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Author: Mary Anne

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These days, many readers are also writers. They've either published on Kindle or have a book in progress. This post is a reminder to all of us who write romance. Don't forget the foundation.

Everyone spends so much time crafting the hook - the first bit of the book designed to draw in readers. A lot of attention is paid to plot development, the cover and the blurb. But the truth is, a writer can do a phenomenal, grand-slam job at all of these things, and still lose readers partway through the book. How to keep the readers?

Hooking the reader is important. But, like hooking a fish, some books get thrown back. Some of those throw-aways have great hooks, gloriously developed plots, a killer blurb and a gorgeous cover. They're thrown back because they lack a solid foundation. What's the foundation? A romance is about a story between a hero and a heroine, surrounded by friends, family, associates and/or enemies. The stars re the hero and the heroine. They're the foundation, and they must be carefully crafted to garner emotion and empathy from the reader. If a reader doesn't care about the characters, he or she will never care about the story.

Oh, it's fine to throw in quirky characters. They're fun to write and to read. But the hero and heroine are where the story begins, continues and concludes. They can be, and often are flawed. A flaw is a fault that can be overcome. What writers don't want and readers won't finish are fatally flawed characters. Readers will put down a book where a rogue hero is too full of himself, too condescending, too self centered - too big of a bastard. They'll also put down a book where the heroine is too big of a bitch. She can't be too stupid, too selfish, too vain, or just too full of herself. And neither the hero nor the heroine can be bland. Bland inspires nothing, ever. Flaws are spices. A dash of this or a pinch of that may make a dish a winner. Too much spice will kill the flavor.

Suspense authors may be most often guilty of lacking a foundation. They spend so much ink on the murder or the mystery, on how the leads find the clues, are put in peril, and then solve the case. But if the best-plotted and most meticulous suspense isn't led by a hero and heroine whose relationship readers root for, the book is likely to be cast aside. A romantic suspense is first and always a romance.

Don't make the mistake of focusing so heavily on the architecture, the design, and the decor that you don't put in a floor. A reader is unlikely to give a throw-away author a second shot. Writers can't build a career on readers who don't return. Hook 'em and keep 'em by remembering that romance readers love the genre because they want to live the story. If they don't want to live the story, they won't finish it. Build the foundation first and make it strong with fascinating, empathetic leads. Then worry about the rest of it. The story flows from the charcters or it doesn't flow at all.

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In my "Forever" series, I'm hard at work on Ian's tale. You'll recall that he's Nial and Heather's son. Their tale started the series - "A Faerie Fated Forever."

Since then, I've published "A Golden Forever" which is Colt and Viv's tale. Then comes "A Sixth Sense of Forever" -Boz and Lily's story. After that, there's Peter and Elle's story in "A Magical Forever." Finally, there's Vlad and Mala's tale in "A Forbidden Forever."

But, like I've said here before, I'm finally working on Ian's story and a lot of "Faerie" fans have begged for it. Until Ian's tale comes out, this is a great time to catch up on the whole series. A BIG OLE HEADS UP - "Magical" will be free on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1 and 2.

All books are available on Amazon. So, go ahead and pick up any "Forever" tales you may have missed (shame on you). That way, you'll be all caught up when Ian's tale is published.

Happy Reading!!!

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What's the difference between a good romance novel and a great romance novel?

A good romance will catch your attention and keep it. The characters won't just be relatable - that may be good enough for other genres, but not romance. A good romance features a hero and a heroine who inspire empathy. The reader cares about the characters. The reader shares the feelings of the characters. It's the written version of a football game - you root for the hero and heroine.

So, what makes a romance great? A great romance is an experience. It's like taking a vacation whenever you open the book. And, like a great vacation, a great romance takes you to a destination you want to visit again and again. Yes, you know the story - like you know the attractions at your favorite vacation spot. But, you adore the characters, the plot and, mostly, the feelings that the tale creates. You'll read a great romance novel again, and again, and again.

I've been enjoying some great new reads on Kindle, but there in the back of my mind, was a destination I wanted to visit again. So, I pulled up "The Prize" by the late Julie Garwood. Julie was an amazing author, and a number of her books fall in my personal "greats" list. I wanted to go back to the era when William of Normandy's conquest of England was new. And his most favored Baron became the fourth warrior to take on the task of trying to take a particular Saxon dwelling - and to bring its Saxon owner to London to become a prize for some worthy knight. Three knights tried before the fourth succeeded. One favored plot point in the story is that the Saxon lady's heroism in London turns the tables and the knights become her prize.

After I finished that one, I was still in a nostalgic frame of mind, and I wanted to visit with my favorite Winston brother, Cletus, of Penny Reid's "Beard Science." I'm in the midst of that one now. All of Penny's "Beard" books are good - but IMHO, "Beard Science" is great. Cletus is blackmailed into helping a lovely young lady throw off her parental shackels and become an independent woman, making her own choices and taking her own chances. The tables turn in that one when the heroine inspires Cletus to reexamine his own life, and reevaluate the plans he'd set in stone long before.

I think Summertime is a great season to take a vacation to one or two of your favorite romance novel destinations. Yes, please, always take a chance by reading a new book from a new writer. If you don't do that, your list of "greats" can't grow and the careers of some deserving writers won't flourish. But while you're exploring the new, do revisit some of the books that taught you to love romance.

Happy reading!

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I've been on a real kick lately, reading lots of Heather Graham's Krewe of Hunters books. BTW - and sadly - I'm not related to Heather Graham. Heather writes romantic suspense and her Krewe books are great examples of the genre.

The Krewe of Hunters is a special unit of the FBI. It employs Special Agents with paranormal abilities. All of them can see and speak with ghosts. The ghosts help solve the crimes involved in the stories and they occasionally save one of the main characters. The background Krewe will repeat, a bit, in each book, but each focuses on a particular agent who finds love in the course of investigating a crime.

One of the mega-neat aspects of the series is that Heather sets the books in areas of cultural and historical interest. They're in places where one might expect to find interesting ghosts - like New Orleans, Salem, Boston, etc. This allows the author to paint a picture of various historical events, settings and local legends. Heather does a great job of showing instead of telling, and even when she (occasionally) has to venture into telling, she does it with enough style and interest to keep the reader focused.

If only there was a real FBI unit like the Krewe!

I love the books and highly recommend. They do make me wish I had the 'gift' of seeing the spirits. I'd love to speak with my parents, grandparents or late Father-in-Law, but it would also be amazing to get to chat with an ancestor from long ago about the Civil War era or the Revolutionary War period. Picking up one of Heather's Krewe books is the next best thing.

Happy reading!!

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My family has had a lot, a lot, a lot - (did I say a lot?) of issues in the past few months. Hubby has had some serious health issues, we had some family issues. Then, on 12.31, my employer of over 30 years decided to wind down, without any advance notice to me. Luckily, I was of an early retirement age - though, if I'd had notice I could have applied in time not to lose 2 months of income!! However, I'm now fairly happily retired, (Thank God) hubby is doing much, much better, and the family is right on track. After all of that stuff left my head, I started thinking about Ian's story.

Y'all know Ian, the bairn born to Heather & Nial of "A Faerie Fated Forever"? Well, at long last, Ian's tale is in the works. I've just started writing a bit ago, and am midway through Chapter 2, so it'll be a bit before it's out.

This would be a good time to go back and re-read Faerie. As a matter of fact, you might want to re-read the whole series. After all, if Ian is of an age to have his own tale, then the kids of the other characters are also at the interesting age - and their stories may boogle along later. While you're deciding which of the series to read, be sure to check out "A Sixth Sense of Forever." It's Boz's story and since he and Nial are so close, their kids would likely be tight as well.

I'll keep you updated here as writing progresses. And, if you haven't followed me on Twitter/X, this would be a good time to do that. I will occasionally post #amwriting Tweets that include a wee bit of the tale as it's emerging from my (always) over-the-top brain.

Check back here for more regular updates too, now that I have time to post. Y'all just might get sick of me for over-posting!!

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Published on 1 Comment on So What? Now What?

I'm from South Carolina and it's a football rivalry state.  Here, you're either a Gamecock or a Tiger.  You may not have attended either school, but you're still one or the other. (I attended law school at the University of South Carolina, so it's a legit alma mater for me. And BTW, like Darius Rucker says, our USC was a school before California was a state.) In SC, team loyalty is a matter of tradition, heritage and culture.  Both teams have had good years and bad years, but fans stay loyal.  Clemson has had many more good years and by far holds the edge in the rivalry football game - especially lately - but forget that whole National Championship thing.  You know what matters?  It matters who wins the Carolina-Clemson game.

The Gamecocks have been in a rebuilding period since Steve Spurrier walked away from the team mid-season several years ago.  But they hired Coach Will Muschamp and he's done an amazing job.  It's Year 2 of the Muschamp era and the Gamecocks are #2 in the SEC East - instead of dead last as was predicted pre-season, and they'll end with a winning record and go bowling.  They're 7-3 now, Wofford is ahead which will have the Cocks 8-3 going into the last game of the season -- the "Palmetto Bowl" - the BIG one - the Carolina-Clemson game.  No one outside of the state thinks we can beat Clemson this year, but Gamecock fans believe.  And win or lose, the Gamecocks will proceed with the motto that Muschamp brought -- "So what?  Now what?"

I read a blog  from "The State" newspaper, and it's the first time I'd heard of the motto.  It seems the team has adopted it and the players live it now.  I've just decided to adopt it too.  What better saying to guide your life?  Whether you won or lost, yesterday is in the past. We can't change yesterday.  We can relive it, and allow the mistakes of the past to define the future or we can say, "so what."  If it was, then it was and no amount of self-torture will change it.  It happened.  So what?

The thing we can change is what we'll do today, and how we'll approach tomorrow.  We can choose to recognize that today is ours to conquer and tomorrow is ours to prepare for.  We can wake up saying, "now what?"

On a writing level, this means that I can look at Amazon and see that my books haven't taken off yet.  Kindle Unlimited folks - love y'all - have been reading, but not enough customers have been buying.  I could wallow in that, and cry over that.  I could toss up my hands and stop writing altogether, or I can say, "So What? Now What?" I chose the latter.  I've dropped the price of a few of my books to .99 cents, hoping that it will spur some folks to join a duck lady in the journey over the top of forever.  The books that are currently .99 cents are:  Brotherly Love, Seducing The Billionaire, and Tempting Duty.

Maybe you haven't read one of my books before.  So What?  Now what - you can do is pick up one of my .99 cent specials and give crazy love a try.  And here in Casa de Duck my youngest son and I (the football fans in the family) will await the Carolina-Clemson game, saying So What if Carolina lost last year. It's Now What time!

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Entertainment Weekly says that the "happily ever after" genre is taking on Trump by joining the resistance.  I'm distressed to learn that some of my colleagues are repeating the mistake made by the entertainment industry. Like actors, actresses and comedians, writers are free to have political opinions.  Among friends and family, or at a political gathering held by folks of a particular leaning, expressing political opinion is perfectly acceptable.  Conning your audience into buying one thing and selling them another is a lie and liars deserve to lose.

The article notes that Lauren Billings, who writes with Christina Hobbs as Christina Lauren, responded to readers who reject mixing romance with politics by saying, "we share our opinions in our books in every word we write."  If that's true, before you ever buy one of their books, you should consider that these writers aren't channeling their characters, they're not telling you the story you bought, they're feeding you their personal beliefs and ideology.  Is that what they marketed?  Is that what readers bought?  No, it's not.  With all due respect to Ms. Billings, Ms. Hobbs and every other romance author on the planet, readers don't give a darling damn about what you think or feel or believe.

Readers buy romance to crawl inside the heads and hearts and souls of the hero and heroine.  A good writer often pens thoughts she'd never have and describes acts she'd never perform.  How does the writer do that if "every word she writes" contains her opinions?  She can't.  An author feeding her opinions through the mouths of her characters is telling her story - not the tale the readers bought.  A writer who gives in to ego to that extent echos the errors of entertainers.  There is a reason that movie theaters are empty.  Romance writers who feed readers stories with political overtones are herding romance to a place where shelves stay full.

The EW piece commits the same mistake made by reporters, prognosticators, actors and entertainers.  It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of why Americans back President Trump.  The President is neither anti-gay nor anti-woman and neither are the hordes of Americans who voted for him.  Many Trump supporters aren't particularly conservative.  What unites ALL Trump supporters is not a political party.  In fact, it is the exact opposite of a political anything.  Trump supporters are tired of politicians, labels and political correctness.  America voted Trump into office to elect a businessman who would run the government like a company.  Some businessmen want to make and sell a better car or a better thermostat.  Trump wants to make and sell a better America - not better for Democrats or Republicans, or for liberals or conservatives - but better for the vast majority whose lives and beliefs mix a little from all of those things to create the most unique thing on Earth:  an American.

Writers should disclaim and denounce the EW article and everything it contains and advocates.   I disclaim it and I surely denounce it. Romance writers should write  because they want to tell stories where people face obstacles, triumph over tragedy and end up happily ever after.  Those stories should be the character's stories, told through the eyes and the hearts and the minds of the characters, not the authors.  A writer who sells a love story but delivers something else has betrayed her readers. That writer will not inspire that reader to do anything but avoid her work in the future.

Life is full of problems and despair and the Great Duck knows - it's far too full of politics these days.  Anyone who wants to experience any of those things can turn on a number of 24-hour news channels.  People don't go to a movie to hear an actor mouth lines filled with political drivel.  People don't turn on a comic's special or late night program to hear him talk abut how much he hates Trump.  And people don't read a romance novel to RESIST anything.  Romance is about indulging senses and emotions. It's about love and triumph and living through a roller coaster ride that ends at a happy forever.

People don't read romance to get some writer's take on politics or her opinion on the President.   So, the EW piece has it wrong  - it's not the romance authors who should join the resistance movement.  Romance readers should RESIST any writer whose product description or blurb describes a love story but tells a thinly-veiled political allegory.   So, how to RESIST being deceived by a writer, especially one you enjoyed before?  Here's how - RCW - return, complain and warn.

Whether you bought it in Kindle or in Paper, return any book you were conned into buying.  Complain to the seller.  Email Amazon or Apple or Barnes and Noble or your neighborhood bookstore.  Email the big publisher.  Explain that you were the victim of a bait and switch that you feel was a deceptive act by the writer, the publisher and the seller.  Explain that you expect a clear warning about any romance novel containing political opinion, references or overtones. And warn your fellow readers by posting a review on the seller's website, but don't stop there.  Follow up by tweeting and posting on any board or forum where you interact with other readers.

Are authors, actors, comedians, singers or athletes allowed to be political?  Absolutely.  They can write a political book, give a speech at a rally or appear on an opinion talk show.  But they must learn to separate their politics from their work because the audience is not paying to support their politics.

Politics is politics and romance is romance. Any author's effort to combine the two should be met with reader resistance. Resist with your purse, your email, your reviews, your boards or forums, and your Facebook and Twitter. Unless there is a clear posted warning that the books contains a political point of view, all readers should be able to buy and enjoy romance novels by all writers.  Any writer who believes otherwise can be taught that they are wrong and it is the readers' job to administer the lesson.  Money talks and reviews and social media make fine megaphones.

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Somehow, somewhere SOMETHING gave birth to the myth that the far left of the political spectrum is the cool place. If you’re in the middle or on the right, then you’re either stupid or evil. It’s a nonsensical, vapid myth, but the far left has preached it so long that many are as indoctrinated as Scientologists. They don’t associate with or listen to non-lefties. If you’re caught being reasonable, you’ll be disconnected. And that’s the true evil.

Hollywood has long disconnected moderates and conservatives. Actors who dare hold views similar to most Americans hide them to blend in so that they can continue to work. It’s a whopper-sized hypocrisy to profess to be open and giving and yet be closed to listening, sharing or considering other opinions. The rabid left exists in a hyperbaric echo-chamber. Thank God, I thought, that writers are stronger and freer than the actors imprisoned in their own make-believe world.

At least, I believed that until recently. I saw General John Kelly’s amazingly brave appearance at yesterday’s press conference.  A father whose career was sending other young people into harm’s way, who saw too many of them return in caskets, watched his own son choose that path.  Then he got the sad news he’d had to deliver to other parents. Yet, he was courageous enough to speak about his experience to explain why a soldier’s comfort, like a soldier’s world, is very different from the lives and realities of those of us who have never served.  I cried a little as I watched, and listened and I saw how much respect General Kelly has earned on so many levels.

I logged onto Twitter (@quackingalone) and saw that #JohnKelly was trending.  I wandered over and was shocked to see the rabid left there having a contest to see who could do the best job at denigrating a man brave enough to share his personal tragedy, and courageous enough to admit that he’d had to personally lead other American heroes to their deaths. Who could watch and not be moved as he shared his own tragedy to explain a soldier’s comfort to America?  I posted this Tweet:  “#GeneralJohnKelly – today you proved that patriot doesn’t mean pushover and that courage takes many forms. #JohnKelly”

Yesterday I logged onto my Twitter account to see that I’d been unfollowed by a huge number of OTHER AUTHORS.  So, I learned that I was, sadly, wrong. Like actors, those authors take the money of mainstream America, but they disconnect anyone who has another view, who sees another reality. These writers want you to enter the worlds they create, to fall in love or laugh or cry while their characters do – but they don’t want mainstreamers to know that secretly, they’re laughing at us and looking down at us. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be secret any longer. Anyone can check out an author on Twitter BEFORE clicking the buy button.

If you’re a reader who is tired of being shown that you matter less and are less deserving of respect because you don’t drink the left-handed Kool-Aid, then maybe you should vote with your wallet.  Before you buy a book, log onto the writer’s Twitter account and see who he or she follows. Does it include people with views similar to yours? A writer should be following a wide, expansive and diverse community of folks.  It should include people across the political spectrum. The group should be defined by who is interesting, not by who is a rabid leftie. If you don’t see people in that group who believe like you do, then you should reconsider that purchase.

Those who believe that everyone is entitled to respect shouldn’t tolerate disrespect and condescension from people we give our money to. Don’t support anyone who wants to sell you something but would never listen to you or consider your thoughts.  If we don’t use the power of the purse to insist that freedom is as grounded in listening and sharing as it is in talking and pontificating, we’ll lose it forever. Our soldiers, sailors and marines and especially our Gold Star families who’ve paid the ultimate price deserve better. Freedom isn’t free and respect is a two-way street.  Check before you buy.

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I've been AWOL here, and apologize for that. I've been given the glorious freedom to work from home for my law practice, and I find that I work a lot more hours. That's good for the office bottom line, but bad for my non-legal scribbling. Did anyone miss me? (Don't answer that.) When I've found time to write, I've been plugging away at Vlad's story, from my Forever Series that starts with "A Faerie Fated Forever." It's meant that the blog has been neglected though -- which isn't good. Can someone add a couple more hours in a day?

Because I do try to keep up with literary happenings, a recent piece in the Guardian caught my eye. It's writing tips from acclaimed novelist/creative writing instructor, Colum McCann, titled, "So You Want To Be A Writer? Essential Tips for Aspiring Novelists. Likely, it caught my attention because one of his first tips is that "there are no rules. Or, if there are any rules, they are only there to be broken. Embrace these contradictions."  I'm a rule-breaker from way back, so I settled in for a read.

McCann says "to hell" with grammar, formality, plot and structure - but only after you've learned them so well that you can walk through your work "with your eyes closed."  He points out that the great ones will make their own rules, only to break them  and unmake them.

He says that a writer's first line should "reach in and twist your heart backward," and it should be active, "plunging your reader into something urgent."  And what should that first line be about?  What kind of book should you write?   ...continue reading "Writing Rules Are Made To Be Broken"