Learning Center

This is a question that often plagues newer writers. If you write what you know, you’ll have special insight into the character’s mindset, your setting will shine with authentic detail, and no one will email you about all the things you got wrong. On the other hand, there would be no novels set in history, or in an intriguing dystopia, or with paranormal creatures, or, really anywhere except the rather pedestrian suburban environments that most of us live in.

Early on I decided that since I didn’t want to only write about things and places I’d experienced, I had to figure out how to expand the universe of what I know—with research. I wasn’t too intimidated. I remembered a written exam in college for a music class I was taking. The instructor played a piece of bluegrass fiddling and we had about twenty minutes to analyze it. I’ve always loved music but can’t play an instrument or sing to save my life, however, when I got my paper back he’d written that he really liked my analysis and he could tell I was a fiddler. Not so, I thought, though I kept quiet about it. It occurred to me that since I certainly wasn’t a fiddler, there was a distinct possibility that I might be a writer…

Trying to catch the eye of an editor? Well, now's your chance! Lisa Manual, Editor at Silver Publishing will be reading pitches today.

SUBMISSIONS REQUESTED: Silver Publishing/Silver Stream Press is primarily looking for m/m stories right now, but in all genres including sweet romance to general fiction, YA, paranormal and erotica. I look forward to reading your pitches! Please include two to three paragraphs including your story hook, a brief intro of your main characters and their conflicts, and don't forget to include the story resolution – no open-ended synopses, please!

Members will have an opportunity to post their two to three paragraphs as a comment to this post. Results will be posted within two weeks. Check back to see if you've scored a request!

Just over a week remaining for Savvy Authors Pitch Perfect event of 30 pitches in 30 days.

Last week was filled with blog pitches to Loose Id, Etopia Press, Soul Mate Publishing, Marsal Lyon Agency, The Seymour Agency, Covenant Communications, Astraea Press, and Whiskey Creek Press.

Don’t miss this week’s line up! Lea Schizas will be having a Meet the Publisher Q&A chat session and taking pitches on the blog. Others taking blog pitches on the Savvy Front Page this week is Silver Publishing, Black Opal Books, Park Literary, Carina Press, Jupiter Gardens, Sourcebooks, and Soul Mate Publishing.

For most of us, our world is pretty solid. It’s something we wake each morning to and live in without a thought or concern. For those of us who are writers, our world is much like a stepping stone, a launching pad for creativity and excitement. We have our own 'special' places, things we need to have around us to reach our potential ... or at least what we think is our potential.

Myself, I have a place I would love to have to do my writing. My writing place is somewhere most people would think would be boring, but for me it’s superb. I have my music, my inspirations around me, and it helps me to build worlds in my books that are believable. Is working at the kitchen table or living room couch something everyone would think worthwhile? Perhaps not. But for me, it’s not where I am, but where I am going that is important.

I’ve been writing books the wrong way for 23 years. Didn’t realize I was because, well, everyone else was doing it too!

So what was I doing wrong? Nothing, really, because all stories need to have either action, information given, a decision made or a character introduced…and actually, that last could count as information given. This means three things you could choose to have happen on a page.

Only now I’ve heard that one of those three is nearly tossed out the window. Not entirely, but what I was doing the most of in using it, well, that’s all the wrong way to write a genre story in the 21^st century.

What am I talking about? Backstory, that’s what.

Trying to catch the eye of an editor? Well, now's your chance! Lea Schizas of MuseItUp Publishing will be reading pitches today.

SUBMISSIONS REQUESTED: We're looking for any genre but mostly romance suspense and/or erotic romance.

Members will have an opportunity to post their pitch of 200 words as a comment to this post. Results will be posted within two weeks. Check back to see if you've scored a request!

Picture a candlelit dinner that ends with dry champagne and juicy strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, the sweet and tart flavors mingling on the characters’ tongues as they look into each other’s eyes and think about a mingling of another sort. Can you almost taste that moment?

If you can, then I have successfully demonstrated the power the description of taste has over the reader. This power is what you need to exercise when you write romance. Even though the sense of taste is, hands down, the most difficult one to put into your writing, it is nevertheless essential that you do so.

I mentioned last month that I felt blocked in my writing. I believe I've found THE tool that helps me smash through that blockade.

Lists.

Join us as we spotlight various members in the Savvy Authors community. We'll introduce you to volunteers, members active in the Savvy writing community, as well as recently published authors from Our Authors, editors, and agents.

This week the Spotlight shines on contemporary and paranormal romance author Robin Covington. Her debut novel, A Night of Southern Comfort, has been nominated for Best Contemporary Romance from an Indie Press in the RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Awards. Grabbing major league accolades with the first two books of “The Boys are Back in Town” series, her ability to blend sweet romance with suspense and steamy sex has her fans begging her to “please write faster”. With several books hitting the stands this year it's safe to say she is listening. Pull up a chair and join us as Robin talks about going from unpublished to an author with six book contracts, while juggling three jobs, kids and her very special Main Man!

It's great to have you here Robin, let's jump right in. Your latest release, His Southern Temptation just released April 1st and you're showcasing it with a blog hop from April 9 to May 16. Congratulations! Tell us what's on tap for your hop and where do we start?