Creating Your Hero’s Fatal Flaw

Posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 by Kelsey Browning

Morning, RU crew! We’re fortunate to have Laurie Schnebly Campbell join us once again to talk about character development. This time, she’ll tell us why our story hero shouldn’t be perfect and how we can [...]

Dirty Little Secrets

Posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 by Adrienne Giordano

The Dirty Little Secret of Storytelling
By Larry Brooks
Nobody likes to talk about it.  Much less admit to it.
Even at writing conferences, where hopeful authors pay good money to hear workshop leaders they may have never [...]

Challenging Couples in Love

Posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 by Kelsey Browning

Challenging couples in love is fun. We get to take two wonderful people who are really just perfect for each other, and make them suffer. If you’re cringing at the very idea, you’re not alone — most of us became romance writers because we believe in happy endings, and we hate to see the people we care about suffering!

Historical Romance Part 2: Hot? Not?

Posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 by Tracey Devlyn

Welcome to Crafting Your Career! Today, we continue our discussion on the state of historical romance with New York Times Bestselling author Laura Lee Guhrke. Laura’s graciously agreed to give us her take this ever-changing [...]

Historical Romance Part 1: Hot? Not?

Posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 by Tracey Devlyn

It’s my great pleasure to welcome Kris Kennedy and her agent Barbara Poelle to Romance University. As many of you know, RU’s highlighting a different romance sub-genre each month, and February’s all about historical. Today, [...]

Contemporary Romance – Hot? Not?

Posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 by Kelsey Browning

Welcome to the first of a yearlong series of lectures on different romance fiction sub-genres. One Monday each month, Crafting Your Career will be dedicated to this topic, and today’s post focuses on the contemporary romance. Those of us who’ve been around know sub-genres wax and wane in popularity, so which “w” word applies to contemporaries in the current publishing climate?

Today, New York Times bestselling author Carly Phillips and literary agent Laura Bradford are here to share their insights and predictions. Carly and Laura will also check in throughout the day to answer questions.

Ins, Outs, Ups & Downs of Writing Contests

Posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 by Kelsey Browning

Today, we’re delighted to have Donnell Bell with us. She, along with many other volunteers, contributes countless hours to ensure the success of the Kiss of Death chapter’s Daphne contest each year. Without people like [...]

Ask an Editor: Passive and Literary Writing

Posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 by Kelsey Browning

Theresa:
Your last column on writing actively brought up a question I’ve had for quite some time on passive voice writing.  In commercial genre fiction (romance, mystery, etc), the practice of writing in an active voice [...]

Writing the Alpha Male

Posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 by Kelsey Browning

Today, I’m dancing a jig at the thought of discussing the kind of men (at least fictional men) many of us like most. That’s right, today’s interview with author Jami Alden is all about the [...]

How Was Your Day?

Posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 by Kelsey Browning

A little over two years ago when my wife began writing seriously, I had no idea how her choice might change her life, and in turn, mine. Now the simple afternoon question “How Was Your [...]