Hope you're all having a wonderful week. I'm still playing catch up from my time away from home. I hope to have my life and everything in it squared away and back to normal by next week. We'll see if that actually happens, lol!
Today I'm going to finish up my series of posts regarding my experience at RT. Woohoo!
Friday morning started with a mixer hosted by Kensington. Pastries and mimosas were served (yeah, baby!) and raffle tickets were handed out at the door. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm not very lucky. I don't usually win things. In fact, my bad luck tends to spread to others and most people avoid sitting next to me in Vegas (boo!) For this reason, it came as a huge shock when I won a gift basket full of books. Booyah, baby!!
After depositing my newly acquired books in my room, I joined Robin for the first session of the morning: Peeling Away The Layers Of Romantic Suspense. This panel consisted of: Gennita Low, Cherry Adair, Catherine Coulter and Caridad Piniero.
This particular session was the most informative of the week for me, and I came away with a good deal of notes. A few key points I took away were:
- Start off with a cliffhanger chapter
- You can have a sex scene during your action chapters. Just keep the shmexin short and staccato. The pacing of the sex should match the action. Full on "love scenes" won't match the pacing.
- Make sure that your pacing gives the readers and characters a moment to breathe/plateau
- Action shouldn't overwhelm the romance, but should compliment the emotional arc
- If you can say something, rather than think it, say it. There shouldn't be a lot of introspection.
- Watch your use of tags
- The faster the pace, the more white space on the page
- Get into the scene late and get out early
I came away from this session thoroughly impressed with Cherry Adair. She was personable and funny and had a wealth of information she was happy to share with everyone. In fact, it was because her personality was so fun, that I sought her out at the giant book faire on Saturday to purchase a book for her to sign.
The next session I attended was E-book: From Digital To Print. The panelists were: Lauren Dane, Megan Hart and Beth Williamson. I also found this particular session very informative. As an e-published author, I often wonder if the grass is greener on the other side (Big Six). These gals are published in both print and e-format and did a great job of sharing the ins and outs of both.
The last part of my day was probably the most nerve wracking of the week because it forced me to really step out of my comfort zone and talk to people. I'm of course talking about the Indie Book Expo. Robin, Killian and I all had tables with swag, books and various signage to pimp our latest works. The room was crowded, there were a ton of people and it was a fabulous time. I was lucky enough to sit next to Jayne Rylon, a multi-published author with Ellora's Cave and Samhain. She was sweet as pie and I can't wait to read some of her work!
The girls and I finished out our week at RT at the Vampire Ball. The entertainment was not so great, but the company at our table more than made up for it. I even got to take a pic with a werewolf. Woohoo!
4 comments:
Lisa, thank you for sharing the information from the romantic suspense panel--very useful. I think I use a little too much introspection, but that figures given my career. What are "tags"? Thanks, Jen
No problem, Jenn!
Tags are my abbreviation for dialog tags. Things like "He shouted" "She chirped" etc. You should always use "he said." Or, even better, try to eliminate tags altogether.
Ah! Yes, very important.
Nice picture with the werewolf.
Good information on the Romantic suspense. And I had no idea about tags. "Hmmm...I wonder if my tags are overkill?" she pondered.
LOL
Gabriella Hewitt
Post a Comment