Today my special guest is agent Holly Root from the Waxman Literary Agency. Shelley: Tell us a little about yourself. How did you become an agent? Holly: I actually had no idea that “agent” was a job until after I’d already landed in publishing. When I moved to New...
It was a weird sort of a weekend for me. I attended the conference, but I have to admit I had trouble focusing on what the speakers were saying because of the personal stuff going on in our lives. I did, however, have a couple of real lightbulb moments - thank you...
I read a review today about a book I've read. The reviewer said the heroine was whiney and didn't act her age. That didn't come through for me when I read the book. I know reviews are subjective, but it made me start thinking. What qualities does a good heroine...
Have you seen the YouTube featuring Susan Boyle? The judges took one look at Ms. Boyle, listened to her talking and decided she wouldn’t be able to sing. The music started, Ms. Boyle started singing and smashed apart every one of the judges’ preconceptions, showing...
I've been in the writing cave again today and doing some heavy-duty thinking about the story I'm plotting. I took a bit of a break to write a post for Selena Illyria for her menage a trois week. While I was writing my post, I started to think about character driven...
I love reading series and books about families or groups of friends. I enjoy secondary characters, especially the ones who bring humor to a story and lighten what would be an otherwise dark book. Secondary characters sometimes help show the hero or heroine in a...
Yesterday my post was about flaws and faults in heroes. One flaw I didn’t mention in my post was that of infidelity. Infidelity is a real hot button when it comes to romance readers. Some people have experienced infidelity in real life, and betrayal of this nature...
Thirteen Negative Traits For Heroes I'm pondering book nine in my Middlemarch Mates series and the heroes in particular. Of course, it goes without saying that the heroine will love her two heroes to bits and think they're the best thing since the invention of sliced...
One of the people I correspond with is an aspiring writer and she asked me about language in sci-fi romances. She was having problems with words to describe things in her sci-fi work that didn’t sound plain stupid. She wanted to know how I attack this aspect of world...
