Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 48
May 31, 2017
Meet 2017 Golden Heart Finalist Grace Adams!!
Grace Adams is an award-winning author of paranormal and contemporary romance who loves nothing more than a happy ending. Whatever the genre, regardless of the medium, as long as justice prevails, the good guys win, and people are falling in love, she’s in. A lifelong reader of science fiction, fantasy, and of course romance, Grace also enjoys pain...
May 30, 2017
The Book Description and Ad Copy are Your Friends
A while ago, I wrote a blog post about why I had (reluctantly) embraced the synopsis. You can read the whole thing here, but the basic idea is this: by writing the synopsis before I started to write the book, I could make sure I had a story that was properly structured, with turning points in all the right places, so that it built to a satisfying climax.
Now that I’m self-publishing, I don’t write synopses anymore, but I do still outline my key turning-point scenes before I start writing. Tha...
May 29, 2017
Meet 2017 Golden Heart Finalist Patricia Dane!!
Patricia’s own romance began in a college statistics class when she discovered the hottest guy in the lecture hall was also the smartest. Thirty years and two kids later, his way with numbers still makes her swoon. She loves living in Michigan and takes advantage of every opportunity to see concerts and musicals, even...
May 28, 2017
Meet 2017 Golden Heart Finalist Susannah Erwin!!
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The Rubies have a busy week ahead—we’re welcoming not one, but THREE Rebelle guests. Today we’re featuring 2017 Golden Heart Finalist Susannah Erwin, whose manuscript JOB OPENING: BILLIONAIRE’S WIFE is nominated for Best Contemporary Romance!
An eager lover of storytelling in any...
May 25, 2017
Saying Farewell to a series
Sue Grafton is running out of the alphabet. Darynda Jones is filling up the graveyard. Agatha Christie feared the bombs dropping on London during World War II and so wrote final novels for her sleuths, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. She survived and left the books with her bank as she wrote other stories in those series, knowing she’d already prepared them a suitable farewell. Margaret Frazer’s series with Dame Frevisse and Joliffe came to an end with her early death.
Every series, no matter...
May 24, 2017
What Do Your Characters’ Jobs Reveal About Them?
Jobs are hard for writers. Not that employment is hard, or even writing, although they are, but deciding on jobs for characters is especially hard. A reader’s first impression of the hero and heroine might be provided by their occupations and go a long way toward establishing personality traits.
If your blurb indicates that a hero is a cowboy or an oil-rig worker, that describes a type of physicality that wouldn’t necessarily be associated with a doctor or an accountant. The difference betwee...
May 23, 2017
I love revisions
I love revising a manuscript. I’d rather fix a second draft than write the first, and today I’m sharing three of my favorite revision techniques. I’ve included an exercise with each, plus examples from my YA novel I Wish.
Rediscover the heart of the story
We’ve had other great Ruby posts about creating taglines. To recap, a tagline narrows down the story into a few words, to entice the reader to learn more. For I Wish, the tagline reads: What Lacey needs is a miracle; what she gets is a genie...
May 22, 2017
Meet 2017 Golden Heart Finalist Emily Sullivan!
Emily lives in West Hartford, Connecticut with her pizza man boyfriend and works as a college-level writing instructor and tutor. When she isn’t writing or reading, she is very slowly learning to play the piano. Her goal is to one day be able to play the theme from Murder, She Wrote.
Decoupage Swag & More!
Conference season is coming! On top of the swag, bookmarks and business cards I like to bring, I take notes on a decoupaged clip board/notebook holder. It is fun to make and shows my covers (although now I have to update it since I’ve just had a few more books come out – yay!).
I’ve received complements and questions about my note pad, and thought I’d share how you can make one of your own to carry around at conference. You can also decoupage other things to use as swag.
Here are some s...
May 18, 2017
Romantic Suspense
In Romantic Suspense there are two distinct stories. The suspense and the romance.
RWA defines romantic suspense as a romance novel in which suspense, mystery, or thriller elements constitute an integral part of the plot.
You need a strong suspense story and a strong romance. Then you weave the two together perfectly. Today I’m only going to talk about developing quick physical and emotional relationships.
In this genre the action moves fast and the story takes place over a relative short...
