Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

A long time ago in a genre far, far away, I did an all-day intensive story critique/workshop/gauntlet thingy that pruned my confidence to a nub and crammed my aspiring-writer noggin with way more information than I could process at the time. I do not recommend such thingies. Absolutely okay for Christina Dodd's heroine in   Castles in the Air to do three manual things at once because she actually has three arms. (Kidding. And Christina Dodd is amazing  and you should read her.) However, over the years I’ve unpacked all that info in chunks, and you know what? Those instructors really knew their sh…stuff. They taught me that a story with too many “was”es can put a reader to sleep and that eyes aren’t independent, willful organisms for most species — jackwipe’s eyes didn’t drop to the heroine’s boobage, his gaze did, right? They taught me about the inadvisability of adverbs, the judicial use of similes, the need for a consistent point of view, and a gajillion othe...

Mmm. Bet that tastes good. And gee, he smells like Old Spice! Win win. Today I thought I'd talk about our senses. I'm going through a bout of sinus troubles and haven't been able to smell or taste for two days--and it's killing me. I have a pretty keen sense of smell, and not having that makes the world seem duller. We have five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. All of them combine to paint a vivid picture of any one experience. So when reading a story, and all I come away with is the way everything looks , I feel like I'm reading through a fog. There are details missing that could make that story so much clearer to me. I think it's great that the hero is strong and muscular and handsome. Or the heroine has a nice build and pretty blue eyes. But what does the guy smell like? A cologne? The ocean? A sawmill? If he smells salty like the sea, maybe it's because he's a fisherman or surfer. Does the heroine have a light, lilting voice? ...

The latest novel in my Broadswords and Ballroom series for Casablanca is due in a week, so thoughts of writing flow and creativity have been at the forefront of my mind. One of the things I love most about being a writer is the same thing I love about being a reader, namely, being swept away into another world. I love to get to know my characters as they interact on the page, as a scene I thought would be a simple moment in the park, for example, turns out to be a pivotal moment when a Highland girl with a claymore and an unsuspecting earl meet. It is always fun to watch scenes unwind themselves in the theatre of my mind as I write, but it is especially fun now that I am writing comedy, because the freedom of comedy allows my characters to step out of their norms in ways that shock me a little, and often shock the calm English characters who watch them do it. The flow of a scene, whether comedy or drama, comes at its own pace when I sit down to write. I have a word cou...

by M.L. Buchman I have a lot of words in my life. I'm an writer, a speaker, and for years I was a project manager (which is all about communication, trust me) and even a teacher of project management. On top of that I married a librarian. You would think I would know the power of words. I keep learning there are more. So, here are some of the words I will be carrying into the New Year. And they apply to any art/artist. THE VOICE Pharrell Williams joined The Voice  this year as one of the judges. "Wait! That's music?" If you think that, you really need to watch this show. It is talented singers, many with very impressive credentials themselves, performing in front of four recording superstars. If you listen to the advice and make these simple substitutions, you'll see what I mean. When they say: Music, think: Words When they say: Song, think: Story And when they say: Voice, definitely think: Voice Pharrell is my kind of artist. At one poi...

Dave and me, hanging @ The Experience Music Project, Seattle Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a massive Dave Grohl fangirl. (Grohl was the drummer for Nirvana, and created Foo Fighters.)  So when I heard Dave was keynoting South By Southwest 2013, I blocked out an hour on my day job's Outlook calendar so I could watch the webcast uninterrupted. Dave didn't disappoint. In an f-bomb-laden, highly personal speech, and sporting ridiculously sexy reading glasses, Dave brought us along on his personal journey, one in which he was inspired by punk music, protected his independence, and developed and nurtured his individual voice. Voice. It's an aspect of art that musicians and writers share. It's a tone, or a worldview, that makes a piece of work - or a body of work - belong uniquely to its creator.    "There is no right or wrong, there is only your voice. Cherish it. Respect it. Nurture it. Challenge it. Stretch it and scream until it's (exple...

by Leah Hultenschmidt, Senior Editor In addition to getting ready for swimsuit season, summer is great time for writers to also think about taking the flab out of their work-in-progress.  I think it’s fairly safe to say most writers know one of the best ways to hook readers is to keep up a riveting pace that makes it just about impossible to put down the book. And it really doesn’t matter whether your reader is a book buyer who just picked up your latest release from the store, or an editor you’re hoping will help put your book on the shelves.  One way to keep that storyline moving forward is to follow one of my journalism professor’s favorite mantras: Omit needless words.  To me, tight writing really separates the consummate pros from the rest of the pack. Some key points to look out for when going over your next draft: Avoid explanatory dialogue – characters shouldn’t explain things they would obviously know just for the sake of the reader.  Fin...

by Leah Hultenschmidt, Senior Editor I admit it: one of my favorite summertime guilty pleasures is So You Think You Can Dance.  There's something really special about helping discover amazing new talent.  Kinda like when reading submissions, come to think of it.  If you've ever seen the show, you know it's not always the most talented dancer who wins the day.  And I do think there are a number of lessons applicable to  writers from the show-- 1. You have to be good at what you do.  There's no denying that you have to be a great  dancer to make the top 20 on the show.  The dancers prActice and hone their craft for years before trying out.  Same with writers. Have patience.  Get better.  Dont give up.  Become amazing. 2. The dancers who go the farthest on the show aren't just great dancers; they have distinctive personalities or styles or stories that separate them from the pack. Remember Mark, who did an amazing...

By Deb Werksman I noticed in my recent pitch sessions that I'm getting a lot of pitches that are really plot summaries, rather than providing the kind of sales hook that I'm looking for. Let me start by telling you why I need the sales hook. When I find a project that I think we should publish (it meets all my criteria), I take it into an Editorial meeting where I present it to our publisher, editorial director, and all the other acquiring editors. I may be first in the lineup, I may be last in the lineup, I may have 1 project to present or I may have 10, and all the other editors may have 1 project to present, or they may have 10. We may have 1/2 hour for the meeting, or an hour for the meeting, or 90 minutes for the meeting. So I may have 3 minutes to present a project, or 5, or 1 minute. The first thing I have to have, is a 2-3 sentence "hook" that has people totally enrolled in and excited about us publishing this book. What the hook tells them is WHY the reade...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com When last we left our heroine . . . Actually, when last I darkened these blog pages with a post of my own, I was talking about writing, my thoughts and fears when I first started out. Since that time, a friend sent me a funny and clever article entitled Ten Rules for Writing Fiction , a compilation of such lists from various authors. In case you don't skip on over and read the whole thing, here are some of my favorite tips: Try to leave out the parts readers tend to skip (Elmore Leonard) Take something to write on (when traveling). Paper is good. In a pinch a piece of wood or your arm will do. (Margaret Atwood) Do not place a photograph of a famous author on your desk , especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide. (Roddy Doyle) Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. (Neil Gaiman) As you can see, some of the tips are tongue-in-cheek. Others are more serious and personal to the writer -- advice on...

By Robin Kaye Today was my favorite day as a writer—the day I finally wrote The End. This is a good thing since Yours For the Taking is due on my editor’s desk on Monday, February 1. I drove home today from my lovely critique partner’s house knowing I had to write this blog, and I thought about the experience of writing this book. I know every book is different, and no two experiences are going to be the same, but having just finished my 4th book for Sourcebooks, I’m beginning to see trends and subtle changes in my writing process. With every book, I find that writing that beginning and the end gets more difficult. It’s been my experience that the book will be almost finished for the longest time, but I go back and rewrite the beginning and the end over and over and over again. A book not only has to begin with a hook, it has to end with a hook. It has to make the reader want to reach for my next book. Unfortunately for me, hooks are not easy to come by. So I’ve been writing and rewri...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Back in my college days (oh so very long ago!) , I was a history major and totally enamored of Tudor and Elizabethan England. (Yes, I know I was a geek.) But when several of my friends recently encouraged me to watch the new TV series "The Tudors" I was less than enthusiastic. I felt pretty much as I had about Peter Jackson releasing his "Lord of the Rings" flims. I just didn't believe someone else's version could live up to my own private imagination. However, since I'd been more than pleasantly surprised with Jackson's films, and I happen to think Jonathan Rhys Meyers is one VERY HOT Irishman (though certainly not my first choice to portray Henry the Eighth) , I rented Season 1. I watched the first two episodes with a great deal of skepticism and kept muttering between bites of popcorn, "This isn't very historically accurate." "Give me a break with all this melodrama!" But I kept wa...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com So it's holiday time, when all good writers pen their letters to Santa, asking for. . . inspiration, time, film options in the seven figures with producers who can snap their fingers and have projects come together in the blink of an eye. . . . I'd be happy with all those things (and maybe a Kindle, too--please, Santa. . .), but today I'm going to address only one of them and how to get it without help from Kris Kringle. That is, inspiration. Or, more specifically, the ability to keep writing when the muse is off stuffing herself with holiday cookies. All writers have different approaches to lighting the fuse of creativity, but sometimes even the brightest-burning flame flickers out, leaving you bereft and searching, staring at a computer screen, or out the window, or at that plate of cookies you wish you'd not left so close to the desk. Over the years, I've developed a number of tricks to help me strike the match and get my creat...

I’ve spent the last three days trapped in a room with two of my critique partners, working on their Golden Heart entries an average of 16 hours a day. We only stopped to eat, although I have to admit we’ve spent a lot of time laughing. We honestly can’t help it. When the three of us get together, we invariably burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter, tears streaming down our faces, unable to breathe, and since we shared a recent cold/bronchitis, we end up coughing too. It ain’t pretty. I met Laura and Deborah, last April at a writer’s retreat. They are sisters and have since adopted me. We were instant friends and soon began meeting and critiquing each others work. They live in my area, and there’s something to be said for meeting at a Starbucks less than a mile away from my house, especially when I spend 18 hours a week driving. They’re relatively new to writing, and working with them on their manuscripts has taught me a great deal. When I began to critique other’s work, something...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Everyone knows what happens in the aftermath of Thanksgiving dinner -- LEFT-OVERS ! Some writers have left-overs too. You know, those scenes or partial scenes that get excised somewhere between the first draft and final version? Instead of merely hitting "delete" many writers keep those tidbits in a separate file. Like the out-takes section on a film DVD, writers post deleted material on their websites, blogs or newsletters. In fact, when I started this post, I planned to include of few of my own "left-overs." But then I realized I don't have any! Oh don't get me wrong, I cut PLENTY of words in the course of my writing and re-writing. I even keep hunks of it around, but in the true spirit of left-overs, most of it gets used somewhere else in my story. Unlike my too, too fleshy self, my writing tends to be spare and lean. During revisions I'm much more likely to add scenes rather than trim them. I gobble up all...

By Robin Kaye Actually, since this blog is posting November 2nd, it began yesterday but it’s not too late to join in the fun. NaNoWriMo is for all of you who have said, “I’ve always wanted to write a book.” Here is the perfect opportunity to cross off another item on your bucket list! Go right to NaNoWriMo.org and enter. NaNoWriMo is easy. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. I know it sounds daunting but it’s very achievable. The trick is to turn off your internal editor and just write. It’s amazing what happens when you do just that. Sure, you’ll write a lot of crap, but once you get into the groove, you’ll find diamonds among the less than sparkling words. Let’s face it, so many people say they want to write but in my humble opinion, they over think it. Sometimes you just have to sit down and do it. You can think a book to death, but unless you actually write it, it will never come to fruition. Write the book of your heart. There will be plenty of time in the future to do...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Recently one of my critique partners and I were discussing favorite scenes in books, what we liked and why we liked them. We quickly came to the conclusion that we consistently liked scenes where the hero and heroine kiss for the first time. I have fond memories of first kisses from special ‘dates’ over the years. Usually the anticipation of those kisses proved more enjoyable than the actually lip contact. Maybe that is why first kisses in fiction make such enjoyable scenes. The author can take her time building up all that wonderful tension between the hero and heroine and the actual moment of contact never has to be disappointing. The author can revise and reinvent to her heart’s content, and the reader can savor all the lovely anticipation as many times as she wants. Since my new release, The Treasures of Venice has a dual storyline and two sets of lovers, I got to have all the fun of writing the ‘first kiss’ scene twice! Here is the f...

by Deb Werksman Many times at conferences I hear other editors and agents talk about looking for a "fresh, new voice" or a "strong voice." I've never looked for "voice" myself, because it's too nebulous a term, and "I'll know it when I see it" has never struck me as a particularly useful guideline. I have come to the conclusion that "voice" is actually a code word for several other things: 1) The quality of the writing. The strongest writing is distinctive and memorable--it leaves whole passages in the reader's head and heart after you've finished reading. Examples: After reading a Carolyn Brown cowboy romance my inner voice has a West Texas accent (REALLY incongruous for this East Coast big city girl) . There are entire passages of Georgette Heyer that I can practically recite by heart--two of my instant favorites are in The Foundling when Lord Lionel goes to his son Gideon's and excoriates his so...

By Robin Kaye Beginning a book is always difficult, especially when you don’t have that beginning scene to build the book around. I think it’s because I’m slowly changing from a seat-of-the-pants writer to a plotter in the hope that if I have the entire plot, I’ll be able to see if there are holes in it before I write the entire book. This is especially helpful since I am now writing on deadline. Back when I was a card-carrying pantser, a scene would pop into my head and like magic, I’d have a fabulous opening scene and from there the plot would flow. Now that I’m a quasi-plotter, I have the whole story line and at the very least, the hero and heroine in my mind. I know what’s going to happen in the beginning, the middle and the end. I have the conflict, the black moment and even the happy ending but where do I begin the book? Every character has a back-story whether it’s written in the text or not. His or her entire life story is in the author’s mind. That’s how an author crafts three...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Some of the questions I'm most often asked by readers and aspiring writers are about my characters. Specifically, how do you come up with them and are they based on real people? So without further adieu: HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH YOUR CHARACTERS? I don’t come up with my characters so much as they come up to me! My characters tend to arrive in my imagination fully intact, complete with their first, middle, and last names. Though I will admit, I changed my hero of The Treasures of Venice , Keirnan Fitzgerald’s middle name. My First Reader, whom I've known for over 30 years, told me she’d always been very fond of the name Sean. So in deference to her, I changed his name from Keirnan Padriag Fitzgerald to Keirnan Sean Fitzgerald. Luckily he didn’t mind. When my characters arrive, they tend to tell me all kinds of things about themselves. Quite handy, though I know it sounds bizarre to people who don't write. We writers are very possessive...