This weekend was my mum's 80th birthday with a surprise party to celebrate. Most of my wondering was about how to keep that secret from an incurably curious woman who needs to know all. We managed and the lunch party was a huge success, thanks to the brilliant skills of my big sister.

In between times I did do some wondering about reviews, after volunteering to write a movie review for The Pink Heart Society's Friday Film Night. Which format works best? How to precis the storyline without revealing too much? Whether to talk structure and writing technique or to aim at readers/viewers? In the end I spent far too long stewing over what was supposed to be a fun project and last night I forced myself to sit down and write the piece.

It was not easy. I spent way too much time on it. And this morning I woke thinking about a key scene I left out and should have mentioned seeing as it completes the hero's character arc, but I have managed to sit on my hands while repeating "leave it be, Bronwyn, just let it go." On the positive side, this has left me with a new appreciation for reviewers. Hats off to anyone who can encapsulate a story plot and its impact on them as a reader in a few short paragraphs. I can't. Guess that's why I'm writing novels instead of shorts.

Labels: reviews, weekend wondering

Last weekend I joined Shelfari and have spent far too much time this week adding my keeper books, tagging them according to genre, choosing my Top Ten, checking out other users' shelves and building up my friends' list...because you can never have too many friends, right? I love books. I love databases. This is like manna from heaven.

There's been mention made in a number of author groups about Shelfari "spamming" in-boxes with invitations to join. I say, not Shelfari's fault. The invitations are issued at the user's say-so, although I understand how this could happen inadvertently. And I commiserate with folks who've been inundated with unwanted invitations.

So, if you're considering the Shelfari experience, a word of warning. In the sign-up process there's a screen which gives the option to send invitations to your contact/address book. If you elect to do so, Shelfari sends out the invitations. To all your email contacts. And follows up a few days later. If you value your friendships, choose the link to “skip making friends now” and do your own inviting of readers. Don't risk them thinking they've been spammed.

That's my best advice. Otherwise I'm having fun building My Shelf of favourite books. And if you are a member or do join, look me up, check out my books, say hello.

Labels: reading

Using a dictionary and thesaurus might seem like a given for a writer but several recent reading experiences make me wonder (more wondering, heh) if that is the case. These books -- three to be exact -- stick in my mind for the wrong reason...a reason that has nothing to do with story or characters or entertainment and everything to do with lazy word usage. Because, argh!, I hate when I'm reading happily along only to stumble over incorrect usage or inconsistent description or a word that's just plain drag-me-out-of-the-story inappropriate.

Hence today's tip for the aspiring writer: don't resort to descriptive tags from The Book of Romantic Cliches. Make them specific to your characters, your setting, your season, your story world, your time frame (is ravished a word for the 21st century?) If you need an alternative to the ordinary and obvious, by all means consult your thesaurus. But before dropping that cool-sounding obsidian or those averted eyes into your manuscript, check their meaning.

Alternatives listed in your thesaurus are not all equal and exact; not all black and white. They are shades of grey from the softest mist to the hardest charcoal. Choose the appropriate term with a deft hand...and if this happens to be eye colour, unless your character is using tinted contacts then keep it consistent throughout the book.

I haven't exactly been searching out discussions, but it seems from my distant corner of the world that there's not been as much discussion on the changes to RITA categories as I'd expected. Possibly because writers are generally happy to embrace the changes. Possibly because they see them as positive. Possibly because their concerns/complaints were voiced back when the proposed changes were mooted. Or maybe all the heat was reserved for the changes to publisher recognition, PAN-eligibility and vanity/subsidy press definition.

Anyway, I've been thinking about the changes to the short contemporary category -- the one my books are eligible for -- and wondering if I'll enter the new category. In the past I was competing against other short category books: books published under Harlequin series lines such as Presents, Romance, Desire, Blaze, Medicals. Short books, limited by publisher word count. The longer series lines -- Superromance, Special Edition, Intimate Moments -- were eligible for the Long Contemporary category. And there was a category for Best Traditional Romance, which the sweet, non-explicit series book could enter.

But the publisher word counts changed, lowered, making the majority of the lines eligible under the old "short" guidelines. Hence this year's anomoly of seeing books from the same series lines final as both "short" and "long" contemporary romances. Confusing, much. Change was necessary and the change approved and to be implemented for next year's RITAs pits the majority of category/series books in one honking big category: Best Contemporary Series Romance.

There is a second category, Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure. This is brilliant for authors of Sihouette Romantic Suspense, Harlequin Intrigue, suspense titles within SuperRomance and Blaze and the adventure/action segment of Mills & Boon Medicals. But as far as I can see, the rest of the Harlequin lines -- Presents, Romance, Modern Extra, Desire, Special Edition, American, most Medicals, Blazes and SuperRomances -- will all compete for the one RITA. The Traditional category has been deleted altogether.

I see the rationale, mostly. All books entered in this section have the romantic relationship at their core...although I don't agree with this statement from the Board's explanation of the new guidelines: "With the shrinking word counts at Harlequin/Silhouette, there is no longer an appreciable difference between the length of individual lines." I do think 20-30K is an appreciable difference (50K compared with 70-80K) and I don't believe the gap has shrunk, it has just slid down the scale. When I started writing for Desire, I was turning in 240+ page mss. Now that's shrunk to 200.

I see a huge number of eligible entries for this category -- both the short and long contemporary categories have seen maximum number of finalists in recent years, indicating a high number of entries. I also see that the list of "short" finalists this year is largely weighted toward the longer end of the spectrum. Maybe that was just this year. Maybe next year will be different and judges will find brilliance in the concise storytelling and quick pace of 50K books. I know that more words, more pages, do not necessary make a better book. But I also know those extra words allow for fuller characterisation and complementary layering and parallel subplot, more showing and less telling, more exploration of theme, more setting and descriptive detail.

Although maybe this category won't attract that honking huge number of entries I predict because other authors, like me, won't enter every eligible book. They will enter the pick of the litter, the one they are most proud of, and leave the rest. I dunno. *shrug* Perhaps it's only me who sees it this way.

So, anyway, that's what I've been wondering about this weekend. On the silver-lining side, if I don't enter I will save myself the entry fee and the postage. RITA is not a cheap contest. And I will be able to judge this category -- my favourite kind of reads -- as I did this year.

Labels: RITAs, weekend wondering

Also while I've been gone, the short prequel to my Princes of the Outback series became available as an eBook Mini through Harlequin eBooks. This is the story of Angelina (from The Rugged Loner) Mori's brother Dominic and was originally published as an eHarlequin on-line read and as a bonus novella in Australia. Now, if only I could get the trilogy released as ebooks...

I've decided to trial a new blogging system, with regular postings on themed days. Tuesday will be the day for writing tips, and these may well include links to off-site articles. Today my tip is about dialogue, seeing as I have just posted a new article on dialogue basics. The article was inspired by the number of contest entries I have judged this year where the dialogue flow suffered due to overuse of attribution tags.

My tip: attributing dialogue with tags such as he said, she replied, he responded, she asked is only necessary for clarity -- so the reader knows who is doing the saying, the asking, the responding, the replying. If this is obvious due to the character's voice or the use of an action tag, then skip the dialogue tag.

Example (from Back In Fortune's Bed, Silhouette Desire, Feb. 2007):

"Is this snowing?" Max asked.

"Almost."

He heard the smile in Diana's voice and felt the brush of body contact as she craned her neck to look past him. He also felt her deep-seated shiver as the wall of cold hit.

"Isn't it pretty?" Her voice held an abstracted note of wonder. "I wish I had my camera!"

"You're shivering too hard to hold it steady."

"No. I'm not."

Amused by her indignation, Max shook his head. "Come on. Let's get you to your car or Alberto will have my hide for not keeping you warm."

"I'm parked a couple of blocks--" she pointed off to their right "--down there."

"A couple of blocks?"

"It's not far."

"Speak for yourself, snow-babe." He hunched deeper into his jacket. "I'd have to walk it two ways."

10 lines of dialogue; only one he asked attribution, yet it is clear who is speaking. Same piece of dialogue, with every line attributed:

"Is this snowing?" he asked.

"Almost," Diana replied.

He heard the smile in her voice and felt the brush of body contact as she craned her neck to look past him. He also felt her deep-seated shiver as the wall of cold hit.

"Isn't it pretty," she said, her voice abstracted with wonder. "I wish I had my camera!"

"You're shivering too hard to hold it steady," Max said.

"No," she responded. "I'm not."

Amused by her indignation, Max shook his head. "Come on," he said. "Let's get you to your car or Alberto will have my hide for not keeping you warm."

"I'm parked a couple of blocks down there," she said, pointing off to their right.

"A couple of blocks?" Max asked.

"It's not far," she fired back.

"Speak for yourself, snow-babe," Max retorted. He hunched deeper into his jacket. "I'd have to walk it two ways."

Can you see how the flow is smoother and pacier in the first example? Without any loss of clarity?

Labels: Back In Fortune's Bed, writing tips

Okay, so I missed it by a week but last weekend marked one year of clustermapping on this page and I'm delighted -- and more than mildly surprised -- to see over 14,000 visits recorded in that year. Reaching for my calculator...that's an average of 37-38 visitors per day and I love that those visitors hail from all over the globe. Cheers to you all!

Heartiest congratulations to all the winners (and finalists, for that matter) from the RWA Awards tonight in Dallas. A special shoutout to the winners from down under: Barbara Hannay, RITA winner for Best Traditional Romance (the last year this category will be awarded) and Bronwyn Clarke, Golden Heart winner in the Romantic Suspense category. Way to go, ladies!

This is actually the only cover to date that approximates Zane's bad-boy image. This book would definitely not make it as a Desire in the current guidelines.

Very strange how I couldn't for several days, but now all is well in the cosmos...or it would be if I heard from son #1 who is Somewhere In Africa on an adventure safari trip. I am not freaking out (yet) because I understand that the mobile doesn't work and that there is no internet access on the days they're on the road between stopovers -- currently that's somewhere between Malawi and Zanzibar -- but I'm a mother. It's my job to worry between phone calls/emails.

The Dog Ate My Blogwork

Shortly before I went blogging AWOL, I was tagged with an eight-random-facts meme to which I didn't respond. Bad Bron. To assuage my guilt I've decided to make this first post back a list of eight random reasons why I haven't blogged for almost two months. (During which time I've changed computers and things don't work the same and for some unfathomable reason I can't seem to post in the Title box of blogger -- if anyone knows what's up with that, please, please, let me know.)

1. I've been busy writing...and rewriting...and writing some more...and finally Vows & a Vengeful Groom (January 08) is done and dusted.

2. I've been busy watching the grass grow. Yes, really! The drought has broken; there's been rain on the roof, mud to slosh through, a clothes dryer to kick into use for the first time in five years. And grass thick and wet beneath my feet when I walk. To illustrate, here is a view of one of our dams in April and then in June. What a difference some rain makes!













3. I've been busy ignoring my friends' getting-ready-for-RWA-Dallas plans. Lured by an invitation to present a RITA (an opportunity that in all probability won't come around again), I did contemplate going for a couple of weeks. I found Frequent Flyer flights, a room to share, a stopover in Santa Monica. Alas, a July trip just wasn't possible.

4. Bummed out by that decision, I busied myself booking flights, accommodation, workshops et al for both the Australian and New Zealand Romance Writers Conferences in August...an instant cure for the can't-do-National blues.

5. I've been busy preparing the workshop I'm presenting at RWAustralia, on using tension to create a page-turner.

6. Maintaining the workshop thread, I've also been busy as a participant in an on-line workshop to nurture my creative soul. Believe me, the twelve-week course is not long enough. There is still an awful lot of nurturing to be done!

7. Recently I rediscovered the joy of reading, something that had alluded me for too many months.

8. Even more recently I've been busy researching and gathering ideas for my next books, a linked pair which I hope will be partly set in England.