This month I celebrate a significant birthday–one that ends in a zero and starts in a four. Several years ago, I made myself the commitment that I would be published-by-forty. My deadline for my fourth manuscript for Harlequin Romance is on my fortieth birthday. It means I’ll be writing instead of partying but…hey…I made it! […]
The natural order of things (writing effectively)
First published in HeartsTalk Magazine, February 2010 As an author, it’s not enough to assume that your engagement with your story will translate to readers. Ask anyone who’s had a low competition score or a stinging rejection whether they lacked interest in their story. They didn’t. If you want readers to buy your characters’ emotion you have to make them feel it. […]
Writing for Harlequin Romance/Sweet
First published in HeartsTalk Magazine, 2010 It could happen to you. It could! It happened to Melissa James, Michelle Douglas, Barbara Hannay and— more recently—me! We are four of the ten Down Under authors writing for Harlequin Romance—known as Mills & Boon ‘Sweet’ in Oz and NZ—and each of us was once exactly where you are, trying […]