So how do you start a new #King story for Harlequin Presents? Probably not like this. I’m in first-draft la-la land, and soon there will need to be less Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and more Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. In other words, I’ll probably have to start again. I’m on the perfect princess, […]
My Jackson family series had a makeover recently, and it’s out with the sexy, brooding bad boy covers and in with something a whole lot more romantic. I love that these new covers all feature a water horizon. Divers, boat builders, fishermen … together the Jackson brothers run the family marina on Australia’s east […]
One of my latest favourite lines of romantic dialogue comes at the very end of a trailer for a Star Wars meets Cinderella film called Jupiter Ascending. No in-depth commentary from me. I got nothing but a bellylaugh full of love for the doggy bits. I think it’s a humour thing; this takes me back to […]
(AKA He said/she said) Does anyone else treat Gotye’s 2011 hit song Somebody That I Used To Know (feat Kimbra) as a four minute romance writing class? No? But it’s fun. And did I mention that it’ll take less than five minutes of your time? Okay, so the song’s about a breakup, and there’s no HEA or […]
For when crying is a plan you aim to pursue: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green: The mother lode of tears. Youth, illness, life, love and death. ME BEFORE YOU by JoJo Moyes: What if love just isn’t enough? THE ROAD by Cormac McArthy: Raw, sparse & brutal. A dying world. A father’s […]
(AKA AMBIGUITY RULES) The 1942 Warner Brothers movie Casablanca has so many iconic lines of dialogue that we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to studying them. “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” We could start there. We could round up the usual suspects […]
My first two Jackson Brothers, Eli and Caleb, are starring in a dynamic duo release. Why the duo format, you ask? When they’ve each been out singly for quite some time? Length. My stories often come in at around 30,000 words, which is too short for a lot of promo options out there servicing the […]
(aka clever laughs) Romancing The Stone may be over thirty years old but it’s still my favourite romantic adventure romp–mainly because of the loving way it treats its main character. It takes about thirty seconds of screen time to hook me into Joan Wilder’s romance-writing world. The tears at the end of a story, the […]
Cocky, persuasive, fun-loving, loyal—and crooked? I ran into communication problems the other day when I tried to describe my latest romance hero to some of my overseas friends. “He’s a larrikin,” I said, fully expecting understanding and affection for the stereotype. I didn’t get it. My companions were thinking thug, criminal, bully, hoodlum. Whereas, I […]
aka Playful Heartbreak I’m a big Richard Curtis fan. Be it his television work or his feature films, the man knows where my emotional jugular is and exactly how to manipulate it. As a romance writer, I know practically zip about acting, cinematography, set design or scripts–all those things and more that come together to […]
