Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

The Zodiac & Romance Yesterday's one year anniversary blog post got me to thinking about birthdays and anniversaries, all those signposts that we celebrate annually. And it reminded me that when I wrote my character descriptions for Lady Anne Addison and Lord Anthony Darkefell, I very deliberately chose birthdates for them. I don't know if I believe in astrology or not; I'm on the fence simply because though I am deeply skeptical of all things 'paranormal' (now you see why Lady Anne is the way she is) the traits seem so darn true to form. I am a Gemini (my birthday is coming soon!!), and the description for Gemini includes these traits: "Using their communicative skills, Geminis adapt to any situation they encounter... Geminis have clever tongues and develop an amazing ability to obscure the facts with stimulating and imaginative chatter." In other words, I 'fictionalize' a whole lot! That's me. Gemini's tend toward the writing and publ...

I belong to a wonderful online group of writers, and we like to call ourselves The Writin’ Wombats . How that name came about is as interesting a story as how we all came together. In a nutshell, our origins began after the Gather.com/Simon & Schuster First Chapters contest way back in Jan 2007. The contest was touted as an American-Idol-like search for the next best work of fiction and written about in the New York Times. From what I recall (and, at the time, had had no interest in entering since I’d just gone through the media-blitzkrieg of American Title), they’d hoped for 500 entries. They got 2, 676. There were some issues on the execution of the contest. People weren’t happy they didn’t final. Others weren’t happy with those who did. It wasn’t pretty. And since mine was the only Romance in the Top 20, well, let’s just say that I learned how to have a thick skin and deal with critics pretty darn quick. :) BUT, one of the BEST things to come out of that bloodbath (as we Wombats...

by Sharon Lathan I love words! I always have. Even during my decades as a reader, before the writing bug bit me, I delighted in discovering new words as I devoured the text. It was not uncommon for me to stop where I was, grab down the enormous dictionary that goes with my encyclopedia set, and look up the unfamiliar word. If I was really absorbed in the novel I may just jot it down on a scrap of paper for later investigation, but eventually I had to find out what the strange word meant. In school I was an excellent student, but honestly could care less about grammar. Whether a particle was dangling or a phrase was prepositional did not fascinate me all that much, but man I was a terrific speller! And vocabulary was a passion. Enter the past few years as a writer. I did not pick to write in the bygone days of folks getting a superior education and using flowery prose on purpose, but it was an added bonus that I grabbed onto with glee. That Cambridge graduate Mr. Darcy and well-read Eli...

To me, research makes a book so much more fun. If I can find something unique to the area, or about some aspect of what I'm writing, I love to include it. But there's nothing worse than reading several pages of how a paddle wheeler works or every detail of the boat's insides and outsides, unless it's important to the characters in the story. And even so, adding too much can make the story drag. But getting some of the details right is important. So research is necessary. But how much is too much? I was reading a historical romance where the author went into the aspects of how vomit and dog feces were part of a medieval castle's decor, and the same with how unsanitary the streets were. Uhm, okay, yes, it's true. But though it's realistic, I really had a hard time with seeing the hero and heroine in a romantic light when I'm thinking of them wading through such unsanitized conditions. :) On the other hand, some things are important. We don't have nore...