by Holland Rae | Sep 2, 2019 | Characters, Editing, Industry, Musings, My Books, Romance Novels
I am not a pirate queen. I am not a duchess, a ballet instructor nor a botanist with two hot Search and Rescue boyfriends living in a cabin in the Montana mountains. I’ve never driven a BMW, captained a pirate ship or played sovereign to a county in the English...
by Holland Rae | Aug 26, 2019 | Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Research, Romance Novels
We’re gonna write, write, write ‘til broad daylight! Psh, I wish. If there was one thing I could go back and tell the writer version of myself when I first started this whole crazy career, it’s that romance writing may be a passion, but it has to be a business. Over...
by Holland Rae | Aug 19, 2019 | Characters, Editing, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books
This has been a busy summer. In July, my best friend visited for a long weekend and the day he left, my cousins came to town. A week later, I left for the New York City Romance Writers of American Conference, and not four days after returning home, we took a weekend...
by Holland Rae | Aug 14, 2019 | Characters, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Regency, Romance Novels, RWA, Women, Women's Rights, Writing
My family thinks what I do is pretty cool. They’re supportive, proud, and genuinely interested in how stories get made, how they get sold, and what, exactly, I will be doing next. That doesn’t mean they always understand it, though. Last week, we went away with the...
by Holland Rae | Aug 9, 2019 | Characters, Heroines, Industry, Musings, My Books, Reading, Research, Romance Novels, Series
As a longtime reader and writer of the romance genre, one of the most common refrains I have come across goes a little like this: But it’s so formulaic. You know how the book is going to end, why bother? It’s just a fill in the blank. Onward and upward. In fact, the...
by Holland Rae | Jul 22, 2019 | Characters, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Research, Romance Novels
There are many things that need to happen in a book in order for it to qualify as good romance. The hero and heroine must go through a series of internal and external conflicts and come out on the other side, there is often a strong female friendship, themes of sex...