Category Archives: Announcements
A New Romance Divas
Romance Divas has always been fully committed to the romance industry, our readers, and members. Our discussion forum is still as lively as when we opened our doors in 2004, but over the years we’ve been kicking around ideas that we hope will improve the site. With a solid 3 million hits a month and approximately 3400 members, it’s been an exciting and rewarding journey.
As we approach our 8th anniversary, we decided to make changes to reflect our own personal and professional transformations. Our new look is only the first step and we hope that in months to come we’ll be able to provide articles that will appeal to, not only our members in the publishing community, but also to our readers in cyberspace. Of course, with our new direction we know there’s still a lot of learning and growing pains but we’re grateful you’ve stayed around and supported us through the years!
A relaunch isn’t fun without a party…so stay tuned for our Divalicious Relaunch Extravaganza Party…we’ll provide details soon!
THANK YOU!
Romantic Suspense Workshop
WORKSHOP! From Oct. 22-24 Romance Divas will be hosting a Workshop / Q&A with some fantastic Dark Romantic Suspense Authors
Come to the forums to find out more! Forum registration is free, but required to participate.
RD in good form
Romance Divas is up and running!
The upgrades were implemented successfully, the re-skinning of the forum is finally complete, and with a new board there’s going to be a few little glitches that we’ll correct as we stumble upon them. There may be times when the forum is out but that could be due to database updates as fixes are being made on our end and our service provider’s end.
I’m certain our members are pleased to have their beloved chat room back. It’s starting off better than expected.
Thanks for your patience and support!
The Admins
Book Reviews are coming back!
Yes, it’s true.
Romance Divas started out with book reviews and we felt that it’s time to bring them back! However, this time we’re changing the way we’re doing things!
Please stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks…
In other news:
We’re always happy to see our members move on to exciting personal projects. Mel Berthier and Bria Quinlan created EXCERPT MONDAY which is an excellent way to for published and unpublished authors to provide excerpts to the online community. It’s a great way for readers to discover new voices and some not so new. If you are interested in learning more, visit their online home: http://excerptmonday.wordpress.com
Congrats on your growing success ladies! Keep up the good work!
Thanks!
Jax Cassidy, Co-Founder
Jeannie Lin wins 2009 Golden Heart for Best Historical Romance Manuscript!!
Romance Divas is beyond excited for Jeannie Lin.
Not only did she make her first sale to Mills and Boon on Wednesday while at conference, but at last night’s 2009 RWA Awards Ceremony she took home the award for Best Historical Romance Manuscript!!!
What a fabulous week she has had. She is an amazing author, and I think there will be many more like it ahead.
Congrats Jeannie!
A Diva “First Sale” at conference!
Huge congrats to Diva Jeannie Lin. She got “The Call” while in D.C. for conference – she’s sold to Harlequin Mills & Boon!
Be sure to check the forums for more news, rumor, and gossip coming out of the conference in DC.
The “Not Going To Conference” Conference is underway on the forums as well. Today begins Ona Russell and Steve Hockensmith and their historical workshop “Perils and Pleasures of Historical Research”
Registration is always free at Romance Divas!
Divas at the “Readers for Life” Literacy autographing
Are you going to be at the “Readers for Life” Literacy autographing in Washington, DC on July 15th? Be sure you stop by and say hi to these Divas who are signing their books!
Gina Ardito
Eden Bradley
Lilli Feisty
Jennifer Haymore/Dawn Halliday
Victoria Janssen
Crystal Jordan
Kate Pearce
Robin Rotham
Shelli Stevens
Interior Monologue: The Enemy of Romance?
(Donald Maass will be conducting a special two-hour workshop based on The Fire in Fiction at RWA National in Washington D.C. Check the official schedule for time and location.)
Interior Monologue: The Enemy of Romance?
by Donald Maass
Do you skim some romance novels? You are not alone. Do you want readers to skim through yours? Well, duh. Who would?
How, then, do you ensure that readers will devour every word of your novels? The answer is a technique called “micro-tension”. This type of tension is not plot problems, or scene goals, but rather the constant, line-by-line tension that causes readers to worry what will happen in the next few seconds.
Micro-tension can be created in a thousand ways, big and small, but its application to interior monologue is especially important in romance fiction. Romance novels portray the inner life of their characters in rich detail. Intimacy is what romance readers crave and romance novels deliver…
…except of course when we are skimming. A frequent source of the problem is interior monologue that “churns”, meaning that it merely repeats thoughts and feelings that are already obvious to the reader.
Effective interior monologue adds fresh worries, new questions and previously unseen dimensions to the issues at hand. It is not inner turmoil. Inner turmoil makes characters weak and is tiresome to read. Unfolding new dimensions to problems, however, makes characters look smart. That kind of interior monologue is exciting to read. That stuff you don’t skim.
Look at it this way: In a passage of interior monologue are you merely going over what your heroine already feels? If so, then readers are likely to skim. Are you on the other hand adding apprehension, questions and inner conflicts that are new? Ah, now we want to read every word.
The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great
by Donald Maass
Description: In his new book, New York literary agent Donald Maass illuminates the techniques of master contemporary novelists. Some authors write powerhouse novels every time. What are they doing differently on the page? Maass not only explains, he shows you how you can right away use the techniques of greatness in your current manuscript.
Author bio: A literary agent in New York , Donald Maass’s agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004) and The Fire in Fiction (2009). He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.
The Fire in Fiction from the publisher.
The Fire in Fiction from bn.com
The Fire in Fiction on amazon.com
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Congratulations to Romance Divas co-founder Kristen Painter on her sale of her urban fantasy book Blood Rights to Orbit in a three book deal! Kristen is represented by Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency.
Free Workshop – Writing Paranormal Young Adult Fiction
Writing Paranormal Young Adult Fiction with Some of The Hottest Authors in the Genre
May 28th-30th at Romance Divas
Featuring:
This workshop will take place at the Romance Diva Forum. All are welcome. To get access to the forum you will need to register.
