What Are the Questions Proust Answered in His Journal? Maybe you know about this, but I just learned about it yesterday! In 1890, when the author Marcel Proust was a teenager, he wrote out the answers to pre-printed questions in an interactive journal. The surviving document is often referred to as the “Proust Questionnaire,” even though he didn’t actually come
Hey there! There’s been a lot going on lately, so I thought I’d share a bunch of updates, newsletter-style! I had a couple of great writing events—even if I messed up one of them a little bit! Romance Genre Con in Kansas City I was thrilled to be invited as an author to this event, along with headliner Jasmine Guillory
If you’ve been thinking about setting up an author website (even if you’re unpublished for now), and you don’t want to spent too much and you want it done in less than ten minutes, then this is your lucky day. Read all about it! I’m always telling people how important writer websites are. If a reader, an agent, an editor
If you’re writing dystopian fiction, fantasy, romantasy, science fiction, or other speculative fiction, your characters may be figuring out how to resist fascism, the rise of a dictator, the new reign of an evil monarch, or an increasingly oppressive oligarchy or corporatocracy. At the very least, your heroes may want to make the regime less efficient, demoralize its most loyal
Were Regency era beauty standards different from today’s? Yes and no! I’ll share everything I’ve learned about feminine beauty ideals in this era. I researched Regency era beauty standards when I was writing my romantic comedy novel Her Time Traveling Duke. My heroine in the book, Rose Novak, is plump, with curly hair. My hero, Henry Leighton-Lyons, is from Regency
Last month, my publisher asked me to write a letter to booksellers introducing my book Her Time Traveling Duke. To be honest, until they asked me to do this last year for Her Knight at the Museum , I didn’t know that authors introducing their work to booksellers was A Thing. I don’t know if most publishers do this!
This list of scents is something I’ve been meaning to do forever, because the sense of smell is uniquely connected to memories and to emotion. A scent in a story can flip a little switch in a reader’s brain, immediately triggering a mood. That’s why when I edit other people’s books, I often encourage them to include smells. I especially