This week on the Romance Writer's Weekly Blog Hop, Jenna Da Sie is playing Devil's Advocate and asking:
If you had to give up something – TV? Wine? Starbucks? – What would it be and share how you handle it (or don’t). As a Catholic, the idea of giving something up for the betterment of your soul is deeply ingrained, especially during Lent. Sometimes that carries on after the 40 days – which is how I gave up sugar in my coffee. Denying yourself something, even if for a short period, can give you a brand new appreciation for it. While romance is my preferred genre for reading, I do try and branch out to others. Not only does it broaden my skills as a writer to be familiar with other plot structures and tropes, but I come back to romance with a new eye. Giving up something is also a good way to form a new habit. You need to fill that time or indulgence with something else – hopefully something healthy and rewarding. A hard thing for me to give up would be my glass of wine before dinner. That single glass of wine after work while I'm making dinner is something I really look forward to. Does that make me sound like a lush? I hope not! Since Jenna was the instigator of this topic, I'm really interested to see what she would choose to give up if she had to. Check out her blog here! It's the next step in our hop this week!
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This week on Romance Writers Weekly, Carrie Elks asks: Spring is all about rebirth, and I always think it's a much better time to make resolutions than at New Year. With that in mind, if you were to make any new resolutions what would they be? They don't have to be writing - related! It’s perfect timing for Carrie to be posting our topic this week, as she has a new release coming this Thursday! It’s Canada Square, the third in her Love in London series (but makes a great stand alone read as well – I should know, I read it). Be sure to come back to visit my blog this Thursday, April 7, as Carrie will be visiting. Now on to today’s topic: I agree with Carrie. Spring is a better time to make resolutions than January 1st. In Northern BC, January 1 is one of the darkest days of the year and winter has such a grip that I will make any promises to myself just to get out of the doldrums. But in springtime, I am much more cheerful, so my goals are more reasonable. Resolution #1: Go for more walks Like many people, my main resolution is to be more active. We are planning on get a dog soon, to replace our old Labrador mix who passed away more than two years ago. I love to go for walks with a dog – they are always so interested in everything and are great examples for living in the moment. Resolution #2: Get outside more See, this is definitely one resolution I wouldn’t make in the winter! I love to write outside, but beyond that, I enjoy puttering in my garden, camping, swimming, fishing and more. Resolution #3: Promote myself as an author better I am still a little shy about telling people I write books. But now I’ve got three available (so excited for people to read When Time Falls Still, which released yesterday!) and I feel like I have something substantial to share. Many people only right one book, but I’ve built my credibility with three published, a fourth on the way this fall, and a fifth in the editing process. Writing novels is no longer something I’m trying to do – it IS something I DO, and want to keep on doing. So it’s time to take the cover off my light and shine! Next up on the hop is Gemma Brocato. What springtime resolutions will she be making? Social media has dramatically changed how writers interact with readers. Snail-paced fan mail has been usurped by instant reviews, posts and tweets. It has also changed how writers interact with agents and publishers. They are less the men and women behind the curtain a la the Wizard of Oz, and more often people we follow on Twitter and like on Facebook.
Writers used to be told to have our Elevator Pitch ready – a short blurb of our story that could be given to an agent or publisher when we have them trapped in an elevator, riding from one floor to the next. Now we have the Twitter Pitch – 140 characters or less! Agents/Publishers create a hashtag and follow the pitches on twitter, watching for retweets and favourites to see what resonates with other writers and readers. This week we've been challenged to Twitter pitch our WIP or latest release. I’ve done this a couple of times, and trust me – it is HARD! It’s especially hard when you need to take into account the hashtag you must include or no one will see your tweet (I made up one, to keep in the spirit of the game). If you joined me from Kate Robbins blog, what did you think of her pitches? Sound intriguing, don't they? I figured if I’m going to go through this exercise, why not take advantage of it? So I am going to post 2 different versions of pitches for each of my finished manuscripts. Which one do you like best? NO LIFE BUT THIS (contemporary): #RWWPITCH Can the shifting sands of a vacation affair become the rock on which a life-long relationship is built? #RWWPITCH She’s a reserved quiet soul. He’s an adventurous, cheerful womanizer. Together they ignite a passion neither is ready for WHEN TIME FALLS STILL (romantic suspense): #RWWPITCH She’s on tenure track until a sexy campus security guard distracts her, yet more than her heart is in danger at this university. #RWWPITCH Does a university professor dare put passion over ambition? Or will she lose more than her heart to this sexy security guard? Let me know your favourites in the comments. Then be sure to hop on over to Xio Axelrod's blog. She's the one who set this topic for this week, so I have high expectations. :) We're doing flash fiction again this week. I love this writing exercise - it really gets my brain going! To those of you joining me from S. C. Mitchell, welcome! Our flash fiction this week is inspired by this image. And here's what I created for it: Her heart was breaking.
“You're what?” he demanded, heavy brows pulled low over his dark eyes. “What do you mean, leaving?” She didn't think she could do this. But she had to. “It's an opportunity I can't pass up.” That wasn't a lie. Yet she would, in one beat of her pulse, if only he asked her to stay. “It's on the other side of the country, for God's sake.” She nodded, her throat burning with tears she couldn't let fall. He paced away from her, tension in every line of his body, then paced back to tower over her. “What about me?” And there it was. The reason why she had to go. Maybe, after she left, he would grow up. Would realize what it took to make a relationship work. “I'm sorry.” She wasn't sure what she was apologizing for. “God damn it you're sorry.” Anger lashed in his words. “I need you. You can't go.” His fingers cupped her jaw, holding her fast as his lips covered hers, bruising, punishing. She held herself still, fighting back the urge to comfort, to give in, as she had done for so long. His breath came in quick pants. “Why are you doing this to me?” This time his kiss was as sweet, as gentle, as the first time. He still hadn't asked her to stay. Her heart broke. I'd love to hear your thoughts - leave me a comment! And don't forget to move on in our hop and see what Kim Handysides came up with. If you like to read romance novels of all genres, join the writers of Romance Weekly every Tuesday for our blog hop. We'll be answering the same questions, or writing the same flash fiction, or offering our favourite recipes. Tell your friends! Come by tomorrow as I host one of my Romance Writers Weekly pals, Sarah Hegger. She has just released a new medieval romance, SWEET BEA, and will be chatting about why she made her hero such a jerk (at least at the beginning...). Intrigued? I know I am! If you've come from Katherine Givens blog, you'll already know we're doing something different this week on Romance Writers Weekly! We’re each writing a piece of flash fiction using three words – candle, chocolate and scarf. I went with the first images that came to mind, and wrote something that is nothing like the “voice” I normally use in my writing. There's a real sense of poetry about it to me.
He tightened the scarf about the wrists she held up to him, the silky material not as soft, not as luscious, as the pale, fragile skin soon to be marked by his bonds. Her melted chocolate eyes watched him, wary arousal flickering in their depths. The candle flame guttered in the breeze from the open window, scented wax trickling slowly, painfully down its slender column. What do you think? Today is National Scrabble Day. I don't know what nation (I assume the US), but what to does it matter? Who wouldn't want to celebrate the best word game ever? It's chess for word geeks. How to make the best score without leaving your opponent an opportunity to hit a Triple Word – laying down a word of single point letters and yet achieving a high score because of the two and three letter words you also create – adding suffixes to words already on the board to take advantage of every letter. What's not to love? I also enjoy Text Twist. You're given six or seven letters and need to create as many words using those letters as you can. Get the word that uses all the letters and move on to the next round. Oh, the lunch hours I spent teasing myself with that! It's a proven fact that games keep your brain sharp, active and learning. So enjoy a quick game of Solitaire or a few minutes with Sudoku – then get back to whatever it is you should be doing! Get your mind out of the gutter, right now. Just because I'm a romance author doesn't mean I'm smutty.
Well, maybe a little. But that's not what I'm talking about right now. I'm talking about the phrase “New Year's Resolution”. (Sorry-- “My Favourite Dirty Phrase” just didn't have the right ring to it.) I've been reading a lot of blog posts from all kinds of people about how to make your New Year's Resolutions actually work. One of my favourites is to focus on one resolution a month. New habits take a while to form, so by focusing on one specific goal a month, you have a better chance of building on each months success. My husband and I joined the hordes every January and renewed our gym memberships. I've been three times in eight days. Not too shabby, but already one day less than I had planned (I was aiming for three times each week). The problem I have is guilt. I know I need to be more active (really, I do), but I also want to keep on track with the revisions on my work-in-progress. So it is a matter of balance. And isn't that what life is anyway? Finding the right balance, for everything from chocolate to chin-ups? |