Hi Reader! Miranda and I disagreed. On camera. More than once. 😅 And we had SUCH a good time, we're doing it again! Stay tuned for our deep dive of Warrior, Princess, Assassin later this summer! And I'm not talking about the similar-but-different style of disagreement. I'm talking "Are we reading the same book??" disagreement. 👂 She prefers traditional, formal fantasy voice. I loved Fourth Wing's modern slang. (That book felt written for me.) 📖 I loved the Xaden bonus chapters. She thought...
6 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader! Confession time. 🙈 I almost DNF'd A Court of Thorns and Roses. (I KNOW. Put down the pitchforks. 😅) It wasn't the writing, and it wasn't because of Feyre. It was the squalor. The starving, the freezing, the hovel house, the hunting-to-survive desperation... 🤮 I read romance to escape. And living through Feyre's medieval survival struggle felt more like a camping trip gone very wrong. ⛺😩 (And I'm barely willing to glamp.) But plenty of readers LOVE that gritty opening. For some of...
9 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader! You know those romance books where everybody wants the heroine? It doesn't matter if she's a perfect Mary Sue 👩, a klutzy book nerd 🤓, or a catty half-vampire 🧛. Allll the boys (and even some of the girls) want in her pants. And I'm like, but WHY? 😳🤷 I call this the "magical vagina" effect. (And yes, I said that out loud. On camera. On someone else's channel. 😅) It makes me crazy, because generic lust and forced relationships do not a good romance make. And it's a big reason I love...
12 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader! This little guy was sitting in my lap this morning while I proofed today's podcast episode (you can skip right to Episode 15 here), and it reminded me of how important keeping promises is. 🐶 Sir Walter just climbed up and made himself at home. 😍 We make so many promises every day, some of them so small that you might not even realize, and most of them are completely implied. Like... 💖 I'm going to rub Walter's ears when he asks for pets. (He is such a sweetheart—and so soft—so how...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader! "She choses love." Vague answers like that ☝️ are really common when I ask a specific question—like, What does your hero do in this scene?—during an edit or one-on-one consult. And they're one of the biggest tells that your story needs more work. Because "she choses love" is an aspiration, not an action. ✋ It doesn't tell me what your hero decided, what she did, or what it cost her. Before your heroes can earn their HEA, they have to transform. ⚡ They have to face hard truths and...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader! There's probably a scene in your manuscript where nothing really happens. No dialogue. No confrontation. No big reveal. 🪑 Your hero is just alone. Sitting somewhere. Thinking. And you've read that scene back and wondered if it's pulling its weight, if it's worth the word count or just bloating your story. 🤔 Maybe you've already cut one like it. Or marked it "revisit, possibly fluff". ☁️ 🎬 In my workshops and courses, I talk about how every scene needs a purpose. If you can't...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader! I read a LOT of romance books. And sometimes there's a hero who just. won't. get out. of my brain. 😅 Illium from Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series is one of those heroes. I first started reading that series over 15 years ago, and I still think of him at totally random times. It is downright weird. Because the angel Illium is not even the hero of most Guild Hunter stories. Yes, yes, he finally got his ascension book—check out the fab cover here—and I loved it (and cried for two...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader! I got more personal in this episode than I usually do on the podcast. Because the concept I'm teaching you — the four types of protective behavior your romance characters use — is something I have lived. Not just studied. I grew up shy. Thin-skinned. Easy to embarrass. 😅 And somewhere along the way, I figured out that if I was warm enough and friendly enough and over-delivered on everything, people treated me better. I felt safer. That protection became part of who I am. (But it...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader! "Just sit down and write." "Focus and minimize distractions." "Butt in chair, words on page." You've heard all of that. You've tried all of that. And the words still won't come. Or worse, they come out flat and lifeless, and you can feel it while you're typing. 😩 So what if the problem isn't discipline at all? In this week's episode, I talk about what writer's block actually is for romance writers, and how to get through it. 🖱️👇 🎧 Episode 10: What Writer's Block Is Really...
3 months ago • 1 min read