All Entries in the "Articles" Category

Article: Valentine’s Day - The Holiday Of Love

Valentine’s Day - The Holiday Of Love
by Melissa Alvarez
How did Valentine’s Day begin?
Valentine’s Day… ah… a time to spend with the ones you love. We celebrate Valentine’s Day by giving flowers, chocolates or other gifts to each other in the spirit of showing our love for one another. But how did this Holiday of Love [...]

Popularity: 71% [?]

Article: St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day
Ireland and Romance Fiction
by Melissa Alvarez
There is something about Ireland that draws writers of romance to use the country as settings in their books. And there are a lot of romance readers out there who love books set in Ireland. Being of Irish descent I couldn’t let St. Paddy’s Day pass us by [...]

Popularity: 67% [?]

Article: Showing versus Telling

Showing versus Telling
Bringing Your Writing To Life
by Melissa Alvarez
Show don’t tell - that’s easy to say but what exactly does it mean?
When you show your reader the characters and action in your novel, they are drawn into another world and will keep turning the pages until THE END. If you tell the reader the story [...]

Popularity: 80% [?]

Article: Romantic Suspense

Romantic Suspense
Riveted To The Edge Of Your Seat
by Melissa Alvarez
If you are an author who writes romantic suspense then you probably love reading the genre. You’ve gotten a feel of the mix of romance, suspense, and intrigue that mesh together throughout the novel. But what comes first? The romance or the suspense?
That’s almost like asking [...]

Popularity: 71% [?]

Article: Reader To Reader

Reader To Reader
What Do You Like In A Romance Fiction Novel?
by Melissa Alvarez
I sat down to write this article and had a hard time thinking of a subject. What did I want to discuss today? About a zillion things went through my mind and I couldn’t decide. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
And [...]

Popularity: 60% [?]

Article: The Query Letter

The Query Letter
An Editor’s First Impression
Sample Query Letter
by Melissa Alvarez
Ah, the dreaded query letter. But, tell me why is it so dreaded?
Maybe it’s because you have put body and soul (and probably a few sleepless nights) into your manuscript and are now ready to put your baby in front of an editor.
Basically - it’s just [...]

Popularity: 59% [?]

Article: Popularity of Romance Fiction

Popularity of Romance Fiction
What draws readers to this genre?
by Melissa Alvarez
Romance Fiction novels make up over fifty percent of all books sold. Over 50 million women in the United States alone read Romance Fiction. Granted most of the readers of Romance Fiction are women but lots of men read romance fiction too. Men also write [...]

Popularity: 59% [?]

Article: Manuscript Writing and Revisions

Manuscript Writing and Revisions
Four Steps To A Great Manuscript
by Melissa Alvarez

Step 1: Write the book
Sit down and write. When writing your first draft you want to get as much of your manuscript down from beginning to end. Run with your thoughts, your scenes, and your characters. There will be time to fine tune later. Remember [...]

Popularity: 55% [?]

Article: Critique Partners

Critique Partners
by Melissa Alvarez
If you’re like most writers just starting out in the world of writing you’ve wanted opinions on your work. But where do you go?
As a writer you’re going to want to know specifics - did the storyline flow or were there parts that didn’t make sense? Are the characters interesting [...]

Popularity: 57% [?]

Article: Category Romance Fiction

 Category Romance Fiction
by Melissa Alvarez  
 What is “Category Romance Fiction”? Within the genre of Romance Fiction there are categories of novels and within these categories are themes. In this article we will discuss the twelve major categories of romance fiction but remember new categories are emerging all the time, some last and others have short lives.
I [...]

Popularity: 43% [?]