Come to the forums to find out more! Forum registration is free, but required to participate.

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

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 Mel Berthier and Bria Quinlan created EXCERPT MONDAY which is an excellent way to for published and unpublished authors to provide excerpts to the online community.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

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!

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!

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

Writing Paranormal Young Adult Fiction with Some of The Hottest Authors in the Genre

May 28th-30th at Romance Divas

Featuring:

Rachel Caine

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Cassandra Clare

Lucienne Diver

Christopher Golden

Jeff Mariotte

Alyson Noel

Rosemary Clement-Moore

This workshop will take place at the Romance Diva Forum. All are welcome. To get access to the forum you will need to register.