When Characters Don’t Do What the Author Planned by Lyn Cote
What’s the author to do? To think? Well, usually I smile because that means that my characters have become REAL. Once a reader said to me, “You act like these characters are real.” And I said, “Within the pages of the book, they are!” If my characters do not behave like real people with minds… Read More
Getting to the Holidays
“Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go,” went the old song. Merry, merry. No worries. The horse knows the way, the sleigh is heated. Grandma is perfect and nobody ever gets grumpy. Not so in my world. The grandmas were all lovely and worth visiting. It did seem, however, that… Read More
How the ‘Year of ‘No’ Transformed my Entire Career
Starting a career as an author with that first finished manuscript is probably the most exciting and terrifying journey an aspiring writer can embark on. The uncertainty of finding an agent, finding the right publisher, finding reviewers and finding readers is daunting and can be slightly overwhelming. But after that first book does all those… Read More
Writing a Sweet Contemporary Romance Means Taking No Emotional Shortcuts
What is it that makes you as a writer decide to go in a new direction? What makes you pivot and think, “Hey, I could do that, actually. Maybe I should think about how?” That was the creative case with His Holiday Crush for me. While I love writing romance, sweet contemporary romance has never… Read More
Writing in the Time of Coronavirus
All the way back in October, a million weeks ago, a writer friend of mine posted on Facebook that she was already working on her 2021 planner. I commented that I was still trying to get a handle on organizing 2020. She responded with a sad face. But I wasn’t kidding, and I wasn’t looking… Read More
Okay, I admit it. I listen to holiday music. Not just during the holidays.
It’s that time of year again, when holiday music is ubiquitous everywhere, and we haven’t even had Thanksgiving in the states! On the radio, in the shopping centers, at the grocery store… Some people love it. Some loathe it! Some can handle it in short doses but come January, off it goes! I have to… Read More
Who doesn’t love Christmas cookies?
In my book, The Mistletoe Trap, my hero and heroine, who are best friends, start flirting and food fighting as they decorate cookies. And maybe it’s all the mistletoe their families have hung, but suddenly the decorating session turns into a kissing session. Luckily kissing burns calories, because Gavin’s an NFL quarterback who likes to… Read More
Why Romance is Even More Relevant this Year…
Hi! Thanks so much for stopping by today. I’m Victoria James, romance author of sweet, small-town contemporary romances. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas if I don’t read-or write-a holiday book. They are hands down my favorite to read and write. This has been quite a year for everyone. And I know, more than ever,… Read More
How a book is born, or where I got my idea for my very first Christmas romance
People often want to know where writers get their ideas, and in interviews authors reveal how they people-watch or listen in on conversations and then what if- questions start bubbling in their brains. For me, it often starts with a single scene I imagine clearly. Out of the blue really. The image of a lady… Read More
Holiday Traditions
by Jennifer Hoopes For some of us, the Christmas holiday is full of traditions and memories, possibly both good and bad, and while writing The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby, and more recently getting ready for its release, I couldn’t help but relive some of my favorite things about Christmas growing up. With my dad’s passing in… Read More
Christmas in Vermont
Snow, snow, snow, snow…. If you’ve watched White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, you’ll remember the song that starts that way. It’s an ode to snow, a fun and festive tune the characters sing as they take the train to Vermont for a frosty holiday. Except Vermont didn’t have snow that December, contributing… Read More
November – All About Holiday Romance
by Jeanne Devlin There may still be candy corn in the house and a pumpkin on the porch, but at your local bookstore the winter holidays have already arrived. Whether its new novels, sizzling anthologies, the first time in paperback, or reissues of old favorites, November’s new titles look to be all about what can… Read More