Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 120

Victoria Janssen's Keeper Categories - Exploring Category Romance

I had a difficult time narrowing down this list--I tend to keep a lot of books--but finally decided to choose books I am most likely to re-read more than once. (Also, I did not include any of Carla Kelly's Regency categories because that would be the whole post. Take it as read that I recommend her. I'll probably do a post focused on her alone one of these days. Or several posts.) A good

SuperWendy's Keepers - Exploring Category Romance

Please welcome my guest, the incredible SuperWendy!#When Victoria asked me if I'd be interested in doing a guest blog post for her, I immediately said yes, for no other reason than we both adore category romance. Yep, we're both unabashed, slobbering fangirls for all things Harlequin, and aren't afraid to declare our love pretty much all over the Internet. So when it came to figuring out a

Exploring Category Romance - SuperWendy's Keepers

Please welcome my guest, the incredible SuperWendy!#When Victoria asked me if I'd be interested in doing a guest blog post for her, I immediately said yes, for no other reason than we both adore category romance. Yep, we're both unabashed, slobbering fangirls for all things Harlequin, and aren't afraid to declare our love pretty much all over the Internet. So when it came to figuring out a

Lori Devoti - Exploring Category Romance

Please welcome my guest, author Lori Devoti.#About NocturneAs soon as I heard about Harlequin's new dark paranormal line, I knew I wanted to write for it. At the time I was writing (though not published in) paranormal, but it was all light. Writing a Nocturne was quite a departure for me, but almost all of my reading at the time was dark, so I thought "Why not give it a try?" That try was my June

Mira Lyn Kelly - Getting the Call - Exploring Category Romance

Please welcome my guest, Mira Lyn Kelly!#All about "The Call"If you're an aspiring author, you'll know what I mean when I say we all have fantasies about "The Call." Some may be vague and general, others elaborate and detailed. Mine were definitely of the latter variety, and usually followed by self-directed mental disclaimers about realistic expectations and directives to spend my creative

Exploring Category Romance - Elle Kennedy

Please welcome my guest, Elle Kennedy.#Romantic Suspense: Finding a BalanceWhen I first started submitting to Silhouette, I have to admit, I had no idea what I was doing. I read Intimate Moments (now Silhouette Romantic Suspense), and I thought, I could write these. But after several rejections, I realized that reading romantic suspense is a lot easier than writing it. So before I submitted

Laura Barth on Category Slush Piles - Exploring Category Romance

Please welcome my guest, Laura Barth! Laura works with the Harlequin Blaze and Harlequin American Romance lines.#Many hopeful writers probably wonder about the process that results in either a rejection letter, a revision request, or--for the lucky few--a contract. So I thought I'd try to dispel some of the mystery by explaining the typical path of a category-romance slush manuscript from the

Exploring Category Romance - A Category Romance Is Like a Sonnet

Category romances, also called series romances, are to me the epitome of romance as a genre. They're short - mostly about 200 pages or 50,000 - 60,000 words long. The term category comes from the various lines such as Harlequin Presents or Silhouette Desire, each of which has specific requirements that may be related to style of plot, subgenre, or level of sexual content. These lines are

The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover Excerpt - Kickass Heroines

This excerpt comes from The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover. #"Give us the horses or you die," the lead rider demanded. He was a big man, heavily bearded and, like all three of the brigands, wearing a mask bound over his eyes and nose."No!" the Duchess said.Henri grinned in reflexive agreement--never the horses!--then his belly went cold with horror. He should have spoken up

Short Fiction Questions & Inspirations Playlist

While I'm at it with the Short Fiction FAQs, does anyone have any additional questions I should include? I'm going to make a compiled file and post it on my website.And, since it's Friday and I should have some content, this is a version of my most recent playlist, all songs I find inspirational in one way or another. Well, except for the first one, which is the lead-in, and has a different