Every good romance novel begins the same way - with a story idea. Yet compelling story ideas aren't always easy to come by. Sometimes we all need a little inspiration - a spark that ignites our imagination and excites the writing muse. 1001 Romance Story Starters cover myriad genres, from erotic romance to inspirational and everything in between. Romance Story Starters aren't your traditional writing prompts. Designed to kick start your imagination they include dialogue starters, scenes, open ended scenarios, and even story endings. You can change ANYTHING about the story starter. Take the idea and bend it to your will - you're the boss. Use the ideas to create powerful and compelling characters. Rhett and Scarlett, Romeo and Juliet, Kate and Curran, great romance characters are created through conflict, chemistry, and courtship. Each story starter holds the potential to help you create characters that capture your reader's heart and mind and stand the test of time. Use the ideas to help you overcome writer's block. It doesn't matter if you're staring at a blank page or if you're in the middle of a novel and unsure where to go with it - use the starters as inspiration. Let them help get your creative brain fired up. Use the ideas to strengthen your writing muscles. Your writing muscles are like any other muscle in your body. If you don't use them regularly, it becomes weak. Don't let your creative writing muscles atrophy! Even if you're not working on a story idea, write. Grab a story idea and fill a page or two (or ten) or write for twenty minutes - you make the rules.

Conquer that dreaded writers block! With originally self-published works like Fifty Shades of Grey turning into mind-blowing blockbusters, both traditional and indie authors have embraced the romance genre as never before. But when youre left staring helplessly at a blank page, what can help you move forward? This pocket-sized, affordable collection of romance story-starters offers 100 prompts, organized by subgenre, from historical bodice rippers, to paranormal romance, to contemporary erotica. In this portable muse, writers of all romance genres and experience levels will find the seeds of many spellbinding tales.

Sometimes the hardest part about being a writer is committing the first words to paper. This workbook, created by a New York Times bestselling novelist and veteran writing teacher, will banish writer's block, spark your imagination, and provide endless opportunities to make stories out of thin air. Arranged in a daily progression to help you get the most out of your writing practice, the 50 exercises in this workbook are the result of more than a decade of teaching. Craft-based exercises, free-flow exercises, and ten-minute prompts lead up to a series of imaginative flash fiction assignments. A Halfway There Self-Assessment helps your recognize your strengths and identify your subject. Whether you want to punch up your dialogue, explore dramatic tension, mine your life for material, find your voice, or craft a story for publication, this workbook will help you meet your writing goals. Including roomy pages for writing and inspiring quotes on the writing life, Story Starters: A Workbook for Writers, is the perfect companion for Nanowrimo and beyond.

This A-Z provides 1001 words you need to know to make your writing and speaking effective, convincing, and expressive. With clear guidance on choosing the right word, this book is essential for anyone wanting to achieve greater success in written and spoken tasks including essays, interviews, CVs and application letters, reports, and more.

An authoritative new history of the vampire, two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom’s detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind’s fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century. Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.

A PRINTZ MEDAL WINNER! A MORRIS AWARD WINNER! AN AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD YA HONOR BOOK! A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground. “One of this year's most buzzed about young adult novels.” —Good Morning America A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection Amazon's Best YA Book of 2021 So Far (June 2021) A 2021 Kids' Indie Next List Selection An Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection A PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley's debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange. Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.