Battles and Cypress Creek

Highlighting Historical Romance with Shannon Nemecheck and her Civil War romance My Name is Shannon Nemechek and most know me for my writing as a Contemporary and Military Romances, but I have been in the process of writing a couple of Historical Romances. Today I thought I would start out telling you a little about […]

Swag

Swag. Odd word that. All that promotional material you get at conferences, races, fairs, trade shows, and business meetings—pens, magnets, sticky notes, calendars and so on—with your car dealer’s name, dentist’s address, or running show company’s logo is swag. Writers have to bring their swag as well. When asked to bring my swag, I know […]

Integrity

You may have seen this photo of me on Facebook this week with the banner across the bottom that states what ought to be obvious. If you’ve been paying attention to the firestorm that has roiled the romance novel industry the past week or more, you probably understand what it means and can skip to […]

Chasing the Hiring Fair

Highlighting Historical Romance with Laura Strickland’s research into hiring fairs. I first became aware of the occurrence of hiring fairs in Britain years ago, through a folk song of the same name. The English folk band, Fairport Convention has long been a favorite of mine, and The Hiring Fair is a wistful tune that tells […]

The Work Has Many Parts

What do you think of when I say I’m “writing?” I suspect most people envision the creation of the first draft of a book, the putting of words on paper, er, or into a word processor, This week I’ve been putting down words, creating new prose, at a steady pace. So. Writing. In some ways […]

Highland Sheep!

Highlighting Historical Romance with Mageela Troche and some facts about Highland sheep. The iconic image of the Scottish Highlands are the green hills dotted with fat, wooly sheep. The image of the sheep we see in that pastoral ideal would be different in my thirteenth century highlander romance, Highland Scandal. Oh, they would still be […]

Viking Winter

Highlighting Historical Romance with Nicole Zoltack and some Viking Lore. Writing a Yule love story featuring Vikings set during wintertime was a lot of fun but required a lot of research. Did you know that mistletoe played a role in Scandinavian mythology? An arrow poisoned with mistletoe claimed the life of Balder. His mother Frigga […]

Valentines and Plausibility

Highlighting Historical Romance with Valentines From Bath You might think a novella, shorter and often simpler than a full novel, would not require much research. You might be wrong. Writers of historical romance always begin with questions. Questions breed research. Sometimes they lead us down the infamous rabbit hole. One thing to keep in mind: […]

The Molasses Disaster

Highlighting Historical Romance with Kathy Otten. While the characters and their story are fictitious, this story is based on a true event, a disaster that took place in 1919. January 15, 1919 was an unseasonably warm day. For residents of Boston’s North End things were finally looking up. On November 11, 1918, the Armistice had […]