Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Jane Austen might have set the standard for delightful heroines with Lizzie Bennet and her fine eyes, and even finer observational skills and witty retorts. I love Lizzie, and her modern equivalent (arguably) Bridget Jones. The great thing about writing historical heroines, for a modern writer, is that the heroine's career path is limited enough to avoid judgment. The writer doesn't have to worry about giving her a career that reflects her abilities and strengths without coming on too strong or too brainy.  It's perfectly acceptable that a Regency or Victorian, even Edwardian, heroine would be sitting around sewing, or visiting friends, or shopping in the middle of a weekday. Her hero might also avoid any serious employment. The challenge is getting them together enough to let the romance develop without boring the reader. Oh, look, they're sitting down to tea again! They're going out on horseback again! He's studying her figure as she crosses...

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 crit...

from Mia Marlowe ... I was fascinated by Gina Conkle's blog from yesterday about heroes and our favorite archetypes. (I confess a weakness for both the Arrogant Alpha and the Wounded Soldier.) Her post made me think about what usually happens when I give my Meat on the Bones characterization workshop to writers' groups. The function of the protagonist in fiction is to give readers a character to care about and pull for and we've been blessed with lots of terrific heroes. I always invite attendees to call out their favorite heroes from books, TV and the big screen. The names fly fast and furious and I finally have to cut them off so the workshop can move forward. Then I ask for favorite heroines. Cue the crickets. Finally, someone will sheepishly raise a hand and ask with a questioning lilt, "How about Dorothy?"  This worries me. It makes me think we writers are not doing our job if we can't create more memorable heroines. If my readers don't wan...