Nancy J. Cohen's Blog: Nancy's Notes from Florida, page 125

The Big Dark Moment

In a romance, the Big Dark Moment is the crucial juncture when all seems lost between the hero and heroine.  He stomps away and she strides in the opposite direction, and it seems as though they will never be together again.  How can they overcome their insurmountable obstacles?  Will love triumph in the end?

Of course it will.  The prerequisite for a romance is the HEA  (Happy Ever After) ending. But for this HEA to have emotional impact, our characters first must experience the painful Big D...

Favorite Mystery Films

Favorite Films for Mystery Fans is the topic of my guest blog today at http://bit.ly/aCYn78

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free book in my August blog commenter drawing.

What are YOUR favorite mystery movies?

FINISHING YOUR BOOK

When you're nearing the end of your book, do you tend to race ahead?  I have 25 pages to go in my WIP before reaching my required word count, and I'm beginning to think I might go over.  I still have several scenes to go to reach a satisfactory conclusion. While I'm tempted to rush through to the finish line, this is actually when I need to slow down to bring all my plot threads together. So here is my advice for what you should do when approaching The End.

 Take Your...

Ten Tips for Blog Tours

Since I recently finished my own blog tour, I learned a few things along the road.  Here are some tips I'd like to share:

Aim for popular blogs that get a lot of hits and slant your blog to their audience.Schedule up to three guest spots a week so you don't clog the loops with your announcements.Plan to be available to answer comments all day when your post goes live.Publicize the blog tour on your social networks, website, and other sites.Include a short excerpt from your book with your post...

CRIME ON CRUISE SHIPS

Besides the shenanigans that happen on the Tropical Sun, my fictional cruise ship in Killer Knots, real crimes take place on ships at sea. You've all read news articles about people who go overboard or go missing on ocean voyages. What about murders and rapes and robberies? 

 A cruise ship is like a city. You should take the same precautions there as anywhere. Don't go alone into deserted parts of the ship. Keep your valuables locked up. Steer clear of areas with high winds and a single...

KAREN HAWKINS SPEAKS

NY Times bestselling author Karen Hawkins offered her advice this morning at the Florida Romance Writers meeting. Here are some of the guidelines she offered based on what she's learned through the years as a professional writer.                           

Don't ignore the market unless you're willing to wait for the market to swing around to what you want to write.  Write what you love and love the market, but stay true to your voice.  Find out where your voice will fit in the current...

LIBRARIES IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Will libraries become a relic of the past when books turn digital?  Like in a Dr. Who episode, will there be one vast library that's a repository for the entire world, the sole remaining place holding dusty shelves? That was a cool couple of episodes with David Tennant starring, by the way. Think about the trees cut down to produce all that paper and where those once living trees might have come from. Anyway, will libraries, with reduced funding as an additional obstacle, still be viable ten ...

RWA 2010: Conclusion

REPORT ON RWA NATIONAL CONFERENCE

 Friday, July 30 and Saturday, July 31

Reinventing Yourself with bestselling author JAYNE ANN KRENTZ .

 Jayne had to reinvent herself numerous times, from writing futuristics to contemporaries to historicals.  She takes her "core story" and puts it into a marketable setting.  Names she's written under are Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, and Jayne Castle.

Jayne Ann Krentz

"Sooner or later, you will have to reinvent yourself."  Jayne offered three rules for writers ...

RWA 2010: Day 2

RWA NATIONAL CONFERENCE, ORLANDO 2010

Thursday, July 29

The morning's annual RWA meeting was followed by a keynote luncheon featuring NY Times bestselling author Nora Roberts aka J.D. Robb. 

Nora Roberts signs her books

 NORA ROBERTS Keynote Luncheon

Nora spoke about how technology changed from when she started writing in the days of typewriters.  Writers used to go to the library for research, wrote letters by hand, and made phone calls on land line telephones.  RWA started in Houston in the...

RWA CONFERENCE REPORT: Day 1

Wednesday, July 28 

I arrived at the Dolphin Resort with my roomies for the weekend, authors ALLISON CHASE and SHARON HARTLEY.  We went early in the morning to register at the RWA Annual Conference and to drop off our promo items in the goody room. Not too many people were around but we figured it would get crowded later. We said hello to JOYCE HENDERSON and LYNETTE HALLBERG from SWFRW and to DARA EDMONSON and MICHELLE YOUNG from CFRW.  MONA RISK was there from FRW looking for the booksigning ...