Today I\’m in Baltimore Maryland at the dazzling Romance Slam Jam conference. This conference of African American romance writers included workshops on Creating Memorable Characters by Marilyn Tyner, and Sexy Banter from the awesome writer Gwyneth Bolton, and What\’s the Hype about Romance from Denise Jeffries. I also spent time on a panel talking about my […]
Romance Slam Jam Conference Read More »
On Friday I spent a day with members of the Service Over Self (S.O.S) students from John Hersey High School. This group of students reaches out to members of the community. I participated in the Senior Olympics with some of them last year for a day of inter-generational fun that included games like pool, Wii bowling,
High Schoolers don\’t get all the fun Read More »
I visited with Langston Hughes Elementary school on Chicago\’s south side yesterday. I spent the d ay there, speaking with 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th grade classes. Talk about the need to be versatile! What works for one group leaves the other yawning, so I had to be able to change on a dime as I kept
A visit to the Chicago Public Schools Read More »
Several fellow authors have told me not to read my book\’s reviews, but I can\’t help myself. And frankly, most of them are favorable, so it\’s usually a boost. But by reading them I have discovered an interesting trend in the difference between the way adults and kids view the book and its realistic deptition
Sometimes kids just get it better than adults do Read More »
I few weeks ago I read a portion of a WIP to a small group of men and women, many of them writers. The section I read involved my hero in an E/R wearing that horrible hospital gown that leaves a portion of his thigh uncovered. The heroine looks at a scar on his thigh
Romance for Guys?? Read More »
The topic comes up a lot among writers. Especially beginning writers. “Agents don’t like prologues.” they lament. “But what if a prologue is right for the story?’ They read published novels with prologues and love them and use that to justify using one in their own writing. I’m not an agent or editor, but I
Problem with Prologues Read More »
Here’s the bad news: agents and editors are looking for reasons to reject your query. Not because they are bad people, far from it. I’ve met a number of agents and editors over the years. They are great people, personable, likeable, businesslike – and horribly overworked. Like any other business man or woman, their first loyalty
What I learned from querying Read More »
I have been seeing a lot of chatter on various writing loops lately about Point of View and picking the right one for a scene. Unfortunatly a lot of the chatter involves criticizing contest judges and editors who just don\’t understand that just because a writer changes POVs inside a chapter or scene it isn\’t head-hopping
I went to jail last week. Unlike most people who enter those walls, I arrived as a visitor and had an escort to the multi-purpose room where I was to be a speaker. But I still had to pass through gates past tall fences with rolls of barbed wire at the top, pass through the
I came back from the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) conference earlier this week. Rest assured, I\’ll blog about that event soon. But today I want to talk about what happened when I left. The conference ended Sunday at noon with a great keynote address from Ellen Hopkins and Lauren Myracle, two often banned YA