What did you do on your summer vacation?

Ah, September and the smell of books is in the air. Even after many years, it’s hard not to think of this time as “back-to-school”. Of course, my daughters are getting ready to do just that, so it’s not that hard to forget. September always feels like a mini-new year to me, maybe even more so than the actual one. Any new year marks a time for reflection, reviewing past goals and accomplishments and setting new ones. I never get as much writing done as I imagine I will in the summer. The promise of loose schedules leads more toward chaos than it does free time. There’s such a hustle and bustle to the summer, a desire to enjoy every golden moment before it’s gone, do all the summer things and then ask ourselves at the end, Did we do everything we meant to? Read more

Romance vs Thriller — Are They So Different?

You might say the antithesis to the romance genre is suspense/thriller. You know, people getting killed versus people falling in love. What could be more polar than that?

I suggest they’re not as different as they may seem, which is why, as a romance writer, I make sure I read a few thrillers and suspense novels each year. They help me to remember how important pacing is, that plot matters, that getting the reader eagerly turning the page matters, that good dialogue is vital.

Character development often takes a back seat in thrillers and suspense novels because plot is king. This is usually the reverse in romance novels. But a really good thriller writer will find a way to develop their characters without bogging down their novel. And good romance writers figure out how to keep the plot interesting, how to pepper believable and heart thumping conflict throughout the story while maintaining character development. Read more

The Love (And Hate) Of A Great Book

As writers, we love to read good books. We appreciate them, we celebrate them, we admire them, we lose ourselves in them. Why, then, does reading a good book sometimes cause our writing insecurities to rear their ugly little heads?

One of my writing acquaintances recently complained that while she was loving a book she was reading, at the same time she was finding it discouraging. Why? She elaborated, saying it made her feel like she could never write something that great and so why the hell was she even trying.

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Holiday Tasks & Seizing Opportunities

Dear writers,

The countdown is on! We have exactly two weeks until Christmas arrives… whether you’re ready or not, the day will still show up on December 25th, and so will all your company demanding your attention.

Therefore, you will need to prioritize your precious time and outline some kind of schedule to make sure you still get some writing time in over the last week of December (before the 2017 year is over).

If you are one of those writers who hold down one or two other jobs to pay the bills between small pockets of writing time, maybe you will get some much needed time off over the holidays?

Free hours? Free days? Free time?

What are you going to do with all this free time?

I have a few suggestions for you:

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The Love Affair Between Music, Fiction

musicIf ever I am asked which I would choose to be without in my life, books or music, it’d be a close call (although for the record, I’d keep books in my life over music!).
I’ve always thought music and literature were closely linked. I might even go so far as to suggest they’re lovers. Music, at least the kind with lyrics (and a strong case could be made for instrumental music as well), is really about stories. A song is a story. A song is about people or characters and what happens to them. Sound familiar?

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Take Me Away, Books!

By Tracey Richardson 

This summer has been hard on my nerves. And I don’t think I’m alone.books
Global tragedies have abounded, starting with the shooting deaths of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando in June. In early July, five Dallas police officers were assassinated by a gunman who wanted to avenge a couple of high profile police shootings of black men in the United States. A week after that, it was the vehicular rampage in Nice, France, that killed almost 100 people. On the immediate heels of that tragedy came a bloody coup d’etat attempt in Turkey. Read more