tipton) is the author of multiple science fiction, fantasy and paranormal romances. Her Prism Award Winning novel, SIREN SINGING, has just been released in paperback from Ellora’s Cave (www.ellorascave.com). For more on Isabo’s books, visit her at www.isabokelly.com

Friday, March 25, 2011

JEWELS FOR A PRINCESS ©

By Polly Guerin


THE JEWELRY OF VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend but then there are rubies, emeralds and sapphires to color one’s life with vibrant fine jewelry designs that any princess in a romantic novel would cherish. Van Cleef & Arpels the legendary French jewelry brings to the fashion stage a world of beauty, fashion, mystery, storytelling and magic! The luxury jeweler has revisited its iconic surrealist Zip necklace and the gem-setting procedure known as the Mystery Setting at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York in the exhibit “Set in Style,” which showcases several themes: Innovation, Transformations, Nature as Inspiration, Exoticism and Fashion on display with all its historical dazzle until June 5, 2011. Even if you cannot afford this luxury---it is well worth admiring the detail of these exquisite works of art, the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry for themselves.

SET IN STYLE

On view are over 350 jewels, timepieces fashion accessories and objets d’art, many of which were created for the American market. Since its boutique opening in 1906 at 22 Place Vendome in Paris Van Cleef & Arpels has played a leading role in style and design innovation in the world of the fashion cognoscenti. Its timeless pieces have been worn by royalty as well as heroines of the silver screen, queens, princesses and famous women including style icons the Duchess of Windsor, H.S.H. Princess Grace of Monaco and Dame Elizabeth Taylor to name a few. By far one of the most unique designs is the Zip necklace that the jeweler recently introduced in Paris with four new spectacular versions at their Place Vendome boutique.

THE ZIP NECKLACE

Van Cleef & Arpels is renowned for transforming objects from one form into another, hence the theme Transformations and the Zip necklace has a zipper that really works. What you’ll see on display, is the iconic surrealist Zip design, which was originally commissioned by the Duchess of Windsor in 1938, but only got as far as the sketch stage, being too difficult to engineer in platinum and diamonds as she had requested. However, the first yellow-gold version was produced in 1951. The highly technical piece the Zip necklace can be worn as a necklace or zipped up to form a bracelet, giving the piece great flexibility. It was the ultimate design solution by the firm’s head designer Rene-Sims Lacaze, and artistic designer Renee Puissant, daughter of Alfred Van Cleef and Estelle Arpels, begins in 1926. The next two decades are a highly creative period for Van Cleef & Arpels.

INNOVATION and THE MYSTERY SETTING

Truly remarkable is the Mystery Setting an innovation in which matched gemstones are grooved and set in channels so that the setting is invisible. The Mystery-Set Ribbon bracelet, circa 1943, for example, emeralds are softer than sapphires and rubies, making exact cutting difficult; they are also harder to match for color, so Mystery-Set emeralds are particularly rare. Van Cleef & Arpels is also the originator of the Minaudiere patented in 1934, a vanity case the size of a small clutch that is popular with fashionistas worldwide.

FASHION and PERSONALITIES

When Van Cleef & Aprels opened its doors it was an era of high collars and frilly lace, but the luxury jeweler has kept pace with the times of change. Whatever the period, VC&A has understood the line between fashion and jewelry as a powerful emotional sensibility that greatly influences contemporary design. The celebrated women and their choices of adornment are also a significant part of jewelry-design history. Among the great ladies legendary opera singer Maria Callas showed off her jewelry onstage and off like including the flower brooch fashioned with rubies, diamonds and platinum, and always a favorite the adorable poodle brooch of the model owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in gold diamonds, rubies.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The history of Van Cleef & Arpels is a saga of the merging two families that formed an alliance of legendary consequences. Both families had long been in the diamond and colored-stone markets in the Netherlands and Belgium. The daughter of Salomon Arpels, a dealer in precious stones, married Alfred Van Cleef, whose family were sheet merchants living in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. That same year, Alfred Van Cleef and Salomon Arpels established a jewelry business and in 1906, they registered the “Van Cleef & Arpels” trademark and opened a boutique in the tony haute couture enclave at 22 Place Vendome. Progressively, the second generation joined the business and in 1942 the Arpels family immigrated to America and opened their first boutique in New York, on 5th Avenue. Venturing further the firm later became the first French jeweler to open boutiques in Japan and China.

Visit VC&A at www.vancleef-arpels.com. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is located at 2 East 91st Street. www.cooperhewitt.org. ♥



Polly Guerin, a former professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and RWA Blog’s fashion historian is currently working on a book entitled the Cooper-Hewitt’s of Old New York in which the founders of the Cooper-Hewitt museum, Eleanor Gurnee and Sarah Cooper Hewitt, granddaughters of Peter Cooper, are featured in the chapter, “A Tale of Two Sisters.”

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

MAKING CONTESTS WORK FOR YOU: ONE ASPIRING WRITER’S PERSPECTIVE

  
By Sarah Tormey


As an aspiring writer, I admit I have caught contest fever from time to time, and was always disappointed when my work did not final. I would stop entering and focus on submitting. After a year of this back and forth, I started to see the similarities between the judges’ comments and my rejection letters. Both pointed out similar flaws or problem areas.

This fall, after four months of spending every waking (and some not so awake moments) caring for my newborn son, I decided to enter a handful of contests to motivate me to keep writing. I needed something to me get back in writing mode and the deadlines helped.

But this time, I tried something different. I submitted one polished work and one first draft. And I also changed what I looked for in a contest. Instead of focusing on the final round judges, I looked for contests that featured trained first round judges (for the best feedback) and a reduced entry fee for subsequent submissions to avoid breaking the bank with contest fees.

Overall, I think my strategy worked. The polished manuscript chapters won one contest and I received a request for a full. In another, the same chapters did not even make the final rounds. But both offered great insights into how I could improve my writing. This was especially true for the first draft chapters.

I decided to enter the beginning of my first contemporary to see if I was on the right track. After all what could be better than a group of strangers sending me their honest opinions? Much to my surprise, I received an honorable mention and a request for a full from the final round judge. Going forward, I plan to submit all my working drafts to contests. The deadlines coupled with the stellar feedback have pushed me to write even on the days when I’ve been up all night with my teething baby.

In fact, I am so grateful for my contest experiences that I decided to return the favor by coordinating the 2011 Royal Ascot.

The Royal Ascot is a contest devoted to the promotion of Regency Romances by encouraging the development of authors who set stories in the Regency Period (and features both trained judges and a lower fee for subsequent entries). If you write Regencies (broadly defined as within the United Kingdom between 1780 and 1840) and are looking for stellar feedback from trained judges, this is the contest to enter. The deadline is April 1st and finalists will be announced the first week in May. If you do not write stories at least partially set in this time period, please help us spread the word to your friends, critique partners and writer’s groups.

For more information, please visit: http://www.thebeaumonde.com/royalascot/.

And if you have a contest story to share, please leave a comment!♥



Sarah Tormey was a Mass Merchandise Sales Representative at Random House. Her job was to sell romances to chain stores like Target, Stop & Shop and Wal-Mart. Sarah is now pursuing her dream of writing romance novels. To read excerpts of her work and her blog, visit http://www.sarahtormey.com/.

Monday, March 21, 2011

THINGS THAT I’VE LEARNED SINCE GETTING PUBLISHED

 
By Elizabeth K. Mahon


Since I sold my book SCANDALOUS WOMEN (Perigee Trade) in August of 2009, I feel as if I've gotten a crash course in the publishing industry. So I thought I would share just a few of the things that I've learned over the past year and a half.

1) The publishing industry moves slowly! - Although I sold my book in August of 2009, I didn't receive my contract until October and the first part of my advance until November. That's about four months. I was actually reluctant to tell people that I had sold my book because I didn't believe that it was real until I had that contract in my hand. Even the Publisher's Marketplace announcement didn't make it seem real.

2) Seven months is not that long to write a non-fiction book. - When I first heard that the manuscript needed to be turned in on March 1st, it seemed like I had a huge amount of time t to write this book. After all, about 12 of the women to be included I had already blogged about. Wrong! That due date started to loom large as I realized just how daunting a task I had ahead of me. While writing the blog, I could take as much time as I wanted to write and research a post. Now I was faced with writing profiles of about 35 women (cut down from 40). The problem I faced was that so many of th women I was writing about were so fascinating that I didn't want to stop researching, afraid that I was going to miss that one little tidbit of information that was going to be the difference between a blah chapter and a bang-up one.

3) Amazon.com/Google Alerts will suck the life out of you if you let it. - Amazon.com has many ways now to keep you coming back to the site to check on the status of your book. You can now see the bookscan information for your book to see how well it's selling, not to mention checking in to see your Amazon.com sales ranking. There are of course good things about Amazon.com. For example, setting up your Amazon.com author page, which I did as soon as the book cover went up. I also linked my blog to my Amazon page. I also set up a Google Alert for the book, but I've discovered that Google doesn't catch everything. I've had reviews on blogs that I would never have known about if the authors hadn't sent me a link.

4) It's never too early to start promoting your book. - Personally I wish I had done more of this. I did do a few things, making contact with the editors at RT Book Reviews, which led to the book being chosen as the non-fiction pick of the month for April. I also made sure to get myself on the schedule at Lady Jane's Salon as soon as I knew when the book was coming out. If I had had my druthers, I would have bookmarks or postcards ready by the time I went to the New Jersey conference in October. And I certainly would have found out who books the Authors events at the Mid-Manhattan Branch of the NYPL sooner, so that I would have been booked for March, which is women's history month. Even though I have a publicist at Perigee, I've done a lot of promotion by myself. Contacting blogs to see if I can do guest posts for them etc.

5) Don't be afraid to think out of the box when it comes to author promotion. - Back in December, I was lucky enough to be contacted through my pubicist at Perigee to do an event at The National Arts Club, a private club located on Gramercy Park. Even though the book wasn't coming out in March, I jumped at the chance to be part of the event which went very well. So well that right now I'm involved with getting another event up and running at the club, hopefully in the Fall. I'm also a huge Royalty buff, so when I heard that BBC America had a contest for a show called ROYALLY MAD which would take 4 royalty fans to England for a week, I quickly got together a video (thanks to RWANYC member Hope Tarr) to send in. I didn't make the cut, but it would have been an excellent way to promote the book.

6) Start working on your next project right away. - Don't wait until your book comes out before you start working or pitching your next project to your agent or editor. As soon as I turned in the manuscript back in March, I started talking to my agent about what I wanted to write next, and brainstorming ideas with friends. My publisher has the option on my next book, and I wanted to make sure that my editor had something in hand before the book came out. Fortunately my agent loved the proposal that I put together, and I'm waiting right now to see if it flies.♥



Elizabeth Kerri Mahon is a native New Yorker and unabashed history geek. Her blog, Scandalous Women, was launched in the fall of 2007 to an audience eager to discover some of history’s most fascinating and flagrant women. The blog was named one of the 100 Most Awesome Blogs for History Junkies by Best Colleges.com. Regularly syndicated on History Carnival, she is a member of the Historical Novel Society, The Victorian Society of America, RWA and RWANYC, where she served as President for four years. A pop-culture diva, Elizabeth has written for the popular quiz site Reward TV.com. She is also a professional actress who has played virgins and vixens in everything from Shaw to Shakespeare. Visit her at the following locations:
http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/
http//adventuresofgothamgal.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/scandalwomen

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Gotta Have It--Not So Fast

By F. Solomon


With a title like GOTTA HAVE IT, you think that you are going to be handed only raw, breathless quick sex and you absolutely are. But the thing about Rachel Kramer Bussel's latest anthology is the same with all of her anthologies -- it is the dynamics of the couple involved that make you really interested in the sex. As a reader and writer of erotica, I have to be interested in the couple, otherwise the sex is really just an exercise.

There are a lot of long term lovers in these stories, and one of the most riveting stories I read was “Last-Time Lesbian” by Geneva King. In the story, the protagonist's long term partner is undergoing a sex change, but that is not the intriguing part of the story to me. The part I like is the ironic literal interpretation of marriage vows. At no point was the protagonist thinking about leaving her lover. She was sentimental about making love to Mark/Mary for the last time. These are the kinds of partners that are often included in RKB's erotic anthologies. Partners, who for better or for worse, are going to be there for each other. In “Ties that Bind” by Daniel Burnell, we encounter a couple in which a wife wants to seduce her husband, who is not in the mood because he has had a bad day, and she is sympathetic. When he approaches her with make-up sex in mind, it is all about him and she renews their marriage vows in her head.

Sex is hot, written well it can be delectable between strangers, but there is something about romantic erotica that gets me all the time. The romance that exists between long-term lovers; lovers who are in it for the long haul. Sometimes it is not pretty, and it makes for a really intense love scene when people are working out their issues with their bodies.

Oh, there are a lot more stories in this anthology about other kinds of lovers who “gotta have it,” but these left me slack-jawed with the level of emotion. These are my favorite kinds of erotic romance...along with the woman who does whatever her man says--lets him dominate her. Well, readers are versatile aren't they?!

   

Monday, March 14, 2011

TODAY'S HEROINE: A WORKER, A SHOPPER, AND A CLUB HOPPER?

  
by Anna DePalo


Contemporary romances have reflected women's lives. A few decades ago, heroines had traditional female professions: nurse, teacher or secretary. Today, in contrast, the field is wide open. But as women's lives have become more complex, diverse and rapidly changing, it's also become more difficult to hold up a mirror to them in fiction. What to do?

I think many writers would say that they want to create a heroine with whom their readers can empathize, if not identify. On the flip side, they don’t want a heroine who will alienate readers. But with water cooler conversations ranging from “the mommy wars” to “I don’t know how she does it” to “the end of men” (the titles of a non-fiction book, fictional work and magazine article, respectively, in the past several years), it’s hard to find common ground.

I've dealt with this issue while writing short contemporary romances for Silhouette (now Harlequin) Desire by creating heroines who are entrepreneurs and small business owners. It's a path with which I'm familiar and comfortable, being a small business owner myself as a self-employed writer. By 2005, it has been estimated there were 10.1 million private firms in the U.S. that were majority-owned by women. For many women, it’s the ultimate (fantasy) in freedom and control. Not counting the hero, of course.  ;-p

For example, in my current release from Silhouette Desire, ONE NIGHT WITH PRINCE CHARMING, out this month, Pia Lumley is a self-employed wedding planner who organizes the nuptials of the Duke of Hawkshire’s younger sister.

In my previous “aristocratic grooms” book for Desire, HIS BLACK SHEEP BRIDE, Tamara Kincaid is a self-employed jewelry designer. And while my last book in the series (out in November) doesn’t have a small business owner, it does have a heroine who operates rather independently. Belinda Wentworth is an art specialist at a Sotheby’s-like auction house who regularly travels for business and deals one-on-one with her own clients.

I don’t need to look any further than Kate Middleton and Prince William to support my position. Reflecting our rapidly changing world, Kate is from relatively “humble” stock. A generation or two ago, she would not have been considered a suitable consort for the second in line to the throne (similar to Pia Lumley and the Duke of Hawkshire in ONE NIGHT WITH PRINCE CHARMING). But (stay with me here), Kate’s mother started a party supplies business and in the process became wealthy enough to send Kate to boarding school and then to the University of St. Andrews, where she met Prince William (ta-da!). (By the way, I’m grateful to Prince William and Kate Middleton for breathing new life into the concept of marrying prince charming when I’ve written a trio of books about aristocratic grooms. :-p)

What do you think? How would you create an empathetic heroine? What kind of woman do you like to read about?♥


Click here to read an excerpt.


Anna DePalo is a writer and small business owner, a mommy and wife, and a reader and a friend. Needless to say, she believes in cloning. A former practicing intellectual property attorney, she lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, son and daughter. Visit her at http://www.annadepalo.com.

Friday, March 11, 2011

NOT TOO SLOW, NOT TOO FAST: HOW TO SET A JUST-RIGHT PACE IN YOUR STORY

  
by Margaret Birth


Remember Goldilocks? Boy, that chick could kvetch! This is too hot; that’s too cold; too big; too small; too hard; too soft. Makes me want to shake her by the shoulders and say, “So, work to make it right!” But…um…in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably admit that I’ve had the same problem occasionally with my writing—a problem with a story that sometimes moves too slowly, at other times too quickly—a problem with what’s called pacing. Unlike Goldilocks, though, I know a variety of ways to identify and address my problems.

Pacing issues can take several forms.

Sometimes it’s at the sentence and paragraph level—too wordy. Are your characters talking around their issues, rather than addressing them directly? Writing dialect in which characters quibble over exact meanings of words, or speak with intentional vagueness is a risk: it slows a story’s pace and doesn’t advance its conflict. Are your characters or your descriptions of setting just plain wordy? Pay special attention to phrases, and see if you can find shorter, pithier ways to say them.

Sometimes a pacing issue is at the scene or chapter level—either it’s too short and choppy or it’s too long to maintain reader interest. Does the scene do something, anything, to move the story forward? If it hasn’t accomplished that, the scene is too short. Does it focus on more than one conflict, event, or revelation? Then it’s probably too long. Does each chapter end with a “cliffhanger” that makes the reader want to keep going, to see what happens next? What about each scene?

Pacing can also be a problem at the story arc level. A sluggish beginning can be the result of using a prologue, or a back story, or presenting too much other information up front. A so-called “sagging middle” occurs when a story starts to wander from its focus; this can be a particular danger if you’re not writing straight romance, but are also trying to juggle a suspense or inspirational sub-plot or something like that. You know you’ve written a rushed ending if the plot-line resolutions seem to come illogically out of the blue, or you’ve written what sounds like a laundry list of what happened to whom, in order to neatly tie up the story’s loose ends.

Another pacing issue, in romance, can be related to how much time your hero and heroine spend together. In a romance, typically, the hero and heroine need to be together—or at least in direct communication and interaction with each other—at least 50% of the time. If they’re not in close contact with each other—occupying the same space, speaking together frequently—they can’t have either a fully developed romance or conflict.

Viewpoint changes can make a difference too; if you’re writing a book from multiple viewpoints, a change in the point-of-view character for a scene can jump-start a story and pick up its pace.

The next time you consider your story’s pacing, try looking at it from all these different angles. Yes, you may find problems you want to fix. But then, in the end, like Goldilocks, hopefully you’ll be able to sigh in contentment and say, “Ahhh…just right!”♥



Margaret Birth is a Christian writer who has been widely published in short fiction, short nonfiction, and poetry, both in the U.S. and abroad; in addition to working as a freelance writer, she's spent over a decade freelancing for multiple publishers as a manuscript reader, proofreader, and copy editor. Her most recent publications include a meditation on chronic pain and spirituality, “Finding Joy in the Midst of Pain,” at http://www.gloryandstrength.com , “He Snatched My Purse—and Then He Stole My Heart” in the March 2011 True Romance, and a short story, “The Shoebox,” due out in the March 2011 Christian Fiction Online Magazine at http://christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/home.html .

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

LET YOUR HERO BE MALE

 
by Shirley Hailstock


How many men do you know who hunker down on snowy evenings with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa? I don’t know any. All the men I know, regardless of weather, want a bottle of beer, a loaded pizza, and a 55-inch television tuned to any sporting event where the possibility of blood exists. These are real men, not fictional characters, but the ones we live with -- the ones with body odor and dirty socks left wherever they discard them.

In writing, we want our men strong, characters we can love and fall in love with time and time again. Giving female qualities to a male character (and vice versa) will throw a reader out of a book as fast as lack of motivation or bad writing. Maybe I don’t want my hero to be the guy on my couch, but I do want part of him, a composite of a real man. This is not a stereotype. Many men are sensitive, but they are also male.

Other than trying to fix every situation and buying GPS’s by the truckload so they never have to ask for directions, what do males do? How do they react in situations? The answer lies in their character, who they are and what or who you, as the author, have borne them to be. Is he an alpha male or a beta male? Alpha’s are take-charge guys, no holds barred, shoot first and ask questions later kind of guys. Think Jason Bourne, Wesley Snipes, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Beta’s are the sensitive guys, those who think through the situation, weigh the options, make a decision and then act. Think Jack Ryan, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington. Not that a beta doesn’t act quickly. His thought processes can be a split second in length, but he’s sized up the problem and discarded every option that has no chance of success.

To say men and women are different is a no brainer. There are times when women have to act with strength and there are times when men need to show their sensitive side. These usually arise from the situation, not from choice. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule and we know in writing there are no rules that can’t be broken. Writers develop characters that fit the plot of the book. If the story calls for a woman to be physically strong, i.e. Angelina Jole, a police officer, CIA agent, or for a man to not be part of the Monday morning quarterback brigade, the character still needs to have the qualities that go with their sex. There is no need for her to be a beauty queen or him to have the bulging muscles of a body builder.

Think about the characters that populate your novel. Who do they think they are? When they are alone, what do they do and what do they think? Are they artisans or hunks? Would Heathcliff decorate his living room? Could you imagine Gerard Butler distinguishing the difference between mauve and pink? Would Annette Benning resort to physical assault?

These are all characters that have a type of expectation. When it comes to the male character, the reader also has an expectation and a good book with a cup of cocoa are not on the list. You want to keep the reader in your book. Don’t give them a reason to put it down.


SOME LIKE THEM RICH
by Shirley Hailstock
Kensington (Dafina)

BOOK SUMMARY:  Smarting from her lover's rejection, Amber Nash gives up on love and decides to spend the summer in Martha's Vineyard pretending to be rich so she can snare a wealthy husband. Don Randall, manager of a nearby hotel, gets Amber's blood pumping, but she's not looking for a middle-class working man. Little does she know that he's actually wealthy hotel chain heir Sheldon St. Romaine, who's trying to both turn the hotel around and convince his father he's matured. Sheldon struggles with hiding his identity from a woman who thrills him like no other.



Shirley Hailstock began her writing life as a lover of reading. She likes nothing better than to get lost in a book, explore new worlds and visit places she never expected to see. As an author, she can not only visit those places, but she can be the heroine of her own stories. A past president of both New Jersey Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America, Shirley’s 27th book will be released in 2011. Visit her at http://www.shirleyhailstock.net/.

Monday, March 7, 2011

PREPARING FOR OUR SILVER ANNIVERSARY

  
By Karen Cino, Chapter President



Okay, so it’s my time to blog. Wow. I’ve been sitting here at my desk staring at a blank screen, and haven’t had any interruptions at all. The house phone’s volume is on off, the cell phone on silence and the kids sleeping. There are absolutely no excuses at all not to be able to sit down and write.

Everything’s done, the dishes, laundry, even the bathrooms. I’ve come to the conclusion that my work space in totally out of control; too many things hanging around causing me not to be able to concentrate. [I’m hearing another excuse coming on.] This time, I’m not going to let it get the best of me. I am going to quickly clear of my desk, just like in the movies, but instead of throwing my man down on the desk, it will be my MacBookPro instead.

Desk cleared, candle lit, I am now ready to start working. Just as I’m about to start, I spot the sticky that says, “25th Anniversary”. Damn. I almost forgot about that. I swivel in my chair, grab my notebook from my bed—which serves as my credenza—and pull out my notes:

• Cookbook
• Mini Conference
• Kathryn Hayes Love & Laughter Contest
• Golden Apple Awards
• Chapter Retreat

This year, the board has decided to shake things up and make new traditions, which we hope will last another 25 years.

I am really excited about the Chapter Cookbook. All of our members will have the opportunity to share a secret family recipe. Our cookbook will also have our Chapter’s history and a list of all our members, along with their websites.

Our Mini Conference in August is in the developmental stages. There will be something for everyone. The Board is very excited about this project, and hope that it will continue to grow in the years to come.

The Kathryn Hayes Love & Laughter Contest is the place to showcase those funny scenes between the hero and heroine. It’s also one of the best ways to capture an editor’s attention, especially if it’s one of the top three finalists. It’s an awesome contest and our professional panel of judges always gives a thorough critique of your entry. Please check our chapter website—http://www.rwanyc.com/—for additional information.

Our Golden Apple Awards will be on September 15th. Mark your calendars. Our Honorees will be announced in July. Check our website—http://www.rwanyc.com/—for updates, as well as Facebook (facebook.com/rwanyc) and Twitter (twitter.com/rwanyc).

Our Chapter Retreat will be sometime in October. We are thinking about a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Information will follow, as we research and make plans.

And, as I mentioned at the beginning, this year, RWANYC celebrates 25 Years. Our Silver Anniversary is going to be a blast with so many wonderful ideas in place. The Board of Directors is looking forward to a wonderful year.†



Karen Cino is President of RWANYC. She writes contemporary women’s fiction.

Friday, March 4, 2011

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

   
By Kate McMurray


I went to a high school reunion a few years ago without any idea of what to expect. All things considered, I had a pretty easy time of it in school, but I'd fallen out of touch with nearly everyone. It was a surprise then to learn that all these people I'd known as teenagers were welcoming and mature and friendly. It was interesting, too, to see how people changed, who'd gotten married, who had kids, who'd moved the farthest away. My family moved from our hometown in suburban NJ when I was in college, and I've only had occasion to go back once. I've lost touch with the town, too, not just the people who lived there, which I think made me feel especially far removed. At the reunion, I talked to one of my childhood best friends, who said, "You know, I drove by your old house the other day, and it looks completely different!"

I started writing THE BOY NEXT DOOR not long after the reunion, with these ideas about what we leave behind and what we come home to swirling around. Would I recognize the streets where I visited friends or trick-or-treated as a kid? Would I shop in the same places? Would I see the same people around? What would I do if confronted with a high school crush again? (Well, in this last case, probably nothing, since I've heard all of mine are married now.)

In THE BOY NEXT DOOR, Lowell moves back home to take care of his mother, who has been having a rough time of it since Lowell's father died. Figuring he'll be there for the long haul, he buys a house in town, and it's not until after he's moved in that he realizes he's bought the house right next door to one in which he played as a child. His next-door neighbor is none other than Jase, whom he'd been close to as a boy. They drifted apart as they became teenagers and they haven't seen each other for years. When they start to rekindle their friendship, something between them just clicks.  But Jase's life went on without Lowell in the intervening years, and now he's got a daughter and an ex-wife and a dozen other complications that could easily spell doom if these men ever try to take their relationship further.

Note that I am writing the sequel which will be Neal’s story. 


Click here for the excerpt.



Kate McMurray writes primarily contemporary romance and romantic suspense. Sometimes she gets adventurous and tackles historical fiction. By day, Kate is a nonfiction editor. Also, she is crafty (mostly knitting and sewing, but she also wields power tools), she plays the violin, and she dabbles in various other pursuits. She’s maybe a tiny bit obsessed with baseball. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with a presumptuous cat.  Visit her at www.katemcmurray.com; follow her on Twitter, @katemcmwriter.
  

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Bits & Pieces: Mageela Troche

by F. Solomon

The Starbucks where we had planned to meet was so congested, so we decided to meet at another Starbucks that was inevitably close by. Mageela was sitting with her iPad, propped up and looking like the quintessential writer there. I was not surprised to see her looking so at home.

From the time I met her at one of my first RWANYC meetings, Mageela has such an aura about her, like she knows things and has done things that the rest of us can benefit from just by being close to her. Her passion for writing and her desire to elevate her craft always evident. The beauty of doing Bits and Pieces is that I always am inspired and motivated by my subjects. Mageela is no different--a shared love of Apple products, fashion and of course, the bond with all of my RWANYC sisters and brothers, the love of romance, facilitated an easy conversation between us, as her perspective illumined and elevated mine. Beautiful inside and out, people kept coming up to us drawn to her. Her smile sweet and engaging, accepting apologies for the intrusion, but neither of us really minded. You cannot blame anyone for being to drawn to Mageela's star.  Follow it below....


I love the color pink so much. I was born in pink hospital in Honolulu. For me, Honolulu is my real home.

When I was about 6 or 7 living in Panama, my mother would drop me off at Sunday School. Instead of heading into the school, I would head to my friends house and ride her bike. Meanwhile, she was at school. When it came time for pick up I would put back the bike and head back to the school so my mom could pick me up. I finally confessed to her (what I did) when I was about 12 years old.

My favorite Supermodel in the world is Beverly Johnson. And many years ago, some company produce dolls of her, Christie Brinkley and Cheryl Teigs. At Bloomingdales, Beverly Johnson was going to be there, as the Ford agency was looking for Supermodel of the World contestants. Anyway, I begged my mother to take me. I didn't care about the contest . At that point in my life, my plan was to be an actress, a serious one like Merly Streep. Of course, the store was crammed with young girls. Then in walk Eileen Ford. Girls are going crazy. I turn around and there is this woman, she grabs my face and says, "Beautiful.  Come see me." She asked me how tall I was and who I came with. My mom is beside me. Eileen Ford hands her a card and tells my mom to come see her. I never went. I don't want to be a model.

I had gone out dancing and when I returned I wanted to lay down in the living room. We had a lazy boy recliner. It's back was facing me. I stare at it as the chair started to turn around toward me. The windows were closed and the air stilled. It stopped right in front of me. This thing started to rock at a relaxed pace. And there on the seat, I see this elderly woman in this soft light and shadowed. I don't know who she is. Then she vanishes and the chair stops. I went to sleep; it wasn't the first time I dealt with ghost. A short time later, my mother and I head to our grandparents home. They're cleaning up and there are all this black and white pictures. And there is a picture of the woman in the recliner. I tell my mom that's the woman I saw. IT was my great-grandmother who died before I was born. At least she was family and not so rogue ghost just stopping by.

I was put in ballet when I was two because I was pigeon-toed and that's what would correct my legs. For twelve years, I dance for conservatories. I missed an Audition for Nutcracker. I hated ballet. When people said how beautiful it was or how graceful and ladylike, I saw the hours spent at the bar. The days when your friends when out to play and I was stuck inside a studio dancing the same thing over and over again. It suffocated me. And I didn't have the problems  of other girls like those who tried to make weigh. I rather have been playing football than pirouetting on my toes.

I got my first Mac back in college at Syracuse. It had a black and white screen but it was cool. I love my macs. Right now, the love of my life is my desktop. Oh so beautiful. Once we had a little grease pan fire in my house and I was planning my escape, just grabbed my desktop and run. That was what I would save in a fire. Crazy mac love.

I studied fashion design at FIT. I love fashion. I subscribe to Vogue, Elle and a dozen other magazines. But there at FIT, I hated it. I felt like I was in a sweatshop but I was paying them.

I used to smoke and the idea of heaven is reading romance novels with a cigarette in my hand. Perfection!

Being an Air Force brat teaches you a great deal about the world and people. And I know the national Anthem, the pledge of allegiance. As a kid living on Air Force bases, you are treated like little soldiers. I always said, our parents might have enlisted but we were drafted. You stand at attention, a six am and pm, you stop wherever you are, whether driving home or walking.  You park the car, you stop walking, and you stand and salute the flag. I felt a lot of pressure because my father was an officer and I should have known better. It didn't matter that I was a kid.