Sara Reyes | Where Have I Read That Before?

Recommended Reads

Call me old or at least a long-time reader and you'll be right. And as one I've got a few favorite authors that I'll read anything they jot down including a grocery list which reminds me of a web site a few years ago that collected authors' grocery lists, hmm, gotta check that one. For charity I think. Anyway, back to me and reading old favored authors.

Have you ever noticed that you'll be reading a book and need to pause, wondering, "Did I read that in _____?" or perhaps, "hmm, Lydia is just like Joceyln in ______" I'm referring to another book by the same author so don't get all excited I've delving into plagiarism. I leave that to others to root out (don't be alarmed, my Pennsylvania Dutch has a way of emerging now and again). No, talking about authors who, bless them, have a way of telling the same story over and over.

Sometimes it's because I'd assume, their publisher wants another hit or at least a known out of them for a ravenous market (that would me!), other times it's become a job, like every night when I do the dishes, sometimes I forget exactly how I did it, it's a routine, and perhaps for some authors the stories are all the same or the telling format is. Whatever it is I've noticed it more and more recently, as in the past several years, that the stories are the same old same old. And I'm not always happy about it.

That forces me to find newer authors with different characters and different voices to tell me their stories. But that is a lot of work and there are days when I just want a Jayne Ann Krentz or a Loretta Chase or a Mary Balogh or a Lois McMaster Bujold. And sometimes it becomes a disappointment to me when an author has a new book, I'm all agog to read it, even to the point of snatching it out the package when it arrives (oops, perhaps I was a bit violent grabbing but hey I really wanted to read it, I read fast, no one would notice!). Or like my daughter, stalk a store until it is unpacked and placed into her eager hands. Well, she did wait nearly 12 years for that final book in the series.

So, curious to read the rest and opportunity to win the weekend blog contest? click here.

Laurel Dewey | Feeling the Fear and Writing the Sequel Anyway

It’s hard enough to write a solid first novel. There’s all that fear and concern that you won’t be able to navigate the territory correctly. But after you break through the angst, write the book and actually get an agent interested in it, you think you can sit back and take a break for a bit.


Wrong! When I finally scored an agent for my first novel, Protector (the first book in the Jane Perry series), he asked me, "So? What’s next?" I remember stammering something about how I wanted to just take some time off since I’d put sixteen months into writing the book and a year prior to that researching it. "No, no, no," he said, "I need to know where this story is going with Jane Perry."


Click to read the rest of Laurel's blog and to leave a comment.

Elizabeth Thornton | Questions I’m frequently asked . . .

In twenty years, I’ve published 26 historical romance novels and 2 novellas, and the questions I am most frequently asked by beginning writers are 1) Where do you get your ideas? and 2) Don’t you ever suffer from burnout?

Burnout is a writer’s worst nightmare. It can be brought on by stress, you know, nothing is going right in the book and you have a deadline to meet. It can be brought on by boredom—you’re a multi-published author and your publisher wants you to continue writing the same kind of book in the same historical time period. Why would you want to tamper with success? Oh, and instead of publishing one book a year, could you try for two?

You get the picture. More stress.

Click here to read the rest of Elizabeth's blog, comment today and you could win!

Kimberla Lawson Roby | Marital Money: Mine, Yours, & Ours!

Life after marriage can be a major blessing but also a great fiasco if you don’t take the time beforehand to discuss some very important details. What kind of details you might ask…well, for example, did you and your new hubby discuss your weekly-without-fail, Saturday afternoon shopping trips to the mall? Or how about that incredible shoe fetish you’ve had for years—the one where you can’t help snatching up at least four to five pairs of brand new kicks every single month? Did you discuss the fact that you have absolutely no intentions whatsoever of depositing "your" hard-earned paycheck into that brand-spanking-new joint checking account—the one the love of your life has so proudly opened for the two of you? Or better yet, did you make it clear from the start that sharing a joint account is the only kind of financial arrangement you’re willing to live with? Does your husband know that for as long as you can remember, you’ve been a huge believer in the idea that “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine, too?!

Now, of course, the above questions are all hypothetically speaking, but they are also hugely symbolic of the kinds of problems that can certainly occur when two people enter holy matrimony, yet haven’t made proper decisions regarding their finances. In my latest novel, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, Alicia Black Sullivan and her husband Phillip fall in love on first sight, marry six months later and life seems great until Phillip realizes that Alicia has a major shopping addiction. Needless to say, they didn’t see a reason to discuss the subject of money upfront or how it would be spent, so, what I’ve done below is list a few money tips that might have helped Alicia and Phillip and more importantly, tips that might be of interest to you. You may or may not agree with all of them, but here goes!

Click to read the rest of Kimberla's blog and to leave a comment.

Mary Balogh | Love As Opposed To Romance

I always describe myself as a writer of love stories rather than as a romance writer. One of my reasons is an obvious one—romance is not highly thought of in the writing community beyond its own genre, and I firmly believe that my books are serious literature and not to be sneered at as trash. More important, though, I believe that love is far more powerful than romance and that we can sell ourselves short as writers if we are content to write romances at the expense of telling true love stories. A great deal, of course, depends upon how those two words are defined. Here are my definitions.

Romance is that wonderful aura that surrounds a couple as they meet (even if they initially feel hostility to each other) and interact and fall in love and finally commit their lives to each other. It's the growing sense of rightness about the relationship, and the sense of joy we get out of reading about the building attraction they feel for each other on their journey to the happy ending. It's a powerful reason for reading any book, and when it's well done it can pull us in and leave us thoroughly satisfied at the end and sighing for more. It can be pure magic. It is certainly an essential component of a love story, and a great deal of effort must be spent upon creating it. It's not easy, by the way.

Click here to read the rest of Mary's blog and to comment.

Julie Miller | Covers, Covers, Covers

Thank you to Sara Reyes and the gang at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog with them this month! I’m honored. Today, I’m going to be talking Harlequin Intrigue.

Since Intrigue is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, I thought it'd be fun to share some Intrigue covers, and show how the look of our beloved romantic suspense novels have changed over the years.

1. Here's where it all started, with THE KEY by Rebecca Flanders.


2. Then we went through a "white" period--I discovered 43 Light Street series by Rebecca York in this phase--read bunches of the white covers in college.

Click here to read the rest of Julie's blog and to comment.

Sandi Shilhanek | Does a Book Have To Be Perfect To Be Enjoyed?

This week I read a new to me author, Marie Bostwick. I read her book A Thread of Truth. When I started it I was warned that there might be numerous typos. With that thought it mind I set out to not enjoy the book, because last year I attempted to read a different book by a different author that was so riddled with typos, both spelling and grammatical that after four days of reading I hadn’t even made it to page one hundred.

I’m very happy to report that even though A Thread of Truth was the second book in the series I had no trouble following along, and that the typos didn’t pull me out of the story, and I truly feel that there were only two times that I would have even noticed them had I not been warned. I’m also thrilled to say that I had been told for some time that Bostwick would be an author I would like, but I had been putting her off, and I was not misled…Bostwick is now on my must read list.

So while we want a book to be perfect, and for the storyline to flow in a smooth easy manner, what do you do when you notice the typos be they spelling or grammar? What happens when the story line loses its natural flow, or doesn’t flow the way you thought it would? Do you continue reading or say it’s not worth the time and effort to continue.

I don’t know about you, but I have to sign off now so I can go check out Marie Bostwick’s backlist, and perhaps start a new book by this author that has suddenly found herself on my authors-to-look-for list.

Until next week happy page turning!

Sandi Shilhanek

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