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It’s just a little Kiss

By on April 8, 2010 in How to write a Romance

So…you turned in your Frasier entry…feeling tense?  Of course – because you’re hoping for a great outcome, but your fears of your manuscript – the frailties you recognize in your writing are shouting at you that you might not succeed.  And, the more you continue to write, the more you fall in love with story-crafting, the more you invest into the process, and the more you see the hope of publication.  What you have here is….sexual tension!  Okay – no, it’s more like Award Tension.  Or Publication Tension, but it has the same elements of Sexual Tension. You didn’t know that did you?  I bet right now you feel a little weird.  It’s okay.  You can read this in the privacy of your own home.  Maybe ask the kids to […]

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Jesus Turns Water into Words…

By on April 6, 2010 in Nurturing the Soul

I spent Easter weekend doing research for my current WIP – a world war 2 novel about a Red Cross nurse (tentatively entitled Nightingale, due out in November) – in a small town in Wisconsin called Reedsburg.     I stayed at the Park Road B&B, the lovely establishment of Donna and Tom Hannon.  I had an egg and asparagus casserole, strawberry topped French Toast, a blackberry fruit dish, and red wine and blackberry sorbet that nearly made my eyes water.                  Walked into the movie set in my mind when I drove into old town Reedsburg.  From bungalows to Victorians, from the ornate Presbyterian Church to the rich bells tolling from St. Peter’s Lutheran church, I fell back into time.  We drove around the town snapping pictures, buried […]

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First Chapter Checklist for your Frasier Entry

By on March 22, 2010 in Delivering Convincing Proposals, How do I enter a Contest?

Is it ready?  I know that it’s hard as a writer to know if your first chapter is ready for the eyes of a reader – whether it be an editor or agent….or a judge for the Frasier.  I know because I go through the same angst every time I write a book.  Thankfully, I send it off to my writing partner, Rachel Hauck, and she’s brutally and sweetly honest with me.  And now I’m going to help you be brutally and sweetly honest with yourself by giving you a Super Secret Frasier First Chapter Checklist. These are things that you need to make sure you’re communicating in the first chapter. 1.       Have you created sympathy for your character so we love them? 2.      Have you shown us your character’s […]

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But I’m so broken inside…

By on March 5, 2010 in How do I write Tension?

Yesterday, we talked out the PLOT or EXTERNAL Obstacles (Why Nots) that keep our characters apart.  The point of a great romance is for love to overcome the obstacles and triumph!  So, without obstacles….well, there’s no story.    I’ll say it again.  YOU MUST HAVE EXTERNAL OBSTACLES!  (Yes, that was shouting).   Now that we have that settled…let’s turn to the Internal Reasons why we (and our characters) run from love.  This is the easy part.  We can all come up with a long list of the reasons why we are unloveable.  Our sins, our flaws, or fears, our idiosyncrasies….you name it.  It’s a wonder we don’t all live in an igloo.    The problem with finding internal obstacles is often authors either; 1.       Pick too many or… 2.      Focus […]

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