Hey all! I’ve chatting with NHRWA sistah Clair Brett today about falling in love in a love story. Stop on by and share your thoughts.
Category Archives: RWA
A visit with Clair Brett
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, New Hampshire, NHRWA, Romance, Romance Books, RWA
Why we should support each other as Writers….
One of my lovely, talented and fun-to-be-around NHRWA member chapter-mates just found out she is a finalist in the RWA GoldenHeart Contest. For those of you who don’t know what this means, listen up. The Golden Hearts awards are given to extremely talented and deserving romance writers who have not had a book-length romance published as of yet. It’s like the Golden Globes awards are to the Oscars. In romance, the Oscars are the annual RITA awards. So when my chapter-mate’s name was announced the other day, everyone who knows her was instantly thrilled for her, including all of us who belong to the New Hampshire chapter. Prestige, honor and open doors in the publishing world all accompany this nomination and, subsequent win. She – and we – will find out the winners at the annual RWA conference in July in NYC. It proves to be a truly memorable event.
Her nomination/finalist state and our happiness for her got me to thinking. Writers of romance are truly the most convivial and supportive group of humans I have ever met. We applaud each other’s successes, understand the emotional toils the non-successes ( I don’t like the word failure) take on our souls, and we cheer each other on through the often grueling process of creating love on the page.
Romance writers are a rare breed. And I am so thankful they/we are.
Competition many times fosters a sense of isolation and removal from the group of people you are competing against. The goal is to win it all, many times at whatever cost. Friendships are lost and destroyed all just to grab that proverbial golden ring.
Not so with romance writers. Yes, we compete against one another in the basic sense because we all want to get our book published and into the hands of readers. But for every NYT bestseller and USA list out there where a romance writer makes it to the top, the rest of us know we can make it there, too. The trail blazers like Nora Roberts, Beatrice Small, and Kathleen Woodiwiss have made what we write relevant to the masses and a force to be reckoned with in the sales division. We literally stand on their writing shoulders and are lifted up by their triumphs to gain success for ourselves. The better they do, the better we do.
So. I congratulate my writing friend with all sincerity and love. She is truly deserving of the nomination AND the win. When we are all in NYC in July I will be among the other 2,000 or so attendees who will be standing and applauding her victory, for her victory is also ours and we are better for knowing her.
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, female friends, NHRWA, Romance, Romance Books, RWA, Strong Women
Fan girl crush
Is it weird to admit – at my age – I have a fan-girl crush?
Not the wacko stalker kind. But the kind of crush that makes you smile without knowing you’re doing it or the reason why you are?
Okay, so here’s my confession, then. My fan-girl crush is on Nora Roberts.
Yeah, THAT Nora Roberts. Author of about a gazillion books, all of them wonderful. Creator of the “In Death” series, which features two of the best characters ever put to the page: Eve Dallas and * sigh * Roarke. Master plotter, publishing wunderkind, and one of the most proliferate authors on the planet.
I had the absolute pleasure to meet her, shake her hand, get an autograph and listen to her give a master lecture this past summer at RWA 2014. I think I smiled the entire time. Well, not when I cried when I met her, though. But even through the tears, I was smiling with glee!
I’ve read every book she’d ever had published, some of them two or three times. Why? Because she is – to me – the penultimate master in romance writing. The way she can convey an emotion, a look, a thought, is pure writing genius.
She is a completely humble woman, as well, and she gets a million kudos for that. She could be the most conceited, arrogant writer you will ever meet. But she is not. She is warm, open, damn funny, sarcastically spot-on and just a delight to listen to with her smoker’s gravel voice, and her characteristic way of turning a phrase.
If you ever have the opportunity to attend a lecture she is giving – GO! As a writer you will learn more than you ever thought to, be inspired like you never dreamed you would, and be entertained thoroughly.
Yes, I am a 54 year old wife-mother-nurse-writer and I have a fan-girl crush. Deal with it.
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, female friends, NHRWA, Romance, Romance Books, RWA, Strong Women
When is too much personal info, well, too much?
I read an interesting writers blog the other day which questioned how much of ourselves we should and should not put out there on social media sites. Here’s the link: http://www.brendamoguez.com/manic-modays/how-much-is-too-much-to-confess/
I’ve questioned myself numerous times over the past 10 months since I decided to make this writing career the next chapter in my life. In order to have a solid career in writing you need a following; a fan base; readers. Although I’m well-known in my town, I need more than the local peeps to build this base, so I’ve entered the social media realm.
I started with a website, then branched over to Facebook and Twitter. I’m LinkedIn and tumble on Tumblr. I pin on Pinterest and Googleplus myself into a frenzy. Keeping up with all these sites is a lot of work, and it got me to thinking: When is publicly divulging too much information about yourself, well, too much?
My blog has an About Me page that lists 10 things you may or may not know about me – or let’s face it – you may not even care to know about me! There are ten millions more things I could have listed on there, but didn’t. Things such as, I read every Agatha Christie book published before I was 12; I didn’t go on a date until I was 21 and didn’t know at the time he was married. Married! (The jerk!) I didn’t go to prom in high school because I was so fat and so unpopular, no one asked me. I started going gray at 16 because of a genetic link that causes premature graying. While this stuff may be interesting to the people who love me, is it really interesting to the general book buying public?
There are things about us which we all have that we really don’t want people to know about because they’re a little too revealing. And let’s face it: a little too close to deflating that precious ego we all have.
I’ve read twitterfeeds that detail everything the tweeter is doing, from going to work, to arriving, to getting a coffee, to the stomach cramps they have from not eating. And my question is always “Who the heck cares?” Who cares if I’m stuck in traffic? Who cares if I have a dentist appointment? Really, is this information ANYONE- except maybe a stalker – would want to know?
I tend to keep a lot of information close to the vest. That’s just me. I don’t need to know everything about a person when I meet them. I enjoy finding about them as the relationship progresses. And truly, isn’t there something written somewhere about how being mysterious is intriguing and beguiling? I certainly think that’s true.
So the question of when is too much personal info too much is just that: personal. We each decide how much or how little of ourselves we want “out there.”
For me, I prefer to divulge a little at a time, and give away nothing I would be embarrassed to get parroted back to me. Well, that one thing about dating the married man may have been too much to tell. But really, he was a jerk and we only went on two dates. That was one way too many in hindsight.
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, female friends, Life challenges, Romance, Romance Books, RWA, Strong Women
Christmas is coming and you know what THAT means, don’tcha?
With the holiday season approaching in a ridiculously fast manner, there are a ton of new romance books out with Christmas themes. Books about Christmas brides, Christmas babies, Christmas engagements, even Christmas cowboys ( Yowza!) It got me thinking about why this time of year has such a plethora of romance-related reading material popping up.
Christmas is a time of rebirth, of joy, of giving thanks for the blessings in your life, and ultimately for celebrating Jesus’s birth – remember folks: Jesus is the reason for the season. It makes some kind of sense then that the Christmas baby book bonanza for romance novels is such a widely loved trope. An unexpected surprise is delivered on a doorstop one Christmas morning : a baby. A women who never thought she’d have a child suddenly finds she’s now the “mother” to a slew of nieces and nephews whose parents have been killed, or who have abandoned them. A Christmas miracle happens and a women becomes pregnant when up to this time she hasn’t been able.
Such are the themes of Christmas baby books.
The Christmas bride books are also a popular sell. I will admit this since most people know it already, but I got married the day after Christmas. A few distant relatives and some friends found this date horrific and chose not to attend my wedding due to obligations elsewhere. That was fine with me. I chose this date for a number of reasons which I won’t go into. But it turned out to be a great date for several reasons: 1. All of both our families were together celebrating the holidays; 2. I always pictured a winter wedding, complete with snow and Christmas finery; 3. The Church was already decked out for Christmas – so I didn’t have to pay extra for flowers and decorations ( I’m no dummy, folks, when it comes to saving money), and 4. I knew it was a date my husband wasn’t likely to ever forget was our anniversary.
Getting engaged on Christmas is the second date only to Valentine’s Day where the question is popped. Truly, is there a better present than an engagement ring, all new and sparkly and put on your finger by the guy you want to spend forever with?? I think not.
So, with the holiday rush beginning now that Halloween is but a memory, you will see a large number of new releases on the shelves ( both store and Kindle) with holiday themed covers and stories. I suggest you buy a few that hit your fancy because – trust me – they all have happily ever after endings ( something we all desire ) and they will all make you feel just a little happier during the holiday season.
A few of my favorite new Christmas themed releases this year:
Christmas in Cupid Falls, By Holly Jacobs
A Cowboy’s Christmas Promise, by Maggie McGinnes
The Twelve Brides of Christmas, from The Wild Rose Press
Merry Christmas Baby, by Jill Shalvis
Filed under Author, Characters, Contemporary Romance, Editors, Family Saga, MacQuire Women, NHRWA, Romance, Romance Books, RWA, Strong Women
Recuperating and rehashing…
I’ve been home from my conference for almost a week and I’m still flying on an intellectual, writing high from all fabulous writers I met and all the great courses I took.My mind has been spinning, running plot lines, searching for point of view continuity, trying to weed out the tells from the shows. For my first time, the conference was an amazing introduction to the world of romance writing and publishing,
But…
Back to reality. I still have to pound out those pages in order to actually give flesh to my characters and ideas. Nora Roberts calls her writing ethic “Sit your ass down in a chair and type!” This is my new motto and mantra.
In the Cindy Ratzlaff vein as well, I have developed a new Facebook page titled Peggy Jaeger, Author. You can click here and visit me. And I’m actually going to do a wee bit of begging and ask that you LIKE the page when you visit. I’ll be putting the majority of my writing stuff up on that page from now on.
And here’s a little tease just because…in the next few days -to-a-week, I’ll be putting a MAJOR announcement of the site. No other hints. You have to keep gong back to my page to see it.
HeeHee. I just love intrigue.
Post RWA 2014 Update
So, I had really lousy internet in the hotel sand I didn’t get to blog for over three days.
Three days!
To say that I learned a great deal at the RWA 2014 conference would be a gross understatement. I literally learned something new in every class I took, from craft, to marketing, to publicity.
The speakers were amazing and all highly entertaining – they are romance writers after all. From Jayne Ann Krentz and Susan Elizabeth Phillips I learned things they wished they had known when just starting out and things they were glad they didn’t know. From Nora Roberts ( sigh!) I learned to write the book I want and not the book that I think will sell, or the one that an agent or an editor wants. No. Write the book I want . ( And I will!)
The fabulous Holly Jacobs taught me how to be a fan favorite just by being herself – warm, witty and funny. The girl could make a stoic laugh, I swear.
From the other attendees I learned quite a bit as well. For one thing, we are all in this boat together and as such we should all be helpful, respectful, and open to one another. The first night I was in the lobby, waiting to meet up with some of my NH chapter-mates, Shirley Jump approached me to ask if I was having a good time and were people being helpful to me. Shirley Jump! She is a current board member and a PAN liason and saw that my name badge indicated I was a first time attendee. She went out of her way to make sure I was doing okay and being taken care of. Amazing.
The courses I took were varied in scope and concept. Everything from how to instill conflict in a romantic situation, to how to write hot sex. That was the actual name of the course: How to write hot sex.
I can truly say that this was the best spent money I have ever spent on a conference. It wasn’t cheap –not by a long shot- but it was worth the expense and time.
To be in the presence of such a wide array of published and commercially successful authors in a genre that has not been accepted by the mainstream publishing community to the level it should, was uplifting spiritually, and as an artist.
I can safely say that I came away from this conference with much more than when I went in and that as a writer, I have grown.
I can’t wait until RWA 2015. It’s in NYC!!
Filed under Contemporary Romance, female friends, Romance, Romance Books, RWA
Conference Chatter and Advice
Today was a chock-full day of information, advice, and networking.
In one session I learned several tricks and tips for being a faster, more effective writer in a limited time span. This was a great class for me because I am not afforded the pleasure of being able to write full time yet. I still work away from the laptop at another job and my sitting at the desk writing time is limited. This class gave me some techniques for getting more words on the page at a faster rate and during unusual time frames that I wouldn’t have thought of, such as on lunch hours from work.
At another session with a behavioral psychologist, I was introduced to a concept called dialogue cues. These are useful, powerful words and phrasing that gives your writing emotional punch and gets it to the next level necessary for publication.
I attended a character class with writer Susan Elizabeth Phillips, in which we were taught how to describe our plots by using our characters and showing how their personalities relate to the plot and story line. This was a very good class for getting me to think about the show don’t tell aspect of writing that is relentlessly drilled into writers.
But the best part of the day? A chat with Nora Roberts. For an hour she fielded questions from the audience, and she actually called on me twice!! I was in heaven. Literally. Literary heaven.
I go to sleep tonight full of new techniques to employ for my writing, and ideas just swimming around in my head.
Tomorrow is another full day.
Filed under Characters, Contemporary Romance, Dialogue, Editors, RWA
Dreams do come true…
Yesterday, I had a dream come true. It was a small one, comparative to others, and might even be categorized as a bucket list item. I met NORA ROBERTS.
I know.
I not only met her, I spoke with her. And she was lovely. Absolutely lovely. I was shaking and sweating and as nervous as could be, but she was, just, lovely.
Meeting her alone was worth the cost of this trip to RWA 2014.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Jill Shalvis, Catherine Coulter, and the amazing Holly Jacobs.
But that wasn’t the only reason for the trip. Today the fun work starts. Beginning at 8:30 and and going straight up until tonight, I’ve got workshops planned on the crafting, marketing, and selling of Romance books. I am tired already, but I think it is just because I am coming down my from exhilarating meeting. One of those workshops is with…wait for it… Nora.
Can this trip get any better?
Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, female friends, RWA
Peggy Jaeger, Author 