My Breakup Book with Trad Publishing
A Little Backstory I published my first book with Harlequin in 2003. Over the next two decades I published 75 more books with 4 traditional publishers and 1 small press. I learned so much, had some incredible editors and connected with readers that became part of the fabric of my life. In 2017, I got
Tropes and How (not) to Use Them
Like it, or hate it…tropes sell books. Every fiction popular genre has them, as do some of the nonfiction genres. Even literary fiction has popular tropes, though they are rarely referred to as such. 😉 But inserting a trope for marketing value can ruin the underlying story. It can also enhance it. We’ve all read
Tips for Writers: Affordable Bookmarks
The more time I spend on social media in the author/writer space, the more I realize how much we can help each other. I’m far from having all the answers, but what I do know, I will share. Let’s start with something that a lot of authors need and not all believe they can afford: bookmarks.
2005 Travelogue for Australia by Hubcap
My husband used to write travelogues for our trips. They always made me laugh. This is one he wrote for our trip to Australia in 2005. Wish I could find the one he did for New Zealand that same year. 🙂 _________________ As part of the Monroe family journey to the South Side, we now
The Business vs. the Creativity of Writing
Writing for publication is a business, but it is not only a business. It is a creative endeavor but not only a creative endeavor. Finding balance between those two truths creates a lot of tension in the writer’s psyche. In fact, it can be paralyzing to both creativity and forward career momentum when the two
10 Important Truths I’ve Learned Being a Published Author
1. The opening line is NOT the most important sentence in my book. Some people would have you believe that your entire story hinges on that first line. Um, no. If you excel at the clever first line, fantastic! I sure hope you also excel at the thousands of words to follow, because that’s what
NaNoWriMo And You
I sold my first book in Sept 2002 (it was published Oct 2003). I hadn’t even heard of NaNoWriMo at that point, but I did hear about it the next year and, and the year after and the year after that, so on and so on. I never felt compelled to participate. I was already
Book Room Clear Out
My book storage room is getting seriously full and I was thinking of what I could do with all these author copies that are just stacking up now that I no longer run monthly contests. And I thought, maybe I could finish off 2020 by doing some good. So, here’s the deal. This is *not*
Romance Conventions & Reader Expectations
I’ve been listening to Neil Gaiman’s MasterClass on Genre Fiction and it’s got me thinking. Probably because so much of what he has said in his other courses struck a chord with me, I found it double disconcerting to be caught up short by his definition of genre fiction. Loosely stated, he says he had
Craft of Writing Series by Lucy Monroe
Anyone who knows me well, knows I love to mentor and to teach. My agoraphobia had already curtailed my opportunities to do so (limiting my travel to the few months of summer when it’s most under control) when COVID-19 hit. And I realized I could keep mentoring if I was willing to put myself out