Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Unforgettable Heroes with Emmie Dark


I'm thrilled to have, Harlequin SuperRomance author, Emmie Dark, as a special guest blogger today. Welcome Emmie!


I have always had a thing for James Bond. I remember going to see one of the Timothy Dalton movies with friends from school and being all in a swoon over Bond’s dashing hero persona.

Timothy Dalton isn’t my favourite Bond. I know many people go for Sean Connery and I can certainly see the appeal there! But I grew up with Roger Moore and when I think of James Bond, his is the face that most quickly comes to mind.

But that, of course, is without considering the latest incarnation of James Bond – Daniel Craig. Hang on, wait a moment for me to clean the drool from my keyboard … there, that’s better.

Has there been a more swoon-worthy hero on movie screens in recent years? And why is he so appealing? One of the reasons, I think, is that this ‘modern’ version of James Bond isn’t invulnerable. He hurts. He struggles with his tasks and his values. He falls in love and has his heart broken. These are not the traits of the 70s and 80s James Bond that I grew up with.

I think that’s why Daniel Craig’s Bond is so affecting. We love our heroes to have some depth – some inner conflict and struggle. That all makes his ultimate triumph so much more rewarding – we know that it has come at some cost.

It’s also, for me, what makes for memorable romance novel heroes. Heroes who have to overcome their own emotional, physical and (sometimes) moral barriers in order to find completeness and happiness. It makes the HEA so much more rewarding when we know they’ve had to work hard to find it.

In my debut novel, it is my heroine, Cassie, who has the most significant obstacles to overcome. But my hero, Ronan, isn’t just having a plain-sailing time of it either. He’s trying to work out his place in the world and struggling with the deception he’s feels he has no choice but to see through. For me this made him more ‘real’ and made me fall in love with him all over again each time he stumbled and got back up again.

Who is your favourite Bond? Or do you have a different unforgettable movie hero? Leave a comment to be in the running for a signed copy of Cassie’s Grand Plan.

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Four steps to a brand-new life

Cassie Hartman knows what she needs to do to get her life under control. First, she’ll get herself promoted. Then she’ll update her appearance. Steps three and four—marriage and family—well, those will have to wait.

Then Ronan McGuire shows up. The too-sexy, too-polished business consultant has the power to derail Cassie’s plans before she’s even really started. If he doesn’t approve her promotion, she’ll be back to square one—and that’s not an option. Cassie needs to keep her focus on that first step, no matter how much Ronan tempts her to skip ahead to the third and fourth ones....


Buy Links:
Harlequin                Amazon                    Amazon UK

B&N                       Book Depository

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Emmie Dark’s Bio:
After years of writing press releases, employee newsletters and speeches for CEOs and politicians –none of which included any kind of kissing – Emmie Dark finally took to her laptop to write what she wanted to write. She was both amazed and delighted to discover that what came out was sexy, noble heroes who found themselves crossing paths with strong, determined heroines. And plenty of kissing.

Emmie’s overnight success has taken about five years to achieve. She began fiddling around with story ideas when the urge to write fiction became overwhelming. In July 2011 she sold her first book to Harlequin SuperRomance and she’s not looking back, with her second sale in September. Both books will be out in 2012.

Emmie lives in Melbourne, Australia, and she likes red lipstick, chardonnay, sunshine, driving fast, rose-scented soap and a really good cup of tea. Like, a really good cup of tea. She’s particularly fussy about it, and has been known to pack her own teabags when she travels. Most members of her family are too scared to make her a cuppa, in case they get it wrong.

Website               Blog                 Facebook             Twitter




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Sunday, March 25, 2012

April Writing Workshops 2012



Please note that all course descriptions are in blurb form.  There’s often more information at the official websites.  The April writing workshops are listed in order of start date and length.

Instructor: Victoria Martinez
Dates: April, 2012
Course Description: Whether you want to write historical fiction or nonfiction, you need to make sure your research skills are top-notch and your historical context is consistent. Historical research and writing can seem daunting at first, but can be a rewarding experience with the right tools and knowledge. This course will teach you: where to find the right historical resources; how to cull essential facts and details; the most effective ways to organize information; and how to accurately weave history into your writing.

Instructor: Bob Mayer & Jen Talty
Dates: April, 2012
Course Description: Published author considering publishing your backlist? Unpublished author considering self-publishing? This workshop will look closely at self-publishing distribution channels from what kind of file you will need to upload your eBook to various options you have in creating the files. We will also discuss all the various platforms such as Kindle, Nook, iBooks and Smashwords and what are the best strategies to getting your book up for sale. We will discuss doing it yourself, outsourcing and team-building options. Authors have more options today than ever before, but the process can be overwhelming. While this is not a step-by-step technical class, the workshop is designed to give you enough information to make informed decisions on how to get your eBook on all formats possible.

Instructor: Catherine Chant
Dates: April 1-13, 2012
Course Description: At the end of this workshop you will have a better understanding of what goes into making your author website more appealing and inviting to a visitor and thus more effective for promoting you and your work. …

Instructor: Margie Lawson
Dates: April 1-27, 2012
Course Description: Learn how to write body language and dialogue cues from a kinesics specialist. No more clichéd, trite, and overused facial expressions.

Instructor: Frank Ahearn
Dates: April 1-30, 2012
Course Description: People disappear for many reasons, some to avoid government intrusion, better tax structures, to leave a past behind or avoid danger – obviously there is a common thread to find independence from a situation. Frank Ahearn, an expert on the fine art of disappearance, offers fiction writers his tricks and tips on creating credible characters and scenarios that disappear or how to find them. …

Instructor: Linnea Sinclair
Dates: April 1-30, 2012
Course Description: Pow! Bam! Thud! Fun stuff for comic strips but potentially cartoonish when it comes to commercial genre fiction. Yet today‘s readers—raised on explosive movies and violent video games—often crave the same kind of excitement in a book. So how can a writer deliver action that feels real? Learn how to perfect your techniques with former private detective (yeah, she really did carry a badge and a gun for ten years) and award-winning science fiction romance author Linnea Sinclair…

Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: April 2-8, 2012
Course Description: we’ll concentrate on building whatever community you need, be it a neighborhood or precinct in a metropolis or a cozy, comfy small town in the middle of next-to-no-where. There will be one CHALLENGE – and that’s to create the place where your characters live, work, love…and, oh yeah, solve crimes in.

Instructor: Tracy Wolff
Dates: April 2-15, 2012
Course Description: Are You A Writer or A Storyteller? starts with a quiz to help determine which one is your strong suit.  Then we move on to a discussion strengths and weaknesses of writing and story telling, along with strategies to exploit your own strengths and bolster your weaknesses to help make you the best writer and storyteller you can be.

Instructor: Lois Winston
Dates: April 2-16, 2012
Course Description: … Lois will discuss the various types of writing contests and how to determine which contests are best to enter, based on the writer’s goals and expectations. She will cover everything from the financial to the emotional. From the need for a dynamic opening sentence to the chapter ending hook. From scores and feedback (or lack of it) to staying organized. From contest complaints to contest etiquette. From volunteering to judge as a way to advance your career to constructing a voodoo doll of that clueless judge who kept you from finaling…Is she kidding? You’ll have to sign up for the workshop to find out.)

Instructor: Virna DePaul
Dates: April 2-22, 2012
Course Description: Theme is the underlying message or meaning of your story.  Story question is the driving force that unveils the message to your reader.  Both act not only as a jumping off point for your story but as a tether and sometimes a lifeline.  They provide the answer for “why” things happen in the story, but sometimes they can also provide the “how.”  In other words, knowing your theme and story question can actually help you brainstorm scenes when your muse decides to take a nap. ...

Instructor: Deborah Blake
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Want to write a paranormal romance or urban fantasy, but don’t want to be just another Vamp in the crowd? Yearning to create a completely original paranormal character, but don’t know where to start? Author Deborah Blake moves beyond Vampires to delve into a wide range of paranormal folk who don’t need to hide from the sun. From Witches to Weres, Fae to Phantasms, this class will explore the alternatives to over-used supernatural stereotypes and help you to create your own unique paranormal character. The class will include a discussion of current trends, suggested reading, hints for character building, and an overview of authors who have successfully gone beyond the traditional.

Instructor: Virginia Kantra
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: The casting director's responsibility is to find actors who are right for the roles of a particular production. What characters does your story require? What traits do they need? How do you describe them, reveal them, create chemistry between them? Award-winning author Virginia Kantra discusses how to use the requirements of different character roles--heroes, heroines, antagonists and secondary characters--to build a strong, appealing cast and focus your story.

Instructor: Margie Lawson
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Three prerequisites. Do you want to dig deep into deep editing? Do you want to take an advanced class with all Margie Grads? Do you want Margie's Deep Edit Analysis for any 30 pages of your WIP? If so, this squeal-it's-a-deal class is for you!

Instructor: Alexa Bourne
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Many people browse through a book store, pull a book of the shelf and read the first page. They decide right then, based on the 1st line, 1st paragraphs and 1st page, whether or not they'll buy the book. Killer Openings dissects those all-important elements. Students study good and bad openings and discuss why they do or don't work. they can also submit their own opening lines/paragraphs/pages and receive a critique.

Instructor: Susan Meier
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Good books are about people. Great books are about people in trouble. Not just external trouble, but real, gut wrenching, soul hurting trouble. Most of us can give our characters believable external struggles and even get them beyond those struggles, but what about that internal struggle? Can a leopard really change his or her spots? And if so how? What do editors and agents mean when they say your character has to grow? Learn the basis for ever internal struggle and how to achieve believable character growth that can carry your whole story and give your characters a real happy ending.

Instructor: Lisa Miller
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Beautiful words and exciting scenes aren’t enough to propel the reader through a novel. Stories need structure, a plan, a focus from beginning to end. Story Structure Safari will guide you through the dense jungle of information about story. Our trek will include excursions into the lands of Story Structure and Transformational Character Arcs and Plot.

Instructor: Megan Applegate
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: This four-week course will delve deep into Austen’s methods of  characterization and how to apply them to your own writing—the many tiers of  a heroine, the depths and drive behind heroes. It will explore crisis and  conflict as a character and the methods behind successfully pitting your  characters against the “setting” for maximum conflict and goal realization.

Instructor: Jaye Roycraft
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Romantic suspense, mysteries, urban fantasies – these are just a few of the genres that might require an author to use a cop or an ex-cop as either the protagonist or an important secondary character.  Learning the inner workings of a police department can be a challenge for any writer.  As both an author and a female who spent eight years with a big-city police department, I can share an insider’s look into the world of a cop – the emotions and attitudes of a typical street cop as well as procedures, training, guns and ammo, and “copspeak” – that mysterious language comprised of codes and cop slang...

Instructor: Kat Duncan
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Learn exactly how to use active voice to maximize the impact of your writing style. Kat will show you how to identify and fix passive sentences and explain when you should leave them alone and why. Kat will provide plenty of well-explained examples of how to develop an engaging active voice and use it to build tension and control pacing. Bonus: Learn simple techniques to design figurative language and action-emotion word combinations that will liven up your manuscript. Includes optional exercises.

Instructor: Suzanne Rock
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Digital books are becoming more and more popular. Devices such as the Kindle, iPAD and Nook have brought ebooks into the limelight and provided many new and exciting publishing opportunities for writers. Despite this, many are still confused about the epublishing process. This course is for beginners who want to learn more about digital publishing and determine if it's a good fit for them...

Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Are you spinning tales about members of the Skywalker-Solo family, or the crew as on the Starship Enterprise, or something featuring a brilliant alien who travels the universe and time in a blue box? Are you telling tales in a TV series’ world that went off the air decades ago? If so, these stories can be edited, recreated, and turned into something that is clearly of your own creation, not spun off from another’s, and morphed into something that can snag an editor’s interest. ...

Instructor: Misa Ramirez
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Finding your voice is perhaps one of the most difficult things a writer must do.  It’s not as if you’ve lost it and it’s hiding under the bed, waiting to be rediscovered.  And you can’t copy someone else’s. ...

Instructor: Anna Bowling
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Learn to use fan fiction techniques to create original stories and characters without having to look over your shoulder for copyright lawyers. Let favorite movies, television or music inspire your own creativity, put your own spin on archetypes and themes we all know and love and avoid the dreaded Mary Sue along the way.  The name of the game is inspiration, not imitation. ...

Instructor: Karina Fabian
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: We'll examine four basic marketing areas: Online relationships, Off-line relationships, Press, and Platform. In week five, we'll put it together into a marketing plan you can offer to publishers in a proposal or use for yourself on your contracted book.

Instructor: June Diehl
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: This workshop will cover the following: the unique characteristics of the short story, craft elements, writing scenes, story beginnings, middle, and ending, writing the draft, making plans for your revision, markets for your short story, and how to submit. At the end of 30 days you will have a drafted story with feedback and a plan for making your revisions.

Instructor: Mary O’Gara
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Multi-tasking is your strength-when it doesn't overwhelm you. So how many goals can you handle without stressing out? And how do you know what to do next and what not to do at all? ...

Instructor: Tiffany Lawson Inman
Dates: April 2-30, 2012
Course Description: No matter where you are in the writing process – this class will crack open your psyche to reveal dynamic character, motivation, and reaction, showing you how to activate emotion you never knew you had.

Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: April 2- May 1, 2012
Course Description:This 4-Week workshop tells how by guiding participants through the doors of history and on an excursion into the world of clockwork mechanics as well as highlighting the various elements that make up Steampunk.

Instructor: Nancy Mayer
Dates: April 4-29, 2012
Course Description: The Regency woman. She was a woman of stern morals and little laughter. A governess who didn't feel oppressed and a governess who did. She owned her own business. She was an author, a poet, a scientist, a runaway. She lived a discreet and quiet life and she was notorious. She was the faithful wife and the mother of many children, or a divorced woman who had to give up her children to escape her husband. ...

Instructor: Tamela Buhrke
Dates: April 5-30, 2012
Course Description: A publisher will expect you to have a blog, but you shudder at the very idea. Who are you to blog? Maybe you don’t even have a book out yet. What value could you offer? Where can you find the time? And what will you write that will make even the slightest difference in the sales of your book or the process of being published?

Instructor: Teresa Bodwell
Dates: April 9-14, 2012
Course Description: This workshop will give you a head start on the critiquing process.  It's designed for beginning critiquers and will lead into the full workshop beginning March 5th.  Participants in this workshop will receive a critique on their first 15 pages from the instructor. 

Instructor: Jaye Roycraft
Dates: April 9-15, 2012
Course Description: Many people go through life thinking of conflict as a bad thing.  But not only is conflict unavoidable, it’s a necessary part of life.  It’s what challenges us and keeps us going.  Conflict isn’t easy, but in the end, it can help us grow and become better people.  How we deal with the conflicts in our lives is what defines us.  Are we strong individuals who are able to overcome obstacles and grow, or do we fall short and fail?  In real life, it’s usually a case of a little of both.  The same is true of our fictional characters. ...

Instructor: Devon Ellington
Dates: April 9-29, 2012
Course Description: The purpose of this workshop is to learn how to work with a base story, and, using the elements of different genres, rework it from genre to genre. ...

Instructor: Raquel Rodriguez
Dates: April 9-May 6, 2012
Course Description: You've heard it for writers, businesses and homes, now you can Feng Shui your characters!  Learn traditional concepts and the basis of Feng Shui and utilize techniques I have developed to give added depth and dimension.  Solve character problems and gain new insight into what makes them tick.  This workshop teaches all about color psychology, item placement, and how to translate a Feng Shui "fix" to improve your characters.  Add action, adventure, intrigue or desire into your story with easy remedies, and put your protagonist (or antagonist) on the proper path to their goal. 

Instructor: LD Madison
Dates: April 9-May 7, 2012
Course Description: The four-week workshop is for authors at all levels of writing experience. There are no specific ‘prerequisites’ other than an open-mind, and a desire to create spine-chilling, believable predators. The workshop is meant to be an overview of criminals and predators – not just killers. It will include the psychology of rapists, arsonists, cult leaders and pedophiles – as well as a strategy for the hero/heroine to find and catch the villain. ...

Instructor: LD Madison
Dates: April 9-October 18, 2012
Course Description: This is a six month long class and at the end the participants should have a book finished or close to being finished. It will also include lectures on the current state of the publishing industry and how to look for an agent or pursue a contract with a publishing house.
Instructor: Pat Hauldren
Dates: April 16-May 6, 2012
Course Description: Fantasy, and especially Urban Fantasy, are hot genres on today's market. In this class, we'll define Urban Fantasy, explore genre expectations and tropes, the markets available and how each market expects different aspects of the same genre. We'll also study the current publications in the genre, including adult, YA, romance, and children's subgenres, and compare our own manuscripts to these. Throughout the class, we'll work on improving our manuscripts to meet market needs.

Instructor: Marcy Weydemuller
Dates: April 16-May 6, 2012
Course Description: The reality of our world, its emotional resonance and unique atmosphere, will be found in the details. Either we see it though the familiarity and ordinariness of our main character, or we see its strangeness through her confusion or entrancement. So it’s important for us to know the details ourselves. Just as we can walk around our homes in the dark, knowing exactly where we are, so must our characters. What is real to them needs to be real to us. This provides authentic atmosphere, tone and mood. But it doesn’t mean we need to invent everything. In this four-week workshop we’ll break ground to create our unique setting.

Instructor: Christine Amsden
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Before there was a story, there was a beginning, and that beginning had to shine or there would be no story, or at least, no one to read it. We draw people in with characters, intrigue, drama, humor, and above all, competent writing. In this workshop, we will discuss where to begin a story and how to reel the reader in with tantalizing details and an implicit promise of things to come. There will be weekly writing assignments and peer review is expected. This workshop is designed with beginners and intermediates in mind, but a grasp of spelling and grammar is necessary.

Instructor: Kat Duncan
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: This workshop explores the elements needed to show a character's emotional arc from opening page to ending scene. You will learn techniques that enable you to tug at a reader's heartstrings. How and when to launch into emotional introspection and when not to. Blend emotion and story conflict and learn when and how to emphasize each. Manage your characters' emotions by learning how to manipulate your readers' emotions. Entice your readers to follow your characters' emotional upheavals and revelations without giving readers a reason to toss the book aside out of boredom or toss it in the trash out of anger. ...

Instructor: Tricia Ballad
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: addresses one of the most common complaints among writers of all levels: the inability to find the time to sit down and write. This workshop will help students address four areas of time management that are most relevant to writers: setting concrete goals and breaking them down into discrete tasks, finding time to accomplish those tasks, avoiding burnout, and how to get back on track when things do not go as planned.

Instructor: Deborah Holland
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Curious about self-publishing? Do you want to become part of the recent wave of self-published authors? Do you want to have more control over your books and your career?

Instructor: Stacey O’Neale
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Social media can be an aspiring authors best friend. If you know how to use it - it can be helpful in attracting literary agents, publishers, and readers to your work. But with all the available outlets out there, it's hard to know where to concentrate. In this course, we're going to get down and dirty with what's working, how much time to invest, what to do, and especially, what not to do. This course is designed for aspiring authors as well as published authors looking to connect with a larger audience. ...

Instructor: Todd Stone
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Writing not working?  Not happy with your progress?  Internal editor, rejection letters, or writers block making you need a little help with your self-esteem right now? How about some hugs? You ain't gettin' 'em here.  Toss the tissues and put on your grown-up-person clothes, 'cause it's time you got some no-nonsense, "this is the way it is, now deal" advice from a professional communicator who has seen the words for money game change over two decades.  What's hot in genres will change, what you need to know to write the best novel and have the best writing career won't. ...

Instructor: Connie Cox
Dates: April 23-May 20, 2012
Course Description: Connie writes because she's curious.  She always wants to know 'and then what happened.'  A natural seat-of-her-pants writer, Connie knows first hand that lack of structure leads to illogical, unbelievable and meandering storylines that have readers scratching their heads and looking for the No-Doze.  Pantsers tend to write themselves in the corner and end up scrapping pages and pages of work, or even the whole manuscript. ... 

Instructor: Kat Duncan
Dates: April 23-May 20, 2012
Course Description: You've heard the old adage "write what you know". But what if you're a housewife with no work experience and your most recent hobby is folding laundry? You know more than you think. You may know how to solve tricky problems, soothe ruffled feathers, keep law and order, monitor sick kids, sympathize over the loss of a pet, or organize a mob of unruly kids at a party. You have goals and aspirations, even if they are just to get through the next holiday dinner. Kat will help you dig deep into your personal skills and pull out every tool you have that can be used in your writing. Not only that, but Kat will help you see how those skills could be applied to every fiction genre from sweet inspirationals to erotic sci-fi. Published examples, plus short exercises and templates support your writing goals for the future.

Instructor: Kathy Cottrell
Dates: April 30-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Do you want to know what an editor really wants?  Join Kathy Cottrell, Senior Editor for the Wild Rose Press, as she shares her years of experience working in the trenches with both fledgling and experienced authors and explains how to turn an ordinary submission into something that brings an editor up out of her chair. 

Instructor: Karina Fabian
Dates: April 30-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Some of the most successful article writers understand how to use their ideas and research time effectively.  Using her own experience as a freelance writer and her research, Karina Fabian will present suggestions on how to make the most of the background work you do.

Instructor: Devon Ellington
Dates: April 30-May 27, 2012
Course Description: How do you create a convincing setting?  Whether you’re setting your story in a real location or a fantastical one, it’s the same on the page as in life:  Location, location, location!  Spend a month with Devon Ellington learning how to craft believable settings as compelling as your characters in both naturalistic and fantastic ways.  There will be short term assignments and long-term assignments over the term of the course, so be prepared to work on more than one project at a time.

Instructor: Misa Ramirez
Dates: April 30-May 27, 2012
Course Description: Who can resist the dark hero? He is brooding, with a dark soul, is impossibly damaged, struggles, and often teeters on the edge of being a villain. How do we write this attractive character without making him insensitive and cold?  It’s a tall order, but when done well, the dark hero is irresistible. ...

Instructor: Alice Osborn
Dates: April 30-May 27, 2012
Course Description: Have you been told you have a story that needs to be told? We all have a life story inside of us, but we may feel that what we’ve experienced is not relevant or important. Nonsense! Everyone has a voice and everyone has a story that needs to be shared with others. In this four week workshop, you’ll learn how to harness the power of your stories for future generations, and that what you’ve learned over a lifetime is a treasure. We will discuss the ingredients of a great memoir, dialogue, summary, scene and also publication.
  
Are you studying this month? Happy writing!

 
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