REPORT ON RWA NATIONAL CONFERENCE Friday, July 30 and Saturday, July 31, 2010 Reinventing Yourself with bestselling author JAYNE ANN KRENTZ . Jayne had to reinvent herself numerous times, from writing futuristics to contemporaries to historicals. She takes her “core story” and puts it into a marketable setting. Names she’s written under are Jayne Ann … Read more
RWA NATIONAL CONFERENCE, ORLANDO 2010 Thursday, July 29, 2010 The morning’s annual RWA meeting was followed by a keynote luncheon featuring NY Times bestselling author Nora Roberts aka J.D. Robb. NORA ROBERTS Keynote Luncheon Nora spoke about how technology changed from when she started writing in the days of typewriters. Writers used to go to … Read more
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 I arrived at the Dolphin Resort with my roomies for the weekend, authors ALLISON CHASE and SHARON HARTLEY. We went early in the morning to register at the RWA Annual Conference and to drop off our promo items in the goody room. Not too many people were around but we figured … Read more
Are there times when you feel brain dead or too tired to think straight? Never fear, you can still accomplish something by doing a mindless task. Here’s a list of boring jobs to do when you want to be productive without much mental effort. Organize your Browser’s Bookmarks or Favorites. Verify that the links are … Read more
If you’d like to escape for several days to a beach haven away from it all, visit Marco Island. There’s as much or as little as you want to do here, with expansive sandy beaches, boat rides, fine dining, shopping, water sports, and more. Driving onto the island, a two-hour drive west from Fort Lauderdale … Read more
When you research an area in person for your story, observe your surroundings with the Writer’s Eye. What does this mean? Use the five senses in recording your observations. Back up your notes with photos and recordings if you wish. But later, when you have plenty of reference materials, you might forget just how hot … Read more
Last weekend, I gave a talk at Jupiter library, but first, my husband and I drove around to explore the town. We stopped at Dubois Park, but it was Memorial Day weekend, and the park was mobbed with picnickers. It looked to be impossible to get a parking spot, so we drove on. We went … Read more
I’ve written on this topic before, but it continues to astound me. Facing the blank white page again this morning, I wondered how I’d ever fill my page quota. My characters had just been captured by the bad guys. They’d been isolated from each other, and I had no idea how they would escape. But … Read more
Today’s global communications allow for more ease of research than in the past. I’m writing a scene that takes place in an Asian fortress. Through a search on the Internet, I found the perfect model for my citadel. I moved it to a Pacific island where my characters have crash landed their airplane. They plan … Read more
A new writer has in mind one goal: getting published. Often, they don’t think beyond that goal post. But once they get The Call, everything changes. I think it’s Fear of Success that keeps some folks from submitting because they don’t want to face what comes next. They will have to get a publicity photo, … Read more