Melinda Curtis, today's Friday Friend

·What are your goals for the RWA National (or other) Conference?

Are you still looking for an agent or publisher? Are you ready to sell your books? Are you an established author who is extending her reach and ‘brand’?

Let us know how conferences help YOU and what you do the rest of the year to keep the buzz going.

Let me know what I should do first/most/never. It'll be my first RWA National!

·What are your goals for the RWA National (or other) Conference?

Are you still looking for an agent or publisher? Are you ready to sell your books? Are you an established author who is extending her reach and ‘brand’?

Let us know how conferences help YOU and what you do the rest of the year to keep the buzz going.

Let me know what I should do first/most/never. It'll be my first RWA National!

3 Tips to Writing a Romance Series by Mel Curtis

I’d written one series before starting The Hollywood Rules.  I’m deep into the series now (3 books, 2 novellas) and recently went back and re-read Amber Rules, which launched the romantic comedy series.  Today I’m sharing some of the things I did, both good and rule-breaking.  Here’s what I learned by looking back:

1.     The hero and heroine don’t need to meet on page 1. This is a risk and I wouldn’t recommend doing it if you don’t have a readership already.  Most of my books have some kind of first meet in Chapter One, usually on page 1. I dealt with a later meet in Amber Rules by writing short chapters and seeding the existence of each other via the series’ gossip column. The opening chapters are fast paced, which helps, too.

2.     Details can bog the reader down.  My series is based on the top-secret life coaching principles of Dooley Rule.  Too bad Dooley took his secrets to the grave…or did he? Yeah, my characters are working to unlock those secrets. If I were to rewrite some of the unlocking of his secrets, I might have streamlined the details. But I was figuring it out as I was writing, too.

3.     How many characters are too many? My Hollywood Rules series is a little like Kevin Bacon’s 6 Degrees of Separation (more like 3 degrees).  Everyone knows everyone, and if they don’t, they know them from the gossip column. If I was writing Amber Rules today, I probably wouldn’t seed in so many characters (40+) that I needed down the line. However, one couple I’d keep would be Jack and Viv Gordon, who are featured in my latest release, Breaking the Rules.

Blurb:

To say Jack and Vivian Gordon’s marriage has been rocky would be an understatement. The Gordons have been on a roller coaster of love and lust, but can’t seem to get on the same page at the same time. This power couple needs a time-out to find their happily ever after.  And life coach to Hollywood’s rich and powerful, Cora Rule, has just the solution – have the couple sign their divorce papers in a safe room…and lock them inside.

Excerpt:

Vivian Gordon had a problem.

A six-foot-two-inch hunk of a problem.

Sex with Jack hadn’t solved the problem.  Marrying him hadn’t solved the problem.  Leaving him hadn’t solved the problem.

The problem was that Viv loved her husband, but Jack didn’t love her.

It wasn’t as if Jack was incapable of love, as some of Hollywood moguls seemed to be.  No, Jack had passion aplenty, but it was for the NBA team he owned, the L.A. Flash, not for a woman.  Not for Viv.

Viv watched Jack swim his daily laps with strong, commanding strokes.  Heaven forbid Jack didn’t get his laps in.  If he didn’t, he was the biggest shit.

Her Gianvito Rossi black suede lace up heels clicked slowly across the white marble tile as she approached the patio doors in the house they’d once shared.  Her cadence was one of a doomed prisoner being shown the open door of the gas chamber.

This is the end.

And she’d chosen the execution date.

Buy Links:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/breaking-the-rules/id917829215?ls=1&mt=11

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/breaking-the-rules-29

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NHDOZT4

B&N: will go live 10/22

Special Offers

Readers of the Heroines with Hearts blog can download a FREE copy of Amber Rules from Melinda’s web site October 24-30, 2014.  Three books are currently out in the series.  Link: www.MelindaCurtis.net Username: Amber_Rules Password: blogtour2014

Readers of the Heroines with Hearts blog will be sent a FREE fun, sweet novella set within the Hollywood Rules world by signing up for Melinda’s book release email newsletter. Link: http://www.melindacurtis.net/join-melinda-s-mailing-list

Bio/Info

Melinda Curtis is an award winning, USA Today recommended, Amazon best selling author.  She writes independently published, steamy Hollywood Rules series as Mel Curtis. Jayne Ann Krentz says of Blue Rules: “Sharp, sassy, modern version of a screwball comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age except a lot hotter.”  Melinda also writes the Harmony Valley series of sweet and emotional romances for the Harlequin Heartwarming line. Brenda Novak says: “Season of Change has found a place on my keeper shelf”. 

Website: www.MelindaCurtis.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelindaCurtisAuthor

Twitter: @MelCurtisAuthor

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melcurtisauthor/