I started reading a great book last week and about a third of the way through a thought hit me: What if THE HEROINE was THE HERO and THE HERO was THE HEROINE? Meaning, what if their rolls were reversed? Suddenly the book became much more interesting and the one on my Kindle seem kind of status quo. Sure, some of the other plot points would be different if SHE was a HE, but it would also raise new, more intriguing plot obstacles. In an historical book, it might be hard to switch rolls. If you were writing about the Alamo, it would be hard to have a man spying on General Santa Anna since the spy was a female prostitute. But, what if you took an historical event, like […]
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Quick Skills: Suspense
Basketball season is over at our house. Which means one thing: We’re one sport closer to football. We love football, and the wait is killing us. But one of the things I love about football is that it’s a great metaphor for nearly everything. Like writing a suspense novel. A football game has all the elements of a great suspense novel: the players we love, an objective, a playbook on how to win the day, villains, truth tellers (called coaches) on the sidelines and deadline for “game over.” I blogged all year in 2011 about suspense, so I can’t cover all that territory today, so we’re going to touch on the one big element every suspense should have: The Big Event. Every suspense must have a Big Event that looms […]
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Conversations: The basics of writing a Suspense Novel
“How is your writing going? Do you feel ready to dive into crafting the Black Moment and Epiphany?” I asked Sally as she came to the table with a chai latte. “Not yet. I want to write a suspense into my romance.” Sally sat down and pulled out her notebook. Outside, the sun shrank the snow banks, spring in the air. “I watched Eagle Eye on FX over the weekend, and I realized how much I love suspense.” “I love suspense too,” I said. “A romantic suspense combines the fun of falling in love with that edge-of-your-seat-fear that the people we care about could get killed. “Let’s take a look at what that would mean for your story. Writing a romantic suspense means adding another story structure/plot to your novel. […]
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Fabulous Friday Fiction: Baroness hits the shelves next week!
Lilly and Rosie, daughters of an empire coming of age in the roaring twenties, can have anything they want…except freedom. Expected to marry well and to take the reins of the empire, they have their lives planned out for them. But, Lilly, Esme’s daughter longs to return home to Montana, to adventure outside the confines of New York City. And Jinx’s daughter Rosie dreams of the bright lights of the newly emerging silver screen. But following their dreams – from avant garde France, to Broadway, to the skies in the world of barnstormers and wing-walkers will take all their courage. And if they find love, will they choose freedom or happily ever after? EXCERPT: All Lilly had to do was hang on and ignore the echo of her arrogant words in her head. “I’m going to save your […]
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