Romance Tropes

Dreaming of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group

It is that time of the month again! Come join us insecure writers as we forge a path towards our dreams. The main point of the group is to connect, reassure, and support your author journey, no matter what it looks like. We meet on the first Wednesday of every month. Come on in! The co-hosts we should offer our thanks to for July are PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre! Go check in on their comment sections and add…

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Book Tropes: You Should See The Way They Look at You

Otherwise known as: the fresh scent of pine. Ahhh, this is such a fun niche trope. It generally happens in a ‘hero falls first’ situation, and let’s all admit together that we love us a pining hero. But there is the delicious potential for this uncertainty when any character falls first and is now vulnerable, unsure their love is requited. The best part about all of this troubled water our main character has to paddle through? There’s a happy ending…

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The Great Blogging Wrap-Up of 2022

Lets get to some numbery-maths for the year. I’m still at the point where I genuinely have a lot of fun breaking my blogging year down in stats. If you’re interested the 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017 breakdowns are linked. Just as a note: I’ve spent zero pennies on marketing of any kind since I started this blog in November 2016. Instead, I’ve focused on blog-hops and building relationships. That means super slow growth and also super low stress levels. (If slow is…

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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Asks Why I Love Romance

To be fair, no one in the IWSG asked why I love romance. The actual specific question for this month was What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre? But . . . I mean. Come on. We all knew SE was going to answer ‘romance! I freaking adore romance’ and come prepared with an entire listicle of what I consider the best characteristics of romance. With GIFs galore. The co-hosts keeping us on track for October…

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Release Day! First Love, the Art of Making Doughnuts

The IWSG anthology is out today, and I’m so excited! Since my story is included, I had the privilege of reading the entire thing as it was getting prepared for publication, and you are in for a treat. In the book you’ll find many great short stories, bringing you back to that sensation of your first love. A cold, controlled woman who just might be thawed by the special care taken to make her doughnuts, a sweet historical, a look…

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SE and the Teasing Book Taste

I mean ‘teasing’ in a very non-creepy, authory way. Don’t worry. I have a book coming out in September and you might like a small nibble. Just a tiny one, to see if it suits your palate. So sit back, relax, and enjoy your appetizer of The Sidekick and The Supervillain. Picture Michaela, innocently at work checking temperatures and taking blood pressure readings, when into her Urgent Care walks one of the biggest supervillains in Smallcity. He’s got robots everywhere,…

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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group and Giving People What they Want

It’s the first Wednesday in August, which means it’s IWSG day! Bask in the support and kindness of your fellow authors, and come join the group if you haven’t already. The group is on Twitter (@IWSG) and uses the hashtag IWSG on social medias, if you’re the masochistic type who flitters around social media. (And we are all that type.) Our volunteer co-hosts this month are  Tara Tyler, Lisa Buie Collard, Loni Townsend, and Lee Lowery! Go tell them thank you for giving us…

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SE’s Recommendations Get a Little Hot

AKA my favorite summer reads Also I may have been misleading you a tad with the ‘little’ in the title. Buckle up, bookworms. Tis the season for some hot, hot stuff. Please be advised that every single series on this list would be classified in the erotic romance genre, and carries the accompanying level of spicy scenes. This is the perfect weather to sit sipping a cold drink and reading all about abductions, mail-order brides, cute hybrid babies, forced proximity,…

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Take it Away, Insecure Writer’s Support Group

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means we are all insecure! Get down with your bad self and accept the fragility. We’re all here to support you. To sign up for the group, go here. We are, if not legion, then at least myriad. There’s plenty of support to be had. And we are also on Twitter @TheIWSG hashtag #IWSG. A lot of the support today is coming from our volunteer co-hosts J Lenni Dorner, Janet Alcorn, PJ Colando, Jenni Enzor, and Diane…

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The Basics of Romance, for Your Author Toolbox

*Sings* Do you want to write a romance? If you do, you’re in good company. Millions of books printed and sold every year (and probably hundreds of millions of Ebooks downloaded. I haven’t done the research, but I’m feeling pretty confident with that guess.) Thousands of authors. HUGE part of the publishing market share. But . . . where to start? How is a romance different from any other fiction novel? What defines “romance”? At the basic level: A romance…

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