This Just In

Today at Fierce Romance, one of my authors, Carly Carson, blogged about something that might interest the edittorrent readers. Remember the Curling heat where we talked about the unromantic romantic gesture? Go read her real life story. It will warm any writer's heart.

Theresa

Want a Substantive Post?

We've been doing a lot of exercises and not so many substantive posts lately. If you're jonesing for a lesson, head on over to Romance University, where I'm talking about a couple of ways to organize the guts of a paragraph. Pendulum or frame? The amount of action can help you decide.

Theresa

These are a few of our favorite things...

Sometimes I get captured by a voice, and this time it's not Pavarotti, but the Pavarotti of bloggers, James Wolcott. Sometimes he says things so eloquently and ironically, I want to preserve it. (But that, I suppose, is why they have archives.)
Alicia

We're #1!

Iapetus puts us number 1! (And please don't say "in no particular order." #1 is #1. :)

Alicia

Quotation marks, rah!

You know I'll agree with this: an editorial in support of the quotation mark.

Alicia

Elmo Says

Today's post is brought to you by the letters R and U.

For years, the romance community has been arguing about the definition of romance, how much sex is permissible and/or necessary, and how to balance internal and external plots within the context of a romance.

I've entered the fray privately, with trusted friends over bottles of red, but if memory serves, this is the first time I've spoken publicly on the matter. My comments won't resolve the issue, but that's okay. This is a subject that lends itself to debate moreso than to resolution.

Theresa

Gettin' Fierce

I'm guest blogging at Fierce Romance today. Talking about Red Sage's history and future, the state of submissions, and the best stories from Fierce bloggers.

Check it out!

Theresa

Great link

New archive on Shakespeare's time.
Article about it.



Archive shedding light on Shakespeare's times goes online

Tudor documents show the pulling power of Titus Andronicus, the cost of darning and fears about the plague

* Maev Kennedy
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 November 2009 11.21 GMT
A unique archive on the theatre of Shakespeare's times, revealing everything from the price of a ferry ticket across the Thames to the cost of a tumbler's breeches, becomes available free to the world today when the papers of the theatre owner and entrepreneur Philip Henslowe and his actor son-in-law Edward Alleyn go online.

Writing book reviews

Theresa found this site of book reviews of writing craft books from Vision magazine. Yes, there's a review of my POV book there, but that's not why I'm sharing it with you. Well, not entirely. :) I think the reviews are really helpful in choosing among different grammar books and character books and such. Check it out!
Alicia

Guest Blogging

Tomorrow we're going to use our three-minute setting lists, but for today, take a look at my post over at Ian Healy's spiffy new website. I'm talking about how Ian manages himself online, and how that helps him over the long haul. Yeah, that's right. I'm making an example of one of our comment friends. :)

Theresa

Alphabet Day!

Today's post is brought to you by the letters
R
and
U.

Go to Romance University and see why it's a good idea to take your characters to Disneyland.

Theresa

Big Bird Says...

Today's post is brought to you by the letters R and U.

Come on over to Romance University, where we're talking about how to deliver bad news to your writing partners. It's not easy, but that doesn't mean we have to make it hard.

We'll also be talking some more about our friend Johnny, the status-seeking pre-med student, over the weekend. Johnny needs a few more layers, don't you think? :)

Theresa

Active Writing

Today's post is brought to you by the letters R and U.

Go to Romance University and read about two types of active writing. :)

Theresa

Two Quick Things

I thought this was a fun article and worth sharing. Tip of the hat to Susan Gibberman, librarian and goddess, for sending the link.

Guardian article on writers' rooms.

Are you all watching Mad Men? We blogged about this some last season, and now that the new season has started, I'm already itching to blog about some of the things I notices in the season 3 opener.

Theresa

Deep POV guest blog

Here's a link to a guest blog I did on when NOT to use deep pov.

Romance University Column Today

Today's substantive post is brought to you by the letters R and U.

Over at Romance University, we're talking about one method to avoid an info dump in the first chapter by focusing on conflict. Unless I'm mistaken, the question came from one of our edittorrent readers.

This RU thing is going to be a regular monthly column now. If you have a question you'd like me to tackle over there, they've set up an emailbox that routes to me. Naturally, I can't remember that address, but it's on the RU website somewhere.

Theresa

Best last words ever

John Palmer (this is via Olbermann) of Colorado died at 62 after a long battle with cancer. His last words are words that more and more baby boomers might echo:
"I can't believe Keith Richards outlived me!"

Alicia

Capitalizing

Leona asked when we'd capitalize "dad":

In direct address ("Dad! It's Father's Day! I'm taking you out for ice cream!"), you capitalize "dad"-- when it's a name substitute, and a name is a proper noun (name or title) and capitalized.

But with "his dad" and "my dad", "dad" is a substitute for the common noun "father," so no cap.

Just depends-- it's the usage that matters, not the word. If it's used as a way of addressing someone, as you would use a name or nickname, capitalize.

This website has information on correct use of capitalization.

Good luck!
A

Backstory

Today's blog post is being brought to you by the letters R and U.

Head on over to Romance University. I'm the guest teacher today, and we're talking about backstory. They've filed me under "Chaos Theory." Hmm.

ETA: I just found out that another article went live today, too. Talking about the history of Red Sage and futuristic erotic romance with Heather from Galaxy Express. She asked me one question that really stumped me. :)

Theresa

Housekeeping

A few small items--

Log Lines

We still have a few log lines in our inbox. I'm willing to keep going with them if you want me to. What say you?

Brenda Novak's Auction

Every year, author Brenda Novak runs an auction fundraiser for juvenile diabetes. This year again I've donated one evaluation of one complete manuscript. If you're interested in bidding on this fabulous prize, go here.

There are lots of goodies worth bidding on. I've got my eye on Jane Porter's Frog Prince Package (because Jane is wonderful and I love that shade of green), the Faerie Basket (feeding my new fairy obsession), and damn near all of the celebrity-autographed stuff (Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Harrison Ford -- however is a girl to choose???).


In other news, I was in a fender-bender Tuesday and am still nursing some aches. It wasn't a bad accident. Just bad enough to fuck up my week. Grr. It's slowing me down on things like email and editing because typing is a bit difficult. The silver lining is that I did get a lot of reading done, mainly because it was one of the few things I could still do! Now if I can just type for more than a few minutes at a stretch, I might be able to do something about all these manuscripts I've read.

Theresa,
who has decided that if you're too old to remember your phone number, hear the blare of car horns, or see six vehicles in oncoming lanes, then you're probably too old to drive