Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 98
January 20, 2015
Show and Tell Wednesday: Fan Art
So anyone who follows me on Twitter probably knows that I’m a fan of the Netflix series Marco Polo. (East meets West, fight scenes, intrigue, smokin’ hot Asian heroes!!!!) Now that I’ve binge-watched the first season, I find myself following the #MarcoPolo hashtag on Twitter to get an extra fix. People post cool commentary, links to interviews, and sometimes little gems like this:
Marco Polo fan art by Augusto Leite Passos
The above picture shows one of my favorite pairings from the show, Byamb...
January 19, 2015
A Brief History of the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood
The Rubies are a true sisterhood, but not by birth.
We came together on March 25, 2009, when we were all named Finalists in the Golden Heart Contest®, run by the Romance Writers of America®. The Golden Heart is the highest honor in romance writing for unpublished manuscripts, and being named a finalist often...
January 18, 2015
Winter Writing Festival: Check-in #1
We’re one week into our Winter Writing Festival and the chat rooms have been hopping, the initial goal setting and energy level have been inspirational, and I’ve had a number ofwriters telling me they “needed this right now.”
So did I. You all have motivated me to work hard and keep the momentum going. Even on days whenthe words aren’t flowing, I’m finding it productive to listen to RWA conference workshops, read a copy of RWR, spend time plotting, or perform any number of writing-related acti...
January 15, 2015
Fangirl Friday (1.16.15)
Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to another edition of FANGIRL FRIDAY!!! The day when we gush about books. New books, cheap books, free books, or books we’re just excited to be reading right now.
New Ruby Releases This Week:
Today’s “new” release is the paperback edition of my recent Lone Pine Pride book, which became physically real on Tuesday!
Taming the Lion by Vivi Andrews
When she’s in heat, there’s no cooling down…
Wilderness guide and cougar-shifter Patricia “Patch” Fontaine has known th...
January 14, 2015
The Care and Feeding of A Romance Author
The long-standing myth about writers, especially romance writers, is we lie around dressed in silk on Victorian fainting couches eating chocolate bon bons, and dictating our novels to prim little secretaries whilst a hunk built like Gerard Butler in 300 fans us with a large ostrich feather fan. (Cue hysterical laughter from every author I know!) I hope this particular stereotype is old hat to most readers by now. In the interest of full disclosure, I am writing this dressed in my ratty old ni...
January 13, 2015
Show and Tell Wednesday: The Art of the Share
The Rubies are starting a new feature on Wednesday called “Show and Tell” which is meant to be a fun and open theme based around posting and chatting about pictures. I pondered what I wanted to show off for the inaugural post that would be fun an engaging, so I thought about teaser images:
They’re all the rage now. With so many posts and tweets flying by, how do you grab someone’s attention? It’s the same principle as people walking by on a busy street or sitting on the Subway. That half-secon...
January 12, 2015
Using Archetypes To Find Your Story
I write romance, and that means my stories are, by necessity, character driven. That doesn’t mean I ignore plot or story — my books have plenty of plot, and storytelling is my favorite thing about writing. But in a romance the story should grow out of the struggles of the characters. More important, the love story in every romance requires the characters to grow. The hero and heroine need to learn something by the end of the book that allows them to have their happy ending. The bigger the tra...
January 11, 2015
Opening Ceremonies: Ruby Winter Writing Festival 2015!!
We now declare the Fifth Annual Winter Writing Festival OPEN!Let the Games begin!!
To get your BONUS point for today, Monday January 12, add a comment on the regular Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog (rubyslipperedsisterhood.com) in which you:
1) define how *you personally* will earn your Festival “points”
and
2) declare your commitment to earning 50 points by March 2, 2015. (Further details on goal-setting follow below).
Leaving a comment today on the regular Rub...
January 8, 2015
Fangirl Friday! (1.9.15)
Happy Friday and welcome to our first FANGIRL FRIDAY!!!
Today is the day when we gush about books. New books, cheap books, free books, or books we’re just excited to be reading right now.
New Ruby Releases This Week:
How to Find a Man in Five Dates by Tina Beckett
When the clock strikes midnight…
Dr. Miranda Dupris is fed up with men! Her ban onrelationships is a New Year’s resolution she is determinedto keep. To prove it, she’ll go on twenty-five dates in oneyear—and that’s first dates only. Mayb...
January 7, 2015
A Quick Guide to Ruby Writing Sprints
Are you ready for some sprinting????
Woohoo! I hope so! I know I am.
So okay, here’s the deal. I thought I would jump in here and do a real quick how-to for Ruby sprinting. Many of you joined us in previous years (and I can’t wait to sprint with you again!), but I know there are others out there who just aren’t sold on sprints yet. Or maybe you’re a little shy about joining, or just not feeling quite “techy” enough. I’m here to allay your fears.
I also want to let you know that each and every la...
