Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

I was invited to participate in a cookbook with 84 other authors. I heard the title and thought, I'm SO not alone. The funny thing is, I am a pretty terrible cook. Fortunately my husband has no sense of smell or taste. (We ARE meant for each other!) But I only needed to provide one yummy recipe that can be made quickly. Not a problem. I have a couple of those that I whip up for company. I'm going to buy this cookbook for sure. I can't wait to add more of these quick recipes so I can have people over more than twice. LOL 

So, what else would I rather be writing than doing? Just about everything! When I'm on a roll, and the book is flowing--like the one I'm working on now--I really hate interruptions. I just wrote the first 3 chapters last week and now I have a new release to pimp, 3 blogs to write, contests to hold... *sigh*

Oh well, promotion is the nature of the beast. So, without further delay, here's the promo portion of this post:
Tug of Attraction! Book …

I don't binge watch TV and to be honest, I don't watch a lot of shows, but the ones that I do watch make me a very happy girl.

I'm someone who loves to laugh.  For me, television is an escape when I don't have time to sit down and read.  So if I'm committing to 30 minutes or an hour of TV, I want to be entertained!  This theory makes my husband crazy.  He is the one that will search the fifteen jillion channels in search of something meaningful and interesting but still end up watching a re-run of Law and Order or Star Trek.  Me?  Just make me laugh.

Last week, my favorite shows started coming back - the Big Bang Theory and Modern Family.  I was anxiously sitting on my couch waiting for them to start and practically bouncing in my seat.  And at the end of each of those episodes I was able to get up and go about my business with a smile on my face.  And really, who doesn't want to walk away feeling happy after a good laugh??

I relate well to both of those shows. …

We write about love and marriage in our books and even have strong personal opinions about the subject. Surprisingly, so do children. Many years ago (way more than I want to share) Art Linkletter had a segment on his TV show called Children Say the Darndest Things. It’s fun looking into the mind of these kids. Some are pretty wise for their age and some are hilarious.
How do you decide who to marry?
One girl said, “No person really decides before they grow up. God decides it all way before and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.”
A boy said, “You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports and she should keep the chips and dip coming.”
What is the right age to get married? “Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.”
What do most people do on a date? “Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long …

Greetings!
My first book, THE RAKE’S HANDBOOK, was published in November 2014. My third book in the series, TO CATCH A RAKE, will be published in February of 2016. A little over one year of authorial bliss.
How did it go? It wasn’t at all what I expected, but what did I expect? Hard work is a given if you plan to write a novel. My life’s career was in a scientific field, so I had no training as a writer. “Well brain, you large pile of margarita-addled noodles, let’s do this!”
So a little research revealed Romance is a best selling genre, over fifty percent of mass-market books sold. “Fabulous. What’s a romance?” A friend, Eve, gave me a list of books she loved, so I started to read. Then I found FREDERICA, by Georgette Heyer. Like the rest of the planet, I was charmed, entertained, and amused by Heyer’s story. “Okay, a romance novel like that one is my ultimate goal.”
Time to train the vestigial right brain (if the neurons still fired). So I joined the RWA. At the first meeting, someone a…

Deb couldn't blog with us today, but I have a re-post of a great blog from 2013. Enjoy!


by Deb Werksman Editorial Manager Sourcebooks Casablanca

I've been doing a lot of exploring in my personal life about men and women, masculinity and femininity. A great topic for a romance editor, don't you think? I've been reading books and listening to tapes by Allison Armstrong in addition to applying all the transformation I get from the courses I take at Landmark Education.

As you may already know, one of my editorial criteria for the romances on my list is, "a heroine the reader can relate to." So I got to thinking about the balance between feistiness in a heroine and her femininity and to what degree a heroine needs to be independent in thought and action and to what degree her femininity (what Allison calls "a strong woman voluntarily vulnerable") empowers the hero to be the man he needs to be to fulfill one of my other criteria, which is "a …