Have you ever read or watched a romance that seemed to have all the right elements in place – the meet cute, the attraction, the conflict, the I love you’s and the happy ending – but it just felt… Flat? Of course you have. The problem with those stories is they lack romantic tension. You know romantic tension, right? It’s that feeling of being on the edge of your seat, itching, quaking, shaking while you wait for two characters to FINALLY get together. As a romance writer, reader, and viewer, I’ve thought a lot about romantic tension over the years, and I still find it to be a nebulous concept ..read more

I try to avoid watching long form t.v. — by “long form” I mean any drama whose continuing story spans one, two, three, or more seasons (like Lost or Game of Thrones), vs. “episodic” shows, which contain a (largely) standalone story within each episode (like Law & Order or ER). Long form shows have become very popular in recent years, as streaming services look to increase their hours viewed stats. The problem is, it’s very hard for writers to offer an effective story arc if they don’t know how long their show will run. And even if they know how they want everything to pan out, with so many ..read more

The premise Things to like Flaw #1: Shakespeare? Are you sure? Flaw #2: Too much hate Flaw #3: The conflict is resolved prematurely Flaw #4: The wrong character makes the final grand gesture Flaw #5: Excesses of silliness Flaw #6: Weak supporting characters Is it romantic? In conclusion If you haven’t heard, Anyone But You is a rare theatre-released rom-com, that has become a sleeper hit since its December 22 opening. To date, its box office take is over $170M globally.  And perhaps most notably, this success has not been driven by old fogies in their mid-to-late (or late) 40s like me ..read more

Ok, it may be a stretch to say we all love those cheesy Christmas romance movies (think Hallmark). But clearly a lot of us like them, or they wouldn’t make approximately 5 million each calendar year. So, for you Grinch’s (before he turned nice) out there, here’s my list of 7 reasons why we love those cheesy, horrible movies. They contribute to the spirit of Christmas Think about the things we associate with Christmas. The music, the decor… We don’t surround ourselves with these things all year round, now do we? No! Because they can be gaudy or cliched. A little goes a long way, so we reserve t ..read more

Finally, this movie came out! Ok, bad pun. And it actually came out, on Prime, way back in August. I did watch it within a day or two of its release, but it’s taken me this long to get to writing this critique. And usually, my critiques end up being very, um, critical. But, I liked this movie, not gonna lie, so this time I’m going to focus on what I liked, and then answer the most important question of all (at least, where romance movies are concerned): Is it romantic? Here’s what I liked: 1. Taylor Zakhar Perez’s charisma (and, let’s face it, his body) The only other performance I’ve seen by ..read more

This blog is about romance and writing, but also about my life as a romance writer.  But, I realized I haven’t posted anything about publishing my first book yet! The book is called His Brother’s Mistress, and is about what happens when gorgeous CEO Matt Valetta finds Lucy Alberti living in his recently-deceased brother’s apartment in Rome, and assumes she was his mistress. So here’s my story of publishing this book… My road to publishing When I decided to start publishing my books (about three years ago), I considered pursuing traditional publishing. But, I ultimately decided not to try ..read more

In March I wrote about how the relative status of heroes — alpha, beta, and gamma — affects romantic stories. I suggested that romance writers tend to pair opposites, like alphas with betas, but that gamma heroines matched with gamma heroes make for more interesting stories. So in this post, I’m going to put my theories to the test, and find examples of status pairings in romance movies, and see how they impact the story. So let’s dive in!! Alpha Male – Beta Female 50 Shades of Grey Christian Grey is a rich, powerful (and 26-year-old!) CEO who seduces meek university student, Anastasia Steele ..read more

Remember the opening scene of Romancing the Stone? Remember Kathleen Turner as wildly successful romance novelist Joan Wilder, typing the final lines of her latest manuscript, and weeping at her own words? Then she reels off that last page, bundles the pages together, and pops open a bottle of champagne (literally) before handing the book to her agent/editor. Wow! She typed her last line, and she was done!! Does that mean she didn’t write a draft? Does that mean she just wrote the whole novel from beginning to end, with no revisions?? Unfortunately, for most of us real-life writers, typing the ..read more