Miranda Liasson, Author at Miranda Liasson Romance Author

SOLD!

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Mar 21, 2014 | 2 comments

I'm so happy to announce that I've signed a three-book contract with Entangled Indulgence, who bought a fun and flirty story I wrote last fall that I'll soon tell you all about.Many thanks to Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency for getting me there and all my writing friends who've been there through all the [...]

Subtext: There’s Something Else in There Under the Words

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Feb 28, 2014 | 4 comments

After you've got your fast draft down, it's time to start thinking of adding subtext to your story.So what exactly is it?Subtext is craft under-the-craft. It's what you, the author, consciously does to manipulate your story to keep your reader excited about your story. It's tension above and beyond what you are creating with your plot.Subtext is [...]

Does Routine Unleash Creativity?

By Miranda Liasson on Monday, Feb 3, 2014 | 8 comments

I 've been wondering if there is some way to enhance creativity. To free your mind so that it can imagine endless scenarios and ideas that would make plotting easier.Easier? That's funny. I'm old enough to know nothing, absolutely nothing, in life is easy.(Well, maybe for some people but I'm just talking about most of [...]

Don’t Forget Your Second Banana: Secondary Characters in Your Novel

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Jan 24, 2014 | 0 comments

Quick, think about the last book you've just loved. The one you've told all your friends about. You probably have a lot of reasons why you love it, but let's focus on just one.The heroine's (or hero's) second banana (s). Their BFF's. Their sidekicks. Their adversaries.Secondary characters are often orphans, i.e., neglected by their creators. [...]

Goals are Good

By Miranda Liasson on Monday, Jan 13, 2014 | 4 comments

I was thinking about organizing myself for 2014.The past few years, I've looked forward to YA writer Katy Upperman's yearly blog post on goals. You can read it and while you're at it, also check out her link to a great post goal setting here.Katy taught me the importance of setting monthly goals, which I write down [...]

Grit is the Quality Most Correlated with Success: TED Talk with Angela Lee Duckworth

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Nov 22, 2013 | 0 comments

I saw this video on Facebook this week and found it to be the most inspiring piece I've seen in a long time. I hope you watch and are inspired, too!Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth discussed in a TED talk the factor most significantly correlated with success in life. (This video is from the Huffington Post at [...]

Getting Ready for the Golden Heart Part 2: The Writing

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Nov 15, 2013 | 7 comments

So are you polishing your Golden Heart entries? Great! Last week I talked about Story—making sure yours was big enough, had the right elements to be a romance, and how friends can help you to see those big-picture things.Today I want to focus on the Writing. At the end of this blog post are some [...]

Getting Ready for the Golden Heart, Part 1: Your Story: Make it a Good One

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Nov 8, 2013 | 9 comments

Today and next Friday, November 15, I'm going to post some pointers for those of you who are planning to enter the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart Contest, which opens to entries on November 12. (For more information, go to rwa.org and look under "Awards" and then "Golden Heart." Here's the link: http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=536)What does [...]

Writer Burnout as You Approach The End

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Oct 11, 2013 | 8 comments

Yeah, yeah, I know, writing a book is a marathon. Don't remind me, because I'm feeling the burn, baby! Here are Seven Signs you may be utterly toxic from struggling to the end of that elusive finish line:--Coffee, ordinarily delicious and comforting and an aid to your muse, tastes bitter and disgusting and you never [...]

Writers: So Maybe Hearing Voices Isn’t That Crazy After All

By Miranda Liasson on Friday, Oct 4, 2013 | 6 comments

One confused little violet who thinks it's May instead of October.I had this crazy idea to ask everyone, well, my writer friends anyway, why they write. I don't know why, maybe (make that probably) to understand why I write. If you really stop and think about it, we spend months writing a story, living with [...]