3rd Annual Romance Expo in Mt. Dora, Florida

I am happy to see that romance authors and readers are getting lots of positive publicity lately. The Romance Writers of America just wrapped up its 36^th conference in San Diego last Sunday, and helped raise thousands of dollars to help promote literacy!

Personally, I will be joining 20 romance authors for the 3^rd annual Romance Expo at the W.T. Bland Public Library in Mt. Dora, Florida, on Saturday, August 13 from 10am – 1pm. This is an event that keeps growing every year, so please stop by if you’re in the Orlando area. There will be contemporary, mystery, historical, paranormal, time-travel and romantic suspense authors for you to meet, so if you love stories about Navy Seals, shape shifters, knights in shining armor, secret agents, cowboys, or even Prince Charming, we’d love to share our heroes with you.

I love to meet readers who share my love of stories with happy endings, so I hope to see you there!

Best,

Leigh

www.leighcourt.com 

Must Be Doin' Something Right

I’ve written a lot of short stories and novellas. I’m very comfortable writing at that length, keeping a very tight focus on my hero and heroine and their story. And while I hope to continue writing the shorter sexy stories, I’ve decided to venture out of my comfort zone and write a single title length erotic romance. I came up with a premise I really like and a hero and heroine I decided I could spend a lot of time with. At least ninety thousands words worth. And I got to work.

Because I’m comfortable with the shorter length, writing a bigger book offers several challenges. Things like pacing and secondary characters and subplots and, let’s face it, a whole lot more words about the same characters and their story. When one of the RWA chapters I belong to, From the Heart, announced they were taking entries for their Lories Published Author Proposal Contest, it was perfect timing. What better way to get some feedback when I’m trying something new? I’d find out relatively quickly if what I was doing was working. It also forced me to plot out my entire story since I had to submit a synopsis along with the first 40 some pages. I sent in my entry and continued to work on the story. I’m glad to say I’m still enjoying it and I’m nearly halfway there.

I found out today that my entry is a finalist! My scores were awesome and the partial will be headed out to a few editors and agents. I’m so thrilled. As I explained to my husband, so often in this business we can go for long stretches of time without any feedback at all, so to be a finalist with a new type of project at least lets me know that I must be doing something right.

And sometimes, that’s all we need to keep showing up at the keyboard every day and putting a few more words down on the page.

And speaking of doing something right, here’s one of the sexiest country songs I know, sung by one of my favorite artists. Enjoy

Natasha
www.natashamoore.com