Women With Books - Nancy Naigle & Teri Wilson & The Rom-Com Renaissance

A new episode of the Women With Books podcast is up!

Women With Books Podcast featuring bestselling authors Nancy Naigle & Teri Wilson.

This episode was born of my love for romantic comedies and also because Nancy Naigle, Teri Wilson and I really put a lot of work into the workshop we’ll be presenting in New York at RWA Nationals. For those attending RWA, this is just the tip of the iceberg, we’ll go into a lot more details about the contents of rom com there. I had to laugh throughout this whole episode because – you’ll definitely hear it – Teri recorded this from the floor of a tire store. She was getting a flat tire replaced but like a true professional in a real-life romantic comedy, she sat down ON THE FLOOR (yes, she sent us a selfie of herself to prove it) and had this conversation with us. And then, at the end. Oh, I wish I could have kept it in but it was kind of jarring to listen to if you didn’t know this was happening, the guys at the tire store turned on her car and her audio book that she had been listening to in the car, jumped into our audio feed!  It was not, thankfully, a racy or risqué part of a book or those tire repair guys’ innocent ears would have been offended, I’m sure.

We recorded this episode in the spring, so it’s fun to hear us talk about movies and books that we hadn’t seen or read yet. After Teri’s recommendation in this episode, I went immediately and got a copy of the Kerry Winfrey book, Waiting for Tom Hanks and if you follow my blog series, Best Books to Read Now, you’ll see that I too absolutely adored it. It is rom com perfection.  As always, I put the links to the books discussed in the episode exclusively in my WWB newsletter, which goes out at the end of the month.

In the episode we also each listed our top 3 favorite rom com movies… and Nancy was the only rule follower who meticulously stuck with just three choices.   I listed my top 3 favorites (with 2 runners up) and I thought I’d put them right here to see if you agree with me:

(In no particular order:)

When Harry Met Sally

Sweet Home Alabama

Bridget Jones’ Diary

Runners Up:

27 Dresses

While You Were Sleeping

I’d love to hear what your favorite romantic comedy movies are! Hit me up on social media or respond below!

Press play to listen or download from your favorite podcast app.

For a list of the authors/ books discussed, subscribe to the Women With Books newsletter (With extra Q&A from the guests!) Buy me a coffee! Support the Podcast at www.Ko-fi.com/womenwithbookspodcast Friend me on Goodreads! Check out the HBIC Nation Podcast!

Teri Wilson and Nancy Naigle discuss Hallmark movies, Christmas romance and much more!

Women With Books - Alexis Anne and Superhero Storytelling

A new episode of the Women With Books podcast is up!

Women With Books Podcast featuring Alexis Anne; Why Thor, Deadpool, & Black Panther are going to affect the books you read at book club.

We tried hard to make this spoiler free - but Alexis and I had to talk about all sorts of superheroes and why readers love these stories, how they’re similar to books we already read, and what is coming next in the Marvel universe.

Press play to listen or download from your favorite podcast app.

To catch up with Alexis Anne or read her books, check out AlexisAnneBooks.com For a list of the authors/ books discussed, subscribe to the Women With Books newsletter (With extra Q&A from the guests!) Buy me a coffee! Support the Podcast at www.Ko-fi.com/womenwithbookspodcast Friend me on Goodreads! Check out the HBIC Nation Podcast!

What fanfiction would we write in the Marvel Universe? I answer in the Women With Books Podcast featuring superheroes and villains with superstar author Alexis Anne.

How to Write A Book (With Songs!)

If you follow me on social media (especially Instagram!) you’ll have seen me posting about songs that are inspiring me or are somehow applicable to the books I’m writing. I’ve also shared with my newsletter a few of the songs that I had on my playlist for The Royal Runaway.

Making a playlist of songs is a part of my book-writing process and I’m so glad my husband insisted on getting a family Spotify account a few years ago (yes, insisted - I fought it. It’s a long story - I love my Spotify now!) because I listen to music all the time and I LOVE having all sorts of songs to stream anytime I want to.

I was in the car recently and some random Spotify playlist was on shuffle and all of a sudden, I realized that the songs that were playing - and the order they were in - actually corresponded to parts of a book.

So I decided to sit down and show you - through music - how to plot a book. No, I won’t be singing… but you might be!

(Before we get started, please note that I pretty much learned plotting from Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. I had read other books about plotting and book structure before that but when I read this one, it all finally clicked and made sense for me. Since then, I also implement other pieces that I’ve picked up, such as ideas from Jenny Cruisie’s workshop at RWA Nationals, some of which can be found here. Two other good genre specific resources for plotting are Writing the Cozy Mystery by Nancy Cohen and Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes.)

Act I -
A story starts off with the main character in their ordinary, day-to-day life. And for better or for worse, they’re okay with that.

Gavin DeGraw's official music video for 'I Don't Want To Be'. Click to listen to Gavin DeGraw on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/GDGSpot?IQid=GDGDWB As featured on Finest Hour: The Best Of Gavin DeGraw.

But then…. SOMETHING HAPPENS.

They discover they have magical powers.
They get laid off from their factory job.

The President of the United States calls them in and gives them a Top Secret Mission.

The hot guy at the bakery accidentally gives them a cupcake with gluten in it.

Whatever it is… life changes.

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Act II -

This is the part of the story where the “fun & games” happen. It’s also a part where a lot of authors start to run into trouble. “Like, we just have them do stuff?”

Well yes, but it’s stuff that’s going to get them in trouble. Stuff that’s going to keep making their quest/ mission/ dating life more difficult and more complicated.

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Midpoint -

But the characters can’t just keep running around having fun and flirting. Something has to happen that makes everything more difficult. Radio communications go out. The dog is kidnapped. The heroine realizes she just might be having feelings for the bakery guy, which will totally complicate her job of eradicating gluten from the planet.

Shop music here: http://smarturl.it/TASmusic Shop merchandise here: http://taylor.lk/tourmerch Follow Taylor Swift Online Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/taylorswift Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taylorswift Tumblr: http://taylorswift.tumblr.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/taylorswift13 Website: http://www.taylorswift.com Follow Taylor Nation Online Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/taylornation Tumblr: http://taylornation.tumblr.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/taylornation13

And so the characters have to dig a little deeper and be a little wiser and craftier and come up with new plans to fight the foe, whether it is a terrorist or a arch-nemesis pop singer.

Kelly Clarkson's official music video for 'Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)'. Click to listen to Kelly Clarkson on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/KClarkSpot?IQid=KClarkStrong As featured on Greatest Hits - Chapter 1.

The main characters fight/ strive/ sleuth and finally! They get to a spot where everything seems great. A murder suspect is in jail. The Soviet submarine has been captured. There’s (really good) sex.

Bright By Echosmith Support this song by leaving a comment, a thumbs up, or sharing it with your friends.

This false high can be placed in several places in the story (and of course there can be multiple happy parts of a book) but I like it right before…

Act III -
OH NOES. Everything our characters believed was a lie. The serial killer wasn’t in jail because he has killed again. There was a double agent on board the submarine. That hot Australian guy was already married!

This is… the BLACK MOMENT….

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Well, that’s it. Story is over.

RIGHT?

Um, I don’t know about you but I don’t want to read a story like that. And most stories don’t end with the heroine crumpled on the floor seriously contemplating a slow death by Ice Cream Pint. At least mine don’t.

No, I want the characters to dig deep down and scrape some courage up and fight one last battle against whatever they’ve been fighting. Maybe their freedom, their love, their nation is at risk. This is the place for the big stand off, the come-back after half-time, the impassioned closing argument in a sweltering, crowded courtroom.

It’s The Final Countdown…

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YAY!

Our heroes and heroines are victorious!!! (At least in my books and the books I like to read. If you like books without any winning, then you do you. Enjoy your depressing soul-destroying books.)

Everyone celebrates! There is kissing! There is mead! And ale! A ticker tape is thrown and maybe there’s one last smug I Told You So from someone that makes you feel really good that you were on the right side. And then, if you’re really lucky, sometimes there’s… A Dance Scene…

Yeah. You can see it now, can’t you? You can feel the way a story is supposed to go. If you’re a writer - go forth and make that sh!t happen. If you’re a reader, follow my Best Books to Read Now blog posts, my Women With Books podcast or check out my books for excellent stories that always have a dance scene at the end.***



*** Not valid in every case.
*** Yet.

A Planner Review!

Who buys a new planner in March?! Three months after the new year has already started?

Well, I guess that would be me.

Why did I do this? I am (still) very happy with my current planner set up (as I showed it here) and, in fact, I would even say I have reached that elusive #plannerpeace.

But. I have seen this planner… somewhere… for a while and when someone in one of my planner groups posted that it was on sale, i decided to grab it and see what aspects of it I could use.

It’s the Dragontree Apothecary Rituals for Living Dreambook + Planner and it’s now out of stock on their site but still available - marked down - on Amazon.

I’ve been intrigued with this planner because of one word: Ritual.

What a great word, right? It’s a planner-y and organizational word but it’s also embued with a weight, a sort of spiritual meaning that is popular in the woo-woo community right now.

Basically, I wanted to know how to incorporate ritual into my planning.

After I got the planner in the mail, I took it with me to Starbucks - a latte while the kid is at tennis is a deeply satisfying ritual for me so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to review and inspect this new addition to my planning lineup.

The Dragontree Apothecary Rituals for Living Dreambook + Planner

The first thing that I liked about the planner is that stark white cover with the embossed mandala design. The book is thick and sturdy and has a spiral binding.

I mean, it’s totally impractical for carting around and day to day life but if you’re the type of person that leaves her planner on her desk all the time, it would work great for you.

This “dreambook” takes you through a whole system of evaluating your dreams, values, life purpose, etc. It’s really thorough and, honestly, more than I want to do in March. BUT. Will I really enjoy this process next December or January? Probably!

I also really enjoy having annual, quarterly, and weekly pages. One of the things I love about the Hobonichi Cousin Techo is the annual, monthly, weekly and daily so the focus on quarterly is nice to have, especially when I have been incorporating Sarra Cannon’s HB90 planning method which is quarterly. If you haven’t heard of this before, check it out in this video:

I was really excited when I turned the page and saw this drawing (they provide filled out sample pages - these are NOT my lifetime goals!). I’ve been drawing diagrams like this since studying for exams in college. It always helped me draw connections between dates and events in my history and political science courses so I instantly connected with these pages.

The book gives you ample space to draw and dream - which I love - AND encourages you to dream up 1 year, three year, and ten year goals! I LOVE LONG TERM DREAMING.

This is where I started thinking about going to find a photocopier and making myself 50 copies of these pages. I could do this all day, folks.

*** Also not my drawings. Not my goals. ***

There’s space every week to draw and brain dump and set more goals, which you don’t find in every planner. And this is where the rituals come in. They have a list of suggested rituals and a different suggested weekly practice. I flipped through the book and saw that there were lots of variations - things I would do, things I maybe wouldn’t.

I had to laugh at this “sample” daily schedule. “NOT TOO MUCH PIZZA. MAYBE SALAD.” Can they read inside my head???

In sum, I’m glad I got this planner. I’m not sure how I’ll work it into my system yet because I already have a system I really love. But we’re about to boot up the second quarter of 2019 and maybe I’ll try to incorporate my own unique rituals into my planning time. Like more meditation or more music. Or more lattes.

If you love paper planning too, make sure you’re following me on Instagram. I’m trying to post more photos of my planning process there and of course I co-host the annual #readwriteplan Instagram challenge. Follow the hashtag #readwriteplan so you can be up-to-date on all our annoucements!

My Favorite Book Ingredients: My Reader (and Author) Wheels

In two of my most recent Women With Books podcast episodes (with Becca Syme and Roni Loren), I discussed the concept of reader wheels. Basically, it’s what readers of a certain type of genre or sub-genre expect when they approach that sort of book.

A corollary to a reader wheel is an author wheel – that is, what an author brings to every book.  This might also be known as an author’s “core story.”  Ideally, an author can eventually make a promise to a reader – that X, Y and Z will be found in every book written by that author. (I can hear some writers grumbling or protesting now, but that’s a debate for another time… with alcohol involved.)

Because she’s on top of things like this, Roni Loren wrote a blog post outlining what she likes reading and the aspects she hopes is also in her books here.

Of course that got me thinking about what I like to read the most and sure enough, I realized that it’s also the same things that I *hope* are in my books.

1. “Voice” / humor / banter.

Voice is that indefinable quality that writers and readers can recognize in an instant – a Susan Elizabeth Phillips book *sounds* different from a Sarah MacLean book which *sounds* different from an Ilona Andrews book. Once I find an author with a voice that I click with, I’m basically their servant for life.

For me, a good author “voice” is almost synonymous with an inherent humor, but it doesn’t have to be. I also think snappy banter/ dialogue is very entwined with an appealing voice but again, that’s probably my preference.

And I’ve been told my books are funny (even when I’m trying to be serious!) and have *my* voice (even when I’m trying to sound different!) so if you like *my* voice then maybe you’ll like the books I love and recommend, too!

2. Romance/ sexual tension/ romantic interest

I don’t always read romance, but I do always like to read *something* with a romantic interest or some sexual tension. It just makes the whole thing much more satisfying (that’s what she said.)  

Similarly, I don’t really write straight up romance but even if I write a mystery novel, you know there’s going to be a hot cop. Or a hot private investigator. Or a hot… accountant. That’s my solemn vow as an author.

3. Mystery/ magic/ quest/ twist

I think this is the wheel where genres start getting blurred around here. I will read romance… but my favorite-est romances are those where there’s a twist or some sub-plot with a mystery to solve. I love a vaguely paranormal aspect to plots, too, or just straight up paranormal/ time-travel, etc.

You see this in my books because I love putting in a psychic or a tarot card in the middle of a royal adventure. I really adore writing mysteries and I think I keep things fairly twisty in any of my stories. (A twist even popped up in my stories The Island Christmas Spirit and The Matchmaking Christmas Spirit – where I was trying to write a straight-forward, simple, trope-y holiday romances!)

4. Female focused.

I prefer reading about the female experience, written by female authors, about feminist topics. I really have to have A LOT of recommendations to get me to any book that’s about a dude written by a dude. I know a lot of people could call that reverse sexism but… I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. As I taught my kids, “don’t yuck someone else’s yum.”

And as I mentioned recently in my blog post about Queens and the Patriarchy, exploring female power and friendships is a theme that keeps popping up in my books – so I guess my subconscious has something to say about it!

5. Good writing!

This is sooooo subjective. It’s a lot like pornography. You know it when you see it. And everyone’s opinion is different – and valid!  What clicks for one person might not click for another and the books I recommend might not click for you. But I promise that ANY book I recommend will be edited, contain good grammar, spelling, etc. And my books? I don’t give my AGENT a manuscript with mistakes, I definitely wouldn’t sell one to a reader!

So those are my wheels. If they sound like yours, then you should follow my blog or sign up for my newsletters for lots of awesome book recommendations. Also, I have books for sale, if you want to check them out, because most of them are like ^^^^.

But if  you like your books with paragraphs of detailed description, tons of angst, loads and loads of sexy times, or lots of dudes and their dude-ish stories, my recommendations might not be for you. Which is cool. Because out of all the promises I make as an author, I promise to never yuck your yum.