Up-and-coming historical romance writer and friend Wendy La Capra interviewed me on her blog today--please stop by! Wendy La Capra's Romance Writing Blog http://www.wendylacapra.com/
Don't you love learning things you never intended to find? I'm doing some research into medicine as it was practiced in the Regency period, and I had to chuckle when I came across this, which was written way earlier, around 1700:"We read that Raphael of Urbino, the famous painter, was snatched from life in the very flower [...]
I recently learned that my manuscript My Wicked Duke is a finalist in the historical category of the Cleveland Rocks Romance Contest, and a query letter I submitted is a finalist in the New Hampshire RWA Query Quandary Contest. Yay for celebrating small successes!
I am reading a book, Passion and Principle: the Loves and Lives of Regency Women by Jane Aiken Hodge. Here is an amazing story I rustled up from this book:Have you ever heard of Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821)? She is a woman with an incredibly independent spirit for her age (well, for any age!) who was a [...]
Had a big family event this weekend at my house that required a lot of preparation, so yesterday I gave myself permission to vege out, enjoy the 80+ degee weather (yes, even in Cleveland, it appears spring has arrived (and I say that with a great deal of caution)!), and dig into Brava, Valentine, Adriana Trigiani's continuation of [...]
I have been discovering new authors (well, actually, famous authors who are new to me)--ones who are going to be a part of the Jane Austen anthology coming out this fall by Ballantine books. I had the great pleasure of reading Very Valentine, Adriana Trigiani's 2009 book about a woman's quest for self discovery in [...]
I've recently been called upon to read a friend's partial manuscript--all written in the first person.I recently wrote a short story in the first person, which I had never seriously done before. And I realized there are pitfalls.The hardest one for me was the "telling" pitfall. How on earth do you avoid telling if you [...]
Do you spend hours every day sitting down at the screen typing away? Ask yourself these questions to see if you're stressing your body by not doing it properly!Do your ears line up with your shoulders and hips (like they should if you are sitting up straight)?Is the top of your screen at forehead level? (hard to [...]
"...you never know what you're gonna get." Forrest Gump was right. And it looks like this year, I didn't get a Golden Heart final, nor did some of my very talented friends. But for those who did, Congratulations! You were recognized for your talent and determination, and you earned it!The GH lists are not quite complete, [...]
It's the week we've all been waiting for! Doesn't last November, when we cautiously and optimistically FedEx'd our bulging packages full of manuscript copies and binder clips goodbye on the crisp autumn breeze, seem SO long ago?On Friday, the calls go out from RWA to the winners of the Golden Heart Contest for unpublished writers. I'm [...]