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...
by Holland Rae | Jan 15, 2018 | Characters, Feminism, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, Romance Novels, RWA, Uncategorized, Women, Women's Rights
As anyone who is familiar with the genre can attest, romance novels had consistently faced mockery, lack of acknowledgment and derision as a women’s genre in what can old be described as a last-ditch effort by the old order to keep women’s interests, pleasures, and...
by Holland Rae | Jan 3, 2018 | Characters, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, Romance Novels, Series, Writing
Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2018, filled with good health, good luck, and good books! I officially reached my Goodreads book challenge of 100 books on December 30th, so it was close, but despite that, I set my 2018 challenge to 150 books! I’ve seen...