romance novels / 6 posts found
3 Tips on How to Spark Romance in a Character Who Is Content With Being Single
In the 1998 Nora Ephron romantic comedy classic You’ve Got Mail, Joe Fox (played by Tom Hanks in the heyday of a cinematic era I like to call “this is Tom Hanks’s world and we’re just living in it”) is in the throes of a big-box retailer vs. independent bookseller battle with Meg Ryan’s Kathleen Kelly when his words are taken wildly out of context on the local news. “I sell cheap books. I do. So sue me.” Despite Joe’s insistence that the rest of his comments were “eloquent” and if reported in full would have reflected positively on his […]
Nisha Sharma: On Authentic Writing
Nisha Sharma is the award-winning author of YA rom-com My So-Called Bollywood Life, and contemporary romance drama The Singh Family Trilogy. She grew up immersed in Bollywood movies, 80s pop-culture, and romance novels, so it comes as no surprise that her work features all three. Her writing has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Buzzfeed, Hypable, and more. She lives in New Jersey with her Alaskan-born husband, her cat Lizzie Bennett, and her dog Nancey Drew. You can find her online at nisha-sharma.com or on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Nisha Sharma Photo by Jon Macapodi In this […]
Libby Hubscher: On Revision Shifting Genre
Libby Hubscher is an author and scientist. She studied biology at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in molecular toxicology from North Carolina State University. Her work has appeared online and in textbooks, scientific journals, and literary journals. Her short story “The Unwelcome Guest” was long-listed for the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2018. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two young children, and a menagerie of pets. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Libby Hubscher In this post, Libby discusses writing between genres for her new contemporary romance novel, If You Ask […]
Starting Your Romance Novel off With a Bang
My first manuscript went through four years of intense, alone-in-a-basement-cluelessly-banging-on-a-keyboard level work. I was passionate about that book. Adored that book. I just knew that, if people could just get 40 pages in, they would see it for what it was. (5 Keys to Writing a Slow Burn Romance) And so, after a careful vetting process of determining an agent’s merit based on the quality of their website design and font choices, I began to send out emails, full to the brim of naïve optimism. One day passed without reply. One week. One month. Four. Why didn’t they like it? […]
Jessica Pryde: On Representation in Romance
Jessica Pryde is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot, where she is the co-host of the “When In Romance” podcast, and writes about bookish things of all kinds. Having earned an AB in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and her MLIS at San Jose State University, she is now a librarian for a public library system in Southern Arizona, where she lives with her husband and an ever-growing collection of Funko!Pops. Black Loves Matter is her first book. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Jessica Pryde © James Galloway-Reed In this post, […]
5 Keys to Writing a Slow Burn Romance
Anyone who really knows me would happily tell you that patience is not a virtue I possess. (What Writers Should Know About High-End Weddings) And yet, patience is key when writing a slow burn romance, because it’s not just the reader waiting to get to “the good parts,” but the writer as well. You have to lay the foundation, create the tension, and amp up the angst, so that by the time your couple finally gives in, all the pining pays off. Here are a few tips to make that slow burn flame hot hot hot: 1. Build the tension. […]