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Articles & Interviews
Celebrating Romance: the Journey and the Ways of Love by Virginia Kantra
Confessions of a Contest Slut by Virginia Kantra
Developing the Romance in Your Romance Novel by Virginia Kantra
originally published in the Romance Writers Report, July 2008
Fight Scenes and Love Scenes: Seven Tips to Writing Action by Virginia Kantra
originally appeared at Attacking the Page June 2011
Folklore in Sea Lord Interview with Jessica Lee Jernigan
Guide to Guy-Speak by Virginia Kantra
Guide to Guy-Speak 2: Negotiating Intimacy and Control by Virginia Kantra
Guide to Perfect Pitch: Pitching to Agents and Editors by Virginia Kantra
If She Can Think It, She Can Say It: Dialogue in Romance by Virginia Kantra
Interview with Cover Artist Tony Mauro
Tony Mauro, who did the fabulous cover art for the Children of the Sea, talks about his process
Interview, The News and Observer Books section, August 21, 2011.
Point of View, Part 1: Who's on First? The Basics of POV by Virginia Kantra
Guest lecture, Romance University
Point of View, Part 2: Switching POV by Virginia Kantra
Guest lecture, Romance University
Romancing the Phone by Virginia Kantra
Sealing the Deal:the Wet and Wild World of Selkie Romance Novels by Jessica Jernigan
Bitch Media, Red Issue, 2011
Til Death Do Us Part by Eloisa James
Immortal Sea and the function of the wedding in romance at Barnes and Noble Reviews
Voice: What Are They Talking About? by Virginia Kantra
originally published in the Romance Writers Report, October 2010
Who's on Top? Intimacy, Conflict, and Control by Virginia Kantra
originally published in the Romance Writers Report, October 2009
Wild Kingdom by Eloisa James
Sea Lord and the appeal of the Beauty and the Beast story at Barnes and Noble Reviews
You Can't Write that in a Category Romance! by Virginia Kantra at All About Romance
Links for Readers & Writers
Glee and Sympathy
as well as Laura Clawson's thoughtful essay at The Daily Kos, Romance Reader, Unashamed
There are a kajillion romance sites out there, many with great blog rolls.
But here are a few to get you started:
Heroes and Heartbreakers (I love this site, which provides a monthly shopping list organized by release date and subgenre.)
The Romance Dish
Dear Author
Smart Bitches Love Trashy Books
Links for Writers
Romance Writers of America - national organization
Heart of Carolina Romance Writers - local chapter
Writers Market - the industry bible. If you're serious about marketing your work, sooner or later you're going to look at this, either the free copy in the library or the on-line subscription. Lots of great information is available at the website, even without a paid subscription.
Writer Unboxed - one of the best blogs out there for information, confirmation, and inspiration!
For profane and excellent advice, check out Delilah S. Dawson's guest post on Terrible Minds,
25 Steps to Being a Traditionally Published Author: Lazy Bastard Edition.
(Although once you start poking around on Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds blog, you will lose hours of valuable writing time.
Don't say I didn't warn you.)
More Great Resources
Honing your craft?
Browse articles on writing at The Book Designer. NEW 8/16
Formatting questions? See John Gregory Betancourt's Old School, no-fuss explanation of Standard Manuscript Format
as well as the more updated Formatting Tips for Writers at Agent Query.
The two formatting guides offer slightly different suggestions, but between them you'll get the range of what is acceptable (Courier or Times New Roman) and what is not (bound pink pages).
If you've read my Confessions of a Contest Slut, you'll want to check out Stephie Smith's Contest Guide for romance writers in an easy-to-use chart format.
Don't miss Lisa Gardner's Conquering the Dreaded Synopsis
a New York Times bestseller's ten lecture workshop series on writing query letters and synopses.
Want help with characterization? I find the enneagram personality typing systerm a great resource.
Take the sampler quiz and read more about the 9 personality types at
The Enneagram Insitute
And for a quick, dirty, funny introduction to story structure, watch this introduction to the
Hero's Journey - with sock puppets!
Looking for an agent?
Check out Agent Query - What an agent is and how to submit to one,along with a free, searchable database of over 700 agents.
as well as Preditors and Editors - Be careful out there!
Another Realm hosts this guide to literary agents and publishing houses.
Interested in self publishing?
Barbara Samuel O'Neal offers a thoughtful look at this option in The Sea Change of Self Publishing.Novelists Inc offers their guide to all aspects of self publishing as a free, downloadable binder.
Links to Protect Our Oceans
Read more about the issues affecting our oceans at Oceana
OC meets the Better Business Bureau standards for Charity Accountability. 80% of the funds raised go to program expenses. OC's current conservation priorities focus on addressing the impacts of climate change on the ocean, ending overfishing, protecting vulnerable and critically important marine ecosystems, reforming ocean governance, reducing threats to endangered marine species, and ridding waterways of trash and debris that pollutes our rivers, lakes, streams and oceans through the International Coastal Cleanup.
There are small, practical steps you can take to save our seas, from using reusable grocery bags to reducing your use of fertilizer.
Check out Coastal Living's Five Ways to Help Save Our Seas
and Five More Ways to Save Our Seas
For a list of other excellent organizations that help protect our seas, visit
SOS: Saving Our Shores.
