HEARTICLES: Articles with Heart

{please note, this article is aimed at writer's not participating in this month's NaNoWriMo} "OMG! I haven't written anything — anything — in a month! Where has the time gone? What's wrong with me? I'll never get this book published if I can't hunker down and write!" Have you said this? I bet you have, at least to some degree. But let's look back over your last month, or number of weeks, since you've written. Have you been concentrating on submissions of a previous story? If you're previously published, are you submitting to reviewers or doing guest blog spots to promote your latest book? Are you a member of a critique group or have a partner you critique with? Do you write a blog? Have you got buried yourself in research? There are a number of reasons why you're not working on your story, but that doesn't mean you're not writing. If you're submitting to agents and publishers, that's important if you want your story pub...

I was recently asked what age I thought was too young for reading romance novels. My first inclination was to say at least 16. But then I got to thinking, what was the first romance novel I read and how old was I? I started reading romance when I was 13 but really, it was probably earlier. I distinctly remember buying my first romance novel and knowing it was romance. That was in 1981 when I was 16; the book was Highland Velvet by Jude Deveraux. I was an early reader though and thought romances were adventure stories. I can't remember titles or authors prior to Deveraux, but I do remember being captivated by tales set on the high seas, wagons crossing the prairie, or epics taking place in far off places. I was a young woman on the brink of adulthood and where I'd previously ignored the intimate scenes of the characters, I was now intrigued by them. The question of how old a girl should be before being allowed to read romances has long been asked. Friends who started readi...