Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Let’s face it: turkey is fine, mashed potatoes lovely. Cranberry relish, green bean casserole, squash—all very nice. But truly, it’s all just a prologue to the pie. One year, we counted 13 pies at our family gathering…for 20 people. Pecan, apple, raisin, mincemeat, pumpkin, cherry, banana. Whatever happens to be handy, you can guess that someone in my family will make a pie out of it. I wish I had a recipe to share with you, but for the most part, the folks in our family (Grandpa included!) are big fans of the wing-it method. You peel and slice some apples, throw them into a pie crust, add butter, sugar and cinnamon and pop it into the oven. You just make it so it tastes good. I think many would look at writing the same way. So many people try to say that romance is formulaic, that it’s all the same. Yes, we know there have to be certain ingredients (a pause here while we silently recount the criteria for a romance novel to ourselves), but it’s hardly a strict ...

Yes, I know you are now humming the 1978 song by John Paul Young and that is fantastic! Mission accomplished! Love is definitely in the air amongst the Casablanca authors. Turn up the volume, click play, and enjoy the show while you read on….. Aah, l’amour! Sourcebooks has ushered in 2010 with a burst of enthusiasm for their ever-expanding romance and fiction line. Here at the Casablanca blogspot we plan to embrace that enthusiasm fully. And what better way to begin than talking about LOVE! February is the month of love and we plan to celebrate the emotion in our unique voices as the days unfold. This single four-letter word encompasses a vast array of sentiments and experiences. We love love! We love to write about love! We love to share that love of love with our readers, whom we love! LOL! We love our blog! In May of 2008 this fine blog was begun by Linda Wisdom, Terry Spear, Marie Force, Loucinda McGary, Mary Margret Daughtridge, Cheryl Brooks, Robin Kaye, Michele Ann Young, and C...

When I was taking a management course, I learned an interesting statistic. If you make a customer happy, they'll tell one person. if you anger a customer, they'll tell twelve. That was twenty years ago. These days with all the social networks, in a matter of moments a disgruntled customer could tell thousands! What does that mean to authors? To put it succinctly, be nice to your customers...the readers and fans. Since fellow authors are often avid readers, I'd put them on your list also. I read something on a professional authors' loop recently (like an hour ago) that got me so riled up, I was tempted to tell a dozen people not to buy this woman's books. Of course, I wouldn't twitter it, but I could always secretly hope one of those dozen people would! (evil laugh) Instead, I'm taking deep breaths and trying to rise above the temptation. I don't want to sink to that level. And if you believe in Karma (which I do) I won't need to do a thing. Chances a...

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...