by Holland Rae | Mar 12, 2018 | Characters, Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Research, Romance Novels
I am an overwriter. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, as far as the question of overwriter vs. underwriter goes, I’d much rather face the challenge of cutting words than adding them. Putting too much information into a story is a far easier thing to combat than trying to...
by Holland Rae | Feb 26, 2018 | Characters, Heroines, Humor, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Reading, Research, Romance Novels
While I’m not the type of writer to shy away from explicit heat or overt discussions of sex and eroticism in my stories, most of the books written under my pen name Holland Rae fall shy of being labeled “erotic romance.” The distinction is arbitrary. What...
by Holland Rae | Feb 19, 2018 | Characters, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, Reading, Research
Everyone knows that characters drive story. Our heroes and heroines and anti-heroes and comic reliefs give us a human or anthropomorphized experience. Sometimes the story is exciting– action, adventure, romance. Sometimes it is subtle and nuanced– family drama,...
by Holland Rae | Feb 12, 2018 | Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Romance Novels, Uncategorized, Women's Rights
I hate writing short. In fact, the idea of writing a short story is scarier to me than the concept of a full-length novel. I’m an overwriter with a tendency to push too-big concepts and themes into small spaces, far better suited to twice the word count. While I’ve...
by Holland Rae | Jan 29, 2018 | Characters, Editing, Historical, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Reading, Research, Romance Novels, Series, Uncategorized
I used to think I could research my books as I went. I used to delve into plot and character development and setting and think I’ll get to that later. I used to believe that research was secondary, tertiary even, to the fundamentals of writing a story. I used to be...
by Holland Rae | Jan 22, 2018 | Characters, Heroines, Humor, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Research, Reviews, Romance Novels, Writing
On this blog, I spend a lot of time discussing progressive women’s values, intersectional feminism, diversity and representation and the role of the romance novel in moving society forward. Not today! Sometimes, it’s important to step back and remember what drives us...
